The Electric network infoscreen is counter-intuitive

[themoon]

So I know this thread is a bit old but I didn't want to create a new one since I got here via searching Google for the answer. I'm a brand new player who has been thoroughly enjoying the game but one of the things that confused the hell out of me was the electric network screen. I like Zeblote's descriptions and after searching a bit I finally figured out how he did it. So those random people searching and stumbling upon this thread:

Here's what I did to change the labels:

I navigated to my install path:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Factorio\data\core\locale\en

en I assume was English.

There I found a file labeled core.cfg. Open it with notepad. It's full of text that made zero sense to me but do a search for the below line.
title=Electric network infoconsumption=Consumptionproduction=Productionaccumulator-capacity=Accumulator capacity

and change it to:

title=Electric network infoconsumption=Available Productionproduction=Current Consumptionaccumulator-capacity=Accumulator capacity

This makes so much more sense to me. I imagine old timers don't understand our confusion but this really cleared it once I did this.

[ssilk]

O.K. Understood. Nonetheless can you provide a screenshot, please?

[themoon]

O.K. Understood. Nonetheless can you provide a screenshot, please?

A screenshot of the result?
It's the same thing Zeblote suggested a few posts back. Looks like this now:

[themoon]

The one other thing I don't understand though... why are the two numbers the same? Why do they both say 5.9MW in my screenshot as an example.

[silverkitty23]

Your electric producers *only produce how much they need to meet demand* - so the numbers are always the same as long as you have excess production capacity... and if you have insufficient production capacity, the numbers are the same because the production is maximized, so now things aren't getting the electricity they want, so you're distributing all your power and some things are not consuming any power (or are consuming less and operating slower than usual). In short, the numbers are always the same. Which makes one of the numbers useless to print at all

The confusion is basically that the game doesn't tell you the total demand and the total production capacity. You have to guess those based on the size of the bar...

So in that screen shot, you guess based on the size of the lower bar, which looks to be at about 25%, that you CAN be making 24 MW of power, but you're only making 6MW because your factory only *needs* 6MW at the moment.

The top bar is misleading because it says "available production" but actually means "current production" :/

[ssilk]

The one other thing I don't understand though... why are the two numbers the same? Why do they both say 5.9MW in my screenshot as an example.

Cause the consumption can get much higher. Lasers, that currently don't fire, assemblies, that currently don't work.
(That was also the reason, why I wanted the screenshoot )

Perhaps you can replace "Current consumption" with "Current demand" to understand it better?

When I look at this I see also the problem, why this is misleading:
The consumption has nothing to do with production! But they are joined together.

That inspired me. With the logic of this insight it would make sense to have it like so:

IMG_1100.jpg (390.5 KiB) Viewed 4492 times

Explanation: The basic idea is a scale, which must be in balance. See down, about the buttons for "relative" and "absolut".
Left is production, right consumption.
First bar is 100% total. The orange bar is how much is really used.
Now, devices below that must also add to 100%.
You see that better on the right side (the left is a little bit "wrong" ): all orange bars add to 5 MW. And the grey bars add to the remaining rest (also 5 MW).
In detail: All mines run at 100% and use 2 MW in total. Laser uses currently 2 MW, but could use extra 2 MW. That is the grey bar (from right to left). Assemblies uses currently 1 MW. The orange bar begins where the orange bar from the laser ends. Assemblies can use extra 2 MW. That grey bar begins, where the laser grey bar ends.

With the buttons "relative" and "absolute" at the top I mean: This is currently the relative view, production and consumption is 100% and so the scale is not in balance.
By switching to "absolute" the pic changes: The production-side (right) is length of 100%, the consumption side only length of 70% (10 MW max vs. 7 MW max) and the both orange bars have then the same length. (Some could name the buttons also "relative" and "balanced", maybe that's better?)

It seem also to be useful to have some buttons for sorting (by power (orange), by unused (grey), by sum of both.

I thought also to some kind of "comperator"-view. An extra view, which shows the division of the total bars. But I thought back to the scale-idea. I think when I put this view to "absolute" and there is another button like to filter out the real- or the reserve-power then this would be enough to see, how the power is currently going.

The view for the accumulators (with this usage the accumulators can last that long etc.) is a completely different question!

[Neotix]

I think that it's overcomplicated. I can't just look at it to know situation, I have to analyze it.
Actual design is good enough, only names are misleading because first bat is demand satisfaction indicator and second is production.

[stellatedHex]

I agree that it's counterintuitive, but I think themoon's renaming is even more confusing (though that might just be me). I propose, instead, "Demand Satisfaction" and "Production load", which I think clear things up nicely.

[ssilk]

I think that it's overcomplicated. I can't just look at it to know situation, I have to analyze it.

Like now.

Actual design is good enough, only names are misleading because first bat is demand satisfaction indicator and second is production.

As you can see (especially) in this thread: Names can be very misleading. See also the linked thread: viewtopic.php?f=80&t=25233 Electric Network Info (Power Bars...) , which introduces more names.

It is a natural process, that if we have a interpretable situation, that names makes things worse, instead better.

A functionality should be understandable without names. Maybe you need to look a bit at it, but that is no change to now.

[Neotix]

Like now.

No, I don't have to analyze anything in actual design. Quick look is enough to know situation. Only at start when i first play Factorio that bars were unclear because of names. When I understood theirs meaning it become clear and easy to use.

I read others propositions and most of them base on actual design.

[Ghoulish]

Here's what I did to change the labels:

I navigated to my install path:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Factorio\data\core\locale\en

en I assume was English.

There I found a file labeled core.cfg. Open it with notepad. It's full of text that made zero sense to me but do a search for the below line.
title=Electric network infoconsumption=Consumptionproduction=Productionaccumulator-capacity=Accumulator capacity

and change it to:

title=Electric network infoconsumption=Available Productionproduction=Current Consumptionaccumulator-capacity=Accumulator capacity

Been a minor gripe with me for ages, thanks for pointing out the path.

I think you opened the file with the wrong text editor, which is why your paste showed as one long line. Should show thus;

[gui-electric-network]
title=Electric network info
consumption=Consumption
production=Production
accumulator-capacity=Accumulator capacity

Open config files with https://notepad-plus-plus.org/ which is free / stable. Notetab is another good alternative (for windoze). Anyhoo, maybe you know this, maybe not, either way thanks for pointing out the location

[Harkonnen604]

As already said, what game lacks is total theoretical maximum in production which you can guess through bars, but it's still questionable thing because your theoretical maximum could imply that accumulators give energy during the day together with solar panels. So I'd vote for these sets of numbers:

1. Steam energy production: current / SteamMax
2. Solar energy production: current / SolarMax
3. Accumulators energy production: current / AccuMax
4. Energy consumption: total demand / SaneMax (which flips to SaneMax / demand with you're lacking power)
5. Accumulators capacity: current / AccuCapMax

SteamMax = NumberOfEngines*510KW
SolarMax = NumberOfPanels*60KW
AccuMax = NumberOfAccus*300KW
SaneMax = SteamMax + min(AccuMax, SolarMax)
AccuCapMax = NumberOfAccus*5MJ

Each of them should have green bar showing relation of current to max and more importantly, both current and max must be visible in numbers.
It would also be interesting to see machinery count in digits (e.g. number of solar panels).

Note that item 4 may have demand > SaneMax but demand still satisfied (when accumulators start giving energy during a day).

[pingger]

THIS! This is what we need! I don't think this is too hard to program (Should Probably be less than 30 lines of code. May be 50-60 Lines when making the UI look good.

As already said, what game lacks is total theoretical maximum in production which you can guess through bars, but it's still questionable thing because your theoretical maximum could imply that accumulators give energy during the day together with solar panels. So I'd vote for these sets of numbers:

1. Steam energy production: current / SteamMax
2. Solar energy production: current / SolarMax
3. Accumulators energy production: current / AccuMax
4. Energy consumption: total demand / SaneMax (which flips to SaneMax / demand with you're lacking power)
5. Accumulators capacity: current / AccuCapMax

SteamMax = NumberOfEngines*510KW
SolarMax = NumberOfPanels*60KW
AccuMax = NumberOfAccus*300KW
SaneMax = SteamMax + min(AccuMax, SolarMax)
AccuCapMax = NumberOfAccus*5MJ

Each of them should have green bar showing relation of current to max and more importantly, both current and max must be visible in numbers.
It would also be interesting to see machinery count in digits (e.g. number of solar panels).

Note that item 4 may have demand > SaneMax but demand still satisfied (when accumulators start giving energy during a day).