Top blueprint library suggestion on the Factorio subreddit

[eiis1000]

TL;DR

One day ago, Reddit user u/Quazarz_ posted an image of his mockup of how the blueprint library should look and function. This post is already at 1.2K upvotes and is in the top 10 posts of the past month. It's received extremely positive feedback from the community, and I'd highly suggest you take a look.

What ?

The blueprint library will function as a simple tree of text, from which blueprints can be selected, not as items, but as a selection in the tree. This image illustrates the idea perfectly.

Here is a link to the original post, with the discussion below it:
https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comme ... blueprint/

Why ?

PROS:
1. Blueprints can be easily organized
2. Intuitive to use
3. Blueprints take up no space
4. Blueprints can be perfectly described and found with a title
5. Easy to search through
6. Sharing blueprints is easy
7. No duplicates between blueprint library and inventory

CONS:
1. Drastic change; transferring blueprints from old library and inventory to new system will be difficult
2. Less aesthetically pleasing

[Engimage]

I wanted to create a separate topic but it is better discussed in a single one as the general idea is the same.

So the general idea is to have a library in explorer-like tree form which would be reflected by file system counterpart. In this case folders play a role of blueprint books while allowing more nesting levels for your organization needs.

Blueprints are stored as files. The best option would be using XML for storing them which would allow adding several optional fields to the file like icon (with image included, not just link) or even pre-rendered using game engine BP image. Also different stuff like required mod list, game version etc can be added. This would be an ultimate tool for creating community sites. You can also store BP GUID in the file to allow toolbar functionality mentioned in FFF to track toolbar link even if BP is moved within a library.

As an option you could allow linking additional folders to your library. An excellent option would be allowing linking HTTP and FTP links to improve sharing of library parts.

This opens up multiple opportunities:

• Allows better organization of your library. You could allow common sorting options like in file system - name, dates
• Allows players to use cloud services to store and share library parts without need of manual updating data.
• Allows using versioning systems like git to improve functionality
• Simplifies sharing certain parts of your libraries using text export or chat links as those will obviously link all subtree from a shared folder.
• In case of allowing linking multiple libraries it would allow you use certain online community BP libraries as a shared storage
• You can still use manual sorting order for your library by adding a sort index field to BP XML and allow drag-n-drop blueprints within a library to change that order. Alternatively you can use a separate file to keep the sorting data as folders obviously do not have an ability to store that.

Yes I do understand that this is a hard one to implement as it would really change the paradigm of current implementation but it would be really awesome.

I do understand that Wube guys are not happy to make any new dramatic changes to the game as they really want to resease the game. But just to express my feelings - I really hate the inventory like idea of storing and sorting stuff no matter if BPs are items or not.