Factorio Forums

TL;DR

Signs with icons are the one of the most common helpers for factories and multiplayer and are currently created by abusing combinators.

What ?

Currently, to simulate a sign, you use constant combinator, which:

• Works only in ALT-MODE.

• Works only if visual combinators view is enabled in settings.

Isn't it sort of abuse of the combinators? And if you enable visual combinator view, you get visual trash on every circuit mechanism.
You can also create sorter inserter, but it's the same abuse.
And it doesn't go well with lampish meters, since they are always visible.

My idea is to add an icon sign item to Vanilla. Always visible, no matter ALT-MODE.
You could set an item/fluid/signal icon to display on it. With many on them, you could make simple ASCII text.
Maybe you could also set an icon with circuit network. This would allow to create much nicer factory meters.

"There is already mod for this."

It's called Dectorio and gives many other, much less useful decorations to the game.
I think signs are the only, really needed item.
And the less mods are needed for proper Factorio experience, the better. This is especially important in multiplayer.

But look how useless it's to create anything more than ONE type of a sign.
Iron stick and iron plate and off you go.

Why ?

Every sandbox game has signs in one or another way.
There is an other Lua-powered mod-engine game like Factorio, which is Minetest, and it does have native signs. So if other games include them, why not Factorio?

What not

I don't want letter plates or anything similar, because they don't really support Unicode well. I don't mean textual signs either, since they don't make that much sense and are unreadable. And you can create nice letter banners with concrete anyway.

Antyradek wrote: ↑Sun May 19, 2019 4:15 pmAnd you can create nice letter banners with concrete anyway.

*snort*

Antyradek wrote: ↑Sun May 19, 2019 4:15 pm Currently, to simulate a sign, you use constant combinator, which:

• Works only in ALT-MODE.

• Works only if visual combinators view is enabled in settings.

Tell the mod author to use LuaRendering.draw_sprite() instead.

eradicator wrote: ↑Wed May 22, 2019 5:38 pm

Antyradek wrote: ↑Sun May 19, 2019 4:15 pm Currently, to simulate a sign, you use constant combinator, which:

• Works only in ALT-MODE.

• Works only if visual combinators view is enabled in settings.

Tell the mod author to use LuaRendering.draw_sprite() instead.

Ugh... constant combinators are native and don't use Lua. You should speak to the main developers instead.

eradicator wrote: ↑Wed May 22, 2019 5:38 pm

Antyradek wrote: ↑Sun May 19, 2019 4:15 pm Currently, to simulate a sign, you use constant combinator, which:

• Works only in ALT-MODE.

• Works only if visual combinators view is enabled in settings.

Tell the mod author to use LuaRendering.draw_sprite() instead.

He's talking about placing a constant combinator and setting it to "iron-plate: 1" to get an iron-plate sign in vanilla. That's how most sane people do it in their blueprints so it's easy to see what input goes where and what comes out the other end.

Related thread:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=58685 Signs

In addition to signs on posts, could we also have short ones that only cover a single tile? They'd be perfect for labelling the bars of your displays.

TL;DR

I would like to be able to place signs anywhere in Factorio.

What ?

I would like signs so I can label which liquids go in which pipes while I am constructing something so I don't forget things like where the crude oil or water goes.

Why ?

WHY do you think it increases the value of Factorio as a game?
It would help players determine where items go without having to check especially when it is hard to check.

You can use constant combinators for that