More ideas for building ghosts

[ssilk]

Inspired from here: https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=2857

All is low priority:

- currently autoplacing doesn't work always correctly. (E. g. poles, just mentioning, devs know that surely)
- when building the ghost, the reach of roboports should be shown, or better: is a ghost within the reach? Just a dot over the building or a different color.
- is the construction bot for that ghost "on the way?". Different color for that ghost or a dot above? Sometimes important e. g. when building roboports far out.
- building of entities you don't have in the inventory? You need that item as "blueprint". It's sometimes hard to have everything in the pocket. Having also "ghost items" could be a cool solution. May need extra research.
- showing the number of available items of that type in that robotic network. Also useful for placing blueprints.
- seeing the number of "open constructions" for each type of item.

[Coolthulhu]

- building of entities you don't have in the inventory? You need that item as "blueprint". It's sometimes hard to have everything in the pocket.

That's a part of a larger and probably more important idea that keeps resurfacing once in a while:
Split belt from inventory. Currently belt is just a handy "slice" of inventory, not a proper list of handles/references. This results in clunky behavior whenever items are completely used up (drag-placing poles, for example) and another item is picked up.

[Holy-Fire]

This results in clunky behavior whenever items are completely used up (drag-placing poles, for example) and another item is picked up.

Isn't that what slot filters are for?

[ssilk]

One solution for that is to make it more or less the same as in games like OpenTTD: A "tool" for the streets, one for the rails, one for planes and airport, ships and harbor, etc. It definitely works.

So with factorio: One for belts, trains, electric etc. But I can live with the current solution.

[thelordodin]

An idea:
Why not just shift+right click into recepies would give you a ghost into your hand?
And why not shift+right click on a ghost just revive it if you have and item in inventory and staying near?

[_Peter_]

I frequently want to use ghosts for planning.

Then it is not practical that available robots will build these ghosts.

Why not introduce a "locked ghost" kind of ghost.
- strg+shift+click (item or bluepring) creates "locked" ghost that is semitransparent and has a lock icon on top (like the X for destruction, but a lock)
- these ghosts are ignored by bots and warnings but they are visible
- strg+click on such a ghost makes them unlocked -> robots will build them
- strg+mark a rectangle will make all marked ghosts unlocked
- strg+click/mark could also toggle locked/unlocked ghosts

I imagine that this would be a very useful feature, in particular for the potential new "blueprint game mode" where players might want to place blueprints for planning, but build other planned buildings first. Let's say I place a blueprint for building the whole refinery, but I only want the initial oil processing to be built as long as the rest is not researched yet ... this could be a rather small change with big positive implications for the game play in my opinion.

[ssilk]

This is an (mostly) implemented suggestion. I recommend to make a new one.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=47316

[_Peter_]

This is an (mostly) implemented suggestion. I recommend to make a new one.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=47316

Thank you, sorry for posting in the "implemented suggestion", and I created a new suggestion here: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=48983