[1.1.57] It is possible to encode signals in blueprints that can't be set in-game

[goodolflip]

I'm currently working on a language for practically expressing Factorio circuits that compiles to a blueprint string (check it out here: https://github.com/osimon8/CombinatorC), and in doing so I wrote a little script that scrapes the data in the public repository to generate a list of all valid signals. I noticed in the list I generated that some of the signals corresponded to items that aren't actually in the game, such as "spidertron-rocket-launcher-1". I tried creating a blueprint with one of these signals, and lo and behold it actually worked.

You can't set these signals in a combinator in-game (or obtain them in any other way that I'm aware of), but when they are encoded in a blueprint, you can use these signals just like you would any other. Here is a blueprint string for a constant combinator using "spidertron-rocket-launcher-1": 0eNqNkMFuhDAMRP/F52TVUNJd8itVtQrB7VoFBwWzKkL59ybLZU9Vj7Zm3ni8Qz+uOCdiAbcDhcgLuPcdFvpiP9adbDOCAxKcQAH7qU5VJ55Fhzj1xF5igqyAeMAfcCZ/KEAWEsID9xi2K69Tj6kI/gQpmONSvJFrfuHptutOVsEGrjGXky1JAyUMh6RRlSIpjtceb/5OBVF8nzQKpn+1WWYaMBUC6xTDN4oe/crhhkmbWivEtf7n7blgrh0fGPf0QwX3knmcdTHtuWvOtjWv9sXm/AvtQXp8

I'm not sure if this really qualifies as a bug or not (it's a feature, more signals!), but it could potentially be confusing for the player if a blueprint made use of these signals, since many of them have the same icons as signals that correspond to proper items.

[DaveMcW]

Some other blueprint hacks: viewtopic.php?t=57198

[Rseding91]

Thanks for the report however that's fine that it allows it. The GUI restricts selection purely to avoid confusion but if someone modifies a blueprint externally or uses the Lua API they can set signals to literally any item/fluid/entity that the game knows about.