Factorio Forums

What did you do?
In a new game, upon entering the map with 'm' and then right clicking to add a tag with Name "[item=efficiency-module-3]",

What happened?
the text is marked red

What did you expect to happen instead? It might be obvious to you, but do it anyway!
rather than turned into the symbol for efficiency module 3.

I gather from the Factorio wiki that it actually has an internal name "effectivity-module-3", which works in tag names. Other than this, my experience is that the internal name can be trivially deduced from the name in the equipment interface, and "effectivity-module" seems to be the exception. I gather the same is true for all three levels: Efficiency module, Efficiency module 2, Efficiency module 3.

I note that the same name "Efficiency module" is used in the technology display name, but not in the technology internal name, which leads me to conclude that this might actually be by design rather than a bug.

Damn, the locale was changed 6 years ago but the internal name was kept, I didn't know that. We should have changed it when we did bunch of internal renames in 0.15, now it's too late, as renames of internals breaks things (mods, blueprint strings, ...)

now it's too late, as renames of internals breaks things (mods, blueprint strings, ...)

Kind of guessed that.

Me, I'm happy I actually found a bug in Factorio -- I have the highest respect for the quality software you churn out.

forthinor wrote: Thu Jul 23, 2020 12:23 pm Me, I'm happy I actually found a bug in Factorio

Hold your horses ... I agree it's a flaw ... but a bug?

It could have been named item-1344 for all anyone is concerned

Oh no, what about "Lamp" with internal name "small-lamp" or "Active provider chest" named "logistic-chest-active-provider", or "Wall" named "stone-wall", not counting the equpments... I would say internal names are internal and this is not a bug.

It‘s a dilemma.

If you change it, existent mods will brake and people who are used to the internal names being different get confused.

If you keep it as it is, new modders (and developers) might get confused when stuff isn‘t working as they expected.

One thing I noticed is that the graphics icon of the heat exchanger is called heat-boiler, while the internal name is heat-exchanger

Appears I had higher thoughts about your quality standards than you do , boskid, posila.

A bug, by common definition, is when the function of a program deviates from the requirements.

As the internal names can be accessed through the rich text interface, they are part of the UI. Any name, even the display names, can be "item-1344" without this fact being a bug, if the requirements allow it. As the requirements here are understood, rather than explicitly formulated, I guess I figured the consistency that the team usually displays would extend to requirements including correspondence between display names and internal names.

I agree with your assessment not to fix this before 1.0, for the reasons you state. To me this is a very minor flaw. Whether it's a bug or not becomes an academic question.

ickputzdirwech wrote: Thu Jul 23, 2020 2:40 pm It‘s a dilemma.

If you change it, existent mods will brake and people who are used to the internal names being different get confused.

If you keep it as it is, new modders (and developers) might get confused when stuff isn‘t working as they expected.

One thing I noticed is that the graphics of the heat exchanger is called heat-boiler, while the internal name is heat-exchanger

I'd rather have people learn how/where to look up internal names/learn how to use rich text without needing internal names than break many mods and countless blueprints. Seriously, we have 2 (+1 for vanilla only) extremely easy ways to look up internal names by now, it shouldn't be too bad.

Bilka wrote: Thu Jul 23, 2020 2:46 pm I'd rather have people learn how/where to look up internal names/learn how to use rich text without needing internal names than break many mods and countless blueprints. Seriously, we have 2 (+1 for vanilla only) extremely easy ways to look up internal names by now, it shouldn't be too bad.

I didn't say which option my preference is. Just wanted to point out, that there are arguments for both sides, that are actually quite similar. I actually agree with you since this is really a minor issue with huge consequences when fixing.

It all comes down to the question: Do you prefer having a huge problem once, or a small problem constantly.

ickputzdirwech wrote: Thu Jul 23, 2020 2:55 pm It all comes down to the question: Do you prefer having a huge problem once, or a small problem constantly.

It's a false question: there will never be a perfect solution that doesn't cause some problem(s).

ickputzdirwech wrote: Thu Jul 23, 2020 2:55 pm

I just noticed that the internal names stay english even if i change the language to something else.

eradicator wrote: Thu Jul 23, 2020 9:05 pm

ickputzdirwech wrote: Thu Jul 23, 2020 2:55 pm

I just noticed that the internal names stay english even if i change the language to something else.

Yes? I'm not sure if there's supposed to be a question there or if you maybe don't understand how localization works?