Empty blueprints shouldn't exist as an item

[Teraka]

There's already two posts for suggestions regarding better management of empty blueprints, but I feel like they both miss the point.

There is no advantage whatsoever to have blueprints in your inventory. Bringing up a blueprint should be a keyboard shortcut or a button, not an item.
This satisfies all the possible uses you could have for empty blueprints, while also solving all the problems related to having extra empty blueprints in your inventory.

[<NO_NAME>]

Maybe not in the main inventory but they should be allowed at least on toolbelt. I always have one blueprint on toolbelt to be able to quickly copy the part of factory that I'm am working on.

[steinio]

In blueprint books it's used as placeholder to keep the book sorted.

-1

[bobucles]

Shift right click blanks a loaded blueprint. What if it also deleted blank blueprints? Pretty easy and straight forward.

Right click opens a blueprint for deletion but blanks can't be opened. Thus they can't be deleted.

The role of a blank blueprint on the toolbar is very similar to using a large eyedropper tool. Grab a quickie, place, and delete when done. What it holding Q let us eyedropper an area blueprint? It would function like always having a blank at your finger tips.

[Engimage]

This totally makes sense to me. I do not use empty blueprints ever and don’t want them take space in inventory.
However there should be an easy way to create new blueprint like a common hot key

I am sure you can manage sorting bp books without empty blueprints

[rebusb]

As a new player, the blueprint system is little confusing, with the biggest "what is this?" being empties in inventory. Generally blueprints seem out of place in item inventory. Since they are a design thing, conceptual, wouldn't they exist more in the mind inventory of the player, and not their physical inventory?

They should occupy a different section of the game with a separate access point. Still getting a feel for the game though, so this is just an initial observation. Will see how it feels once I get some robots working on them.

[bradicai]

If empty blueprints stacked more than 1, it would be super useful. the only time empty blueprints is frustrating is when my inventory is jammed full of empty paper.

[golfmiketango]

IMO:

• Undifferentiated vanilla blueprints should disappear instantly when placed in trash slots.
• A second undifferentiated vanilla blueprint should never be added to any inventory that aready contains a first undifferentiated vanilla blueprint.
• It should not be possible to rename an undifferentiated vanilla blueprint.

but,

• Cleared blueprints should retain their names as they do now.
• Blueprints which have a name other than the default name probably should not be treated as undifferentiated.
• Modded blueprints (iow, any blueprint with a different prototype than the vanilla one) should always be considered differentiated, or else the behavior should be configurable in data.lua and/or the API, since it's hard for the engine to know what semantic significance a mod might attribute to them.

[5thHorseman]

IMO

• Blueprints should not exist as items at all, ever.
• Hitting B should bring up a blueprint menu similar to what we have now.
• You should be able to take a blueprint or blueprint book from that area, or hit 1-0 to pick up blueprints off of a toolbar, or just out of the first 10 blueprints. So to grab your "train" blueprint book that you put in slot 1, you should just hit B then 1 and bam, you have the train blueprint book.
• When you "drop" a blueprint or book, it should vanish and not ever go in your inventory, as it's not an item.
• When you go into the B menu, the last dropped blueprint should be accessible, in case you dropped it accidentally.
• Deconstruction blueprints should be able to go into books.
• There should be a way to edit blueprints. I imagine something like entering a Factorisimo-like pseudo world with creative mode turned on and your blueprint placed down, and you can just edit it as much as you want and then save it.
• Within this pseudo world, you should be able to use blueprints. But probably not edit them

[Engimage]

IMO

• Blueprints should not exist as items at all, ever.
• Hitting B should bring up a blueprint menu similar to what we have now.
• You should be able to take a blueprint or blueprint book from that area, or hit 1-0 to pick up blueprints off of a toolbar, or just out of the first 10 blueprints. So to grab your "train" blueprint book that you put in slot 1, you should just hit B then 1 and bam, you have the train blueprint book.
• When you "drop" a blueprint or book, it should vanish and not ever go in your inventory, as it's not an item.
• When you go into the B menu, the last dropped blueprint should be accessible, in case you dropped it accidentally.
• Deconstruction blueprints should be able to go into books.
• There should be a way to edit blueprints. I imagine something like entering a Factorisimo-like pseudo world with creative mode turned on and your blueprint placed down, and you can just edit it as much as you want and then save it.
• Within this pseudo world, you should be able to use blueprints. But probably not edit them

I do totally agree with you on this.

However this will only be available if Toolbar will ever get implemented which can theoretically be after 0.17.
If we get a proper Toolbar (not toolbelt) then we can hope it can hold links to different types of entities like items, weapon slots, skills or actions (not in game yet) and blueprints.

[dood]

Yeah the blueprint system still hasn't fully been adapted to its current form and I'm sure that's already on the devs radar.

[runamucker]

Shift-right-clicking in the world (or in zoomed-in map view) with an empty cursor should create an empty blueprint in-hand. This is even easier than selecting one from toolbelt.

Empty blueprints in inventory/toolbelt should auto-delete.

[bradicai]

Shift-right-clicking in the world (or in zoomed-in map view) with an empty cursor should create an empty blueprint in-hand.

Shift right click is the same button for copying chests limitations, assemblers recipes, train schedules, filter inserters constant combinators and bunches of stuff, so you would most likely try to copy something and instead get an unwanted blueprint in your cursor. this would worsen the issue of empty blueprints.

I like the making them stack idea because it could be modded in, or hotfixed so easily( hint hint). no additional coding or graphics would be required

[runamucker]

Shift right click is the same button for copying chests limitations, assemblers recipes, train schedules, filter inserters constant combinators and bunches of stuff, so you would most likely try to copy something and instead get an unwanted blueprint in your cursor. this would worsen the issue of empty blueprints.

I like the making them stack idea because it could be modded in, or hotfixed so easily( hint hint). no additional coding or graphics would be required

Having a stack of empty blueprints in your inventory is better than not stacked, but still useless. An empty blueprint shouldn't even be an item. It could be Ctrl-right-click. Doesn't matter.

[bradicai]

cltr right click is a bad idea because shift right clicking on a blueprint erases it, so if you were rushing you could accidentally delete a blueprint. all things in factorio are done by the item in hand, even eating fish is done by the same process as throwing grenades. the only actions with different key presses are combat action which is good so that you don't destroy your base. user interface is always gonna be debated because everyones brain is different and its about getting a system that almost everyone finds useful. i would not be opposed to a hotkey that put an empty blueprint in your hand as well as the current method of getting an empty blueprint in hand, And i wouldn't be opposed to that blueprint disappearing once you cleared your cursor. but a quick hotfix could be just to make the empty blueprint stacksize from 1 to 100, as most of the complaints ive read are not , "I have 1 item slot occupied", but rather "my entire inventory keeps filling up with blueprints and i cant pick stuff up", A similar issue was before there were blueprint books(or before i found them, i forget)

[Hedning1390]

Blueprints could be created by holding q and dragging your mouse, so empty blueprints don't have to exist, but I do feel filled blueprints do have to exist, because if you are laying down rail for example and are switching back and forth you don't want to go into a book or the library every time. You want to have them in your toolbelt.

[bobingabout]

I think this is just legacy from when you had to actually craft blueprints, and it cost a circuit to clear them. They are an item after all.