Improvements for the Construction-Phase (Handling of Blueprints / Ghosts / Copy / Pre-Configuration)

[ssilk]

This subject has a grandfather subject, which contains several ideas:

viewtopic.php?f=80&t=4682 Planning (Signs, Cloning, Ghosts, Blueprinting and more...)

Also related:
viewtopic.php?f=80&t=37517 Blueprint-Mirroring, BP-Shifting, -Programming, -Iteration, -Editing, Ornaments and Recursion
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=31292 Ghost-Construction-Mode-Change/Deconstruction-Mode-Change/What Robots Build the Blueprint?/Planning



See below Ghosts/Blueprints, parts of clone and parts of planning. They need to be copied into this subject.

Suggestions (TODO, this list is currently quite incomplete)

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3541 Place item ghosts from inventory
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7904 Copy-paste modules (in addition to settings)
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=8035 Ghost Build Mode
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=12458 Logistics layover when placing ghost buildings.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=13315 Ghosts scheduled to be built by construction robots
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=17636 Smart inserters react to blueprint construction
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=22362 Manipulate ghost buildings just like regular ones
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=26711 Making stuff with Ghostsbuildings (Rotating ghosts ...)
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=28100 Copy & Place to paste copied settings into placed thing
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=28925 Merge requester chest settings on blueprint placement
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=30374 Copy Entity Rotation aswell
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=34464 Module Blueprint/stamp/copy paste
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=39441 assembling machine
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=41960 AUTO ghost place
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=44190 Blueprint placing alignment tweak(QoL)
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=45402 Allow ghosts that aren't researched yet
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=45403 Introduce "build over ghosts" button or modifier
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=45459 Shift+RightClick To Deconstruct
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=48983 Locked Ghosts for Planning/piece-by-piece building
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=49664 Roboports send Required Ghost Items
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=50041 Import/Export blueprints as PNG images
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=50110 Fast Ghost Building Placement - Early game help
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=50201 Bulldoze mode for blueprints

viewtopic.php?f=80&t=45635 Improvements for the Construction-Phase (Handling of Blueprints / Ghosts / Copy / Pre-Configuration)

[TRauMa]

While I appreciate the effort you put into sifting through all these posts and collecting them, I'm a bit unsure if they are the right place to discuss them? Is there a chance to reach developers posting here?

In particular, while playing Space Exploration and using it's discorporate NavSat building mode (and boy, it reminded me how much fun I had with my Godmode vanilla playthrough years ago), where you can have absolutely nothing besides temporary planners in your inventory and all the recipes in your crafting menu are free and give you ghosts, I realized that vanilla ghost handling would be much better by stealing a page from there.

Ghost building without item in inventory, for example, is possible already, but getting the ghost in your cursor can be cumbersome. A modifier that switches the crafting menu to a "give me a ghost of that" menu would be highly appreciated. It would make sense to require the modifier on open, so you can display a different selection (without crafting costs/availability, and everything not placeable in the world removed), and because all click modifiers in the crafting menu proper are already taken.

Manipulate ghost buildings just like regular ones would be such a boon. I can't count how often I had to place a ghost, wait for the bots to get around to placing it before finally being able to configure it. I think vanilla players feel that pain less because they tend to nearly insta-build from their personal roboport. I think making it possible to interact with your ghosted entity would make it more attractive to not just plonk down a blueprint you got from reddit or the wiki, too, as you can use configurable ghosts much more readily to plan your base layout in advance, particularly for buildings you don't have in your inventory, and I believe the inability to do this properly with a "hand-placed" ghost is part of what makes ready made blueprints so popular, even if the FFF is right and they can suck the fun out of designing a new base.

Adding to that, I think module slots should work like filter slots, so you can click on them without a module and select from all the possible modules for the entity and recipe (which, btw, would also make obvious where you can place productivity modules before trying it). That's useful for both ghosts of assembling machines and the real deal, and while you would still be able to place a different module in the slot by clicking directly with module in hand, as long as it is filtered it will only accept the filtered module when ctrl-clicking the entity with a module stack in hand. Construction bots would try to fill the mod slots just as they already do (but I guess you wouldn't need a confusing, click-blocking "bot module action still required here" sign/extra entity if the original entity could remember what modules it wants).

Copy & Place to paste copied settings into placed thing, or just "building over an entity with a compatible ghost with settings should copy the settings to the entity" would be useful to be able to quickly iterate changes on existing buildings. Again, the reason people like to use blueprint collections is that they make it easier to replace production lines once you go up the tech tree, and configuring upgrade planners and changing recipes and adding modules by hand just can't compete with "delete and place blueprint mkII".

This together with toggleable personal roboports and a way to get rid of that annoying blinking "30 items are missing from construction" I believe would already offer people 90% of the functionality you propose in your post on planning.

[slippycheeze]

While I appreciate the effort you put into sifting through all these posts and collecting them, I'm a bit unsure if they are the right place to discuss them? Is there a chance to reach developers posting here?

There is limited to no chance of the developers responding to your specific comments, here, or anywhere else. This isn't a one-way forum, but it also isn't really "the developers are obliged to answer to you" city either, and most things go unanswered. Just the nature of the thing, there are far more opinions than they have hours of the day.

This is the best possible place to give feedback, though, and yes, a post here is likely to be read by the developers. Definitely as likely as anything else you might do to try and attract attention -- and far better than many of the choices that some other folks make in the effort.

[TRauMa]

There is limited to no chance of the developers responding to your specific comments, here, or anywhere else. [...]

This is the best possible place to give feedback, though, and yes, a post here is likely to be read by the developers.

That's fine, then, I didn't expect an answer, just eyeballs. Thank you.

[ssilk]

By reading through this I mean this is 90% implemented.

The more important remainings are:
- allow ghosts that aren’t researched yet - it’s a problem if you use such blueprints but also a problem how to visualize that without being overwhelmed.
- manipulation of ghosts (set modules, recipe, filters...)
- handling of large blueprints, difficult to place, can be abused (This is new but in the last two month several times suggested)
- handling of destruction, entities in the way: destroy everything in the area, don’t destroy rocks... (Also partly new)

Those should be made extra suggestions/linked. Todo.

Be free to correct me if I forgot something.

[blazespinnaker]

Talk about burying the lead!

IMHO - Really needs to a better curated list of frequently suggested features. Having read the suggestions forum, there are no more than 10 *specific* frequently made points made by veteran players, the rest are just vague desires for more mechanics by folks new to the game. The latter is important of course, but very tricky to curate.

+1 for clobbering blueprints. viewtopic.php?f=6&t=59554