Blueprints: Mirror/flip

[FrozenOne]

Simple suggestion: while placing blueprint, in adition to R rotating, F would mirror the blueprint horizontally. Also rotating and then flipping would allow to mirror vertically.

[inthev01d]

I like this, sometimes if you simply rotate by 180 degrees you have belts going in the opposite direction of what you want and need to change the direction manually.

[Sedado77]

+1. It's simple enought to implement (IMO) and usefull. I have to blueprint both sides of a belt each separated now, with this it would be only 1 part, and it's mirror

[ssilk]

IMO it's a logical step.

The problem is only, that not every blueprint is mirror able. There are some case, which prevents it from functioning. Think for example to the 90 degree inserter in the more inserter mod.

But much more can be done. I wrote it here:

https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =Iornament

[Junion]

So something that came up recently in a stream..sometimes you don't want to just copy something exactly, but you instead want to mirror/flip it. For instance if you're building a factory where belts come down then to the right..and then you want to copy that part, (say mirror it so it goes above the previous one) where you want the belts to instead go up and to the right. Being able to mirror or flip it would help this.

I know some things can't be placed with exact symetry (pumpjacks, chemical plants, etc?) Perhaps either add in that functionality, or if one of these exist in the blueprint..an error sound is played when you push the mirror/flip button?

It'd just make certain copying a bit better is all.

[ssilk]

I think this is really needed. And for mirroring it is the same as with rotating: there are entities like the gun turret, which can't be mirrored.

I think what really stands behind this is, that you are able to switch into some kind of planning mode, before you place the BP.

For example:
Take bp. Place it! But holding CTRL will switch now into edit mode (even if it isn't possible to place it).

We switch into the game editor and the BP is placed at that piece of map, which you selected, that means for example to have stuff placed on water, trees and so on. You'll see also the borders of construction area.

You can now edit anything in God mode. You have tools like copy/paste, move, mirror, rotate, search/replace, delete filtered (which will result in deconstruction) and such stuff. At the end of this process you have a construction plan of the BP for this area.

From here on this can be really placed on map or stored as new BP.

[MeduSalem]

I support this idea... Mirroring is very much needed sometimes... otherwise you have to create the mirrored version manually and rotate it around which takes quite some time. ^^

And for mirroring it is the same as with rotating: there are entities like the gun turret, which can't be mirrored.

This awkward behavior of the Gun Turrets should have been resolved a long, long time ago... because it makes Gun Turret defenses pretty dumb when placed along walls which run in North/South direction. It gives them even a greater disadvantage over laser turrets when placed this way because it prevents tight packing of them. I can't describe how annyoing this has become lately, especially since I started a new map with max Biter settings. It literally forces me to switch to laser turrets for N/S because of how I can't achieve the same DPS with Gun Turrets as I'm able to achieve in E/W direction. I wanted to prevent this laser turret switch from happening because one of my goals for this map was "no laser turrets"... but at some point it becomes quite ridiculous at the weak N/S walls.

I just stumbled across this thread while looking if there's already a mod for this but... well. Seems like we are still out of luck. ^^

[ssilk]

I dont think gun turrets will be changed, cause of their height/size. Cause of the 2d graphics, they need some more upper room.

[xnmo]

I think changing gun turrets would be a good idea, even if it requires a new graphic. I'm pretty sure it is the only thing in the game that is 2x1 and can't be rotated. Since it messes up blueprints they should either be 1x1 or 2x2, or 2x1 but rotateable like splitters. I can't imagine how any of those solutions could be implemented with the current graphic. Sure, changing the size it might bug out current saves (Hopefully nothing worse than inserters missing their mark or overlapping buildings) but I do think this would be a necessary change if the developers want the gun turret to be anything but disliked ugly duckling of the game.

Please, think of the poor little duckling!

[dee-]

Ah, someone else already has a request for mirroring blueprints so no new thread needed.

+1 to blueprint mirror/flip and bump

[Peteza34]

I really thought this would have been suggested already. I apologize if I missed it.

tags: keys, rotate, mirror...

[daniel34]

I don't think that CTRL is the right key for this, as it is already widely used in the game. Example: to put a blueprint into a chest you select the blueprint from inventory/toolbar, then while holding CTRL click on the chest, and it will insert the currently held blueprint.

I would recommend a key next to the R (rotation) key, but they are all already assigned. (T = technology, E = inventory, F = pick up, Z (on german/czech/some other layouts instead of Y) = drop item).

Also, there is a mod for this: (not saying this shouldn't be in the base game)
[MOD 0.12.x] Blueprint Flipper - mirror your blueprints! [Helper mods]

[Linosaurus]

I don't think that CTRL is the right key for this, as it is already widely used in the game. Example: to put a blueprint into a chest you select the blueprint from inventory/toolbar, then while holding CTRL click on the chest, and it will insert the currently held blueprint.

I think it could work, it wouldn't be the first time in the game that something is overloaded. For example, iirc shift+click with a blueprint doesn't work if the cursor is on a power pole. Though that might be a bug, I'm not sure it actually does anything. (without a blueprint in hand it would disconnect cables from the pole).

[ssilk]

I'm with you to rework all keyboard functions. They are sometimes not logical.
I'm against to use an important key for such a seldom needed function.

[DaveMcW]

Note that mirroring your blueprint will break the oil industry.

[imajor]

Mirroring along which axis? Two keys are needed I think.

[ske]

Mirroring along which axis? Two keys are needed I think.

Rotate, Mirror, Rotate, Rotate, Rotate

[bobingabout]

Mirroring could be useful, but as pointed out, CTRL isn't the best key for the job. Also should it be a hold to mirror, or a tap to mirror toggle?

Note that mirroring your blueprint will break the oil industry.

He has a point here, unless you can mirror the inputs/outputs of a factory too, but that's another suggestion.

[Enferax]

Hello guys.

I've been lurking around more than is good for me and have played factorio like a mad man since I bought it. And of course there are things that came to my mind that may benefit the game.

Have the ability to mirror blueprints.
In the later part of the game most structures are build with blueprints and while rotating things is fine I wish for a feature to invert the direction of a blueprint so I can keep everything symmetrical in an easy way. Right now I have to manually flip the belts and stuff like that.

Searching for an alternative to Alien Artifacts
From time to time I start some kind of peacfull game where there don't spawn biters in close distance. Gathering Alien Artifacts gets painfull with those settings so there could be some way to reproduce them. Like a search entry which costs a huge amount of resources and of course also Alien Artifacts. Than you get the possibility to produce some replacement for them, again only with a huge amount of resources.


Any thoughts about that?

Greetings Enferax.

[Koub]

You have a mod that adds aloen ore, which can in turn be turned into alien artifacts. The author hasn't updated it, but a player has updated it for 0.12 :
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=8344

There's also a mod for blueprint mirroring : viewtopic.php?f=92&t=15152.

Even though it's not in vanilla, you can use these for now .