Factorio Forums

I'd like to design a mining outpost for my own use, blueprint it and then later deploy it on an ore patch.
But I can only ever design an outpost around an ore patch I have because mining drills can only be placed on ore! So I can't place my mining drills.

I can't just plop down 10x10 mining drill ghosts while I'm designing, then copy them into my blueprint and place that blueprint over an ore patch. Screw wasting resources.

How do I design a ready-to-go mining outpost if I can't place mining drills without having ore?

Find a giant ore patch*, design your blueprint, and save it in your blueprint library for when you need it.

*If you can't find one, type /editor in the console and create your own.

But then I can only design outposts around weird, big blotches that I encounter. So in order to design an ore patch I use in my regular map, I should REALLY design it inside a creative map with the resource sizes turned all the way up.

Murphy's law says you're always gonna run into a bigger ore patch than your artificially limited design right when you don't want to.

Yeah I guess I can do that. Honestly, I don't know why the drilling rig can ONLY be built on resource patches. Time to mod...

did you try the editor?
it can create arbitrarily large patches.

AmericanPatriot wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 23, 2021 1:51 am

did you try the editor?
it can create arbitrarily large patches.

I just designed my mining outpost blueprint in the editor and placed it in my regular save. The blueprint has a bug I need to fix. The process for this is highly convoluted:

1. figure out fix in regular save
2. switch to map editor
3. apply fix EXACTLY in map editor
4. update blueprint content
5. switch back to regular save
6. apply the fix a second time there or reconstruct the blueprint from scratch

(╯°□°)╯︵┻━┻

I see zero UX reasons to arbitrarily limit the placement of drills. It might help noobies for 2 seconds when figuring out the game. Or prevent you from placing a miner where it doesn't gather resources while it's dark and you're in a wooded area. Either cut down the trees to get a better view or put on your nightvision goggles.

Not being able to place miners everywhere is a PITA and for no good reason.

Xunie wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 23, 2021 11:30 pm

I see zero UX reasons to arbitrarily limit the placement of drills.

I am sorry this mechanic creates compilcations for you.

posila wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 24, 2021 12:49 am

I am sorry this mechanic creates compilcations for you.

Geez, no worries, mate. It's all good. No need to apologize for gameplay mechanics. <3
I'm just providing constructive feedback.

Xunie wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 23, 2021 11:30 pm

I see zero UX reasons to arbitrarily limit the placement of drills.

It is quite useful if you design your ore mine blueprint in a tileable fashion. I usually have a blueprint with about 4 drills - including infrastructure (belts, poles, relative grid) - that i drag over ore patches until the patch is "full" which is easily seeable because drills are only placed where they can actually harvest something. If placement wasn't limited i'd have to manually re-check every drill *after* it's already been placed. Also contrary to a fixed sized blueprint a tileable one fits ore patches of any size.

eradicator wrote: Also contrary to a fixed sized blueprint a tileable one fits ore patches of any size.

I was also going to recommend a tileable blueprint, but decided not to.

eradicator wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 24, 2021 1:05 am

It is quite useful if you design your ore mine blueprint in a tileable fashion. I usually have a blueprint with about 4 drills - including infrastructure (belts, poles, relative grid) - that i drag over ore patches until the patch is "full" which is easily seeable because drills are only placed where they can actually harvest something. If placement wasn't limited i'd have to manually re-check every drill *after* it's already been placed. Also contrary to a fixed sized blueprint a tileable one fits ore patches of any size.

You're damn right. But you can make the force-place behavior 'non-default' by having a force-placing command bound to control+click. (Or shift+ctrl+click for force-placing ghosts!)

Xunie wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 24, 2021 1:18 am

But you can make the force-place behavior 'non-default' by having a force-placing command bound to control+click. (Or shift+ctrl+click for force-placing ghosts!)

Default keybindings are a very limited resource. I don't think that this tiny edge case is worth using one. But ye know, I don't get to decide that. (Also wrong subforum for suggestions.)

eradicator wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 24, 2021 1:33 am

Also wrong subforum for suggestions.

This thread didn't start out as a feature request/suggest. I can't predict the future.

Xunie wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 24, 2021 1:45 am

eradicator wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 24, 2021 1:33 am

Also wrong subforum for suggestions.

This thread didn't start out as a feature request/suggest. I can't predict the future.

Create a new topic here: viewforum.php?f=6 and checkout the template before

AmericanPatriot wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 24, 2021 1:06 am

eradicator wrote: Also contrary to a fixed sized blueprint a tileable one fits ore patches of any size.

I was also going to recommend a tileable blueprint, but decided not to.

Sorry, cannot help Why did you decide to post, that you decided not to post?

I will highly recommend using a tile-able mining blueprint using the snap to grid feature. It solves all of your problems with placement. And due to miners NOT placing on non-ore locations you don’t have to submit a feature request for miners placed by blueprints not to place on non-ore locations.