Friday Facts #254 - No research queue for you

[Klonan]

https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-254

[provet]

There you go:


On another note: Great that you added optional notifications for mod creators, I've seen lots of "don't leave feedback here cause I won't get any notification about it" and this will definitely help with that!

[steinio]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO....

Why not reenable the research queue and higlight all new items in the crafting menu.
Please make it reactivatable in the settings.

[Exorion]

I feel like instead of removing the feature altogether, it could have been added in the options. After hundreds of hours (thousands for others) of playing Factorio, having multiple saves, you know which research gives what and all, so a queue would be nice (not having to download a mod to do that is great).

[PEBKAC]

Aw, no research queue? It looked perfect! Yeah, I'd expect a pop-up saying

Research complete - Recipes now available:
- Thingy A
- Thingy B

And the ability to queue up several relevant items at obce seemed nice... After all, you are setting up research pack production and consumption just like any other part of the game. Why should we hold research's hand in this process but let Modules or Chips just run freely?

Please reconsider.

[steinio]

May your air conditioning fail

[deef0000dragon1]

I vehemently disagree with the decision to remove the research queue, and I have one VERY specific reason for it. I have played the beginning game DOZENS of times and am sick of having to set up those same beginning researches again and again. Its just annoying.

Lock it behind a must have beaten the game once wall if you have to, but please dont remove it completely.

Point by point for the cons:
The newly unlocked recipes might be overlooked (It is solvable by some kind of pop-up, but it is far from perfect).
---I have played the game dozens of times. I know what I unlocked.
It removes the joy of looking at the result of the research and of picking a new thing that will be the next one to do.
--- again, dozens of times. I dont get joy out of this anymore.
It adds to the feeling of just going through a to-do list without having much to say about it.
--- which is true about research in general (with the exception of maybe nuclear and some other REALLY expensive researches?)
The queue has to be changed a lot as the priorities change
--- and this is true for research in general as well. there is a reason that you added the ability to save research progress.

[LDVSOFT]

I must say that the arguments about the joy of unlocking are OK, but when replaying the game or playing with mods there are lots of researches that you already know, what they do and when you need them. Then you just queue several most needed, but when playing the first time I was actually lookng what every reseach unlocks and picked them one by one. Even in vanilla I can easily queue researches just not to be distracted from pop-ups while I am optimizing a build. So, I think that if taken with some notification log that you can read later queue is actually worth it.

[Durabys]

Indeed. May your air-conditioning fail.

I have over 1500 hours in the game. I still love Vanilla gameplay. But after so many games...the tediousness of re-clicking the research tab is starting to get annoying. Please. Add the Research Queue as an option in the game options.

[Godmave]

The thing is optional, if you don't like it don't use it.
It is always "not good" if a single person decides what others need/want
And in a game that is all about automation, this is clearly contrary.

It's ok to say "this is the way 'we' would like you to play" and disable it by default, but an option for the player to decide would be better.

I just hope you left the parts in, so that there can be mods rectifying your "failure" in this decision.

[psihius]

This time I'm delivering a bag of dicks personally!


But half-jokes aside - sure, it's true for new players.
But for the love of god - there is quite a big chunk of seasoned players into past 1000 hours segment and an even bigger segment of people past the 200-300 hours who we get roped into the multiplayer and stuff. Think about us - a research queue for us is something even more precious than a Spidertron.
Make it a map setting or a game setting - just please add it into the game, so the experienced segment of the game can finally not depend on mods for something this basic (and playing vanilla is essential for big events and stuff).

Also, 5 tech research limit? C'mon! Mining productivity 9000+ level research is not fun to click by hand...

[Yehn]

Just wanted to give a big thank you for all the mod portal features. They're nice in general, but notifications in particular make it no longer necessary for me to direct people to contact me elsewhere. (And I see I can get rid of old announcements now too, which is just icing on the cake).

[darq]

How about adding "Research queue" technology that need space science pack?

[juliejayne]

No research queue, just because it would require an occassional pop up to same.... Item A research complete.

Please reconsider.... or the pitchforks will be in your air conditioning.. Now we will have to put up with constant pop ups of research complete.... please choose another. At least with a queue you could reduce the annoyance of the popups by reducing their number.... Automating them... Automation is the name of the game after all!

[Sigma1]

I disagree with the removal of the queue.

For older players with 800+ hours, it is just tedious selecting each research manually.



Also, Spidertron when?

[banak71]

I think not having at least a "Repeat mining efficency tech" option seems like an oversight if you're gutting this proposed feature.

Personally I think having the techs light up when their requirements are queued might help with progression rather than hinter it. You could, say, queue up oil refining once you have its prerequists queued so new players don't have to keep checking what they need to access it.

[Tesse11ation]

Here's my issue with the removal of the research queue: it's an OPTIONAL feature that not everyone needs to take advantage of.

Just like how you can complete the whole vanilla game without ONCE building a circuit network, I'd imagine you can research everything you want without queuing anything, ever. That being said, you guys basically tantalized and titillated players who WANTED a research queue with the concept, implemented it, tested it, found out you didn't like it, and removed it... all before allowing the community to see for themselves if it's something that works well in practice. You even highlighted many pros that it has, and most of the cons actually boil down to a matter of opinion.

So, again - why? I'm looking at all of the other posts to this thread, and it seems that most everyone agrees. Yes, coding a video game is a thankless job; you'll always be criticized for not taking your game in the direction that people want it to go. However, it's such a simple QoL feature, and now that it's been removed, it's likely that it will become a mod instead. You've already written the code for it, you've already implemented it, and your removal of it is pointless.

Perhaps - and I do believe I speak on behalf of many Factorio players - it should be reinstated.

[Raish0]

I somewhat agree with your decision, but I think having queue at least for infinite research would be REALLY nice. Everything before - fine, I get it. But in endgame with only infinite research all of your arguments fail. At that point I have no other way then to make my save non-vanilla to even have option of productively running base over longer periods of time.

[IronCartographer]

Why not reenable the research queue and higlight all new items in the crafting menu.
Please make it reactivatable in the settings.

This was going to be my suggestion as well, along with an option to disable the new-recipe highlighting.

[Stede]

Come on guys - handle the research queue like Civilization and stop trying to reinvent every wheel you see. I love you guys for making better wheels, but I don't think your proclivity for it is helping you on this issue. I've mixed feelings on killing it - I would like to see it, with a popup that can be checked to disable (for MP games) - but I generally trust you guys on optimizing your systems. I just have a really hard time seeing that this was necessary & good.