Add last modified field to building tooltips near Last user

[bor]

I really like the "Last user" field for tooltip of buildings. It is fun to look at a build days later and know who built it or if that part was made by one person or a collaborative effort. However there are cases where it is not enough or despite having that field the history is ambiguous.

For example if a build has two different last users in parts, was it made from the beginning by two people or was it later upgraded/fixed by the second player? Or a real example from one of my multiplayer games there was a bundle of nonsensical spaghetti of belts that had way too many loops and splitters, however different parts of it had all three of us as the last user. Did it always look like that from the beginning? or did someone added the unnecessary parts later? which part is from the original build?

I propose another field be added under Last user called Last modified, which would be a relative time using game ticks (e.g. 32hours ago meaning 32 in game hours ago assuming the game running at 60ups. similar to the times listed under production charts).

This can answer many questions when exploring a 200+hour base after you're done with it before moving on to the next save while reminiscing on the progression of the path you took from the first burner miner to the sprawling concrete mega-structure it is now. such as:

- Was a build done all in one go or expanded later
- Did you do yellow or purple science first (assuming you didn't destroy the starter base)
- When was the latest change you did to the starter base before abandoning it for the new setup (e.g. grid based)

or to compete to find the last wooden power pole ever made in multiplayer before all new builds used the newer ones.

It also has the benefit of being insightful in single player as well. and should be way more lightweight compared to using something like TLBE or other Timelapse mods.

Since this will probably require changing the savefile format to include the extra metadata, 2.0 is a very good time to add it without messing with existing saves.

Thanks for reading.

[SupplyDepoo]

+1

It would allow anyone to make a pseudo-timelapse after a game without any mods (using some external program or web service), like the official Factorio Gameplay Trailer (2016) (30 seconds in), visualizing the growth of their factory. Maybe some animated GIF generator could even be integrated into the game, like Zachtronics' last few games did. And unlike replays, which break with every game update, this information would easily survive those updates.

It could also simplify/optimize a kind of multiplayer server admin tool that limits new players from modifying old parts of the factory (anti-grief protection).

[bor]

make a pseudo-timelapse after a game

Not quite since it doesn't keep data about removed/replaced entities. So let's say if you upgraded your furnace line which you put in hour 1 to steel furnaces on hour 4, the time lapse would show the spot between belts to be empty for the three hour after you put the belts in.

Or if biters had a snack on your mine setup early game and you replaced them, the miners won't be there in the generated timelapse since you first put them, as if the spot was empty until you replaced it.

This is mostly intended for inspection by user late game and I mostly want it for novelty factor rather than any game changing new possibilities. I only suggested it because it looks a simple and cheap (performance-wise) change to make.