Firstly I love factories and the ability for players to share their wonderful space creations on the workshop. It's a great tool but unfortunately is able to be exploited right now and i've detailed my experiences below. The feedback I do have is that currently you can deposit into them while mining and it allows for an exploit on servers where W/V is enabled and I feel detracts from the immersion of a survival game. Some of the examples where this is abused is following the raid on a PoI - generators and the likes are thrown into the factory (to avoid the weight / volume restrictions) and even components that aren't part of the blueprint are accepted (such as laser rifles and shotguns!). The factory therefore is being misused in several ways. 1) It's being used to avoid W/V restrictions - less of an issue for those who play without, but still the point is valid. 2) It's also used to 'deconstruct' items which aren't in the blueprint and avoid the whole deconstructor game play loop. Suggestions for a fix: 1) Consider having factories build from items stored within a cargo container & a terminal in a base. (This stops the evasion / exploit of avoiding W/V penalties 2) Spawning of objects would follow regular rules - SV / HV's could be spawned in any carrier and/or base. BA/CV would need to be spawned in range of an existing BA. 3) Only allow materials which are required in the items construction as a completed item (i.e. if a base requires 1xLarge Generator, it would allow 1x Large Generator (ideally it would not a 2nd large generator). However, it would not allow laser rifle ammunition. By doing this, you add value back to the deconstructor base item and make it a more necessary game play loop (rather than one which is largely ignored). 4) (editted) - Additionally, you can bypass the tech tree and build things you haven't learned via the factory. i.e. If I haven't learned the large constructor technology, I am still able to produce a base with a large constructor via the Factory - again, bypassing the gameplay loop of character advancement. The game should check a player has the correct technologies unlocked before allowing the production to begin.
