Small changes which could improve usability a lot

[taw]

This post is edited by ssilk, the OP is below.

I thought a lot about it and what I really think is - despite from the fact that many suggestions in one thread is difficult to discuss - that I don't want to have to follow links to a blog that is tracked by Google. As moderator I want to have the content here, not anywhere.

So I was in good mood and copied it all for you. My alternative was to close he thread.

This is the copy from the link in the OP below:



Factorio interface improvements ideas
Kitty Boy by ameliamarie1 from flickr (CC-NC-ND)

I've been playing factorio a lot, including two campaign on camera (vanilla, bob's mods) and a lot off camera before that.

I like this game, but it really needs some interface improvements. Here's my list. This isn't about new fancy features - all of these should get into base game, and unfortunately most of them aren't the kinds of things mods can do. List in no particular order.
Electricity
We absolutely need a warning when some buildings have no power. Currently it's far too easy to disconnect power to some parts of the base, and never learn about it.

For that matter even if things have power, there should be a warning if power grid gets disconnected.

I know some people do both these things on purpose, but even then if you expected 20 assemblers and 60 inserters without power, and now warning shows you 600 different thing, you'll probably be interested. I don't think it would be any more intrusive than current "X turrets are engaged with enemy" or "X items miss construction bots" warnings.

Another nice thing would be to display if any electricity is flowing though an electric pole when mousing over it, to know if it's safe to remove it, but I'm not sure this agrees with how game is designed.
Electricity dialog
Electricity summary dialog needs to be redesigned. Factorio has just 3 kinds of electricity relevant objects (constant generators, daytime cycle generators, and accumulators), so it should be really easy to just print these numbers:
total demand (must not include accumulators)
available constant supply as % of demand
available daytime supply as % of demand (averaged over day night cycle)
% of accumulator storage available to make daytime supply work as constant supply
Information displayed on the dialog is currently perfectly reasonably before base gets solar, but it becomes rather useless and confusing once solar power and accumulators join the base, and the kind of numbers I want are really difficult to figure out in any way. Most of the time I discover I have a problem when I have a brownout.

Also time scale selection (5s etc.) doesn't match the relevant full day/night cycle option.

With numbers I'm suggesting all you need is to make sure available supply stays comfortable margin over 100% of demand, and available accumulator capacity comfortable margin over matching solar panels' needs. No more brownouts ever.
Logistics
Smart filters could really have negative filter option (move everything but X). Right now if there's contamination on a belt it takes manual cleanup - but even worse game doesn't provide any indication that belt got contaminated and it's often discovered only hours later when you're wondering why some part of your base isn't making what it's supposed to. Even small amount of contamination will eventually just completely block end of the line, where factories are located.

Placing at end of each line a smart filter into a chest (active provider chest once you get them) filtering out everything that's not supposed to be there would solve this problem completely.

Another nice improvement would be if I could copy settings from assembler into requester chest. This isn't a huge deal for vanilla, but for mods which require 6+ inputs per end game items, it would be so much easier to copy them this way, then remove ones I want to provide some other way than to select them manually, often wasting too much time trying to find which item is in which category (this one in Intermediates, this one in Bob's Materials, this one in Bob's Intermediates etc.).

By the way sorting items into category tabs really doesn't scale with mods that add a lot of new stuff, but it's not obvious what would be the fix, other than maybe just provide text search input for when I'm really lost.
Filtered storage chests
It would be nice if game had filtered storage chests. Right now existence of a single storage chest will affect the whole logistics network, and often I wanted to create them just for some specific items. Here's an example.

Junk slots were a huge improvement to the game, but I'm having trouble with them. It's very easy to pick up items I don't want while rerouting belts, so I need to junk pretty much everything. That means I either need storage chests in the system, which cause all kinds of issues as they're unfiltered, or dedicated requester chests.

The most obvious setup for chests would be:
requester chest for X next to start of X belt, outputting onto belt
passive provider chest for X at end of X belt, for any excess production, in case anything actually needs it
Except if I do that, logistic robots will just constantly move things from passive providers to requesters turning belt into energy-expensive loop.

It would be so much better if instead of requester chest, I could use filtered storage chest for X there.

Speaking of junk slots, it would be nice to designate some items (like let's say small electric poles and yellow belts) as permanent junk, to always go right into your junk slot whenever they're picked up.
Manual assembly
When queueing things for manual assembly - they should go to front not back of the queue. It's pretty common early game that I just queue like 200 inserters because I don't have assemblers to make them yet, only then to discover I need like 2 electric poles. Well, sure let's queue those 2 poles... and they go to back of the queue and it will take minute of clicking to clear what's queued before them.

I really see no downside of making request queue be request stack instead. Of course late game it won't matter, but early game it's a huge pain.
Fast clear and pause
For that matter, why not have a single button to remove everything that's queued for manual manufacturing if I change my mind?

I often have similar problem with bots. I have a bunch of requests setup like belts, medium poles, assemblers and so on. Unfortunately I need all my backpack space to move some things around, so I unlooad my whole backpack into a chest temporarily, and helpful bots immediately come back and fill it. I could clear my logistics requests and set them back afterwards, but it would be lovely if there was some kind of pause button.
Blueprint book
This is sort of obvious, but currently one blueprint per slot is really awkward, and just having tons of blueprints in some kind of single book would be just great.
Resolution setting in menu
This is mostly for recording - it's silly that I need to change my monitor setup to 1920x1080 any time I want to record some factorio, then set it back to full resolution once I'm done.

For that matter I would very much love to have brightness and saturation settings there, as my Happy Factorio mod could really be replaced by a saturation slider setting.
Thoughts?
These seem like very minor changes with significant positive impact on usability. Am I being wrong about any of these?

Can any of these issues be fixed by mods maybe?

This is the original posting

I have a pretty long list, so I wrote it as blog post. I'll just leave it as a link instead of doing massive copy&paste.

I've heard of those things blueprint books are coming soon, and that it's actually already possible to copy settings from assembler to requester chest, I just missed it.

Other changes (except power flow indicator on electric poles) should all be relatively straightforward to do, and would all reduce interface frustrations significantly.

[Adil]

By the way sorting items into category tabs really doesn't scale with mods that add a lot of new stuff, but it's not obvious what would be the fix, other than maybe just provide text search input for when I'm really lost.

Well, it's up to modders to define where their stuff should be sorted in and whether there should be additional tabs. (It's just that the sorting settings are quite confusing.)

[ssilk]

Electricity: I use it some times to drop down a whole part of my factory from power and with 0.13 this will become very common. How to decide, if the power is removed intentionally?

E-Dialog: There are already mods for wind-turbines, where the max power is just random. Ain't gonna work. I point to this thread: https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =6&t=16967

Logistics: I support the NOT-filter idea, cause it would enable a nicer gameplay in some situations and it should be really easy to be implemented.

Your second suggestion (copy settings from assembly to requester) is already implemented.

And when you mention the sorting: it should be a sign for a modder, when he needs more space in the category list, than the vanilla. Too much items are a problem for any game.

Filteres storage chests: Already suggested many times. https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... 80&t=15326

For the last sentence I really recommend this fine mod: https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... 97&t=16016 [MOD 0.12.12]AutoTrash 0.0.52
I see this really in the Vanilla game. Like many other mods.

Manual assembly: Oh, no. That would be really a problem for many cases. And we have currently this discussion: https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =5&t=16681 Poll: Faster crafting speed?
You can argue, that your suggestion is different, but it is not, it's both basically of how you use crafting in the game.
My current standpoint is, that it is O.K. like it is now, but the queue itself can be improved. For example there are some suggestions to implement a command to craft this item in front of the others. Or to have two crafting queues and you can use both.
You need to understand that the items in your crafting queue are not "magically" crafted, there is a device, that crafts it and if you abort it to craft another item you cannot just pause the current crafting. The progress cannot be saved. (it is just my view to the behavior of the characters abilities, he has such a device in his suit, but it is also about so implemented in the code).

[taw]

Electricity: I use it some times to drop down a whole part of my factory from power and with 0.13 this will become very common. How to decide, if the power is removed intentionally?

Why do you think this will become common? If there's some kind of circuit breaker?. They'd still be connected, with just connection inactive, so it's fairly straightforward to see which parts of base are disconnected intentionally (via circuit breaker) and where it's just accident (demand but no supply with any kind of connection).

Or dialog could just be dismissed.

E-Dialog: There are already mods for wind-turbines, where the max power is just random. Ain't gonna work. I point to this thread: https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =6&t=16967

It could fit the system I suggest just fine, wind turbines would just need to specify their average energy production (which should be very simple) and recommended accumulator capacity per windmill (which is not exact science if generation is random, but still way better than current dialog) and dialog can easily work with that.

Your second suggestion (copy settings from assembly to requester) is already implemented.

That's sweet, totally missed it.

And when you mention the sorting: it should be a sign for a modder, when he needs more space in the category list, than the vanilla. Too much items are a problem for any game.

Bob's mods could definitely use categories it has more consistently.

Filteres storage chests: Already suggested many times. https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... 80&t=15326

I guess. It became a lot more important after junk slots. got implemented

For the last sentence I really recommend this fine mod: https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... 97&t=16016 [MOD 0.12.12]AutoTrash 0.0.52
I see this really in the Vanilla game. Like many other mods.

I'll definitely take a look at it.

Manual assembly: Oh, no. That would be really a problem for many cases.

I'm wondering what kind of problems would that cause. Even assuming current item will finish, and it's queued after that item, not breaking current production, just not at the end.

[ssilk]

Electricity: I use it some times to drop down a whole part of my factory from power and with 0.13 this will become very common. How to decide, if the power is removed intentionally?

Why do you think this will become common?

Cause it's one of the best practices against power loss in the early- to middle game. Especially when you split up the networks into a network for the defense production/lasers and one for the rest of production

If there's some kind of circuit breaker?. They'd still be connected, with just connection inactive, so it's fairly straightforward to see which parts of base are disconnected intentionally (via circuit breaker) and where it's just accident (demand but no supply with any kind of connection).

Right. But unless this is not researched in your game you can do it still by hand. As said: Early to middle game. My best practice to avoid unintentionally broken electricity is to make several lines into an area. This is also best practice when we speak about the biters, which like to kill your power poles.

But I think a good compromise would be, to see such areas in the map. (Otherwise (as alarm for example) I see the same problems as with the other alarms, like when some items need repairs: The continuous alarms can be very annoying)

Manual assembly: Oh, no. That would be really a problem for many cases.

I'm wondering what kind of problems would that cause. Even assuming current item will finish, and it's queued after that item, not breaking current production, just not at the end.

Hmmmm.. I thought a lot about it and indeed I wrote a whole chapter, why this isn't a good idea. In the end I came to the conclusion, that it might be indeed a very good idea.

I would give it a try, cause - indeed - it would fix up many problems and would give the game a better flow.

But I don't think that it should be a default case in the end. In the end I think the right way is to have some kind of tool to have full control over the crafting-queue. Like this mod:
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... 92&t=17219 [0.12.12] Research queue

Some more tweaking is needed to find the right balance between this two opinions (crafting needs to think forward vs. crafting is a reaction to the current needs).