[mod 0.12.22-24] {UBS} - Underground Belt Spotter

[matjojo]

Mod-Info-Header

• Name: Underground Belt Spotter
• Version: 0.0.2
• Factorio-Version: 0.12.26 (which Factorio version this was tested with)
• Description: Spots underground belts that have been placed, but do not have a counterpart yet.
• License: MIT
• Release: 2016-02-12
• Website: https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... 92&t=20071
• Category: Helper mods
• Tags: Utilities, GUI, Transport belts, Gameplay, Multiplayer compatible.

License

License
Usage in modpacks: Always allowed, just send a PM to note me, no need to wait for confirmation.
Using code or other parts in other mods: Always allowed, just send a PM to note me, no need to wait for confirmation.
taking mod over when orphaned; anyone interested.
The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) [2015] [Matjojo]

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.

Long description

Long description
UBS is a mod that adds two types of underground belt searching to the game, it will look 'active' and it will ask you to look for underground belts at the start of the game.
UBS does not require you to learn a single thing, just press the button according to the type of belt you wish to search for and wait when the mod does its thing.
UBS also features 'active' searching, this means that whilst you are building the weirdest, largest, or maybe even smallest contraptions to make you factory even more glorious. UBS will make sure you do not miss a single placed underground belt.

Pictures

Pictures
At every world start:


Example output:

To Do

To Do

• Get rid of the honestly bad thought-out way of reporting the found disconnected underground belts.
• Place arrows on the found belts.
• Add a chat command to initiate the belt searching process.
• Make a better system for the 'active' searching mechanism, it might work, but is certainly does not work in any code-wise respectable way.
• Add support for underground pipes
• Add a teleport button to show you where it is
• make use of the new 'preview' thing in FF 126 to show previews

Version history

Version history
Version 0.0.1 (12-02-2016): Release
Version 0.0.2 (18-02-2016): Complete rewrite: replaced the chat system with the nice orange arrow and reworked the active search.

[Zeblote]

This doesn't seem user friendly at all. Why not highlight the mismatched belts for a few seconds with yellow tile in the game and map?

[ssilk]

I move that to special interest, cause the usage case is so very special and me for example have in normal game SOME underground belts "open", cause that is needed to use it for some "belt-tricks".

[matjojo]

I move that to special interest, cause the usage case is so very special and me for example have in normal game SOME underground belts "open", cause that is needed to use it for some "belt-tricks".

I'd like to 'fight' this move:

First: I undestand what you mean, I also sometimes only need one line of a belt, or need them to do some 'tricks', but the 'active search' only notifies you once per underground belt. If you ignore the notion once, you'll never hear about that one underground belt, unless of course if you specifically ask the mods to do this at the start of the game.

Mod Packs / Libs / Special Interest contains the really special case mods, like automating the search of how much rail things you have in your world. And logically all the mod-packs and libs.

But, UBS is meant as a mod that you use whilst playing, not as a one use mod to take a look once. Of course you can use it like that, hence the popup at the start of the game that asks you if you want to do a full world search.

Also there is a rather 'selfish' reason, special interest just does not get the attention the other categories get, if you want to take a look at some popular mods, like test mode, you will see the mods below that in the rest of the threat. But when you are looking for a mod-pack, you are not very likely to get interested in any mods that are not prepackaged into a package of plug and play fun.

third there is the almost complete lack of reasoning, I understand it if you don't want to use it, you can't have everyone like what you make, but just because YOU think YOU will only use UBS in a special case, does not make it into a special case mods for everyone.

Thanks for reading,
Matjojo

[matjojo]

This doesn't seem user friendly at all. Why not highlight the mismatched belts for a few seconds with yellow tile in the game and map?

I'm currently reworking the way it does that, it will use the orange-arrow-with-circle enity to show you where it is. (I think that arrow is used in the tutorial levels, otherwise think like the arrow at the start of a free-play game, but with a circle at the bottom around the tile it is placed on.)

[ssilk]

I move that to special interest, cause the usage case is so very special and me for example have in normal game SOME underground belts "open", cause that is needed to use it for some "belt-tricks".

I'd like to 'fight' this move:

First: I undestand what you mean, I also sometimes only need one line of a belt, or need them to do some 'tricks', but the 'active search' only notifies you once per underground belt. If you ignore the notion once, you'll never hear about that one underground belt, unless of course if you specifically ask the mods to do this at the start of the game.

Mod Packs / Libs / Special Interest contains the really special case mods, like automating the search of how much rail things you have in your world. And logically all the mod-packs and libs.

But, UBS is meant as a mod that you use whilst playing, not as a one use mod to take a look once. Of course you can use it like that, hence the popup at the start of the game that asks you if you want to do a full world search.

Also there is a rather 'selfish' reason, special interest just does not get the attention the other categories get, if you want to take a look at some popular mods, like test mode, you will see the mods below that in the rest of the threat. But when you are looking for a mod-pack, you are not very likely to get interested in any mods that are not prepackaged into a package of plug and play fun.

third there is the almost complete lack of reasoning, I understand it if you don't want to use it, you can't have everyone like what you make, but just because YOU think YOU will only use UBS in a special case, does not make it into a special case mods for everyone.

Thanks for reading,
Matjojo

I slept one night over this. And the question on which I decided to keep it as it is was: "What, if we have dozens of mods like this?"
That is something I would say, breaks my definition of helper mod: Some useful helping mod, that enhances my game experience.

I mean: I do such programs every day, programs, that checks lists of lists of data and outputs lists of lists of other. Just scripts, that does some output and the user needs to interpret it himself.

For a game I await a better integration into the UI to be really helpful. I await, that the UI of a mod doesn't brake my game experience.

In other words: Make it possible to use it on it's own. Add a real interface. For example: Currently you need something else to spot the direction of the open ug-belt (you can turn on debug-mode, or install coordinates mod, but that is ....).

Again: I really haven't made an easy decision and the question I want to ask you is: Do you really want to have some dozens of mods, that does some output into the console? For me it's an anti-pattern. For me the console is for debugging or error-messages. Not a game-interface.

EDIT: Just saw your last post now. Gimme a note, if you are ready, cause I don't read this board every day...

[matjojo]

EDIT: Just saw your last post now. Gimme a note, if you are ready, cause I don't read this board every day...

Thanks for explaining, in hindsight I should have probably placed this in the WIP section when it actually still was WIP.
anyway, This is the note, I just uploaded version 0.0.2 That completely throws away the usage of the chat. And is a total rewrite in the second version -_-

[matjojo]

Just uploaded version 0.0.2!
Version 0.0.2 (18-02-2016): Complete rewrite: replaced the chat system with the nice orange arrow and reworked the active search.
download link in OP!

[jockeril]

Nice. Thinking of checking it out

[ssilk]

Moved back to helper mods. Nice work!

[matjojo]

Moved back to helper mods. Nice work!

Thanks a lot!

[Murlocking]

In multiplayer, the host can join just fine but the other clients are getting disconnected with "Desync!" message.

Unfortunately, unusable for me right now.

[matjojo]

In multiplayer, the host can join just fine but the other clients are getting disconnected with "Desync!" message.

Unfortunately, unusable for me right now.

I'm so sorry, could you please send me the log files and/or any more data that was given with the message?

[Murlocking]

In multiplayer, the host can join just fine but the other clients are getting disconnected with "Desync!" message.

Unfortunately, unusable for me right now.

I'm so sorry, could you please send me the log files and/or any more data that was given with the message?

Sure, here's the archive folder containing information and logs about the reported Desync on my friend client while attempting to join my server.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4JjnW ... sp=sharing

Server is hosted by me and I run the server inside the game, not from command prompt.