Satisfactory 1.1 Update: Building a Better Factory

After four years in Early Access, Satisfactory finally reached its 1.0 milestone late last year, delivering a polished factory-building experience that players had been eagerly anticipating. But Coffee Stain Studios isn’t resting on their laurels. The newly announced 1.1 update brings a host of quality-of-life improvements, new building options, and expanded logistics tools that factory enthusiasts have been clamoring for. Ready to take your industrial empire to new heights? Let’s break down what’s coming in this massive update.

Factory Logistics Updates

Anyone who’s spent time perfecting their production lines knows that logistics are the heart of any well-functioning factory. Satisfactory 1.1 addresses many common pain points while adding exciting new options for moving items around.

Improved Connection Options

Wall management just got a major upgrade with the new Conveyor Wall Hole. Unlike the current fixed-position conveyor walls, these can be placed anywhere on any wall or window, offering unprecedented flexibility for running belts through your structures. Ever tried to line up a conveyor with a wall hole only to find it’s slightly off? Those days are over.

Pipeline building has received some enhancements as well. The update introduces both straight and curved build modes for pipes, similar to what conveyors have already. Creating perfectly organized fluid networks just became significantly easier. No more wrestling with manual pipe placement to get those clean, parallel lines.

Perhaps most exciting, Splitters and Mergers can now attach directly to conveyor lifts at any point. This means you can finally branch off your vertical belts without awkward workarounds, opening up compact vertical factory designs that weren’t previously possible.

New Smart Components

The Priority Merger is a game-changer for advanced production lines. Unlike standard mergers that alternate between inputs, this smart variant allows setting three different priority levels, giving precise control over which items move first. Want to ensure your high-value components get processed before lesser materials? The Priority Merger has you covered.

For the data-driven factory builder, the new Conveyor Throughput Monitor is a dream come true. This attachment measures the actual items passing through a belt over a full minute, displaying the results on screen. No more guesswork or manual calculations, just glance at the monitor to confirm if your factory is hitting its targets.

Train & Drone Improvements

Train conductors beware. Manual driving just got more realistic with the addition of derailment mechanics. Trains reaching the end of a track without a buffer stop will now derail, requiring manual intervention to get them back on track. This might sound punishing, but it actually adds a welcome layer of realism and encourages proper rail network planning.

Both Block and Path Signals now offer left and right-side placement options (toggled with R), making complex railway crossings much easier to design. Combined with the overall railway building improvements, creating efficient train networks is now more intuitive than ever.

Drone pilots will appreciate the significant improvements to movement and pathing, making these aerial transporters more reliable for long-distance logistics.

Factory Navigation & Building Improvements

Vertical Mobility Solutions

The much-requested Personnel Elevator has finally arrived, offering a sleek solution for multi-floor factories. After placing the initial elevator, players can “zoop” upward to add multiple floor stops, each with customizable names, colors, and icons. No more relying on jump pads or hypertubes for basic vertical movement between floors.

Speaking of hypertubes, these transport networks are getting major upgrades with new Hypertube Junctions and Branches. Junctions allow creating three-way splits where players can select their path by pressing E when approaching the intersection. Branches enable connecting new tubes to existing networks, perfect for expanding your transport system without reworking everything.

As a small but welcome change, flashlights now work while traveling inside hypertubes. No more zooming through pitch-black tubes during nighttime factory inspections!

Building Enhancement Tools

Blueprint placement becomes much more powerful with the new Auto Connect feature. When enabled, any blueprint containing conveyors, pipes, or railways will automatically attempt to connect to available inputs and outputs. This feature alone will save countless minutes of tedious connection work when placing larger factory sections.

The popular nudging feature has been significantly enhanced, now supporting vertical nudging with Page Up/Page Down keys. Even better, the distance limitation has been completely removed, allowing for precise placement adjustments no matter how far away you’re standing.

For those tight building spaces, conveyor poles and pipeline supports now have soft clearance, allowing them to overlap with other structures. This seemingly small change will make a world of difference when working in compact areas.

Last by certainly not least, players can finally dismantle Crash Sites after retrieving their hard drives. No more working around those unsightly crash debris in the middle of otherwise pristine factory layouts!

Architectural Options

The AWESOME Shop now offers several new building pieces to enhance factory aesthetics:

• H-Beams and Shelf Beams for structural detailing
• Round Concrete Beams for varied visual elements
• Braided Cables and Cable Clusters for industrial atmosphere
• Roll-Up Gates in FICSIT, Concrete, and Steel variants
• Various decorative elements like Road Barrier Corners, Shelf Units, Large Vents, and Large Fans

These additions greatly expand the architectural toolkit for creating factories that look as good as they function.

QOL and More

Controller Support & Console Preparation

The update introduces comprehensive controller support for both Xbox and DualSense™ controllers. This feature comes in preparation for the upcoming console release, confirming what many players have suspected—Satisfactory is officially coming to consoles! The controller integration is accessible through the Options menu under Controls > General.

Enhanced Audio/Visual Experience

The Photo Mode has received a complete overhaul with a new UI and an extensive array of features including filters, effects, poses, frames, color adjustments, and camera controls. The new dolly mode even allows creating small video transitions. Whether capturing massive factory panoramas or close-up pioneer portraits, the photo options are now vastly more powerful.

Audio gets significant improvements with a dynamic occlusion system that muffles factory sounds behind walls and obstacles. Different materials affect sound differently. Glass and metal provide different acoustic experiences. The game now even detects indoor spaces and adjusts audio accordingly, with unique settings for locations like the HUB.

Visual effects have been polished across the board, with improved animations for falling trees, enhanced spore and gas pillar effects, better explosions from nobelisk and explosive rebar, and refined power slug visuals.

Narrative Expansion

ADA, everyone’s favorite AI assistant, has received numerous new voice lines for both existing and new content, further enhancing the narrative experience established in the 1.0 release.

Ready to Upgrade Your Factory?

Satisfactory 1.1 represents a substantial evolution of an already excellent game, addressing numerous community requests while adding unexpected new features. The update is currently available on the Experimental branch, with a full release expected after thorough testing. To access the Experimental version, Steam users can right-click the game, go to Properties > Betas, then select “Experimental” from the Beta Participation dropdown. Epic Games Store users can download the dedicated Experimental version from their library.

Remember that Experimental builds may have unexpected issues, so backing up saves is strongly recommended before diving in. For a more stable multiplayer experience where friends can join anytime, consider getting a dedicated Satisfactory server from AleForge. When the factory grows this much, you’re going to need all the processing power you can get!