Clearer visual indicators of activity

[obstinate]

It's very easy to tell whether a mine, boiler, furnace, or steam engine is active. It's less easy to tell if an assembling machine is active, especially if detailed info is turned on. It would be nice if we could have, say, a little green light on the front of assemblers that are active. This would be useful in balancing production lines, especially in mods that require very large ones, like Marathon mod. Thank you for considering my suggestion.

[obstinate]

I think, on further examination, that this can be done with a mod. I'll see about creating it, and then we'll see if people like using it.

[obstinate]

https://forums.factorio.com/forum/viewtop ... 94&t=18369

[vanatteveldt]

+1, I think this belongs in the vanilla game. You can see whether assemblers and especially chemical plants are working, but it is really hard to tell without zooming in.

If a specific indicator light is added, maybe it should be added to the info layer that shows the recipe? You can either add a gauge that shows % of maximum capacity in the past minute or so, or add the progress bar for the current item under the recipe icon?

[ssilk]

https://forums.factorio.com/forum/viewtop ... 589#p84589 ON/OFF Button on buildings.
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/viewtop ... 792#p54206 Showing up/see/visualize modules in assemblies... (further down)

[obstinate]

Is it possible to draw to the info layer from a mod? I could easily write this mod if so.

[cchhiipp]

merged threads, same topic
-- daniel34

TL;DR: Green, yellow, red lights on assemblers indicating their status - producing, waiting on output, waiting on input

This would be a quality of life addition to be able to get an overview of your different production areas by glancing at the assemblers, without having to click individually on them.

Green light - Assembler is running non-stop. It has a supply of ingredients and free space in its output slot.
Yellow light - Assembler is not running because its output slot is full.
Red light - Assembler is not running because it is lacking one or more ingredients.

With this addition, you could get a quick sense of entire sections of your factory at a glance in real time.

[Lallante]

A very obvious "activity" light in the same place on every 3x3 building (red yellow green with yellow as waiting for ingredients and green as active) would be a huge quality of life change.

[vanatteveldt]

This could even be part of the 'alt' extra info, if it is too difficult to integrate in the normal graphics: have the background colour of the recipe icon change according to activity.

[Ghoulish]

merged threads, same topic
-- daniel34

TL;DR: Green, yellow, red lights on assemblers indicating their status - producing, waiting on output, waiting on input

This would be a quality of life addition to be able to get an overview of your different production areas by glancing at the assemblers, without having to click individually on them.

Green light - Assembler is running non-stop. It has a supply of ingredients and free space in its output slot.
Yellow light - Assembler is not running because its output slot is full.
Red light - Assembler is not running because it is lacking one or more ingredients.

With this addition, you could get a quick sense of entire sections of your factory at a glance in real time.

Maybe a blue light if a power issue?

[ssilk]

Maybe a blue light if a power issue?

How about black light?


SCNR