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In Factorio do more biters spawn in multiplayer versus singleplayer?

I've been running a server and it seems like there are a ton more bugs to the point where it is dangerous to play on the server alone. Did we just get spawned into a rough neighborhood or do MP servers generally have more biters?

The settings for the server are for the "normal" amount of biters:

{ "coal": {"frequency": "normal", "size": "normal", "richness": "normal"}, "copper-ore": {"frequency": "normal", "size": "normal", "richness": "normal"}, "crude-oil": {"frequency": "normal", "size": "normal", "richness": "normal"}, "enemy-base": {"frequency": "normal", "size": "normal", "richness": "normal"}, "iron-ore": {"frequency": "normal", "size": "normal", "richness": "normal"}, "stone": {"frequency": "normal", "size": "normal", "richness": "normal"}, "uranium-ore": {"frequency": "normal", "size": "normal", "richness": "normal"} },

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3 Answers 3

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There is no difference between singleplayer and multiplayer enemy spawning while using equal settings.

More Biters will appear over time while the server is running, even if 0 players are online. That's configurable (there is a setting to auto-pause the game while no-one is playing).

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    This is a good call out, but I do have "_comment_auto_pause": "Whether should the server be paused when no players are present.", "auto_pause": true, setup
    – Rapida
    Commented Nov 11, 2020 at 19:42
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How many Biters spawn is determined by the evolution factor, as is stated in the wiki:

Besides choosing what kind of biter will be spawned, the evolution factor also influences the spawning interval. This interval (spawning_cooldown in the enemy-spawner definition) is interpolated between 360 (0 evolution) and 150 (1 evolution) game ticks (= 6 to 2.5 seconds)

There are 3 things that can increase evolution:

  • The passage of time very slightly increases the evolution factor.
  • The global pollution production increases the evolution factor.
  • Destroying nests significantly increases the evolution factor.

If you want to find what evolution factor you have you can run the following command in the console:

/evolution

Keep in mind the evolution factor is in a range of 0 (lowest) to 1 (highest).

You can find more information on evolution here: https://wiki.factorio.com/Enemies#Evolution

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Biter and spitter nests consume pollution, and when they consumed enough, they spawn a new enemy. So the number of biter spawns is a function of how much pollution the player(s) generate.

More players are usually more productive and thus create more pollution which in turn results in more biters getting spawned.

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