Factorio Forums

Problem: I have so many of these assemblers I'm finding it hard to keep track of what all of them are producing.

Suggestion: Make an in-game tool that can be used in early, mid, and late game stages to track what all of your assemblers are producing, and is capable of locating them for you.

I think this could be extended to all current units that have inventory slots, therefore it should have a filter based on whether it is an assembler,, a furnace, or a chest, etc. that one is looking for items in.

Yes, I know that I have a visual representation available of what is being produced, but if my assemblers are split up over more than the screen can display at once, I find myself having trouble locating them.

I'm about to hit the oil production era, and get that rolling and the amount of items needed to go into these oil era machines is quite large. It's also not easy to keep track of.

I'm not asking for some kind of remote requesting tool, just for something that can help me find if I'm already producing that which I need. I automate the production of whatever I can and have difficulty sometimes keeping track of them.

Cheers ...

BrickVoid

If you aren't already using the detailed view (press ALT) that helps immensely by putting an icon on each assembler of what it's making.

I don't think this is a real problem for most players, sure it sometimes takes me a few moments to find where I started building engines or solar panels but it would take longer for me to navigate through a screen. And how would such a locating system work? The minimap is so busy you'll have trouble making anything out on it, unlocking the camera from the player is just asking for trouble, a mini display of the assembler isn't a solution either, if you have several assemblers (especially if they're spread out) this becomes infeasible. You're left with dropping arrows around the edges of the screen, probably with a distance indicator. This is a lot of development for a feature that probably won't be used very much.

Generally I use a linear factory design, main components (iron, copper, circuits, etc) go down a central bus and you split off what you need. It makes it very easy to manage where you put everything, though it may not be particularly space efficient.

It's not a problem for you, but for others. Please, high-horse riding is dangerous.

Minimap? Use the actual map more! It needs something that most games with maps have: overlays, switchable. Add that, make it moddable, leave it to the community to actually do it.

And in the world (non-map): Prison Architect has a new mode in 2.0 where "buildings" (zones) get highlighted when you hover over their entry in the menu. Something like that would help immensely.

Yes, those who play this "properly" won't need it. And the others can... <Hulk rage averted>.

Exactly, the minimap isn't a great way to display this sort of information however when you have the full map open how are you going to be selecting stuff from your inventory? Or if you have your inventory open, how are you going to see a flashing assembler behind it? Consider with 125% UI scale the inventory takes up the majority of the screen.

It's possible the new UI will have something to address this problem, or make it easier to address, in which case I won't be complaining. However as it stands, if you build a messy factory you'd best be prepared to keep track of everything.