Friday Facts #88 - Combinators

[Twinsen]

A look at the fancy new combinators: https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-88

[vedrit]

OMG! This is going to be AWESOME! I hope this allows for checking power levels as well, like demand/production.

[Cordylus]

OMG!
It will be EPIC!

[jerrycheng]

Awesome!!!

[jeroon]

this is easily the best Friday Facts this week!

also.. want.. right.. now!

[Original]

I wish there was a world download for the factorio sign that you made so that we can understand how it was done.

[infogulch]

So in a pure combinator network (i.e. no smart inserters/chests etc), items are basically symbols that represent processor registers, except they can be local instead of global registers.

[Havoc_mayhem]

Any chance of getting a set of dummy items we can use for signals? I think it would be cleaner than using actual items.

[daniel34]

Any chance of getting a set of dummy items we can use for signals? I think it would be cleaner than using actual items.

I second that. It would be very confusing for the player, especially in multiplayer games, whether the item used is an actual item or just a dummy variable.
Right now you can choose between items and numbers. You could add a third option that allows to choose letters (a, b, c, d, ...) or enter a variable name yourself that can then be used as variables.

[MeduSalem]

Well that will result in quite a lot of funny contraptions...

But I would suggest the following for the deciders:

The output should be either the input OR a static number of your choice and not restricted to simply "1".

Because I might want to output for example exactly 10 or 100 or whatever static number I want... so I'd need additional deciders or arithmetic combinators and constant combinators to achieve something that could be done by just being able to enter a simple number for the output value of a single decider.

[lancar]

Today's friday facts gave me a headache :/

[Zeblote]

Why can't there be graphics of this quality



For everything in the game

[Narnach]

Why can't there be graphics of this quality



For everything in the game

Patience. They'll get to it eventually.

On the original topic: this looks really neat. Makes me look forward to the 0.12 update even more

[Cordylus]

Why can't there be graphics of this quality



For everything in the game

Because probably you don't have enough VRAM.

Although there's planned official mod with the HD graphics. It was in FF some time ego.

[SWSe]

Any chance of getting a set of dummy items we can use for signals? I think it would be cleaner than using actual items.

+1
This implementation probably works good, but also seems a bit cheap as to just "reclycling" usual items.
I imagine it could easily get unnecessarily complicated wheter items in a network are actual items or just signals.

On the other hand, this is good to see exactly what kinds of items this network is about. You can more easily assotiate something to an image of it instead of just some kind of strange pattern, letters or numbers.

I could imagine having signals with a tinted backgound. So for example, there could be placeholders like A, B, C but also just like now usual items, but all with a let's say green background.

[n9103]

Robert OP, nerf pls.
Looking damn cool.
Any bets on how long until turning-complete?

[kovarex]

Any chance of getting a set of dummy items we can use for signals? I think it would be cleaner than using actual items.

There will be something like that. But these won't be dummy items, but special kind of signal set.

Well that will result in quite a lot of funny contraptions...

But I would suggest the following for the deciders:

The output should be either the input OR a static number of your choice and not restricted to simply "1".

Well, yes you need another multiplier for that, but the gui is complicated already and we wanted to keep things understandable.

[Marconos]

Very nice and powerful ... we can make some awesomely complex items.

Now if they game just allowed us to have a blueprint set that we could pass between games and an in game binder with pages to store them all in ......

[keyboardhack]

How often does combinators update?

Can you change the timers update rate?

Does smart inserters still work the same way?

Is the system turing complete?

[Twinsen]

Any chance of getting a set of dummy items we can use for signals? I think it would be cleaner than using actual items.

Yes, this is planned. I should have mentioned this. You will be able to have special signals like "Signal 1", "Signal 2", "Signal 3" ... "Signal Blue", "Signal Green"... "Signal A", "Signal B", "Signal C" ...

Also, in the filter you will be able to select a special "everything" signal which will have special meanings in the combinator. For example "output all the signals that are bigger than 100".