SatisfactoryHelper

A Quality of Life mod for Satisfactory that adds:

• Ability to show all recipes and items in-game, including the ability to see where each item is used or can be used.

Getting started

Dependencies

• You need a custom version of Unreal Engine to develop and package the mod. It can be downloaded here: https://github.com/SatisfactoryModdingUE/UnrealEngine/releases
  • Note that you need to register your GitHub account at Epic Games to get access. It can be done here: https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/ue4-on-github
• Install Wwise version 2021.1.0.7575.
  • Instructions can be found here: https://docs.ficsit.app/satisfactory-modding/latest/Development/BeginnersGuide/dependencies.html
• For playtesting you need to install the Satisfactory Mod Manager so the game will load the mod.
  • It can be downloaded here: https://github.com/satisfactorymodding/SatisfactoryModLauncher/releases
• Visual Studio 2017 with C++ desktop and game development modules added. It does not work well with Visual Studio 2019 in my experience but if you get it to work then be my guest.
  • VS2017 can be downloaded here: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/older-downloads/

Project setup

I highly recommend putting the project on an SSD if possible to decrease compilation/linking times

1. First of all you need to generate the Wwise project and install the Wwise plugin to the project. Instructions on how to do this can be found here: https://docs.ficsit.app/satisfactory-modding/latest/Development/BeginnersGuide/dependencies.html#_wwise
2. Make sure you've launched the custom version of Unreal Engine that you installed above. It can most likely be found in the start menu as Unreal Engine - CSS (CSS stands for Coffee Stain Studios).
3. Right click FactoryGame.uproject and click Switch Unreal Engine Version..., select 4.25.3-CSS in the dropdown list. If you can't find it you can add it manually using the ... button. Browse to the CSS version of Unreal Engine that you installed earlier.
4. Right click the FactoryGame.uproject in the root of the repository and click Generate Visual Studio project files.
5. Create a file in the root directory called GamePath.txt and type in the filepath to Satisfactory installation.
6. Open the generated .sln file with Visual Studio and compile both Development Editor and Shipping configurations selected. You can do a batch build (found under Build > Batch Build... in the window toolbar) to do both of them after eachother automatically. This will take some time.
7. Open FactoryGame.uproject. Make sure the selected unreal engine is still 4.25.3-CSS.
8. Compile the modules if the question appears.
9. Now you're ready to start developing.

Playtesting/cooking mod

1. Build the visual studio solution with the Shipping configuration if it's out of date. This will also copy the dll and pdb to the game's mods folder automatically.
2. In the unreal editor click the Alpakit button in the top middle.
3. Configure the path to the game and check the Copy Mods to Game checkbox. Optionally select your game launcher and version in in the Launch Game After Packaging.
4. Click Alpakit! on the SatisfactoryHelper (SatisfactoryHelper) row to package the mod and copy it to your game directory.

Common errors

Here are some common errors and solutions/workarounds i've come across:

• Sometimes if the editor crashes for whatever reason, when the project is reopened again a message will pop up saying the Alpakit plugin is not compiled properly or something like that.
  • To fix this browse to Plugins/Alpakit and delete the following folders: Binaries, Intermediate. Compile the project in Visual Studio with the Development Editor configuration and then try launching the editor again.
• Visual Studio gets confused by UE4 so intellisense is pretty broken and the error window will sometimes have false positives.
  • I recommend following this guide to configure VS: https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/Programming/Development/VisualStudioSetup/index.html (specifically the Turn Off the Error List Window and Increase the Width of Solution Configurations Dropdown Menu sections).
  • If possible install and use Visual Assist X for better intellisense.
• Sometimes the game will take around a minute to launch then crash, and Epic Games Launcher will come up saying the game is already running.
  • Open the task manager and check if CrashReporter.exe from the game is running and terminate it. Relaunch the game using FactoryGame.exe.
  • Most of the time it won't be running and EGS is just being weird (or it terminated already). Relaunching the game works in this case.
  • Launching the game with -Epicportal commandline argument seems to bypass the issue entirely but online sessions won't work.