Factorio Forums

TL;DR

Night vision goggles should take up 1x1 slot in your modular/power/mech armor, instead of 2x2.

What?

Belt immunity and portable solar panels are the only equipment in the game that take up a 1x1 armor slot. This often leads to a situation where despite having portable fission/fusion reactors, if you're using belt immunity, the only thing you can fill that slot with is a solar panel.

My proposal is that night vision goggles should take up a 1x1 slot, both to eliminate this problem, and also encourage players who overlook NVGs due to the space they take up to use them more often.

Why?

Night vision goggles have since their inception been the redheaded stepchild of armor equipment. As of yet, they're the only equipment item that do not benefit from higher quality, even when things like belt immunity use less power with higher quality, and many players forego them due to the space they take up which could be just as easily used for another roboport or a couple of batteries. This minor change could have a sizeable impact on the use of NVGs, and in my opinion, improve the game.

Real-life Infrared Goggles are large, heavy electronics attached to the top of a Helmet where the lever-arm is the greatest. This puts the Neck under a lot of strain, encumbers movement far more than normal Goggles due to their size, restricts the field of vision, occasionally require awkward battery changes while blind. And you still can’t see colors.


I think 2x2 equipment size reflects this balance well, and functions much better than the actual device.

Counterpoint, Factorio is a video game where you can take dozens of rocket silos, and put them into your pocket.

That'd be great.

I'd think an obvious solution is to add Mk2 goggles that are smaller.