[MOD 0.12.11+] EvoGUI (Evolution Factor Indicator) v0.4.16

[Peter34]

You're probably correct about Small Biters stopping appearing at some point. To be honest that doesn't interest me. All that interests me is what threats I am about to face in the near future. If they're bigger ones, or if they utilize newer attack forms (such as the ranged attacks of Spitters).

My intent is to read the game's data structures to produce the list, which would also mean maximum compatibility with mods as long as they use the normal biter spawning mechanics, but if that doesn't work out, a hard-coded list is better than nothing. Be aware that somewhere down the line (at about 0.7-ish, if memory serves), small biters stop being able to spawn.

That is of course optional.

What I think your mod should indicate, if those options are enabled, is the current list of possible threads, and also the next upcoming change, the Evolution Factor that causes that change to happen, and what the change consists of.

[Narc]

Is this mod meant to be multipayer compatible?

There's not much point to the player locations sensor if you're not playing with multiple people.

[...]

[...stuff about reading data structures...]

That is of course optional.

Sort of. I wouldn't want to be playing with bobenemies and not being told that at 90% evolution fiery biters start to appear. It shouldn't be much more work than keeping a static list, and has the advantage of adapting to mod packs -- if I can get it to work.

What I think your mod should indicate, if those options are enabled, is the current list of possible threads, and also the next upcoming change, the Evolution Factor that causes that change to happen, and what the change consists of.

Mhm. That's pretty much what I got from the earlier discussion, and what I'd decided on. Feel free to check on issue #12 and let me know if you notice anything I missed.

Edit: of note, it's not currently possible to actually query the spawner data, so I'll be using the static list method for the 0.5 release unless this feature request ends up getting into 0.12.8. Which it might!

[Peter34]

Is this mod meant to be multipayer compatible?

There's not much point to the player locations sensor if you're not playing with multiple people.

It doesn't work in MP.

When I tried to turn an on-going SP game into MP, by loading the save and having a friend join, the game crashed as soon as I clicked on EvoGUI's config button, and later when I started an MP game, with me as the only player, I got a constant error message and error chime, I think once per second.

[Narc]

It doesn't work in MP.

When I tried to turn an on-going SP game into MP, by loading the save and having a friend join, the game crashed as soon as I clicked on EvoGUI's config button, and later when I started an MP game, with me as the only player, I got a constant error message and error chime, I think once per second.

Well, it works for me with the mod set at http://linode.narc.ro/factorio-mods/, and I've done all of the above at one time or another. All I can say with the information you've given me is "something is wrong".

If you can get me the actual error messages, I might be able to do something with that.

[Peter34]

I seem to get different error messages in different games, and sometimes some of the persist for some time after I've disabled your mod.

The one I got most recently is more informative than most:
[EvoGUI|on_tick] Error: __EvoGUI__/evoGUI.lua:96: Unknown style evoGUI_small_button_style

That's the periodic one I got once per second.

There's also this thread:
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... 53&t=15982

[Narc]

I seem to get different error messages in different games, and sometimes some of the persist for some time after I've disabled your mod.

The one I got most recently is more informative than most:
[EvoGUI|on_tick] Error: __EvoGUI__/evoGUI.lua:96: Unknown style evoGUI_small_button_style

That's the periodic one I got once per second.

There's also this thread:
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... 53&t=15982

I just forum-stalked you and found the same. I don't know why, but your EvoGUI is missing either data.lua or prototypes/styles.lua. This should not be the case, as they haven't been missing from any of my released archives.

Are you, by any chance, extracting the mod zip file, and if so, could your extractor be failing to create directories as it's supposed to?

[Peter34]

I just forum-stalked you and found the same. I don't know why, but your EvoGUI is missing either data.lua or prototypes/styles.lua. This should not be the case, as they haven't been missing from any of my released archives.

Are you, by any chance, extracting the mod zip file, and if so, could your extractor be failing to create directories as it's supposed to?

The odd thing is, both the EvoGUI and Auto-Wire mods are working fine in SP games.

Also, I sometimes do extract the mods from their zip files and place their folders directly in my /mods directory, but I almost only do that when I want to "hack" a mod by modifying the data files to create my personal version, and I haven't done that with your mod nor with Auto-Wire.

Furthermore, when I do extract the mods, I use the native support of MS Windows (that it's had since Windows XP, although I've used Windows 7 for the last 3 1/2 years) rather than a specific third-party program. So that's very odd.

[Peter34]

Others, see also this thread (If you remain curious about the matter):
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... 53&t=15982

I deleted both mods (yours, and the Auto-Wire one), then re-downloaded them, and copy/pasted the mod folders out of their ZIP folders, so that the unzipped folders are lying directly in my /mod directory.

Now the bugs have gone away, and the single-player test MP game that I tried for about 20 seconds did not reproduce the earlier bugs. I was able to open the Auto-Wire mod interface, and the EvoGUI mod interface.

I also checked, and the two files you mentioned were present in the ZIP archive in my /mods folder, before I deleted and re-installed.

It works now. Although I'll spend a couple of minutes next week, on Tuesday, doing an actual MP test with 2 players logged on, just in case.

[Narc]

It works now. Although I'll spend a couple of minutes next week, on Tuesday, doing an actual MP test with 2 players logged on, just in case.

That was a very odd issue. Might the downloads have been corrupted? That's really the only thing that comes to mind anymore.

If it happens again without having downloaded a new version (with a chance to corrupt the file in transit), you might want to run a hardware diagnostic -- at least a memtest86 left overnight, if not also a chkdsk with the /R switch.

[Peter34]

It works now. Although I'll spend a couple of minutes next week, on Tuesday, doing an actual MP test with 2 players logged on, just in case.

That was a very odd issue. Might the downloads have been corrupted? That's really the only thing that comes to mind anymore.

If it happens again without having downloaded a new version (with a chance to corrupt the file in transit), you might want to run a hardware diagnostic -- at least a memtest86 left overnight, if not also a chkdsk with the /R switch.

I have run a brief diagnostic on my Western Digital hard drive, made by them, some kind of "SMART" thing, 2-3 minutes duration. It came back as a "Pass". I'll probably run their more thorough diagnostic (might take many hours, it warns me) later, just to be sure.

But is "corrupt file in transit" even a thing, any more? I thought there were all sorts of error-checking protocols, when using the Internet, to make that effectively impossible...

[Narc]

But is "corrupt file in transit" even a thing, any more? I thought there were all sorts of error-checking protocols, when using the Internet, to make that effectively impossible...

Well, I can't say it's ever happened to me, and I wouldn't expect data to be corrupted while in the form of TCP/IP packets[1], but "in transit", to me, also includes the path the data takes inside the receiving machine, transiting from the network card that received it to the hard-drive where it'll get stored and, later, read from. Hardware failure (especially of RAM) can hide for long periods and have the most confusing symptoms before it finally dies for good.

SMART (Self Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) can be an early indicator of hard-drive failure, but a passing SMART assessment isn't a guarantee of a healthy drive. It does tend to catch most failures, though, so if the WD tool says it's all right, especially after running the extensive diagnostic, then it probably is. I would reinforce my earlier suggestion to also run MemTest86 when possible (it's a bootable application, so you really can't do anything else while it's running (and it's also a multiple-hour job), but given enough time it'll touch all of your RAM and ensure that what gets written to it gets read back correctly).

Footnote:
[1]: I wouldn't be too impressed with 'error-checking protocols', either -- the TCP/IP standard hasn't changed that much since the mid-1980s, to the best of my knowledge. Maybe some link-layer protocols have improved (and their transmission media become more refined), but sometimes a perfect storm does happen. HTTP certainly adds no extra error checking on top of that stack.

[Narc]

Ladies and gentlemen, it's been a long time coming, but here's v0.4.2:



Just little changes this time around, but there were a lot of them! So many, in fact, that I had to gather them up in an Imgur album.

As a list:

• Can configure the time-of-day indicator to remove rounding and show planetary day (with guesstimate-level precision) (#19)
• Can now change the GUI update frequency (#20)
• Can configure evolution factor to have 4 decimals of precision (#21)
• Can configure the play time indicator to break out days played, or remove the seconds (#22)
• Hebrew translation was updated, thanks again to @jocker-il (#25)
• Player list now lets you know if a player is offline, thanks to @silasary (#26)
• Minimum Factorio version is now 0.12.7 (but you could hax it back down as long as you don't use the player list) via 30386081bf56720ccf49b4ba6a06d32f7306bf77

Thank you all!

[jockeril]

Congratulations on the new version !

It was fun translating and play-testing the changes and I am honored to have had the pleasure of assisting - you, sir, are welcome any time. Your programing skills (I know something about that - I had the pleasure of knowing some of the best of them [1] ) and the way you think about user needs and possibilities is excellant

Again - A pleasure

[1] - like the MarconyCOM bought startup that made streaming over WiFi possible...

[Peter34]

Very nice to see a new version. And sorry about the trouble I may have caused. I'm still not at all sure why the files on my hard drive somehow became corrupted....

One thing added to the mod would make it even more wonderful than it already is: A two-line readout of basic crafting mats.

Specifically, I'd like an option to toggle ON so that the mod's window shows me how many I have of these five, the ones I consider the basic crating mats, needed in large quantities during the early and mid game when I still craft a lot by hand, and before I have Logistics Drones to fetch stuff for me continuously:
Iron Plate
Copper Plate
Gear Wheel
Electronic Circuit
Pipe

One could argue that Steel should be added, and perhaps also Brick, but I think it's important to keep the list as small as possible, so that it doesn't cause the window to take up a lot of screen real estate. And with just those five, those very five and no others, a lot of basic game mats can be hand-crafted very quickly, as opposed to if you have to craft everything from raw Iron Plates and Copper Plates.

The simplest implementation is a 2-line one, as such:
iro/cop/gea/ele/pip
999/999/999/999/999

Where each 999 indicates the total number of each item in the player character's inventory (including any Pipes that may be held in a Tool Belt slot), and using 999 for any amount higher than 999.

That takes up 2 lines, and fairly wide ones, but it's the simplest solution.

A more sophisticated solution would use a numerical indicator system other than decimal.

One possibility is a kind of base-2 logarithmic display, using the first few hexidecimals as well:
B if you have 1024 or more
A if you have 512 or more
9 if you have 256 or more
8 if you have 128 or more
7 if you have 64 or more
6 if you have 32 or more
5 if you have 16 or more
4 if you have 8 or more
3 if you have 4 or more
2 if you have 2 or 3
1 if you have 1
0 if you have none

I really don't think there's any reason to go higher than B or 1024.
This can then enable the display readout to be very compact, for instance:
I4 C6 G5 E5 P3

One single line, 14 characters.

Other possibilities include taking the square root if the amount, although that'll very quickly yield 2-digit values which goes against the need for compactness. One can use hexidecimals again, but even then you end up having to use G for 256-511, that is go outside of the hexidecimal range of 0 to F, zero to fifteen.

Ultimately, it's a request for the mod to do even more than it already does to cater to player laziness: Saving me from the trouble of having to press the "E" key to open my inventory where I'll be able to see at a glance how much I have of each basic crafting item.

[Peter34]

Another thing again, similar to the direction-finding for other players in MP games, is a line with a direction-to-threat indictor, even just a crude 8-direction one, N/NE/E/SE/S/SE/W/NW, to help make it easier for me to understand which direction the current biter attack is taking place at. If doable.

Because in many cases, using the in-game maps, the big "M" key map and the minimap, is unhelpful in this regard.

Note that even without this added, and the previous suggestion added, EvoGUI is still a fantastic mod, one I like a lot. I'm simply giving suggestions for how to make a superb mod even better.

[Hellboundbait]

Hey a couple friends and I were going to play multiplayer but a couple are for this mod and a couple against. If we all join with some of us not having this mod will it cause dysncs/not work?

[daniel34]

Hey a couple friends and I were going to play multiplayer but a couple are for this mod and a couple against. If we all join with some of us not having this mod will it cause dysncs/not work?

You can't join if the mod list doesn't match. The server (or host) and all the clients need to have the same mod configuration, otherwise you'll get this error:
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... 85#p107812

[Narc]

[...]Ultimately, it's a request for the mod to do even more than it already does to cater to player laziness: Saving me from the trouble of having to press the "E" key to open my inventory where I'll be able to see at a glance how much I have of each basic crafting item.

I'll gladly review that pull request, if someone makes it.

Another thing again, similar to the direction-finding for other players in MP games, is a line with a direction-to-threat indictor, even just a crude 8-direction one, N/NE/E/SE/S/SE/W/NW, to help make it easier for me to understand which direction the current biter attack is taking place at. If doable.[...]

Only if a structure actually gets destroyed, but it's certainly feasible to have a pointer to that. I will likely do something with this if it hasn't been pull-requested yet by the time I get back to EvoGUI development.

[Peter34]

[...]Ultimately, it's a request for the mod to do even more than it already does to cater to player laziness: Saving me from the trouble of having to press the "E" key to open my inventory where I'll be able to see at a glance how much I have of each basic crafting item.

I'll gladly review that pull request, if someone makes it.

It doesn't count as me having made it already?

[Narc]

[...]Ultimately, it's a request for the mod to do even more than it already does to cater to player laziness: Saving me from the trouble of having to press the "E" key to open my inventory where I'll be able to see at a glance how much I have of each basic crafting item.

I'll gladly review that pull request, if someone makes it.

It doesn't count as me having made it already?

You've made a request. A pull request has code attached and looks something like this. If someone writes the code and submits it, I will review it for inclusion into the EvoGUI master.