(Hotkey to) Replace existing structures with blueprint / Replace with bp / Forced bp placing/deconstruction

[Boppiej]

I like the idea of having overlapping blueprints that contain upgrades for the previous blueprint.

[FritzHugo3]

I wish me this too.

There are a workaround with first all delete with the destroy pla and than the blueprint but in this time the robots have began and destroy it. So its not realy a good way.

[Koub]

Allow me to also point to a very similar suggestion (focusing on only upgrading the fast replaceable entities). I won't merge both because they are still different.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=80563

[IronCartographer]

Also somewhat related is some of the behavior in this mod: https://mods.factorio.com/mod/GhostBuster

I am unsure at this time whether such changes would be universally beneficial or potentially cause problems, however.

[maxp779]

This would be a helpful feature!

[deimosian]

This is a must have quality of life improvement for working with blueprints.

[SpeckledFleebeedoo]

This would be very helpful in 1.1. Have normal and shift-place stay the same as in 1.0, and add an extra modifier key for overriding current ghosts with new roations or upgrades.

[IronCartographer]

This would be very helpful in 1.1. Have normal and shift-place stay the same as in 1.0, and add an extra modifier key for overriding current ghosts with new roations or upgrades.

That's an argument for ctrl-shift rather than shift-right click; it would be a more forceful placement rather than simply deconstructing incompatible structures.

Moving the 1.1 changes (seamlessly upgrading/rotating with a new blueprint) into an override-player-structures modifier like this would preserve the ability to place blueprints that overlap belts when you want the old behavior of not changing existing belts.

In short: 1.1 actually removed functionality, but requiring a new hotkey for the new behavior would be distinct, consistent, and entirely additive.

Edit: Nevermind, blueprints do not allow the shift-click overriding/upgrading behavior added in 1.1 so far only for single items/entities. There is no "loss" as described...but the opportunity for improvement remains!

[Ingvar]

Please implement some way to (re-)place blueprints over existing structures and ghosts with a hotkey, causing old ones to be removed or marked for removal.

[ElderAxe]

TL;DR

More powerful blueprint placement

What ?

Placing blueprints with shift pressed should be more powerful and smart
improvements:
- Upgrade buildings which can be upgraded instead of ignoring them ( belts, chests, inserters, assemblers, rail signals, power poles )
- Overwrite module configuration for buildings of the same type (this is an extension of the previous upgrade feature actually
- Auto place landfill under buildings on the water. And instead of waiting for bots to place landfill first, set both ghosts (landfill and building) at the same time bot which will place the building should wait for other bots to finish their work. (like waiting for deconstruction orders or cliff explosives )

Why ?

When you pass sending the first rocket, the gameplay becomes more like RTS games. And the addition of the spidertron logistics improved this game style a lot. (Thanks for that btw)
Currently, building remotely with blueprints has 3 downsides, You need to manually upgrade buildings, you can not change modules (upgrade planner works for existing modules but not for new ones), and landfill placement.

Changing the main behavior for blueprints would have a big impact but we also have a force blueprint placement. These three suggestions basically make the force more powerful. And this will be a huge QoL improvement.

Thanks for this great game.

[Koub]

Im too lazy right now to link to all the threads suggesting one or another part of what you suggest, but there have been many suggestions in the same direction in the past

[ElderAxe]

I'm too lazy right now to link to all the threads suggesting one or another part of what you suggest, but there have been many suggestions in the same direction in the past

I know these are partially suggested in the past, I wanted to share them all together.
I'm hoping that previous similar suggestions are ignored because they suggested changing the main blueprint behavior and developers would take this one into consideration because it will only affect the alternate usage of blueprints.

Also with the latest changes&improvements on ghost placement, implementing some of these suggestions may become easier.

[19wolf]

This. I'm trying to build modular rail blueprints but when I place my 3-way on top of my 2-way, I need to replace the regular signals with chain signals.

[ssilk]

Ya, but you cannot just do everything with shift-key. There are for example ideas that a blueprint can hard “overwrite” any entity. That is not always useful. Ideas to place landfill for example: I don’t want it, if I have no landfill, or if I want to use the landscape for my protection, but don’t want to clean all things before.

My current thinking about this problem is, that we have a blueprint menu, that can be opened just before placing a bp and where you can turn on/off all this stuff.

-> What should happen when I place a bp without and with shift.

[Sad_Brother]

When I use BP most often cases are:
1.Put it here if it fit
2.Put it here it should work
and some options like repeating, connecting, landfilling etc.

First case good as is. Without shift.
Second case internally involve "remove anything preventing, but place only if it possible". Now shift works like "remove natural obstacles and place anything fit".

I think when shift pressed obstacles, which can be removed with current tech, should be marked green, which cannot - red, which should be tuned (rotated, reprogrammed, upgrated, downgraded, etc) - yellow. Green and yellow allow placement whole BP, not partially.
The place for options is in BP options: tiling here already, landfilling no/needed/all can be added. Partial BP placement can also be allowed here.

Each option can be made unlockable by special tech. Including ghost placement. Or available from start.

[Azethoth]

I too want copied entities or blueprints to erase and replace existing entities just like they can replace existing trees. I think using the shift key to force this is good. It is already a perfectly fine and working use case for trees. That would still let you try out the fit of a blueprint vs existing entities / trees / rocks / etc. when not using shift and getting UI confirmation that something is in the way and in fact red stuff all over the problem area(s). Just like with trees you can press undo if you did not like the results and are fast enough or far enough away.

While someone is in that code they can even clean up the part where you delete some area, paste an almost identical pattern of entities on top does not cancel the entities that remain the same in the exact same locations. Like moving a row of 6 chests with 9600 items each by one chest should involve deleting 1 chest and emptying 9,600 items. Not deleting 6 chests and emptying 57,600 items. So if this feature is implemented, unchanged entities should not get deleted and then replaced with their identical selves. However if their mods or wiring or logistics settings etc changed it should be as if they got erased and replaced. A chest should keep its contents. Although that would require some logic when the contents differ perhaps. Certainly a steel chest that exists before and after need not change. However a train wagon with different filters and contents would.

[Impatient]

+1 for a way for a more forceful BP placement

maybe CTRL+click?

My usecase is to change production plants with advancing technology. Imagine a mall. You could just iteratively "force" a new BP on the same location and entities would get updated, upgraded, wire connections set, etc. .

for that usecase I would also like to see entities removed, which are not in the new blueprint but also do not collide with any entities in the new BP.

[Ikonos]

TL;DR

When placing a blueprint on the world, right click it to place it and deconstruct not only rocks/trees, but also any other building in the way (splitters, wrong way belts, assemblers, ...).

Why ?

When you are placing ghosts, you can remove things with right mouse button.
If you have a blueprint you can only remove trees/rocks (with shift left click), but if you have some power pole or splitter you didn't see, you will have to let the blueprint go, remove those things and search the blueprint again.

But... Why ?

Maybe there are too many modifiers already and it is too complex to remember a new way to paste a blueprint. For me, it would be useful.

[blazespinnaker]

Yeah, I've always wanted this one as well. Would be crazy useful.

If there is a mod for this, please let us know.

[Koub]

[Koub] Merged with several older threads with same suggestion.