Factorio Forums

I don't know if this has been considered before, I couldn't find anything when I searched for "overlay".

What would be nice is some buttons on the large/main map to toggle overlay of specific things, independent of what is in the main window. I haven't decided whather this would be nice to have on the minimap, too.

Examples:

*Drones (robots), with numbers indicating how many of each type and coloured dots indicating their location so you can grab a few when you have a great many Roboports and even some bots in chests.*
*Pollution, independent of the alt-key display, since that toggles the display of contents/production in the main window.
*Signs (another thing I'd like to see) for labelling areas and to help remember what you planned to put "here" when you get around to it.
*Artifacts, so you can see where you left some because you wanted to not waste your combat drone timers.
*Aliens, so you can see what is under/around their ugly, red clusters of pixels. Perhaps this one should automatically toggle back on every time you open the map - just to be safe.
*Anything else anyone things would be useful in this context.

Do you know the story "The hare and the hedgehog", when the hedgehog says "I'm already here?"

Well, you made a simple mistake: Not searched for "layer". So, here are the list of related words for furture searchers:
layer, overlay, alt-mode, map-view, alternative view, planning, underground layer, hide, render, map

Related stuff:
Better Display of Resources in the World Map https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=6253 (might have found that yourself)
Openstreetmap for factorio https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=6088 (I think personally, that this is about the best comparison to what you suggest)
Hide-able render layers https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... ilit=layer (In this article is a list of further links: https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... yer#p53248 which are already listed in this list)
Make trees more visible in map https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=5304
Underground layer for pipes and belts https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=4721
The Alt-key https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... ilit=Layer
Planing, Cloning, Ghosting, Blueprinting and further... https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=4682
What do biters do in their spare time? (Pheromone pathfinding) https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=3440
Bots - mining https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... yer#p12882
Grid overlay https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=8943

Far related:
Bring on the 3rd Dimension! Aka World Layers https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... ilit=Layer
The Satellite https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=6800
Foundation for buildings / pavement / concrete slabs / base https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=2060
integrating the "alt-mode" into the default graphics https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=3691

Never heard that story, I searched for the term "overlay" because as a PhotoShop user to me "layers" means something completely different, despite the interrelation between the terms. I don't know why the first article you linked did not show up when I did that search, but it didn't. Maybe I accidentally selected the wrong subforum to search.

Regardless, thanks for your response.