Factorio Forums

TL;DR

Flip using F and G whith in-hand entities

What ?

Blueprints can be flipped using F and G. When having an entity in hand, like inserter, belt, UG pipes, ect. it could be helpful to be able to flip using F and G instead of rotating twice.

Should both F and G flip any orientation ? Or should F only west-east orientation and G only north-south orientation ? I don't know. I guess I would only use F for flipping any orientation because it is closer to R.

Why ?

Double-rotating is not painful, but in the long run it start to be a bit, and sometimes you just make one rotate, sometimes 3, and then the R key start to cry because being hit too hard.

Is it game-changing ? No.
Will it really be used ? Probably not a lot.

On the other hand :

Does it add a constrain ? No. Currently F and G does have no effect while having an entity in hand. Also people not knowing this feature add will double rotate like they are doing now.

Does it looks hard to implement ? No. But I am not a factorio programmer so I actually don't know and I leave this to you.

Is it one of these details any game dev will ignore ? Yes, but on reason why Factorio is the best game of the world is that the devs do add such QOL details.

Examples

When doing rows of furnaces in early game. How many times did you doubble-rotate your insterter ?
When doing many underground-pipes stuff, double rotation is frequently used.
When you put down a belt from finish to start, then rotate, then find out that the rotation went the wrong way, it could be helpful to press F or G and correct in a easier way.


Kind regards,
Grob'

Should also work for entities on ground!

I like the fact of implementing seemingly redundant/useless shortcuts, but that makes so much sense when you think about it, and that when you accidentally use it using your factorian reflexes, you wonder why this is not a thing.

Grob wrote: ↑Sat Jan 06, 2024 4:21 pm Currently F and G does have no effect while having an entity in hand.

This is not correct. F picks items from the ground and G connects trains, and they both work when having something different than a blueprint in hand.

Qon wrote: ↑Sun Jan 07, 2024 3:26 pm Should also work for entities on ground!

Would look nice (eg. to flip the fluid input/output of assembling machines).

Although I don't like the fact that I could eat from the belt and accidentally flip an inserter or a belt and realize it only 2 hours later.
G for connecting trains is a less problematic keybind conflict imo.

Oh, forgot about F taking what's down. Agree then that it should be G then ^^

I am not sure if there was ever a confirmation of that, but the ability to mirror the outputs and inputs of chemplants and refineries has been discussed as a possible future feature. Thus, for some entities, especially already placed chem plants, flipping and double rotating may do two different things in 2.0. Plus loosing F to pick up stuff just because you have an entity in hand seems quite bad.

Grob wrote: ↑Sat Jan 06, 2024 4:21 pmsometimes you just make one rotate, sometimes 3, and then the R key start to cry because being hit too hard. ... Also people not knowing this feature add will double rotate like they are doing now.

I only have one rotation bound.
Using a second hotkey for 90° is worse than having to do a 270°.

People not knowing is never a reason to change the design of something.

Currently this mod https://mods.factorio.com/mod/GDIW
has the option to hide the mirrored recipes and swap with a hotkey.
I use Ü for that and KJ for flipping blueprints.
Neither of these functions need to be in reach at all times,
since after setting up the recipe-pair once it can simply be copied over.


I am also confused by this F-key talk.
Are we talking about picking up individual items or activating the run-over pick up.
Surely neither function is important enough to be on such a prime hotkey.
I beltrun with mouse5. F is the pipette.

Unless I'm misunderstanding something, I think the latest FFF makes this implemented for 2.0?
https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-394

Now that flipping is working on all buildings and items we decided it was worth expanding that to everywhere you might want to flip something (not just when holding a blueprint):

• Hovering over a building and pressing F or G
• Flipping something in your hand before you place it
• When copy and pasting from one machine to another (though this won't change the direction, just the flipped nature of the pipe connections)

FuryoftheStars wrote: ↑Sun Jan 21, 2024 3:19 pm Unless I'm misunderstanding something, I think the latest FFF makes this implemented for 2.0?
https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-394

Yep I understand the same thing here, @Anyone : correct me if I'm wrong.
[Koub] Moved to implemented for 2.0