Factorio Forums

Production and consumption numbers in the production window should have a similar level of precision regardless of size. Looking at the window in my current game, I'm currently producing 676.1 advanced circuits per minute, and 1.0k solid fuel per minute. that's a huge difference in precision for numbers that aren't very far apart. I think the production window would be much more useful if every number had the same number of significant figures. For example, 1.03/m, 17.9/m, 232/m, 5.71k/m, 32.5k/m, etc.

I'd like to get the numbers 1000 to 9999 to display without an abbreviation. it doesn't make sense to use the same number of characters to display 9999 as 9.9k.

I would support three significant figures for all production numbers. I don't think there's much need for additional precision beyond that.

8.4k is more clear for me than 8438

fregate84 wrote:8.4k is more clear for me than 8438

I agree. But I also agree with the original poster that there should be more significant digits.

Up to 999, the game displays the amount at a precision of 1. However, it then jumps to displaying the amount as 1.0k, at a precision of 100. In other words, if the game displays 1.0k, the actual amount could be anything between 1000 and 1099, which is a possible 10% difference.

I don't like this extreme drop in precision. I would like at least one more significant digit, so that it displays 1.03k instead of simply 1.0k.

Also, I believe that the displayed values should be rounded. As far as I can tell, this currently is not the case, as it displays 2.4k for the value 2489.

Tekky wrote:

fregate84 wrote:8.4k is more clear for me than 8438

I agree. But I also agree with the original poster that there should be more significant digits.

Up to 999, the game displays the amount at a precision of 1. However, it then jumps to displaying the amount as 1.0k, at a precision of 100. In other words, if the game displays 1.0k, the actual amount could be anything between 1000 and 1099, which is a possible 10% difference.

I don't like this extreme drop in precision. I would like at least one more significant digit, so that it displays 1.03k instead of simply 1.0k.

Also, I believe that the displayed values should be rounded. As far as I can tell, this currently is not the case, as it displays 2.4k for the value 2489.

Factorio rounds down since the late 0.14.1x versions.

steinio wrote:Factorio rounds down since the late 0.14.1x versions.

By rounding I mean it should round to the nearest value instead of always rounding down. In other words, it should round the value 6.7 to 7 instead of to 6.

I think it would be even easier to read, and take one less step in my head when I need to do math, if the game just used scientific notation.
i.e.

• 1.01 * 10^4 / s
• 5.90 * 10^0 / s
• etc

The decimal is always in the same place, and I'm either adding or subtracting 10s-units, or multiplying or dividing the in-front-number. (I don't remember the proper names for this stuff; I just know the math is stupidly easy compared to using only whole numbers or using Greek (Latin?) prefixes.)

Tekky wrote:

fregate84 wrote:8.4k is more clear for me than 8438

I agree. But I also agree with the original poster that there should be more significant digits.

Up to 999, the game displays the amount at a precision of 1. However, it then jumps to displaying the amount as 1.0k, at a precision of 100. In other words, if the game displays 1.0k, the actual amount could be anything between 1000 and 1099, which is a possible 10% difference.

I don't like this extreme drop in precision. I would like at least one more significant digit, so that it displays 1.03k instead of simply 1.0k.

Also, I believe that the displayed values should be rounded. As far as I can tell, this currently is not the case, as it displays 2.4k for the value 2489.

+1

It really bothers me that you lose so much precision when 999 turns to 1000+, I'd really like that it would be displayed with two digits after the period, instead of one. I think that 1.03k is easier to read and comprehend than 1037, even if the text itself is a little bit longer.
Considering the OP which mentioned that 3317 is as readable as 8.4k, keep in mind that in most fonts (including the font Factorio uses) the decimal point is narrower than your average character. Additionally 8.4k can be easily split up by the brain to just say 8k to get a breakdown of the situation, but with 3317 you have to insert the thousands separator yourself to quantify the amount and that takes time.

I wish that if I hover over any number, that I can see the exact value in full precission. It doesn't need to be live updated in that mode.

Ingolifs wrote:I would support three significant figures for all production numbers. I don't think there's much need for additional precision beyond that.

When I was in college, everything was 4sigfig minimum. There were cases when we were dealing with 6sigfig.

How about making it a configurable option?
Everyone could adjust significant digits as they like.

Currently it's a little inconsistent, it will show 3 s.f. if the abbreviation needs 100s and will show 2 s.f. otherwise.

This is what it currently looks like: https://i.imgur.com/Tq4Vnoi.png

"1.0k" "10k" "100k"

In order to squeeze enough space for this extra digit (since the decimal eats valuable real estate), I also propose that decimal values shown in this way are reduced to 80% size.
You can make use of the superscript ascii values: ¹²³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹⁰

Having that third digit actually gives a lot more granularity without having to dig in and find out the exact value via displays, and it would be consistent with this change.

This is what I would like it to look like: https://i.imgur.com/4xQJ5mP.png

Related (but somewhat outdated) thread:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=42894 Change when the game abbreviate numbers

Rendering individual letters different sizes has a large amount of overhead and code complexity since each new letter size needs to be prepared as a font before it can be rendered. Meaning: different sized letters is not likely to ever happen.

Could you show exact number in small pop up window if player points number or icon?

On a very similar topic, I'd like to see 3 significant figures in all the production graphs. It annoys me when say 990/min increases to 1.0k/min, and I'm wondering whether I'm hitting my target of 1050/min or not.

Zavian wrote:On a very similar topic, I'd like to see 3 significant figures in all the production graphs. It annoys me when say 990/min increases to 1.0k/min, and I'm wondering whether I'm hitting my target of 1050/min or not.

This sounds like it may be an opportunity to allow the player to choose. I am like you, I want to see exactly what is going on, but I suspect that not everyone wants that level How much work would it be to have an option to select how production figures are displayed? Maybe even let the player input the printf string?

I don't see any reason to go beyond 3 significant figures in the production screen, certainly not enough to justify developer time on another option

The problem with 2 significant figures is that for a value of 1.0k, it's somewhere between 1000 and 1099. That is a 9.9% uncertainty. (9.999% if the value is averaged over time, or for production values of 1.0m). 10% is a large uncertainty. Moving to 3 significant figures always would make the max uncertainty 1%, which in my mind is good enough.

i find the suggestion not good, its worser to see actually than the original... Oo

But i would suggest to make it like this:

1, 100, 1k, 10k, 100k

That would be consistent.