Factorio Forums

Currently if I were to place my blueprint and some of my electric miners happen to be outside of the mineral resources area, it will turn red and will not allow me to implement it. This is very annoying because there are no area of mineral deposits that are exactly alike. We should be able to implement it down anywhere as we wish regardless so that it's just easier to place regardless of shape of the area of minerals. It pretty much makes it impossible to copy an area that I've already copied and place it in an exact area of the same shape. Maybe if the other is bigger then yes but a bit smaller where a miner doesn't have anything to mine, then it can't be placed. Should be placed and miner outside of the mineral just doesn't do anything. Makes it a whole lot easier.

No, it doesn't make it impossible to make blueprints for miners, you just have to think about it differently.

The "compact" setup I am using (belt, underground belt and power in the middle row) is basically a repetition of 4 miners around 1 pole, 2 underground belts, and if/when I want to make a blueprint rather than placing by hand, I just take 1 of such groups instead of the whole setup currently mining.

Here is an example of a very modular setup, that can be used very early game, and fits very well with belt improvements and blueprints later on:

MMM|MMM
MM> | <MM
MMM^MMM
MMMPMMM
MM> ^ <MM
MMM|MMM
M = Miner
> = miner exit
| = Belt (upward here)
^ = Underground belt
P = small electric pole

All it comes down to, when doing blueprints, is to take into account that you might encounter other situations, so you should always try and make modular designs for your blueprints.

Well, that's just my take on it, but I think that what you are asking mostly comes down to your design not being able to adapt, rather than a real flaw in the game (only my opinion though).

the ability to exclude things in BP placing could be useful.
i.e
holding shift when placing BP could simply place all the items that can be placed while excluding items which are red.

but i agree with slay_mithros
i use a modular design, usually with several versions
first version is the most simple repeating arrangement - 4 electric drills feeding onto a belt for example

second version is a larger repeated variation of that to save time,usually along the lines of a single row of the first design, repeated 4+ times so it all follows one feed.

third and final version is fro the really big stuff, so 4+ colums of the second version or, if they're huge it would incorporate other things, like a robo-port for the really really big repeating designs i might use in a mass foundry.

after that i can just mix and match the BP's to my needs, usually if its too small/awkward to work inside those designs i just ignore them

I think this is somehow similar:

https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... 9&start=20

Maybe not very understandable yet, but I'm sure with the time we all need to copy the blueprints in different ways to get new blueprints/cover large areas and this this is one way to automate that.

Yes, I can make it, that miners that have no resources will not just be built, but the whole blueprint will be buildable.

I don't like the concept of blueprints not building everything, that's very confusing to me, but I guess I'll just have to keep making my kind of blueprints instead.

krayziez wrote:Currently if I were to place my blueprint and some of my electric miners happen to be outside of the mineral resources area, it will turn red and will not allow me to implement it. This is very annoying because there are no area of mineral deposits that are exactly alike. We should be able to implement it down anywhere as we wish regardless so that it's just easier to place regardless of shape of the area of minerals. It pretty much makes it impossible to copy an area that I've already copied and place it in an exact area of the same shape. Maybe if the other is bigger then yes but a bit smaller where a miner doesn't have anything to mine, then it can't be placed. Should be placed and miner outside of the mineral just doesn't do anything. Makes it a whole lot easier.

I haven't tested this yet, but does this mean that: when one of the mines in the blueprint can't be placed, that the whole blueprint can't be placed? If so, I would very much like to see this changed.

You know, it's exactly the same as when one of the tiles can't be placed (because of tree, water, other building in the way), it prevents the whole blueprint, which is good, because if it did jut omit parts that can't be built, it could make the whole contraption not work as expected (missing belts, missing assemblers...).


If you start to change it for the mining drills, you "have" to change it for the rest too, or it will become very confusing for many new(ish) people, and it needs to be really clear that parts of the blueprints could not be built.


I seriously think that helping people to learn what are the restrictions on the blueprints, and how to make blueprints, rather than changing the system in a way that might cause other problems.

I think it could be useful, somehow, but in the long run I think a "programmable placing" would be fine. (I think to a simple GUI, where you can set the distance, rotation and mirror for repeated settings of blueprints). And a "if it makes sense to place" is then just one of some other conditions.

But that makes sense after having blueprint-saveing, and some other stuff. So: yes, but... I'm a bit sceptic. I think it's too early to implement that now, because it's really easy and fast to delete ghosts.

kovarex wrote:Yes, I can make it, that miners that have no resources will not just be built, but the whole blueprint will be buildable.

Yes please do this for the upcoming updates. It's very much needed. I would like to just be able to use ONE blueprint and paste everything on an area of mineral deposits and be done with it. to me, use of modular blueprints where several are needed is semi pointless because the whole point of a blueprint is to build it as quickly as possible. if i have to mess around with several blueprints why not just build the whole thing by hand?