"Requires Mod" Blueprint parameter

[RiverRob]

TL;DR

"Mod must be installed to use blueprint" option for creating/using blueprints.

What ?

Some blueprints are based around mods. I suggest an blueprint feature when creating or using blueprints that looks at installed options and makes sure any needed are installed.

Why ?

Things like "Power Pole 32" mod, all my blueprints require that (or will until Space Age is released). When I share blueprints, people should be prompted at some point that the mod is required or it won't work as expected.

[SoShootMe]

I think the suggestion of making sure any needed mods are installed couldn't work sensibly because you use a blueprint within a game, but mod changes must be outside a game. I'm also not sure the game can necessarily tell which mods are required for a given blueprint to work as intended, and it's definitely the case that a blueprint that works with no mods may not work as intended with mods (for example, a "vanilla" blueprint when you are playing with a hypothetical "Power Pole 28" mod).

Given these limitations, I think the existing capability to use the blueprint title and/or description is probably a better solution.

[Illiander42]

I think the suggestion of making sure any needed mods are installed couldn't work sensibly because you use a blueprint within a game, but mod changes must be outside a game. I'm also not sure the game can necessarily tell which mods are required for a given blueprint to work as intended, and it's definitely the case that a blueprint that works with no mods may not work as intended with mods (for example, a "vanilla" blueprint when you are playing with a hypothetical "Power Pole 28" mod).

Given these limitations, I think the existing capability to use the blueprint title and/or description is probably a better solution.

We can already see which mods effect items in the debug options.

I think what's being asked for is a way to intentionally, manually say "mod X is needed for this blueprint" that takes less effort than typing it out and maybe gives you a single-click link to the mod portal page for that mod.

Not an automatic, because then everyone who uses things like staged blueprints, editor extensions and creative mode will get annoyed. But I know I'd like to have a simple way to say this wall blueprint is for Schall, that one is for Rampant Arsenal, etc...

Would also, ideally, give us a way to do modpacks. (Because seriously, we need a way to do modpacks)

[FuryoftheStars]

I think the suggestion of making sure any needed mods are installed couldn't work sensibly because you use a blueprint within a game, but mod changes must be outside a game. I'm also not sure the game can necessarily tell which mods are required for a given blueprint to work as intended, and it's definitely the case that a blueprint that works with no mods may not work as intended with mods (for example, a "vanilla" blueprint when you are playing with a hypothetical "Power Pole 28" mod).

Given these limitations, I think the existing capability to use the blueprint title and/or description is probably a better solution.

We can already see which mods effect items in the debug options.

I think what's being asked for is a way to intentionally, manually say "mod X is needed for this blueprint" that takes less effort than typing it out and maybe gives you a single-click link to the mod portal page for that mod.

Not an automatic, because then everyone who uses things like staged blueprints, editor extensions and creative mode will get annoyed. But I know I'd like to have a simple way to say this wall blueprint is for Schall, that one is for Rampant Arsenal, etc...

Would also, ideally, give us a way to do modpacks. (Because seriously, we need a way to do modpacks)

In order for it to work, the game would have to take the time to identify all mods affecting all entities within your blueprint, then give you the means of selecting the ones you want to make required. There may even need to be a way for you to filter/narrow the list down by the entity type you're actually concerned about. I would say the description field is still probably less effort.

[Illiander42]

I think the suggestion of making sure any needed mods are installed couldn't work sensibly because you use a blueprint within a game, but mod changes must be outside a game. I'm also not sure the game can necessarily tell which mods are required for a given blueprint to work as intended, and it's definitely the case that a blueprint that works with no mods may not work as intended with mods (for example, a "vanilla" blueprint when you are playing with a hypothetical "Power Pole 28" mod).

Given these limitations, I think the existing capability to use the blueprint title and/or description is probably a better solution.

We can already see which mods effect items in the debug options.

I think what's being asked for is a way to intentionally, manually say "mod X is needed for this blueprint" that takes less effort than typing it out and maybe gives you a single-click link to the mod portal page for that mod.

Not an automatic, because then everyone who uses things like staged blueprints, editor extensions and creative mode will get annoyed. But I know I'd like to have a simple way to say this wall blueprint is for Schall, that one is for Rampant Arsenal, etc...

Would also, ideally, give us a way to do modpacks. (Because seriously, we need a way to do modpacks)

In order for it to work, the game would have to take the time to identify all mods affecting all entities within your blueprint, then give you the means of selecting the ones you want to make required. There may even need to be a way for you to filter/narrow the list down by the entity type you're actually concerned about. I would say the description field is still probably less effort.

That's a single pass over the entity types in the blueprint, which isn't a big deal.

The hard bit is the UI design.

[Murklak]

This could be done without the game identifying any dependencies. Instead, offer a mod list and the user can check the ones they want. If someone has the blueprint without the required mods, add an alert icon to the blueprint. They can open the blueprint to see what mods are missing. The game doesn't need to link them directly to the mod portal, but it would be nice as that helps the user understand what functionality is missing by not having that mod.

If some scanning is done by the game before the user looks at the mod list, the game could populate it with suggestions. They can leave the defaults as is, they can add or remove mods, or they can hit [deselect all] to ignore the suggestions.

The user should be able to make and save a blueprint without interacting with the mod list. This can be done by having a reasonable default--either default to suggested mods or default to no required mods. This will likely be dependent on how well the game can predict which mods to require, which it may not be able to do well.

[FuryoftheStars]

I think the suggestion of making sure any needed mods are installed couldn't work sensibly because you use a blueprint within a game, but mod changes must be outside a game. I'm also not sure the game can necessarily tell which mods are required for a given blueprint to work as intended, and it's definitely the case that a blueprint that works with no mods may not work as intended with mods (for example, a "vanilla" blueprint when you are playing with a hypothetical "Power Pole 28" mod).

Given these limitations, I think the existing capability to use the blueprint title and/or description is probably a better solution.

We can already see which mods effect items in the debug options.

I think what's being asked for is a way to intentionally, manually say "mod X is needed for this blueprint" that takes less effort than typing it out and maybe gives you a single-click link to the mod portal page for that mod.

Not an automatic, because then everyone who uses things like staged blueprints, editor extensions and creative mode will get annoyed. But I know I'd like to have a simple way to say this wall blueprint is for Schall, that one is for Rampant Arsenal, etc...

Would also, ideally, give us a way to do modpacks. (Because seriously, we need a way to do modpacks)

In order for it to work, the game would have to take the time to identify all mods affecting all entities within your blueprint, then give you the means of selecting the ones you want to make required. There may even need to be a way for you to filter/narrow the list down by the entity type you're actually concerned about. I would say the description field is still probably less effort.

That's a single pass over the entity types in the blueprint, which isn't a big deal.

The hard bit is the UI design.

I wasn't attempting to suggest that the scanning of the entities for their mods was a big deal, but rather the UI element. The list of mods could be of any size, both in quantity and in mod name length, plus (to me) it would be more useful having filter options so I can see which mods alter which entities, vs just being presented with a monolithic list to choose from. I feel like this would be hard, and overcrowding, trying to squeeze it into the existing UI, but having it as a separate pop-out UI may potentially block your visibility of the blueprint while you're choosing these. But then, it's on you, the player, to parse through all of this and find the correct mods for what you want to make required. I suppose it's a 50/50 toss up, here, though, as it may take longer to go through the list & filters than just typing out the name of the mod(s) in the description, but on the other hand, if you don't know the mod names off hand, this may still be easier.

This could be done without the game identifying any dependencies. Instead, offer a mod list and the user can check the ones they want. If someone has the blueprint without the required mods, add an alert icon to the blueprint. They can open the blueprint to see what mods are missing. The game doesn't need to link them directly to the mod portal, but it would be nice as that helps the user understand what functionality is missing by not having that mod.

If some scanning is done by the game before the user looks at the mod list, the game could populate it with suggestions. They can leave the defaults as is, they can add or remove mods, or they can hit [deselect all] to ignore the suggestions.

The user should be able to make and save a blueprint without interacting with the mod list. This can be done by having a reasonable default--either default to suggested mods or default to no required mods. This will likely be dependent on how well the game can predict which mods to require, which it may not be able to do well.

Problem with some of this is that for someone who has hundreds of mods loaded, they don't necessarily want all of the mods made required, or have to scroll through all of them looking for the few they want (or, in some cases, may not remember all of the mods that affect the entities in question). And it's entirely possible for some mods to cause the game to think it made a change to an entity, when it really didn't or the change is inconsequential to a blueprint (like changing the graphics). The game does not keep track of exactly what changes were made by each mod, only that they did.

[Illiander42]

I think the suggestion of making sure any needed mods are installed couldn't work sensibly because you use a blueprint within a game, but mod changes must be outside a game. I'm also not sure the game can necessarily tell which mods are required for a given blueprint to work as intended, and it's definitely the case that a blueprint that works with no mods may not work as intended with mods (for example, a "vanilla" blueprint when you are playing with a hypothetical "Power Pole 28" mod).

Given these limitations, I think the existing capability to use the blueprint title and/or description is probably a better solution.

We can already see which mods effect items in the debug options.

I think what's being asked for is a way to intentionally, manually say "mod X is needed for this blueprint" that takes less effort than typing it out and maybe gives you a single-click link to the mod portal page for that mod.

Not an automatic, because then everyone who uses things like staged blueprints, editor extensions and creative mode will get annoyed. But I know I'd like to have a simple way to say this wall blueprint is for Schall, that one is for Rampant Arsenal, etc...

Would also, ideally, give us a way to do modpacks. (Because seriously, we need a way to do modpacks)

In order for it to work, the game would have to take the time to identify all mods affecting all entities within your blueprint, then give you the means of selecting the ones you want to make required. There may even need to be a way for you to filter/narrow the list down by the entity type you're actually concerned about. I would say the description field is still probably less effort.

That's a single pass over the entity types in the blueprint, which isn't a big deal.

The hard bit is the UI design.

I wasn't attempting to suggest that the scanning of the entities for their mods was a big deal, but rather the UI element. The list of mods could be of any size, both in quantity and in mod name length, plus (to me) it would be more useful having filter options so I can see which mods alter which entities, vs just being presented with a monolithic list to choose from. I feel like this would be hard, and overcrowding, trying to squeeze it into the existing UI, but having it as a separate pop-out UI may potentially block your visibility of the blueprint while you're choosing these. But then, it's on you, the player, to parse through all of this and find the correct mods for what you want to make required. I suppose it's a 50/50 toss up, here, though, as it may take longer to go through the list & filters than just typing out the name of the mod(s) in the description, but on the other hand, if you don't know the mod names off hand, this may still be easier.

I fully acknowledge that the UI is the hard bit. The advantage would be that if it was actually in the UI, then you could do things like let the blueprint library be accessed from the mod screen, and let you click mods from the blueprint to activate them.

[FactorioBlueprints]

I've created a feature request that I think is similar in spirit: record Planet names inside blueprints