Friday Facts #380 - Remote view

[Tooster]

Easter eggs?

- Processing power unit productivity researched - extension to circuits?
- Redo button on the icons bar

- possibly remote controlled signal networks? (next to "train view" and similar)

[Abarel]

but what's that white rectangle in map view in southwest part, following the rails? I wonder about the strange white T in the blueprint

Are you talking about the train ramps/briges ? that's all i can see

I was not sure if it was ramps/bridges here

White_rectangle_in_map_view.jpg (110.86 KiB) Viewed 3666 times

but maybe the rails are near enough to confuse me. Found this other example

Rectangle_or_elevated_rails.jpg (151.47 KiB) Viewed 3666 times

that tells me that you are right.

And this is the T in the blueprint

Is_this_a_T.jpg (54.54 KiB) Viewed 3666 times

[zysnarch]

So many amazing QoL changes!

One feature request for remote/map view: currently opening the map centers it on the player's current location. This makes remote editing very tedious, as you have to pan/zoom the map back every time you switch back to your player for whatever reason. Please let the remote/map view remember the last place you were looking!

[SheepStorm]

One problem I saw with this new feature is that it was hurting my eyes a little, especially the last picture (titled One more thing), will there be an accessibility option to either dampen or remove the flickering effect?

Oh, and before someone decides on yet another "give it a chance" or similar response, please respect that some people are disabled and not built the same way as you, and have to live their life with the hand they've been dealt with regardless of whether that is a mobility, cognitive or metal impairment. Unfortunately accessibility isn't always considered in the design stage, and sometimes only as an afterthought, and so this post is there as a reminder there is a small number of people that sees this effect as exclusionary rather than inclusionary. When someone highlights a disability and hears a "give it a chance" comment, I do wonder if they look at a person in a wheelchair and tell them to give the stairs a chance!

I second this, this tint of blue + the shimmering effect is also hurting my eyes a bit, an option to change that tint or deactivate the effect would be greatly apreciated.

I'm glad I'm not the only one with this feedback here, because playing with that effect on for extended periods of time would cause me serious eye strain and headaches.

[Sinisterpigg]

I don’t like the prospect of all the new item productivity infinite research, it feels too specific to be infinite research

[ChefOfRamen]

Now that you can have ghost entities on ghost landfill, will force-building on a water tile create ghost landfill? This is something I always found annoying with building over water.

Also, I assume using the "mine" button from the map will require holding shift, as it does with building?

10 kW/m^2 isn't what vanilla solar panels produce, is it? (also, probably a good time to add proper superscript for the UI)

Ooh, the "robot assigned" color change is cool. I'm going to assume you were going for an "old TV screen" look with the ghost entities, in which case here are a few ideas for improving it:

• The scanline distortions (i.e. the horizontal offsets) as they are just look like a heat effect, only looking right up close and without the animation. Instead of having these gradually appear and disappear, they should move upward at a fixed rate, as they would on an actual CRT monitor.
• Likewise for the brightness distortions (i.e. the light/dark bands). These should either move upward at a fixed rate, or in their case they could also flicker in and out instead of fading.
• Having the distortions be relative to the viewport instead of the world would make it look more like they're just things on your screen and not actually there.
• Avoid drawing shadows, as this makes buildings look like they are a part of the world. This might be more effort than it's worth depending on how shadows are coded.

Nice changes as always. This will make big bases a lot less annoying.

[grandexar]

The changes to ghost entities is awesome! I can’t wait to try everything out! Every new FFF is solving a pain point I didn’t realize I had!

[epartridge]

This is awesome, dev team continues to deliver amazing update after amazing update. Can't wait to try it out!

There's one issue that's very important to me with this update. I'm really excited to be able to place building blueprints on top of blueprinted landfill / space platform - for me, that was a huge QOL thing missing from Seablock and Space Exploration.

In the video in the post, however, I noticed that the player first put down the landfill blueprint, then the building blueprint. Will there be any way to place them down simultaneously? That is, if I have a blueprint with both space platform and and buildings, can I place it over empty space with one click? IMO that will make a huge difference to how smooth the mid/endgame feels in space.

Also, I personally love the new blueprint look, but I agree with a lot of posters here that it'd be great to see some configurability for the sake of accessibility.

[Philip017]

I hope the level of tint is adjustable, because with that level of tint i cant see anything under it. personally i would remove the tint completely as i never had any issues distinguishing the difference between ghosts and regular buildings.

[FuryoftheStars]

but what's that white rectangle in map view in southwest part, following the rails? I wonder about the strange white T in the blueprint

Are you talking about the train ramps/briges ? that's all i can see

I was not sure if it was ramps/bridges here
White_rectangle_in_map_view.jpg
but maybe the rails are near enough to confuse me. Found this other example
Rectangle_or_elevated_rails.jpg
that tells me that you are right.

And this is the T in the blueprint
Is_this_a_T.jpg

I'm not 100% on the first picture, but the second definitely seems to me to be ramps. Notice the slight color differences on the rails on both sides of them.

[FutureSpec]

The goal is to be able to use remote view for everything you can do locally. The motivation is also to remove as many inconsistencies as possible between the local and remote building

I understand the goal of using remote view for consistency between local and remote building. But have you considered the option of a full "god mode"? Personally, I find the limited reach and traveling around a large factory to be more tedious than enjoyable.

[FuryoftheStars]

The goal is to be able to use remote view for everything you can do locally. The motivation is also to remove as many inconsistencies as possible between the local and remote building

Why strain so hard to keep an instantiated player? Why not go full "god mode"? Having to deal with limited reach, and physical traveling around a large factory, aren't fun mechanics, just tedious.

There's already a play mode for that.

---------------------------------------

I hope the level of tint is adjustable, because with that level of tint i cant see anything under it. personally i would remove the tint completely as i never had any issues distinguishing the difference between ghosts and regular buildings.

I'm curious why you'd need to be able to see the ground tiles under the ghosts?

[ickputzdirwech]

Awesome QoL changes! And quite a lot of easter eggs in this weeks FFF:

There seems to be a new ore in the game, some kind of antenna and a second type of cliffs.

Screenshot 2023-10-13 175102.png (543.09 KiB) Viewed 3497 times

[gGeorg]

"add fuel to stuck locomotives, remove random items from places where they don't belong, ...

... you can just simply click a ghost cursor in an inventory slot to make a ghost item, which will be delivered to the slot by local construction robots. The same for removal "

Does it means we can refuel loco by bots now ?
Does it means we can remove fuell from loco by bots ?

[FutureSpec]

the ghosts will change tint when they have been assigned a robot to construct them, so you can tell at a glance if there is a robot on the way and/or if you have the required materials in the network

Neat! Cool idea

[mmmPI]

And this is the T in the blueprint

That is still a mystery to me.

The design for the load/unload area for train with loco facing each way i think i recognized it from the FFF with bridges and ramps so i assumed every other rectangle similar are for trains.

I just realized that on your screenshot there are 9 science packs shown !

There seems to be a new ore in the game, some kind of antenna and a second type of cliffs.

nice catch !

[<NO_NAME>]

The new shader doesn't seem to work on wires.

[Engimage]

Just let me buy it already!

[kosievdmerwe]

One QOL change I would love is if the picker (Q key) copied the building you're upgrading to rather than what the building currently is.

So if you have a bunch of blue assemblers, marked with the upgrade planner to be replaced with a better tier (yellow I believe). When you pick it should select the better tier building to allow you to manually upgrade the buildings.

Granted this may become less important if bots get smarter and prefer to use your personal bots.

[picklock]

Another nice improvement to the game.