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Lab GUI usability problem

Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2016 11:49 pm
by pil
Hi,
I don't know if it's me that I'm not playing well, or if it's a bug, but I am unable to complete any research: progress bar does not progress and nothing happens when researching. I tried Factorio 0.12.25, 0.12.26 and today 0.12.29.
Also, my computer crashes often when playing Factorio (Ubuntu 12.04).

Re: Research not working in Ubuntu 12.04

Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2016 12:03 am
by steinio
Hello pil,

this doesn't depends on ubuntu.
You just have to build a research lab, which requires electric power.

Wiki: https://wiki.factorio.com/index.php?title=Lab

Greetings steinio

Re: Research not working in Ubuntu 12.04

Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2016 12:40 am
by pil
Ok, thank you very much for your answer.
I thought that for running the lab I needed science pack 1, 2, 3 y 4 and modules, and in order to get the blue and the purple ones and modules I needed to research first. Now I see that It works also with the red one only when you put it on.
I think that's an usability problem on the gui, it should'nt be so difficult to understand, if there were for example only the icons of the items you need for this research, or marked with another color or something.

Re: Research not working in Ubuntu 12.04

Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2016 1:08 am
by pil
I mean, when I saw this I understood that all the ingredients are necessary to run the lab

Re: Lab GUI usability problem

Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2016 10:22 am
by daniel34
Moved to Gameplay Help.

I think it is obvious from the Technology screen that some researches only require red or red and green science packs, and others require 3 or 4 of them.

About the crash: there is no crash in the log file, how / how often does the game crash? If it crashes again paste the log file right after the crash, before starting Factorio again.

Re: Lab GUI usability problem

Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2016 11:08 am
by pil
Yes, in the Tecnologie screen is obvious that you need only red science pack and that you have to push the button 'research' to research. But not that you have to use the lab, that looks like something you can't use because you don't have enough ingredients.

I thought that researching was pressing T+research button (while having enough red science packs or ingredients for doing them in the inventory), and that the Lab was something more advanced for mass production.

I abandoned and restarted the game 3 times because of this missunderstanding, bored and frustrated for not beeing able to solve it.

Maybe it's easy for you to understand because you are used to it, but the message in the Lab gui (image in previous post) is totally misleading.

Re: Lab GUI usability problem

Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2016 11:29 am
by prg
How to do research is explained in the first mission of the campaign.

Re: Lab GUI usability problem

Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2016 11:52 am
by pil
A well designed gui should be self-explanatory, and better graphically than with words.