Little Quirks

Post your ideas and suggestions how to improve the game.

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Re: Little Quirks

Post by ssilk »

Pollution in Factorio is DONE by energy-usage.
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Re: Little Quirks

Post by SupplyDepoo »

Is there a reason for that? Because it doesn't make sense for anything except burner machines that get their energy from pollution-producing fuel.

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Re: Little Quirks

Post by Rseding91 »

SupplyDepoo wrote:Is there a reason for that? Because it doesn't make sense for anything except burner machines that get their energy from pollution-producing fuel.
Noise, heat, and light are forms of pollution. It's not just "smog in the air".
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Re: Little Quirks

Post by BenSeidel »

The beacon A.O.E. shadow does not match the grid.
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Re: Little Quirks

Post by chrisgbk »

I'd like to see the Multiplayer menu moved to the top menu, and renamed "Play Multiplayer" and Play renamed to "Play Solo". Then combine the entire multiplayer menu into the game browser. I forgot to add a button for manual connection to the image, but should get the basic idea.
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Re: Little Quirks

Post by daniel34 »

chrisgbk wrote:I'd like to see the Multiplayer menu moved to the top menu, and renamed "Play Multiplayer" and Play renamed to "Play Solo". Then combine the entire multiplayer menu into the game browser. I forgot to add a button for manual connection to the image, but should get the basic idea.
Accessing the multiplayer game browser requires an internet connection and a valid username/password. If the entire multiplayer menu would only be accessible from there you wouldn't be able to play a LAN game without internet connection or play any type of multiplayer game if Factorio's servers go offline for some reason, as with your idea you can't even manual/ip connect without going through the game browser.
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Re: Little Quirks

Post by Jackalope_Gaming »

Something I just noticed while playing Angel'sBob'sYouki:

Image

What are we looking at? No idea. I'm hovering over one of the outputs and that only tells me what the inputs are for the recipe. The recipe itself in this case does not actually say what the outputs are, only that it's "water purification." I had to hook up a couple of fluid tanks to the hydro plant and let the recipe run to figure out what the outputs were.

And there is a similar thing in vanilla with oil refining:

Image

Thankfully the baseline game's graphics and items are unique enough that it's easy to keep track of them, but mods aren't going to be so nice and clean. Could we please have some sort of UI option that allows us to know what the outputs are on the recipe as well when we hover over it? Perhaps something like input boxes, a recipe box, and then output boxes with all the names on hoverover? It's really frustrating to either not know what a recipe actually outputs, or perhaps even worse when you know what one of the outputs is but can't figure out what the other(s) are because they're buried in the crafting categories.

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Re: Little Quirks

Post by Optera »

Jackielope wrote:Something I just noticed while playing Angel'sBob'sYouki:

Image

What are we looking at? No idea. I'm hovering over one of the outputs and that only tells me what the inputs are for the recipe. The recipe itself in this case does not actually say what the outputs are, only that it's "water purification." I had to hook up a couple of fluid tanks to the hydro plant and let the recipe run to figure out what the outputs were.

And there is a similar thing in vanilla with oil refining:

Image

Thankfully the baseline game's graphics and items are unique enough that it's easy to keep track of them, but mods aren't going to be so nice and clean. Could we please have some sort of UI option that allows us to know what the outputs are on the recipe as well when we hover over it? Perhaps something like input boxes, a recipe box, and then output boxes with all the names on hoverover? It's really frustrating to either not know what a recipe actually outputs, or perhaps even worse when you know what one of the outputs is but can't figure out what the other(s) are because they're buried in the crafting categories.
That's been bothering me on some mod recipees as well.
Two ways to amend this:
1) instead of showing a tool tip for the recipe, show the item's tooltip when hovering over the outputs
2) list output below each other with name just as you list input in the recipe tooltip

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My humble list...

Post by SubCircus »

Cross posted from reddit, because someone told me to...

- Steel furnaces look too much like Roboports in inventory. I'm always picking up the wrong one. Can't mistake the large versions, so....?
- Instantly breaking down the underlying track when breaking down the train. Every. Damn. Time. No question a swarm will show up at exactly the same time too.
- Quick access bars: I'd really like to be able to preset bars and name them for different times of the game: liquid build time, war time, production build time, that sort of thing. Sets? Quick access bar sets select'able from the player UI?
- Can't see the quantity bar on petroleum on the storage tank. Specifically when I hover over the tank and look at the status window on the right-- the little inventory bar at the bottom just shows badly on my laptop with that dark purple. Just make that status bar green like heavy?
- Fighting biter swarms, loose equipment. The color mess in all the carnage means I'll run my tank smack dab into my large power pole or turret since everything becomes camouflaged. I often find equipment later in the game after the battle field reverts. I don't know-- outlines on equipment? Make the dead biters and spawners turn a rancid green? More color variations on equipment? This is less a problem and makes the game more challenging, which I tend to enjoy a great deal, so...
- See the assemblers working-- when alt is pressed, I loose the ability to see if the assemblers are grinding away when zoomed out a bit. I'm often cycling alt to make sure a line is running right from a distance.
- Need a tank mounted flame thrower. Because. And some cool other things for the tank, like mobile radar for those scouting missions. Also long range rocket strikes would be soooo much fun. Setup a launcher at the base, run around putting laser markers on biters bases, laugh and laugh and laugh.
- It would be neat to be able to build bridges; landfill is boring.
- I hate the electric miner icon. There, I said it. Little LED light looking symbol makes no sense to my brain and never will. Hate it. Shovel with an electric bolt through it is what that same brain came up with, and that's just about as dumb.[/list]

The items listed above add up to .023% frustration and the game is 99.977% satisfying on a carnal level, just to be clear. Thanks for lending an ear, and thank you devs for making such a kick ass game!
Last edited by ssilk on Wed Jan 11, 2017 9:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Joined with the Little Quirks thread,where this kind of suggestion matches much better.

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Re: Little Quirks

Post by Lyfa »

Image

I was setting up Factorio on my laptop and just copied my modpack over - when I went to try to update the mods it gave me this error screen. This also happened when I tried to get a friend to play with me.

In my friend's case, he bought the game through steam and I shared the modpack that I was using so we could play together - he never had to download the mods from anywhere else.

In the picture, it doesn't say anywhere about what login it wants to you use. One could think that it's asking for their steam login. Maybe just a change of text and a button that links to where they can create an account.

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Re: My humble list...

Post by Deadly-Bagel »

SubCircus wrote:Cross posted from reddit, because someone told me to...

- Steel furnaces look too much....
....
- Steel furnaces stack to 50 I think, Roboports to 5. Perhaps the icon of the Roboport could be bumped up a few shades but then it might conflict with other stuff.
- I brought up mining trains then accidentally rails a little while ago and from memory the devs acknowledged it. Hopefully we'll see a fix in 0.15 for this and similar problems.
- I feel like further expanding the tool belt might be overcomplicating things. I use 1-3 for belts / UG belts / splitters, 4 Inserters, 5 power poles, 6 pipes, 7 UG pipes, 8 Assemblers, 9 and 0 whatever. Numbers 6 - 0 are available with Shift + 1 - 5, and there is a button to swap the toolbelt around so you can double up on that. Still can't name them but a glance easily tells you which is which.
- I don't so much have a problem with running over stuff in combat, but I do frequently run over power poles with the car. In areas this happens I drop a light or some concrete down so it's easier to see and avoid. Personally I'm heavily colour deficient so can't be too sure but I think there isn't much to be done other than making them neon.
- I don't know how you could show assemblers working in Detailed View. I do it too but Alt is so easily accessible and instant that I don't have a problem using it to check, normally you can check by ensuring the inserters are working or click on the machine itself to ensure the progress bar is moving.
- Combat is a huge point of contention and needs more than a sub note in a list of ideas. The existing weapons are being reworked for 0.15 but don't think anything is being added. Hopefully for 0.16 but there is a loud discussion on this.
- Bridges have been requested since before I've been playing, we got landfill instead. It's more flexible, easier to implement, and it does the job. Bridges at this stage would be pointless.
- I believe the electric miner icon is supposed to represent the square minder with "mining arms" inside it, though the actual miner has two sets that scroll along it. Many icons are probably due a redo, this will probably be done in 0.16.

Don't get me wrong, I doubt this topic will see any official attention because what can they even do with such a mess of vague ideas, I'm just cluing you in.
Last edited by Deadly-Bagel on Thu Jan 12, 2017 10:38 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Little Quirks

Post by Deadly-Bagel »

Lyfa wrote:Image

I was setting up Factorio on my laptop and just copied my modpack over - when I went to try to update the mods it gave me this error screen. This also happened when I tried to get a friend to play with me.

In my friend's case, he bought the game through steam and I shared the modpack that I was using so we could play together - he never had to download the mods from anywhere else.

In the picture, it doesn't say anywhere about what login it wants to you use. One could think that it's asking for their steam login. Maybe just a change of text and a button that links to where they can create an account.
It wants your Factorio login, there's an option on the website somewhere to create one from your Steam account.
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Re: My humble list...

Post by ssilk »

Deadly-Bagel wrote:I doubt this topic will see any official attention because what can they even do with such a mess of vague ideas, I'm just cluing you in.
Hm, not very respectful. :roll:
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Re: My humble list...

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ssilk wrote:
Deadly-Bagel wrote:I doubt this topic will see any official attention because what can they even do with such a mess of vague ideas, I'm just cluing you in.
Hm, not very respectful. :roll:
He's not wrong though. This thread is basically "Ideas and Suggestions" except all packed into one thread.
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Re: Little Quirks

Post by SupplyDepoo »

Something to help with clicking on and reading things on the production window.

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Re: My humble list...

Post by Deadly-Bagel »

Rseding91 wrote:
ssilk wrote:
Deadly-Bagel wrote:I doubt this topic will see any official attention because what can they even do with such a mess of vague ideas, I'm just cluing you in.
Hm, not very respectful. :roll:
He's not wrong though. This thread is basically "Ideas and Suggestions" except all packed into one thread.
I'm Australian, blunt by nature =D I mean no disrespect, just calling it as I see it.
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Re: Little Quirks

Post by Nixxen »

Some things that have grinded my gears as I have been playing.

1. Ability to "undo" items. Obviously not everything is salvagable, but in some cases you could for instance pluck out the chips from an item and then melt the remaining stuff into slag again, and send it back to the iron/copper smelting line. Don't need to make it too easy, but just the possibility to get rid of severe excess items (In my case I managed to mass produce empty oil barrels for hours...). Just some way to reclaim resources from unneeded items, even with a slight loss.

2a. Reserved slots in boxes (as you have on trains). This way, one filter inserter with more filters set can grab stuff from a belt and only fill up the reserved slots, instead of possibly filling up several stacks of the same item as we have it now.
2b. In regards to the above, a toggle for (filter or any) inserters to only pick up an item if that item is needed in the container, instead of grabbing the first item that matches a filtere and holding on to it while waiting for the box to free up a slot.


Both of these are "ease of mind" suggestions that make logistics less tedious for the player.

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Re: Little Quirks

Post by Deadly-Bagel »

Oops =D I remember once I set up assemblers, came back later to find I'd almost filled up a chest with them because I forgot to set a limiter. Oh well I never needed to make any again xP

There have been many requests for recycling items, not sure how I feel about it personally. The general consensus of the devs is that the time, resource and electricity required to build and operate a recycler would be comparable to the actual return you would get so what's the point? Of course it wouldn't recycle 100%, something like 80% at most, and most players would only want to recycle their burner miner drills, burner inserters and excess furnaces. Maybe Modular Armour, Power Armour, Portable Batteries and Portable Solar Panels too. The only item worth anything there is the Power Armour and I think that just needs to build into MK2 to make for a more natural progression.

As for your second query, I actually had to overcome this problem playing yesterday. I had to unload 8 types of Robot Brain (playing Bob's Mods) into a single chest. There is a reasonably simple solution actually, connect the chest to the input of an Arithmetic Combinator with a circuit and set it to ([Everything] * -1). Connect the output to the Filter Inserter (on which you need to tick "Set Filters"), then also connect a Constant Combinator in which you enter values for how much of everything you want to be in the chest. When the chest contains the configured amount of an item, the negative value from the Arithmetic Combinator will match or surpass the positive value from the Constant Combinator and the Filter Inserter will see a negative value, thus that item will no longer be filtered in.

There is a downfall to this, Filter Inserters can only set a certain number of filters so if it is expecting six items that are not available, the other items will be ignored... But as long as everything is available there isn't a problem.
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Re: Little Quirks

Post by Nixxen »

Deadly-Bagel wrote: As for your second query, I actually had to overcome this problem playing yesterday. I had to unload 8 types of Robot Brain (playing Bob's Mods) into a single chest. There is a reasonably simple solution actually, connect the chest to the input of an Arithmetic Combinator with a circuit and set it to ([Everything] * -1). Connect the output to the Filter Inserter (on which you need to tick "Set Filters"), then also connect a Constant Combinator in which you enter values for how much of everything you want to be in the chest. When the chest contains the configured amount of an item, the negative value from the Arithmetic Combinator will match or surpass the positive value from the Constant Combinator and the Filter Inserter will see a negative value, thus that item will no longer be filtered in.

There is a downfall to this, Filter Inserters can only set a certain number of filters so if it is expecting six items that are not available, the other items will be ignored... But as long as everything is available there isn't a problem.
Sorry for replying here, since this is not a suggestion - but have been trying to wrap my head around wired today, and I can't for the life of me figure out how to set [Everything].
From google searches I found an image where there are 3 colored [*] signals; one for everything (red), one for anything (green) and one for each (yellow).
In my Arithmetic combinator there's only the yellow one (each).
I've been playing around with this for some time, and eventually figured I needed each as output as well - but that also ended up doubling my items.
Setting it to ([each] * -2) seems to work, but I haven't tested it in a live transport cycle, so it might end up messing things up. Time will tell I suppose.
Thanks for the kick in the right direction! :D

Edit: Nevermind! Works like a charm. I had managed to hook up both a green AND a red wire from the Constant Combinator. No wonder everything was doubled.

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Re: Little Quirks

Post by Deadly-Bagel »

Ah, yeah, sorry, that should be [Each] as well as the output. I don't have access to the game for the majority of the time I'm on the forum. If I did, I'd be playing it ^^ and I forgot to do the output. Don't blame you for the wires, I literally can't even see the red one so I usually hover over something a few times to see what gets highlighted.

It's a neat trick though, used it to unload gems and military robot brains too. I was using an Express Stack Filter Inserter which did have the problem that it wanted two items that weren't in the train so got stuck, I replaced it with an Express Filter Inserter which has five filters and haven't had any further lockups though the train would have triggered a restock anyway, got the items and eventually filled it up.
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