Friday Facts #180 - Map interaction

[Robot721]

If you haven't figured this out already, some way to differentiate other/inactive power grids. Let's say there's power lines going down a far-reaching track, and something breaks one of the poles. The poles beyond that point might be grey.

If there are other power networks, there can be bright flourescent (signifying energized) colors on the map for each of them. If the two are connected, then the newest/newer network conform to the color of the oldest network.

Bonus suggestion that just came up- I'm sure all of the item icons will be available to choose from the map. There should be a handful of abstract symbols to use as well, such as a red x (to be cleared/removed), a question mark, a hard hat, caution/warning, some colors, a biter (meaning an unsafe/unsecure area) and things such as that.

Bonus suggestion 2- Have these symbols light up on the map on circuit conditions! What better way to find out there's an issue not only by using the speaker system (as you mentioned in an earlier FFF), but the location can broadcast the symbol (copper ore, green circuits, oil, etc) on the map is well, so anyone seeing the flashing/steady icon on the screen can easily deduce what is going on. Circuit signals can be broadcast as well (such as the level of something in a chest) It could be a standalone item, or integrated into the speaker (perhaps add a small antenna/radar dish graphic to the sprite?). So let's consider the possibilities...
-An alarm goes off and the ammo icon appears on the map if an ammo belt gets too low.
-Using an abstract symbol, a red X can flash at an ore outpost if the chests =0 there
-A power armor icon can light up if one finally gets made in an assembler
-many many more possibilities...

Bonus suggestion 3- Having an icon on the screen isn't enough to say what is going on, is it good or bad? Along with the icon on the map (whether permanently set or from circuits), there should be some way to suggest urgency or priority. Someone else may have a better idea, but perhaps there can be a few borders to choose from- thin, thick, and possibly animated dots (slowly spinning around the primary icon), as well as a few colors (red if its 'bad,' yellow if its failing, green can be for good, etc.


I really hope the Factorio team considers my feedback, especially the last half. By allowing circuits to accurately enough control map icons, you can craft an aerial view of everything that is going on. You can see the density on one belt, the level in some tank, and then some circuit making a red light flash in a place right next to where the red circuits are.... all the while far away from the base. Making circuits have this level of benefits will encourage far more people to use them and integrate them into their bases, ultimately creating higher quality Factorio players. I think it would take analytics to the next level for those of us who are more OCD.

What does everyone else think of these enhancements?

tl;dr merge map icons with speaker functionality

[Saint]

Every week it will be harder to wait for 0.15 ...
So many new things and we want play with it.

I hope it come soon!

oh yes ^^ i will not longer wait ...

My body is ready, and I'm ready to take off the week from work to play!

I only have one complaint which I hope will be addressed.

yes thats one problem i have too ^^ that all names on the same high

All these additions are very nice but I want to see all my stuff in logistic network, when this is gonna be fixed?

Theres already a logistic network overview GUI in 0.15:

Image

I LOVE it ^^
this was 1 of my most biggest problems

Image Logistic Networj

logistic network.jpg (90.77 KiB) Viewed 5891 times

in this logistic network all possible items avaibel. I like this new GUI

[posila]

Everytime I see a "I'm workin on this new shiny thing" now I read that as "we dont think 0.15 is perfect enough, its still missing this shiny new thing, what's wrong with waiting one more week?"

But it really means "while most of the team still works on finishing big features for 0.15, I having my feature done, wanted to do something small in meantime"

[cappie]

Good news.. can't wait for the new release.. wish it would come sooner.. but I'm sure that you guys are working on good stuff, so keep it up..

Did the older, faster release cycle, cause you so much overhead with community feedback that you opted completely out of it for 0.15 ?

[Mercury044]

I vote for the map zoom to regular view like with Supreme Commander and other such RTS type games but not sure how that will work with i can only effect things i can see that i love about Factorio.

Keep up the good work and I'll add that i cant wait to see all of this in 0.15 myself!

[Jonathan88]

I love the fact that the devs just straight out acknowledge that people will just draw random genitalia! They don't pretend they don't know who they're dealing with...
The electricity view looks pretty neat - All those little red lines! Also the roboport coverage will be very useful.

As for my specific feedback you requested:

• I think that sending trains to a station as a one off would come in very handy
• You said to be able to zoom in to the world at any place on the map. This seems a little cheaty to me (no reason to have a look in person), even if you can't interact with anything. It would be good as a mid/late game research, and with a cool camera [see below] it could become a great feature.
• Finally, as far as the 0.15 release date, I would only want it to come out when you feel happy about it - don't listen too much to the people nagging about wanting it sooner rather than later.

And as always, amazing work!

[Matthias_Wlkp]

These changes are way too awesome! I refuse to play 0.14...

[timesinker]

i would love to be able to zoom in the minimap. , klick in it and have the mapview opened at that location.

[hummer1997]

Can you post a beta? We are now waiting soo long ...

[Kane]

Everytime I see a "I'm workin on this new shiny thing" now I read that as "we dont think 0.15 is perfect enough, its still missing this shiny new thing, what's wrong with waiting one more week?"

But it really means "while most of the team still works on finishing big features for 0.15, I having my feature done, wanted to do something small in meantime"

This, I assume you guys are in depth on something on other things that you have people with free time to add new small content. But others don't think past their own ego sadly

[Haybale]

Maybe add the possible addons from the mod OmniBarrels, barreling water long distance and other resources should be a perfect update,.

[Xterminator]

When mousing over a train on the map:
* Show the path to its next destination.
* Highlight all of the train stops that train services.

This! Would be so helpful when you get big train networks, without having to open the main Train GUI and find the train etc. Just seeing the path and trains/train stops by clicking on them or mousing of them on the map.

The other changes in the FF shown so far are fantastic and probably now one of my most anticipated features! Especially love the logistics network overview, and the ability to mouse of an ore patch and see the amount/type of ore. One small thing in regards to that, it would be cool if it would slightly outline the patch your mousing over just to make it stand out a bit more.

[daniel34]

Maybe add the possible addons from the mod OmniBarrels, barreling water long distance and other resources should be a perfect update,.

Universal barrelling is planned for 0.15 according to the roadmap.

[IronCartographer]

For map interaction, the train selection/viewing seems the most important. Train complexity and large maps go hand in hand.

After that, it seems like being able to zoom into the real world and view radar covered areas (with a tech unlock?) would be the most helpful thing. You wouldn't even need special UIs for electric grids and such if you could zoom in on them with the map.

It would also make the "high resolution" map unnecessary. Pixelated info sounds nice in theory, but I think any higher resolution should be the real world view instead. Trying to use some sort of pixel code would get way too messy and provide questionable value by comparison.

Bonus suggestion 2- Have these symbols light up on the map on circuit conditions! What better way to find out there's an issue not only by using the speaker system (as you mentioned in an earlier FFF), but the location can broadcast the symbol (copper ore, green circuits, oil, etc) on the map is well, so anyone seeing the flashing/steady icon on the screen can easily deduce what is going on.

...

tl;dr merge map icons with speaker functionality

Excellent idea--if that's not already how they're doing it. I wouldn't be surprised.

Would love to see an overlay of any turrets range of fire so I can easily find any gaps in the defense.

This would be more important if turrets were longer range, but some kind of "Military" overlay button would probably be helpful.

[Impatient]

coverage of turrets maybe?

colored belts in the map view. so I can find that one piece of yellow belt that slows down everything on the blue belt. just an idea. maybe not very important.

[Kane]

coverage of turrets maybe?

colored belts in the map view. so I can find that one piece of yellow belt that slows down everything on the blue belt. just an idea. maybe not very important.

I wanted both a map and in game way to see turret coverage better but at least when I asked it was going be too taxing.

[maniak1349]

How about changing all the notifications into map icons with limited (maybe configurable?) lifetime? Sometimes a lot of things happen at the same time and by the time you can check those notifications they already gone. With speakers added to the game, it will be even harder to keep track of everything.

[Molay]

As you briefly touched on trains, here's something I really want in the future: Ability to replace a train stop (in the schedule) with another name, without losing all the waiting conditions. Reason: I do use logic conditions to make my trains move out and in, and that takes quite a few conditions. Copy+paste of schedule between trains is useless, as I will have to change the stations which deletes all the conditions.

[IronCartographer]

As you briefly touched on trains, here's something I really want in the future: Ability to replace a train stop (in the schedule) with another name, without losing all the waiting conditions. Reason: I do use logic conditions to make my trains move out and in, and that takes quite a few conditions. Copy+paste of schedule between trains is useless, as I will have to change the stations which deletes all the conditions.

Copy/paste between train stops within the train schedule UI?

I've thought for a long time it would be cute if the Map Generation screen had copy/paste for the various settings. Just a small touch of consistency.

[ssilk]

For more input (perhaps newer forum members want to know where some of that implemented ideas come from) I throw in some link-lists of suggestions, that go into similar direction

First of course
viewtopic.php?f=80&t=18153 Information-Layers (for map and/or normal view)
I think many ideas here can now be marked as "done", but there is also a lot of other interesting ideas.

viewtopic.php?f=80&t=22760 Support for Color Blinds / Better Visibility ...

viewtopic.php?f=92&t=4504 The Fat Controller. Remote train manager
Planned to include into vanilla...

viewtopic.php?f=80&t=4682#p35582 Planning (Signs, Cloning, Ghosts, Blueprinting and more...)
... the part about "Planning" only.

Interesting single suggestions I also found/remembered about zooming:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=793 Supreme commander overview
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1170 Extremly smooth zooming
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2472 hotkeys for rational zoom ratios
[this is sadly only half-ways implemented]