Allow note/reminder "text" to be attached to wire signals

[Peter34]

In the game wire interface, there is a tab called "Signals" which includes four signals for colours, and signals for the numers 0 to 9 and letters A to F.

By the way I'd like additional signals added, from the letters G to Z - those might come in very handy.

But my main suggestion is that I'd like the player to be able to write a note, consisting of a small amount of texts, perhaps 80 or 150 characters, shareable in MP games (all the players can see and edit the same text), attached to each signal.

For instance I might want to attach the text "Crude Oil perc." to the signal "0" as a reminder to both myself and to other players that I'm using the "0" signal to indicate the amount of Crude Oil in the tanks, expressed as a percentage, from nothing and up to maximum storage, the later being 100.

Likewise it'd be nice if I could input a "note" text on each Constant Combinator, to remind myself and the other players what it's used for, e.g. "primary thr. for Crude Refining", again not a long essay, just something like 80 or 150 characters, auto-synchronized to the computers of the other players in MP, once every time a player changes the text.

It might also be useful to be able to add similar "note" remiders to Arithmetic and Decider Combinators, but I think it is particularly relevant for the Constants.



Factorio keeps getting more complex, and keeps empowering the player with more and more options and more and more way to control the workings of his factory, and while that is a very good thing (I like options and I like control), an in-game note-taking and note-storage system is now necessary to keep track of things.

I mean, think of a weekly coop MP game, as many people might do (I did an 11.22 one, a couple of months ago, and will try to arrange another once 13.1 or 13.2 is out). If you only play a given factory/map once a week, you're likely to forget a lot of details, especially about the intricacies of the control systems you've set up.

[alex8d]

Possibly related to https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =6&t=14977

[Peter34]

Possibly related to https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =6&t=14977

Related, yes, but the other suggestion is about text visible in the in-game world. Mine is about text visible in the interface.

[deepdriller]

Technically,they're not letters A to F, they're numbers.
The wires are using hexadecimal notation. (Thus, A is worth 10, B is worth 11, etc.)
That said, using red and green signals in tandem could allow you to make literally millions of different signals, if you're willing to build very expensive logic gates, using only these numbers.
The game is all about making the most of limited systems- but the wires aren't limited at all. In fact, I challenge anyone to build a turing-complete system out of it.
So, no to G through Z. Yes to notes, though.

[happymoep]

Technically,they're not letters A to F, they're numbers.
The wires are using hexadecimal notation. (Thus, A is worth 10, B is worth 11, etc.)
That said, using red and green signals in tandem could allow you to make literally millions of different signals, if you're willing to build very expensive logic gates, using only these numbers.
The game is all about making the most of limited systems- but the wires aren't limited at all. In fact, I challenge anyone to build a turing-complete system out of it.
So, no to G through Z. Yes to notes, though.

I totally agree! 'nuff said.

I support messages for combinators. Something like 'naming' them.

I'm not sure how I feel about attatching messages to signals. When you combine two circuit networks which each define a different message for one signal, which message should be kept/dropped?
Where should the message be stored at? When they're stored per network each combining or splitting operation on networks would have to decide what happens to these messages.
I think I personally prefer adding a sign as an object to place. You could place a sign, add your message text and describe your signals that way. To support describing signals it might be useful to select an icon (all those the circuit networks use) for each sign or maybe for each line of text on that sign. And (as a reference to https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =6&t=14977) also signs might have the option to display their text on the map aswell.
... This probably belongs into a seperate suggestion XD

[Peter34]

Technically,they're not letters A to F, they're numbers.
The wires are using hexadecimal notation. (Thus, A is worth 10, B is worth 11, etc.)
That said, using red and green signals in tandem could allow you to make literally millions of different signals, if you're willing to build very expensive logic gates, using only these numbers.
The game is all about making the most of limited systems- but the wires aren't limited at all. In fact, I challenge anyone to build a turing-complete system out of it.
So, no to G through Z. Yes to notes, though.

But in addition to the 16 hexidecimal numbers, there are also 4 colours. So it's not consciously limited to 16 only as hard cap.

[Peter34]

The idea isn't that the game should "store" those notes in the wire system and constantly send and re-send them via the wires.

Rather, it should be an in-game note-taking functionality, shared among all the players in coop MP, with one field per wire signal[1], so that you can simply type in "reminders" to yourself and to the other players as to what each wire signal means.

It's the equivalent to using Notepad, outside of the game, to keep track of things (20 lines, one per flag), except it'd be done in-game and in a fashion that shares the info between players in coop MP game mode.



[1] A few days ago, it occured to me that it might actually be possible to have 40 different flags already, 20 using red wire and 20 using green wire. 40 is a lot more than 20. So that does a lot to alleviate the need for G-Z signals.

[orzelek]

Hmm I'm not 100% sure of that atm but I think I've seen some mod add those.

Virtual network states are simple entities - given icons one can have as many as they want probably within reasonable limits.

Question is if they are actually needed in large quantities - I'm not that big on circuits so no opinion on this one.

[happymoep]

The idea isn't that the game should "store" those notes in the wire system and constantly send and re-send them via the wires.

In case you were refering to my post: I didn't say that. My wording might have been misleading, sorry.

I understand you meant a form of custom label, so you probably want the ability to have different labels for different circuit networks. If it works the way I think it does then there is a hidden network structure that keeps references to each entity that belongs to a certain circuit network. When you now link two entities belonging to differenc circuit networks those networks need to be merged. If you stored different custom labels for your signals in both networks, then it needs to be decided what happens upon merging. That might get confusing quickly.

What I said about signs would just be a workaround. It would be a form of an ingame notepad window, shared with others on mp though.