LukeM wrote:just not why you are so quick to dismiss other means of telling the time. A watch is an incredibly useful thing that IMO everyone should have
Well i'm dismissing these other means for the same reason i am dismissing my current method (alt-tabbing every 10 seconds to show taskbar).
It's just too easy to forget to do that and suddenly an hour has gone by.
I don't have a watch, or any other timing devices near my computer. I already have my PC why do i need more than that?
Everywhere else i go either has a PC nearby, a clock on the wall or if i
Really need to know what time it is i'll check my phone when i'm out and about.
This greatly detracts from the immersive experience that factorio provides, mainly because i have to keep stopping and thinking "have i checked what time it is, how long has it been?".
I can't get comfortably immersed with this constant concern.
Having the system time clearly in peripheral view solves all issues, and all potential issues around this suggestion in a single fell swoop.
The losing track of time being the biggest issue.
LukeM wrote:Although I don't think that the small change really matters, I guess I can see where you're coming from.
I don't have a big monitor, so those small differences are pretty large.
My native resolution is 1440x900.
Additionally, i use two rows on my taskbar because it is necessary for my other activities. I can accept this as a niche case for my situation, but it's noteworthy.
The easy comparison is minecraft.
I play that in windowed because the only thing on the HUD is your hotbar, and the game world is easy enough to discern without needing higher resolutions.
You could play minecraft in 800x600 and not have any issues in determining your surroundings.
Factorio is different because there is significantly more information on the screen at any given time, as well as the UI being far more complex.
There aren't many cases where i would suggest so strongly that the system time should be displayed in-game, but factorio is definitely one of those cases.
LukeM wrote:Thats fps though, generally you would expect any game to have a way to get an fps counter, so would naturally google it if you wanted one. An in-game system time isn't really something you would expect, so personally I wouldnt even think to google it to find out if there is one.
I googled this beforehand thinking with a game this large and complex, it should be there.
So, if it existed i would be using it right now without needing to have suggested it.
Same goes for anyone else who feels the same way.
It's a game design thing. It's not appropriate for all games, but it definitely is appropriate for factorio.
Having a game this engaging is absolutely great!! Much credit to the dev team for creating this amazing work.
It's almost *too* engaging sometimes, i would say.
And that's not necessarily a bad thing.
It would just be nice to have some way to more easily moderate our play sessions.
LukeM wrote:As I explained in my last post, the reason I think a mod would be a better solution is because thats where I would look to find this feature, so it would probably be the best way to make this feature visible to the people that want to use it.
Fair point, but i disagree with the visibility of mods.
Versions change all the time, and i do not see mods as reliable.
With 0.17 coming up and its changes to the UI, it's fair to assume that all previous mods that alter the HUD (or make use of menus in general) would require updating.
And the whole achievements thing.
I do not like playing modded, and i would exhaust other options first before resorting to mods.
Making this suggestion is one of those options i have decided to persue.