Option to disable no-power flashing / Remove potential epilepsy problem / Reduce distraction on power loss

British_Petroleum · Post by **British_Petroleum** » Sun Jul 03, 2016 12:03 am

I'm sure lots of people have suggested this before, but why hasn't it been implemented? It's the most annoying thing about the game imo. Even if it just showed the no-power icon but didn't flash that would be so much better. Why does it have to flash... often power poles will be the last thing to place when designing something so you have to endure all this flashing while working on the design. Please have an option to disable the flashing.

Vasillo · Post by **Vasillo** » Sun Jul 03, 2016 4:13 am

That's all fine and dandy 'till you wonder why half your factory isn't producing anything or your laser turrets aren't firing and biters are eating your face a lot

Post by **ssilk** » Sun Jul 03, 2016 8:45 am

Maybe there is a difference between
a) No power connection at all (should be fixed soon)
b) Connected, but no power (dangerous)
c) Connected, but no power because switched off by power switch (wanted)

mattj256 · Post by **mattj256** » Mon Jul 04, 2016 8:38 pm

ssilk wrote:Maybe there is a difference between
a) No power connection at all (should be fixed soon)
b) Connected, but no power (dangerous)
c) Connected, but no power because switched off by power switch (wanted)

British_Petroleum never said (a) shouldn't have a warning, just that it shouldn't blink.

I agree that it's reasonable to place power poles last, and I agree that the flashing warning icons can be distracting. I don't like the idea of a new option - the behavior should be the same for everyone. There's too many options already and it doesn't add value to add a checkbox for this one.

Rather than having (a) blinking, how about if it has a BIG nonflashing warning icon like an uncharged accumulator?

Maybe there should also be a timeout: if an entity is in (a) for more than five minutes it switches to look like (b)? The most important thing is that the warnings in (a) and (b) shouldn't be subtle. I don't want to forget or get distracted and then be surprised when it isn't working.

For (c), I think the "no power" icon should be nonflashing with a gray background. Or you could color the whole entity more gray. (Not transparent because that will be confused with ghost building.)

I would add (d), which is a brownout. Your factory is running but not at full capacity. (Electrical consumption is greater than electrical production.)
Right now the animations run more slowly (for inserters and assemblers and so on), but my computer varies between 15 FPS to 40 or 50 FPS so when I see a slow inserter I don't know whether this indicates a power problem unless I mouse over to check.

Qon · Post by **Qon** » Mon Jul 04, 2016 9:01 pm

I agree. I can't think while it's blinking so I have to connect whatever I'm building just to get rid of the blinking icons. Hard to design something when the natural state of something that is half finished sends out brain shutdown impulses...

darkfrei · Post by **darkfrei** » Wed Jan 10, 2018 7:49 pm

Add this code to prototype.energy_source for disabling "no power" icon.

Code: Select all

render_no_power_icon = false

rebusb · Post by **rebusb** » Thu May 10, 2018 6:10 pm

Revisiting this topic because I just ran into this as an issue. I am hoping that there is a solution less drastic than turning off all no-electric warnings. Searches just turn up this thread.

Building a new high tech Titan foundry, all electric. Was planning on being able to switch on and off sections of furnaces, but when the power is off in a zone ...issue c)... flashing icons, lots of them, sending a false warning. Yes, there is no power but that is the desired condition thus does not require notification.

Really seems like the game should not report switched off electric networks as an critical network error.

Maddhawk · Post by **Maddhawk** » Fri May 11, 2018 11:35 pm

Really should just be a simply toggle in options for static or flashing warning icons. If you toggle static warnings on, then when there is a power shortage or whatever is causing the warning, the icon will appear on top of the structure and sit there without blinking at you.

equitime77 · Post by **equitime77** » Wed Sep 26, 2018 8:33 am

I totally agree that something needs to be done re the flashing. If they just had an option to turn the flashing off that will be a great help. It also does the same thing for me with the flashing that happens when a construction planner is placed. Also, the alarms that can be made, I wish they were either on or off

tk0421 · Post by **tk0421** » Thu Sep 27, 2018 5:55 pm

one of the first things i look for whenever there is a major version change, is in the setting to see if there is a way to customize which flashing world and map icons are shown or not.

I would love option toggles, or even better hotkeyable options, for all of these: power, bots, circuits, etc.
Or at the least, a maybe half-distancetoedgeofscreen radius around the player which would mute the flashing, to eliminate eyesore

Zaflis · Post by **Zaflis** » Mon Oct 01, 2018 12:56 am

I tried to tackle this issue before with a mod that makes the warnings less distracting: https://mods.factorio.com/mod/SmoothWarnings
(I'm sorry, i forgot to do accumulators back then, maybe some day i'd decide to update it but accumulators do that so rarely i didn't even think about it.)

I find the yellow soft icons even comforting to the eye

Also it's BAD if warning is preventing player from seeing graphics details of the entity itself too much.

DreamConspiracy · Post by **DreamConspiracy** » Tue Mar 12, 2019 12:24 pm

Add a setting that removes the blinking icons when there's no power supply in the circuit network, or the power is low. Something like "Show power warnings." Currently, working with combinators that are intentionally disconnected from power is incredibly annoying, as the icon takes up most of the combinator and it's hard to see where wires and other things are. Equally good would be an option to make the warnings much less... invasive.

Post by **Koub** » Thu Mar 21, 2019 8:05 pm

Shameless self-advertisement incoming

viewtopic.php?p=380450#p380450
This suggestion would most probably be a step even further

gli7ched · Post by **gli7ched** » Sun Aug 25, 2019 5:04 pm

TL;DR

Allow the ability to toggle/make unpowered warnings/other flashing elements static or turn them off completely, plus add epilepsy/photosensitivity warnings to the opening of the game and store pages.

What ?

I have a couple suggestions on how to implement this.
1. Allow the ability to toggle unpowered warnings on elements, and other flashing elements on and off.
2. Make these warnings static/make the option to toggle static warnings (aka they appear, but don't flash).
3. Add Epilepsy warnings to the game (preferably on store pages, as well as while the game is opening).

Why ?

Currently the game has elements that trigger epilepsy/photosensitivity in players. For myself, someone who has had epilepsy for all of my adult life, this has made Factorio unplayable. This is disappointing because I love Factorio. It's an awesome game, with an awesome premise. I play many games, and Factorio triggers my photosensitivity way more consistently than any other game I've ever played. I have also read other threads from other people who have had issues with photosensitivity from Factorio.

I hate to say it, but this will cause me to stop playing Factorio until something is implemented or a Mod gets released.

eradicator · Post by **eradicator** » Sun Aug 25, 2019 7:08 pm

1) I've also always found the blinking most annoying and wanted it to be either constantly fully opaque, or at least a smoother blend-in/blend-out. I'm pretty sure this has already been asked for countless times though, so official support seems unlikely to me :/. I'm not aware of any mods or moddability of the blink-effect, but i wonder if it would be realistic to request a utility_constant to make it moddable....

3) As i don't have epilepsy (lucky me) i percieve them mostly as legalize bullshit that lawyers tell everyone to include just to be sure. They're on *every* tripe-AAA game, and on no indie game (presumably because most indie companies don't have dedicated legal departments). They add some agonizing seconds to the startup time that are of no use to me (same as all the unskippable company logos...). And as epilepsy seems to be a higly individual condition it would seem to me that no (non-)affected developer could ever be sure that their game is guaranteed to never trigger anyones epilepsy and thus affected persons have to rely on their own judgement anyway, like you seem to have done for factorio already. (Not trying to be patronizing, just don't have IRL experience with epilepsy.)

So from personal experience, how useful are those warnings to you really? Do you straight out skip any game that has a warning or do you try them anyway (or watch gameplay streams to get a feeling)? Do you assume every indie game that has no warning is completely safe?

gli7ched · Post by **gli7ched** » Sun Aug 25, 2019 7:43 pm

eradicator wrote: ↑Sun Aug 25, 2019 7:08 pm So from personal experience, how useful are those warnings to you really? Do you straight out skip any game that has a warning or do you try them anyway (or watch gameplay streams to get a feeling)? Do you assume every indie game that has no warning is completely safe?

For me I pay attention to warnings as some games have issues, some don't. That being said, I usually watch some streams of every game I consider buying to get a feel for it. Watching a video vs experiencing it can be different tho (in my experience).

No, I don't assume every indie game is safe, just like I don't assume every game with a warning can have an effect. For example I play The Division, which has a warning, and that game, I have never ever had an issue with. That being said, epilepsy and photosensitivity vary from person to person.

That all being said, the warnings for sure have a place, and should be included especially on games that have reports from players of photosensitivity. The same way allergy warnings on food is helpful to consumers.

BlueTemplar · Post by **BlueTemplar** » Sun Aug 25, 2019 9:25 pm

Making them smaller might help ?
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/LessUnplugged

Tekky · Post by **Tekky** » Sun Aug 25, 2019 11:00 pm

Related threads regarding deactivating red flashing in the game due to epilepsy:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=46938 can you make it possible to disable Red warning when taking
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=68493 Red screen flashing when your character takes damage

mmmPI · Post by **mmmPI** » Sun Aug 25, 2019 11:39 pm

The power icon and the belts, a fullscreen of empty blue belts with balancers and all messed up, if you happen to have fluctuating/slower FPS, they can look like slowing-down/accelerating reproducing a blinking (to my eyes) similar to the power icon.

An icon such as the one for missing module could be used to replace the blinkin power icon, but this doesn't translate for belts.

I'm not particularly sensitive to this myself, though i remember feeling inconfortable several times and thought about this particular "warning" at the time.

Maybe there could be an officially supported "mod" , coming closer to version 1 , where options could be added over time when people need/detail them (i am assuming different triggering factors) to include the "modifications" needed in the game, one could think linking that with color differenciation, or "accessibility" in general , to give more visibility rather than having each individual looking for its individual fix over the internet.

(there are some thoughts on power-user hotkeys in the FF309, maybe there could be some attention given to this aspect in the process too, as something that would exist in base game turned-off by default, but that one with particular need could use).

This also helps advertising the game, if you have the warning AND you can point towards an "answer" , I would think this, although adressing a minority, would be a very positive point for them (vs avoiding the matter ), which in turns makes it easier for anyone to talk about the game.

Optera · Post by **Optera** » Mon Aug 26, 2019 10:22 am

mmmPI wrote: ↑Sun Aug 25, 2019 11:39 pm The power icon and the belts, a fullscreen of empty blue belts with balancers and all messed up, if you happen to have fluctuating/slower FPS, they can look like slowing-down/accelerating reproducing a blinking (to my eyes) similar to the power icon.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one seeing belts slowing down or even running backwards.

Luckily I don't have epilepsy, but the blinking power icons are very distracting. An option to disable the blinking or remove them entirely without modding would be appreciated.
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/No_Power_Icons
This mod removes the icons entirely.

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