Factorio Forums

TL;DR

When placing radar stations, the coverage is shown on the minimap, but not when placing blueprints with radar stations in them.

What ?

Radar stations should show their covered area regardless of whether it was placed from hand or from blueprint

Why ?

I like to make my radar stations with solar panels and accumulators, so that I don't need to run poles everywhere. Right now I have to place the radar station by hand (as a ghost radar station for my bots) and then match my blueprint with the solar planes and accumulators with the radar station, which is a hassle in two regards. first while placing radar station right within forests, it is hard to see, if the blueprint lines up correctly. Second, i have to use 2 slots in my belt and switch from radar station to blue print.

This functionality is used for turrets if i recall correctly, so it wouldn't be a completly new idea in regards to blueprint functionality

hata wrote:

TL;DR

When placing radar stations, the coverage is shown on the minimap, ...

Excuse me, maybe I missed something: How is the radar coverage shown on the minimap?

Impatient wrote:

hata wrote:

TL;DR

When placing radar stations, the coverage is shown on the minimap, ...

Excuse me, maybe I missed something: How is the radar coverage shown on the minimap?

Try holding a radar in your hand and look at the minimap. The feature has existed for a while now.

Yup there's a square there to show how the new radar lines up with the old grid

Easiest solution I can think of is make a 4x4 or 9x9 grid of radar and align it with the ones you can see

TL;DR

Display radar coverage preview when placing a blueprint that contains a radar.

What ?

Placing a single radar (ghost or not) shows a blue preview of its coverage on the minimap (top right) - it is useful if you want perfect coverage without overlaps - but when you place a blueprint containing a radar this preview is not shown.

Basically it was already reported as a bug but it was explained it is not a bug but a limitation in order to optimize performance, even if I don't think radar is an item that is usually present in multiple copies in a blueprint.
In OT it's also suggested to adopt the same approach used for turret range blueprinting, with an explicit option for toggling it.

I hope it's acceptable to repost the request here, in the suggestions section, in order to avoid it being lost in the "not a bug" section.

Why ?

Basically, QOL, because right now you can obtain the same exact result placing the radar first (coverage displayed) and then placing blueprint.

See also
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=64172 show range of ghost builds

similar, but just for roboport coverage.

Please show the blue radar range square for radars in blueprints (and copy/paste) when placing.

arl85 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 7:09 am

Why ?

Basically, QOL, because right now you can obtain the same exact result placing the radar first (coverage displayed) and then placing blueprint.

Noting that this is highly difficult if the paste / bp contains multiple radars.

[Koub] Merged into older thread with same suggestion.

Thanks, Koub.

+1

I have a blueprint which contains a radar, several solar panels and accumulators that will keep it active fulltime.
Placing it however, will always have to done in two steps, radar first to check the coverage and then the blueprint afterwards.
As mentioned, this is just a QoL thing.

@JasonC, you mentioned "this is highly difficult if the paste / bp contains multiple radars" but is that not also the case with roboports then?

Oniguro wrote: ↑Fri Oct 28, 2022 9:11 pm @JasonC, you mentioned "this is highly difficult if the paste / bp contains multiple radars" but is that not also the case with roboports then?

You mean if the paste contains roboports? , probably! I don't have a lot of pastes with roboports; but if roboport connections don't show in pastes then they probably should be shown, too!

Btw, I also have one of those little radar outpost bp's, that's actually what prompted me to make the suggestion, haha. I've also got a bp with 2 radars spaced a radar range apart that I use a lot too, to make covering large areas easier.

And actually, btw, my solar/radar bp has landfill tiles in it, which is another case where the "workaround" of placing the radar first isn't that great: You can't place radar ghosts on water, so you can't place the radar first without dropping landfills, which is kinda extra inconvenient.

I like to create self-sustaining radar outposts to keep an eye on biter expansion.

Currently, getting the range of a radar on the minimap requires selecting an actual radar in hand, rather than using my blueprint, so I need to keep a radar on my hotbar.

When hovering a blueprint, the combined range of all included Radars should be shown in the minimap.