Factorio Forums

Posted: **Sat Oct 15, 2016 3:36 pm**

This is a request to add an entity with the following properties:

As simple-entity but with the following additions:
The entity can have a force.
The entity is included in blueprints by default (but not if blueprintable flag excludes it).

Example use case:
I'm working on a 'zones' system where you can mark area as a zone for various reasons. [MOD 0.14] Programmable Warfare - command units via signals.
The zones need to have no collision and be on a specific low-level rendering layer so they act more like radius visualization than a normal object. I've tried using the decorative type but that has undesirable side effects when placing concrete over it. Simple-entity is better but is excluded from blueprints. Wall can be blueprinted but has undesired interactions with walls. There are a number of other types I could choose but they all have various downsides and overheads.

It could be called 'Simple-Force-Entity', 'Generic-Entity' or something else that might make more sense. The important thing is a force-based blueprintable entity with minimal overhead and minimal hard-coded interactions with other entities.

Posted: **Sun Oct 23, 2016 5:21 pm**

Another use case can be seen here:
viewtopic.php?f=93&t=34935&p=217749#p217749

Currently letters are using the constant combinator type because it has the least unwanted side effects, but still has an undesired UI.

Posted: **Sun Oct 23, 2016 7:32 pm**

You can turn off the UI with `someEntity.operable = false` during the `on_entity_built` event

Posted: **Sun Oct 23, 2016 8:44 pm**

Are there any other side-effects of doing that?

Posted: **Sun Oct 23, 2016 9:48 pm**

Not that I'm aware of, as far as I can tell it only prevents default GUI appearing when you click the entity.

The entity can still be:

* selected (prototype property `selectable_in_game` can change that, or create it as neutral/enemy force)
* active (LuaEntity.active can be set to disable if required)
* minable (LuaEntity.minable can be set to stop mining)
* destructible (LuaEntity.destructible ...)
* rotatable (LuaEntity.rotatable ...)

Posted: **Sun Oct 23, 2016 10:36 pm**

That's good to know, thanks.

That does improve the situation when using a few of the entities like Text Plates, but I worry about the overhead of adding millions of constant combinators to a scene if they are used for zones. I think it's likely that someone will at some point think it's a good idea to cover their base in a massive home zone.

Posted: **Sun Oct 23, 2016 10:47 pm**

If you set their '.active = false' then the game will still render them but not process any of their game logic, at which point they are almost as lean as a simple-entity.

There's also a debug mode (F4 menu) for showing entity active state - any with green circle are running game logic, any with no circle aren't currently running game logic but are active, and any with red circle are disabled. (I think, lol)

Posted: **Mon Oct 24, 2016 7:34 am**

That is really useful information, thanks.

Posted: **Tue Oct 25, 2016 4:39 pm**

So the last critical issue with using a constant combinator in place of a dedicated simple-force-entity is that a constant combinator does not support Types/RenderLayer. Does anyone have a workaround for this too? I can't just make it invisible and put a decorative underneath because it would be invisible in blueprints.

Posted: **Tue Oct 25, 2016 8:48 pm**

I've just run in to something similar with pipe-to-ground - the render_layer property appears to be ignored (or maybe it's limited to certain layers)... I was trying to set it to "floor" but no joy.

Posted: **Tue Oct 25, 2016 10:07 pm**

What all properties would you imagine such an entity type would support?

Posted: **Wed Oct 26, 2016 12:05 am**

Doesn't setting `.active = false` more or less turn any entity in to a simple-entity (in terms of CPU usage)? If that is the case, I'm not sure if simple-force-entity is required?

Would be good if all entities could handle the `render_layer = "floor"` setting (or any equivalent that has similar effect).

Posted: **Wed Oct 26, 2016 11:36 am**

aubergine18 wrote:Would be good if all entities could handle the `render_layer = "floor"` setting (or any equivalent that has similar effect).

I think there would be problems for things like inserters and power poles. The only way I can see that working is if render_layer was supported on the sprite object and render_layer on the entity just defines the default for any sprites without a defined render_layer.

Rseding91 wrote:What all properties would you imagine such an entity type would support?

I'll try and make a complete list tonight.

Posted: **Wed Oct 26, 2016 9:38 pm**

Here are the properties I would image a Simple-Force-Entity might support.

Supports force and inclusion in blueprint unless "not-blueprintable"
Can support orientation but with a single sprite image there would be no difference. Maybe require a rotate = true to activate orientation?
(No default UI)

Example entity definition:

Code: Select all

{
	type = "simple-force-entity",
	name = "example",
	flags = {"placeable-player", "placeable-neutral", "placeable-enemy", "placeable-off-grid", "player-creation", "not-on-map", 
		"breaths-air", "not-repairable", "building-direction-8-way", "not-blueprintable", "not-deconstructable"},
    icon = "iconpath.png",
    subgroup = "subgroup",
    order = "a[example]-bexample]",
    collision_box = {{-0.45, -0.45}, {0.45, 0.45}},
	collision_mask = {"Types/CollisionMask", "Types/CollisionMask"}
    selection_box = {{-0.5, -0.5}, {0.5, 0.5}},
	drawing_box = {{-0.5, -0.5}, {0.5, 0.5}},
    max_health = 200,
    healing_per_tick = 200,
	emissions_per_tick = -0.0005,
	weight = 5,
	corpse = "medium-remnants",
	dying_explosion = "medium-explosion",
	selectable_in_game = true/false,
    minable =
    {
		mining_particle = "stone-particle",
		mining_time = 8,
		result = "stone",
		count = 20
    },
    loot =
    {
		{item = "stone", probability = 1, count_min = 5, count_max = 10}
    },
    mined_sound = { filename = "__base__/sound/deconstruct-bricks.ogg" },
    render_layer = "Types/RenderLayer",
    resistances =
    {
		{
			type = "fire",
			percent = 100
		}
    },
    autoplace =
    {
		order = "a[example]-b[example]",
		max_probability = 0.25,
		peaks =
		{
			{
				influence = 0.0002
			},
			{
				influence = 0.002;
				min_influence = 0,
				elevation_optimal = 30000,
				elevation_range = 23000,
				elevation_max_range = 30000,
			}
		}
    },
    pictures =
    {
		{
			filename = "__base__/graphics/entity/decorative/stone-rock/stone-rock-01.png",
			width = 76,
			height = 60,
			frame_count = 4,
			animation_speed = 1.5,
			direction_count = 16,
			shift = {0.1, 0}
		},
		{
			filename = "__base__/graphics/entity/decorative/stone-rock/stone-rock-02.png",
			width = 83,
			height = 86,
			frame_count = 4,
			animation_speed = 1.5,
			direction_count = 16,
			shift = {0.2, 0}
		},
		or...
		layers =
		{
			{
				width = 102,
				height = 86,
				frame_count = 2,
				direction_count = 64,
				shift = {0, -0.1875},
				animation_speed = 8,
				max_advance = 0.2,
				stripes =
				{
				{
				 filename = "__base__/graphics/entity/car/car-1.png",
				 width_in_frames = 2,
				 height_in_frames = 22,
				},
				{
				 filename = "__base__/graphics/entity/car/car-2.png",
				 width_in_frames = 2,
				 height_in_frames = 22,
				},
				{
				 filename = "__base__/graphics/entity/car/car-3.png",
				 width_in_frames = 2,
				 height_in_frames = 20,
				},
				}
			},
			{
			  width = 100,
			  height = 75,
			  frame_count = 2,
			  apply_runtime_tint = true,
			  direction_count = 64,
			  max_advance = 0.2,
			  line_length = 2,
			  shift = {0, -0.171875},
			  stripes = util.multiplystripes(2,
			  {
				{
				  filename = "__base__/graphics/entity/car/car-mask-1.png",
				  width_in_frames = 1,
				  height_in_frames = 22,
				},
				{
				  filename = "__base__/graphics/entity/car/car-mask-2.png",
				  width_in_frames = 1,
				  height_in_frames = 22,
				},
				{
				  filename = "__base__/graphics/entity/car/car-mask-3.png",
				  width_in_frames = 1,
				  height_in_frames = 20,
				},
			  })
			}
		}
    }
}

LuaEntity support:

Code: Select all

damage(damage, force, type) → float
destroy() → boolean
die()
has_flag(flag) → boolean
revive() → uint (as ghost)
name :: string [R]
ghost_name :: string [R] (as ghost)
localised_name :: LocalisedString [R]
ghost_localised_name :: LocalisedString [R] (as ghost)
type :: string [R]
ghost_type :: string [R] (as ghost)
active :: boolean [RW] (can switch on/off, however there would be no logic attached so would not make any difference)
destructible :: boolean [RW]
minable :: boolean [RW]
rotatable :: boolean [RW]
operable :: boolean [RW]
health :: float [RW]
direction :: defines.direction [RW]
supports_direction :: boolean [R]
orientation :: float [RW]
prototype :: LuaEntityPrototype [R]
ghost_prototype :: LuaEntityPrototype [R] (as ghost)
time_to_live :: uint [RW] (as ghost)
color :: Color [RW]
last_user :: LuaPlayer [RW]
unit_number :: uint [R]
bounding_box :: BoundingBox [R]
valid :: boolean [R]
teleport(position, surface) → boolean
surface :: LuaSurface [R]
position :: Position [R]
force :: LuaForce [R]

Posted: **Thu Oct 27, 2016 6:27 am**

The ability to repair it, or have robots rebuilt it if destroyed, would be very desirable.

In terms of sprite image, if it works like simple-entity (ie. multiple images can be specified and it chooses one at random when built) that would be great

Like simple-entity, the sprite would only have one orientation.

The usual sound properties - including built_sound, etc., would be desirable.

localised_description would also be desirable.

It's difficult to say what's needed, because I'm not entirely sure what properties a simple-entity has...

Is .weight property available on all entities?

Posted: **Thu Oct 27, 2016 7:59 am**

Just to be clear, the values in the example flags don't represent the default, it just represents the flag options that it could support.

I.e. "not-blueprintable" means that it would be blueprintable by default but the "not-blueprintable" flag could switch that off.

Posted: **Mon Nov 07, 2016 6:33 pm**

I added "simple-entity-with-force" and "simple-entity-with-owner" for 0.15.

Posted: **Tue Nov 08, 2016 4:44 am**

Awesome! Assuming there are no examples of these entities being used in the vanilla prototypes, would it be possible to get a list of the properties they support (or the properties they add, compared to simple-entity)?

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