Factorio Forums

"Beacon" is one of those sore spots for me. It "transmits signals", yes. But that's not what a beacon is:

From Merriam-Webster: a radio transmitter emitting signals to guide aircraft. A beacon is a navigation device.

I wish for a real beacon: put up beacons that bots can then use for simplified pathfinding. They'd just (it's just a SMOP ) path along the beacons closest to origin and destination. It could and probably even should be a static routing, redone only when roboports or beacons get added/removed.

Yup, this is bug (THEY ARE NOT BEACONS!) and suggestion. Move it whereever you like. But renamed them, please. "Effect transmitter" would mean it's exactly what it says on the tin.

That's not a bug. That's a suggestion and goes in the ideas and suggestions forum (moved).

Additionally it's a game. "Beacon" is the name we choose for the entity because it's a game and they aren't real things so you can't say they're named incorrectly if there is literally no such thing that exists in the real world.

I'm sure that Factorio's "beacon" was inspired by the one in Minecraft with the same name and very similar functionalities - gives nearby objects bonus effects.

http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Beacon

So I don't think there is a problem to call it "beacon". It is a game, don't treat the terms too seriously.

I propose renaming "Beacon" to "Bacon". Because:


Which would be somewhat true in Factorio.

+1 for bacon. There must be a mod for this.

Probably it should be called "Booster" or "Amplifier"... because that's basically what it does... just wireless.

Hm.
I'm also not really lucky with beacon. The German translations (I looked into several vocabluaries, including my old school-dictionary) explain it as a "light", a "fire", as "signal"...

Booster or amplifier hits much more what it really does. I found also "Intensifier".

Should be simple to make a mod that renames them. And then we'll see.

OTA broadcaster ?