Equipment grids for drills and machines

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DiegoPro77
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Equipment grids for drills and machines

Post by DiegoPro77 »

Today I was adding some new features and contents to my RealFactory mods and I thought: "What a pity: I can't create custom bonuses for enhancing crafting and mining speeds..."

Then i thought: "Would it possible, instead of adding bonuses, to add grids to these machines, like the power armors' ones?"

So I learned how the grid-prototype work and I've tried to add one to the electric mining drill, the game loaded without errors, but the drill didn't have a grid.

I went on the mod portal and saw what other modders did with this prototype and I noticed a thing: they used it only on power armors and vehicles.

So I tried the same grid that i've made on cars and it worked.

To cut a long story short: is there a way to add grids to machines and other prototypes and, if not, will it be possible in the nearest future?
Same question for custom bonuses.
_DiegoPro77
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Boodals
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Re: Equipment grids for drills and machines

Post by Boodals »

How would this be any different to modules?
Also, instead of trial and error, you should check out the prototype definitions wiki page. That will tell you exactly what can be used where, and how each part works.

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DiegoPro77
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Re: Equipment grids for drills and machines

Post by DiegoPro77 »

I'll check that page, thank you

However, it would be different... just think:

For example, I've created a steam-powered mining drill.
Since I'm doing an early game expansion based on this kind of power, modules are too "high-tech" to be unlocked at the beginning.

Second thing: you could say: "why don't you just create an item, for example, a drill, that works as a module".
Yeah, it could work... until you create more than a single module: if you think you could create a list of items with particular enhancements (particular "propeller auger" that enhances mining speed, a better airflow that enhances the efficiency of steam usage, ecc.) dedicated only to mining drills.
For doing that with modules I would be constricted to add many module slots... a machine with 10 module slots sounds weird, doesn't it?

Third thing: grids are more customizable since you can choose a particular size for each equipment, thing that you can't do with modules since every module always occupies 1 space.
Moreover, you can give a filter to any type of equipment and grid (see bob's vehicle mod), a thing that doesn't happen with modules, that can be put on any machine that has at least a slot module, independently from which module it is.

Fourth and last thing: a machine that has many slot modules could be used in the end-game part with many vanilla modules, making it too powerful, as a normal electric mining drill would produce less than the steam version and consume more power than it, since it uses steam and you can't give a filter for modules to machines, thing that instead with a grid you can do.
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Boodals
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Re: Equipment grids for drills and machines

Post by Boodals »

Most of those can be solved with limitations on what modules can go in what machines. I know you can already limit a module to specific recipes, i'm not sure how/if that works with mining drills. You might want to check out this request.
Adding equipment grids to machines would require a ton of extra stuff that just isn't worth the time or effort it would take to make. Even if it was simple to add the grid to machines (it isn't), the devs would then have to create new types of equipment that have specific effects on machines (such as speed or efficiency), and then make all the regular equipment somehow work in machines (what would exoskeletons do? what would solar panels do in an entity powered by a burner?), and then work out how or if the grid takes power from the machine's power source (electric, burner, void), and there's probably a ton of other stuff that I have no knowledge of. Its just not worth it when modules already do 80% of what you want.

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DiegoPro77
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Re: Equipment grids for drills and machines

Post by DiegoPro77 »

Well Boodals,

1 - The limitations on modules, as deadlock says in the post linked by you, are very "limited" and old.
2 - You can choose by which "effect" an entity is influenced and which not, and so which module you can put on and which not... but, as I've told in the previous post, this mechanic is hardly customizable than a grid, be sure.
3 - There could be a problem with all that equipment, yeah I know, but I've already thought how to fix it and placing/removing them as a blueprint with drones would be not a problem if you think.
4 - As I've already said, grids are very easy to customize, since you can apply them a filter with which you can decide which type of equipment can be put on: there wouldn't be any problem with all the regular equipment if a machine doesn't allow "armor" equipment on its grid.

Example:

Code: Select all

  {
    type = "equipment-grid", -- The name of the Prototype
    name = "power-armor-grid", -- The name of the grid
    width = 7,
    height = 7,
    equipment_categories = {"armor"} -- The filter that decides which type equipment this grid supports, any other kind of equipment (drill, machine, steam...) are not compatible with this grid: REMEMBER: is harder to replicate the same thing on modules and therefore the in-game customisation is highly reduced
  },
  
Aka Playmaker. My mods: https://mods.factorio.com/user/77playmaker -|- My Discord Server: https://discord.gg/6NGYQdX
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