Change wire to have a "durability"

[chris13524]

I tend to use up all my wire quickly, especially when building combinator circuits. It would be nice if it was possible to place down many wires with the same item, it would just loose "durability" when I do.

[ssilk]

Added to viewtopic.php?f=80&t=30845 About Cables and Wires / Make Wires Free / Power Poles Contain Cables

[aubergine18]

Hrm, not convinced by this idea. For me durability is a property of a mining tool, not a refined resource (like wires). I don't see how durability would add anything to gameplay - you can already hold a stack of wire and once that stack is used it will replenish from main inventory if you have wire there.

[ssilk]

Hm.
When I read it right he means, that there is a tool to drag wires instead of using wire-items. And that topic fits exactly to the linked page I posted above.(*)

(*) I ask me sometimes, why I make links to similar threads and lists of similar threads.

[chris13524]

Hrm, not convinced by this idea. For me durability is a property of a mining tool, not a refined resource (like wires). I don't see how durability would add anything to gameplay - you can already hold a stack of wire and once that stack is used it will replenish from main inventory if you have wire there.

Yes, that's why I was quoting the "durability". Repair packs, ammo, and science packs also have this "durability" function. Imagine it like a spool of wire: you don't have 100 wires in your pocket, you have 100 (or fewer) spools of wire in your pocket. I feel that it is unnecessary to require the player to carry around a few stacks of wires, when one should suffice.

Regardless, I think wire should act more like a tool, rather than an item, given construction bots don't require wire at all anyways. Also, you can't get wires back once you place them.

[chris13524]

Hm.
When I read it right he means, that there is a tool to drag wires instead of using wire-items. And that topic fits exactly to the linked page I posted above.(*)

(*) I ask me sometimes, why I make links to similar threads and lists of similar threads.

Hmm, a tool would be interesting, something like wire cutters. The longer the stretch of wire, the more wire required from the spool. Could be similar to module armor and contain wire inside it? It's probably easier to just use wire...

[aubergine18]

If it was implemented as durability, would the distance between power poles / circuit connectors determine the amount of wire used? Or would it be a fixed amount of wire regardless of distance? I agree that spools of wire make more sense, but think durability is the wrong term. Maybe a spool would have X length and each time you connect two points with wire you'd use Y length, which gets subtracted from the spool. The problem then, however, is that you end up with little dregs of spool that are not long enough to connect stuff - what do you do with those leftovers? Or would spools magically merge when going in to inventory?

[chris13524]

If it was implemented as durability, would the distance between power poles / circuit connectors determine the amount of wire used? Or would it be a fixed amount of wire regardless of distance? I agree that spools of wire make more sense, but think durability is the wrong term. Maybe a spool would have X length and each time you connect two points with wire you'd use Y length, which gets subtracted from the spool. The problem then, however, is that you end up with little dregs of spool that are not long enough to connect stuff - what do you do with those leftovers? Or would spools magically merge when going in to inventory?

I'm just going to use the word "durability" so we are all on the same page, but really it's just some progression of usage. A proper term can be discussed later

I think the length should be a thing. The longer the connection, the more wire is used. If you require more wire than on the spool, it would just get crimped to the next spool (effectively making all the spools one big spool).

Not sure about removing wire, maybe it should just be destroyed (as it does currently)? Recycled?

[aubergine18]

Maybe there could be additional equipment slots next to the mining tool/armour, for wire spools. So you could have red / green wire spools, or two spool of copper wire, etc.

[Frightning]

I tend to use up all my wire quickly, especially when building combinator circuits. It would be nice if it was possible to place down many wires with the same item, it would just loose "durability" when I do.

Umm, they stack 200 a slot in inventory. If you are constantly running out of wire, why not automate Green wire and Red wire production, and store however many stacks you think you'll need in the output chest for those assemblers?

[ssilk]

So we speak here not only from wires (circuits) but also cables (electricity).

I just want to discuss again viewtopic.php?f=80&t=30845 About Cables and Wires / Make Wires Free / Power Poles Contain Cables

In my opinion (and that is also reflected in the links in that article) there is no need to have wires/cables at all. There is (in my opinion) not much game-value:
- Need to have them always into inventory.
- Need to have three different items blocking the inventory for more or less one purpose.
- No return of item if you delete a wire.

So the consequence would be to make wires/cables free: You may need just a tool and drag from poles and combinators cables and wires as you want. One of the biggest problems would be to choose the cable and colored wire.

But, well, obviously this is seen differently.

[chris13524]

So we speak here not only from wires (circuits) but also cables (electricity).

I just want to discuss again viewtopic.php?f=80&t=30845 About Cables and Wires / Make Wires Free / Power Poles Contain Cables

In my opinion (and that is also reflected in the links in that article) there is no need to have wires/cables at all. There is (in my opinion) not much game-value:
- Need to have them always into inventory.
- Need to have three different items blocking the inventory for more or less one purpose.
- No return of item if you delete a wire.

So the consequence would be to make wires/cables free: You may need just a tool and drag from poles and combinators cables and wires as you want. One of the biggest problems would be to choose the cable and colored wire.

But, well, obviously this is seen differently.

Maybe it could work that way, everything is free?

At first thought, when you select the tool it would show a ring around it with the 3 wire colors, you'd select which wire type you want, then proceed to connect wires as they do currently. Another option for selecting type could be pressing a key, it would switch through the different types (changing the color of the tool).

For removing wires, there could potentially be another tool, or you could use the same tool and hold shift. You'd click a wire (they would highlight when you hover over them) and they would be removed.

[ssilk]

The "Ring-Menu" was also my first thought.
Removing wires/cables works currently by placing it over an existing wire/cable. It makes sense to keep it like so...

[chris13524]

The "Ring-Menu" was also my first thought.
Removing wires/cables works currently by placing it over an existing wire/cable. It makes sense to keep it like so...

You mentioned in your post:

not intuitive (to delete a wire you need to connect the same wire

Why do you now want to keep it that way?

[ssilk]

Cause that issue is missing documentation/tutorial, it is not intuitive, meaning: Players don't come to this idea by themselves.
It doesn't mean it is not useful. Quite the contrary: Once you know that then it makes total sense, especially cause it works like so for many other things in Factorio.