Orbital Map Uplink

Orbital Map Uplink on Your Factorio Server

Orbital Map Uplink by Ninja_Dog81 adds satellite-driven orbital reconnaissance, letting you spot enemy activity on the map before it reaches your base — a real edge in multiplayer sessions where several players share defense duty. It also offers optional integration with Planetary Pacification for even deeper enemy detection.

On your rented server, setup is simple: drop the zip into mods/ and enable it through mod-list.json. Because your server automatically pushes mods to every client on join, all your teammates see the orbital recon overlay immediately, with no manual downloads needed.

Tip: If your group already runs Planetary Pacification, enable both mods together on the server to unlock the full reconnaissance combo.

Plan the rollout and operation

Orbital Map Uplink changes when the group detects attacks and how valuable exploration remains. Decide whether earlier enemy information fits the intended difficulty before enabling it. Test satellite launch, map display, and alerts with several players, watching for other map mods that modify the same layers. When paired with Planetary Pacification, pin both versions and validate them together after updates.

For rollout, copy the save, mod-list.json, mod-settings.dat, and current mods directory. Enable the new zip on a server copy first and let Factorio validate dependencies and version ranges during boot. Connect at least two clients, use the core feature, save under a new name, and load that save again. Watch the server log, UPS, and synchronization in a realistic factory rather than only on an empty map. For updates, record the game, mod, and dependency versions together and change one package per test run. Content or recipe mods can leave saved entities and production chains behind, so do not remove them directly from the live world. On a copy, replace recipes, filters, and buildings before deleting the file. The original save then remains a reliable rollback. Also document the tested mod order so teammates and later maintenance windows always begin from the same reproducible combination.