Toolbar changes

[G-Fiti]

I'm quite new to this game and I find the toolbar to be quite frustrating sometimes.

I often find myself seemingly out of items, say I got electric poles on slot 2 and filtered, I seemingly run out, only to find out that my poles for some reason are now in another slot.
I also find it annoying that when I run out of the 50 belts in my bar I have to put a new stack of belts from my inventory in the toolbar.


So I want to propose the following changes:
Filtered toolbar slots should prevent the same item from automatically entering other slots unless the inventory is full
Toolbar slots show and make use of the total amount of the item in your toolbar and inventory combined.

[mattj256]

I'm quite new to this game

Not for long, I hope.

Filtered toolbar slots should prevent the same item from automatically entering other slots unless the inventory is full

Yes! I totally agree. Just to clarify, if you have a filtered toolbar slot for iron plates and a new iron plate comes in, it should go to the filtered slot unless the filtered slot has a full stack. (This means that if I try to transfer everything from my toolbar to my inventory, the toolbar items that are in filtered slots don't move.)

Toolbar slots show and make use of the total amount of the item in your toolbar and inventory combined.

Yes. Siggboy suggested that here: viewtopic.php?f=66&t=24118&p=176603&hil ... ar#p176603

An alternative that I think would be easier to implement: if a filtered toolbar slot runs down to zero and there's a stack of that item in your inventory or toolbar, automatically transfer the stack into the filtered slot. If the developers want to rewrite the toolbar that's fine with me too.

[siggboy]

Siggboy suggested that here: viewtopic.php?f=66&t=24118&p=176603&hil ... ar#p176603

I'm pretty sure that many players are not happy with the current "tool belt", but we all got used to it (= we accepted the sub-optimal solution). It does not mean it's in any way a good solution.

Many of the shortcomings of the "tool belt" are due to the fact that it's treated like a part of your inventory. If that is changed, most problems go away naturally.

Here's how it should work, in as simple terms as possible:

• The quickbar slots are no longer additional inventory slots. Moving an item there will not move it out of your "backpack" (inventory).
• It's possible to set a filter on a slot (middle mouse click); if there's already an item in the slot, setting the filter would lock the slot to that item. If the slot is empty, setting the filter would invoke the selection menu so you can pick an item for the slot (and lock the slot). Middle-clicking a locked slot will unlock the slot.
• Total item count in your inventory is displayed on the slots, abbreviating large numbers like it's done in logistic slots and combinator signals (ie. "1000" becomes "1k" etc.)
• Hot keys for the slots should also be displayed on the slots; this should be an option, so you can disable displaying the hotkeys.

Done. That's the only way to do this "right" (modulo some details that can be argued about I guess).

Pretty much all of the confusion and bad UX with the current "tool belt" comes from the fact that it's an extension of the inventory (tool belt slots are inventory slots in a different place). Some of those limitations even have hacks applied to them (like, "if the cursor is cleared, replenish tool bar slots" and shenanigans like this, I don't even know the details, and nobody should have to know).

I'm assuming the UI is not moddable to the extent that you can do this in a mod. If that was possible I would probably start today and make such a mod.

[Harkonnen604]

+1. I also had post about that. And it appears 0.13 has solved this issue for automating toolbelt refilling upon pressing Q though, a minor thing remains - number on toolbelt still reflects stack size in that toolbelt slot, not total number of items including your inventory. While that might be logical as it's a separate stack slot, not a reference - it would be good if white number near mouse cursor when you actually place items on the map show total number of items on toolbelt + inventory instead of just toolbelt slot. So when you are about to place 100 inserters on new smelting line you see how much in total you do have.

[terror_gnom]

yeah, I like it Please do it

[mattj256]

Siggboy suggested that here: viewtopic.php?f=66&t=24118&p=176603&hil ... ar#p176603

I'm pretty sure that many players are not happy with the current "tool belt", but we all got used to it (= we accepted the sub-optimal solution). It does not mean it's in any way a good solution.

Exactly. I'm pretty used to the current toolbar, dysfunctions and all. It would be great if the developers could change it. I'm not holding my breath.

I totally agree with siggboy's suggestion of how the toolbar should work.

I'm assuming the UI is not moddable to the extent that you can do this in a mod. If that was possible I would probably start today and make such a mod.

Hmm. It ought to be possible to create a completely new item that (when clicked on) gives you a view of the total number of each type of item in your inventory. I'm not an experienced enough modder to know whether it's possible to change how the toolbar works though.