Factorio Forums

Since some versions we are able to see Satisfaction, on the way, and logistic storage in the tooltip of the character logistic slots. It would be nice to have the background colour of the slots change accordingly:

Satisfaction x/x (when satisfied Green)
on the way (items still being delivered orange)
logistic storage (out of stock and not being delivered: red)

Kind regards,

ejg

It sounds like a very good addition to the new GUI.

+1

-½

The biggest question is what is the purpose?:
*Is it really information you do not already have? If not it's redundant.
To me red would indicate that I am outside of my main roboport area. Something I am very aware of. Or that I haven't set up automation for that product yet, something I really should be aware of. Orange would mean I just returned to may main roboport area, again something I'm aware of. Green would mean I either haven't used the item, or have been in my main roboport area for some time. Again not new information. The only somewhat useful information would be red telling me that production of a product has stopped for some reason. Not even this is entirely new information as not getting a product is somewhat hard to miss. I can't recall a single time I ventured out without what I needed because my robots failed to stock me up and I missed it.

*Is it information you will act upon? If not its useless.
For example I'm building some fluid handling at an outpost. I'm using a storage tank so the request turns red. I'm not going to return home because of this, why would I? I have plenty storage tanks left. The act of running out would be the information I act upon. However this is very clearly indicated to me by the error sound or a ghost not being filled, not by the logistics request turning red as soon as I placed my first tank.

Factorio already presents the player with a lot of information. Even useful information can distract from more useful information. Strong colors are extra dangerous. Do you play with all of the map overlays on all the time? Probably not. For the same reason I wouldn't want something like this.

Hedning1390 wrote:-½

The biggest question is what is the purpose?:
*Is it really information you do not already have? If not it's redundant.
To me red would indicate that I am outside of my main roboport area. Something I am very aware of. Or that I haven't set up automation for that product yet, something I really should be aware of. Orange would mean I just returned to may main roboport area, again something I'm aware of. Green would mean I either haven't used the item, or have been in my main roboport area for some time. Again not new information. The only somewhat useful information would be red telling me that production of a product has stopped for some reason. Not even this is entirely new information as not getting a product is somewhat hard to miss. I can't recall a single time I ventured out without what I needed because my robots failed to stock me up and I missed it.

As you wrote, red indicates that something may be wrong or that items you need are not produced in that area. That are both useful information.

Distinction between orange and green also is meaningful. To be honest, lack of this information is very frequent problem in my playstyle. For example I'm building a new outpost and I'm short on walls so I go to the main area and request a few hundreds. After the first wave of robots come, I have to count all my walls in inventory and on quick access bar to know if I should wait for the rest or I can go build the outpost. Currently, there is no easy way to see that.

Hedning1390 wrote:Factorio already presents the player with a lot of information. Even useful information can distract from more useful information. Strong colors are extra dangerous. Do you play with all of the map overlays on all the time? Probably not. For the same reason I wouldn't want something like this.

Well, they don't have to be strong colors, it's enough if they are distinguishable.
Anyway, map overlays are a very bad example because on the map one layer of information can literally cover another layer. This is not the case with background colors in request menu.

Could we color code the background to show progress? Because you might have some items, some are being fetched and some are missing in the logistic network. So you would get a green bar on the left, yellow in the middle and red on the right in the right ratios.

The bar could be the full background of the icon or just a few lines at the bottom.

+1

<NO_NAME> wrote:As you wrote, red indicates that something may be wrong or that items you need are not produced in that area. That are both useful information.

No, I said the opposite. 99% of the time the red color doesn't indicate anything new or even something I should do anything about. Since 99% of the time red doesn't indicate something wrong I might not even notice it that 1% when it is useful.

If it only turned red when there is less than requested available and there is an assembler in range which isn't working then it might be a useful warning.

<NO_NAME> wrote:Distinction between orange and green also is meaningful. To be honest, lack of this information is very frequent problem in my playstyle. For example I'm building a new outpost and I'm short on walls so I go to the main area and request a few hundreds. After the first wave of robots come, I have to count all my walls in inventory and on quick access bar to know if I should wait for the rest or I can go build the outpost. Currently, there is no easy way to see that.

First of all orange is already indicated by a constant trickle of robots. If you press "alt" you can see what they are carrying, so this isn't new information. Even better since you don't have to go into your inventory to see it. But let's look if it is even sufficient information to act upon: If it's orange after the first wave that means I have exhausted my buffer and am now getting items 1 by 1 as they are produced. To know if I want to wait around depends on how close I am to the number I want, so I need to count them anyway. Hence this is a case of both redundant and insufficient information.

I guess this one made it . https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-289

Yeah, should definitely be moved to implemented.