Friday Facts #354 - Launch party and HR power switch

[FactorioBot]

Here it is! (beep boop)

https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-354

[pipja]

That's one sweet power plug LOL, altho I don't think high current power switch ever look like that.

[conn11]

Only to update the power switch graphic is a good idea. The entity design is functional and is fitting the rest of the combinator/ circuit stuff style.

[bNarFProfCrazy]

IMO the switch has too many electric arks going on. Its supposed to be a plug and not some effect emitter.
It would be fine it it were a single electric snake coiling around it, but not this thunderstorm.

The rest of the design is good as is.

[movax20h]

The switch is pretty cool and lovely, I love how it looks simply a huge wall plug that is controlled by motors.

I understand the arcing inside is to make it show when it is active (similar to accumulators), but time will tell if it is a bit too much. Also it is unclear if the arcing is showing all the time, or only when the current if flowing.

It would be nice to show arcs (that slowly rise in the air until they stop) between the plug and the socket on the disconnect when the current is flowing as in real high voltage switches (especially DC), and no arcing when there is no load. Just like a real thing. But obviously real switches are way more complex, they usually are spring loaded to disconnect as fast as possible, and even have separators to physically block arcing on disconnect, or are in a medium that prevents arcing (i.e. vacuum or some special gases and liquids). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_suppression is an interesting read, but you can find a lot of videos on youtube demonstrating that too.

[Unknow0059]

I also found the arcing inside weird. Especially cuz it's also a solid blue. Idk, the original looks better in that regard.
Looks cool though. I don't mind it wasn't redesigned, I never use it anyway. I'm more worried about the drill.

[Philip017]

actually in my factory i make a fairly extensive use of them early on, because when the sun is down and i dont have accumulators yet the switch will power down all science and oil processing to not over load my steam setup i haven't expanded. but even in the time that i make use of my first reactor, my oil processing still uses power switches to regulate my oil cracking and even the foundries if i am out of crude. once i build to mega level, should i decide to do that, i regulate with pumps as most people do, but the power switch is still useful in the game for me, even if it is used mostly in the mid/early game. once rockets start flying and the base is using 4 gigawatts of power, they become less important.

[bNarFProfCrazy]

I use the power switches mostly in my nuclear power systems. I have dedicated power supply to my nuclear setup that ensures that I always have enough power to continue the operation of it (and defend it).

The power setup is split in three layers.
- Emergency Power [few kW] (Alerts and a pump connected to a storage container with steam used to manually reboot the power plant power supply)
- Power plant power supply [several MW] (Pumps for fresh water, inserters, sometimes a few centrifuges for making more nuclear fuel and running the supplying train station)
- Power export [several GW]

If the weaker layers lack power or are fully charged they connect to the outer layers automatically to share the energy.

That way my power will fully automatically reboot itself, even if you drain the whole power system of all energy including accumulators, water, steam and heat.
And it can even recover from an additional total lack of fuel with a simple rotation of a pump (if you didnt drain the emergency steam reserves for no reason).

[DoubleThought]

*sigh* With the pandemic mentioned, I cannot help but expect arguments to start up.

First of all: launch party. The launch of Factorio is indeed a great cause for celebration. I would be happy if there were virtual attendance options, since it's impossible for me to attend otherwise. I'll express my wishes that everyone attending stay safe.

Second: the power switch. It seems somewhat scary that the power switch looks like that. If I ever saw a real power switch with that much arcing, I'd likely shut it down post haste. On the other hand, the arcing is a convenient visual shorthand for "electricity is flowing through here", so it isn't unwarranted.

Finally: Safety concerns. I'll hope proper distancing and mask wearing will happen at the launch party. [Moderated by Koub : Off topic]

[Mr.Clear]

This is how real high voltage switches look like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrY_k_pdlCs
That's much more impressive then your little plug.

I think that the Power Switch should look more like two Electric Poles to visualize that it is part of the electric network.

[lxkfjhls]

IMO the switch has too many electric arks going on. Its supposed to be a plug and not some effect emitter.
It would be fine it it were a single electric snake coiling around it, but not this thunderstorm.

You should watch a real power switch.
https://youtu.be/PXiOQCRiSp0

[Durabys]

We also got promised the HR versions of the Assembling machines last year.

[bNarFProfCrazy]

IMO the switch has too many electric arks going on. Its supposed to be a plug and not some effect emitter.
It would be fine it it were a single electric snake coiling around it, but not this thunderstorm.

You should watch a real power switch.
https://youtu.be/PXiOQCRiSp0

During connect/disconnect I dont mind the sparks. But while the plug is plugged? There should be far less. It takes a lot of attention due to the high contrast/luminosity.

[ytsejam]

Loved this one (still trying to get used to the new beacon...). This giant plug design looks really cool.

As usual, always fun to see people complaining about how it's not realistic in a game where you carry a locomotive in your pocket

[DudebroPyro]

I'm not really a fan of the US plug style, with the holes and all. But I don't mind the arcing as a visual indicator that it's connected.

You should watch a real power switch.
https://youtu.be/PXiOQCRiSp0

That only happens when it's disconnecting, and peters out quickly. You'd generally expect no arcing whatsoever when connected, since arcs indicate electricity jumping through the air from one contact to another (without any other lower resistance choice), and a "closed" switch should really have the contacts touching directly. Not that I'm complaining about the arcs, just pointing out your video doesn't apply.

[Yxen]

Is it only me who feel that it is strange that the plug has two poles/plugs but all power connections is using just single wire?

[Koub]

Could you please allow payment for guests on Paypal, like so (for the party) : https://developer.paypal.com/docs/integ ... -payments/# ?

[bobucles]

I clicked the rocket, rocket go fooosh.

[kane.nexus]

Though I understand that science, empirical evidence, and facts have become increasingly politicized, and my words will likely be contested hotly (read: flamed), I feel compelled to say this regardless.

[Moderated by Koub : Off topic]

[Techspud]

A bonkers coincidence - I was just zooming on the power switch for the first time in months earlier today and thought 'Huh, that's not HR yet, must be one of the last ones - hope they haven't missed that.'.

I think the new switch looks good. When off it clearly shows it's a switch due to its plug like graphics and when on the sparks show at it is a glance. My recent playthrough has manually operated switches for each section and though I have coloured lights to tell if they are on or not it's nice to see if the switch is doing its thing - a distracting spark zoomed out confirms things are operating properly.

Perhaps off topic, but this is the first time I've played 18.34 since 17.63, and there's a lot of changes, all good. However I find the inventory a little 'contrasty' in the background is very dark and the icons are very bright. This makes things a bit hard to differentiate between, though it might just be a case of getting used to it.

Love the stuff you guys do, your game design ethic is fantastic!