Friday Facts #174 - Mod gui

[Klonan]

https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-174

[badgamernl]

Plss make the mod-gui scenario friendly, it would help my server allot! It would also be cool if there was a way to make server side and client side code and the communication between the client and the server. Take for instance garry's mod it has client and server side code and a way to communicate with a database. This would add the possibility to make a ranking system that will in return get you a more stable player base. Or add a permissions system, but wy make it yourself when the community can make it! The problem with factorio now is that when you make a server and want admins on it they can run commands and then the achievement system says console command used in return players will leave because of it. It would also be cool if there was a server list ranking system and a bookmark system to make the life of players easier!

[Wingman24]

Do we have an ETA on .15? (Sorry if I missed this in a previous FF)

[justarandomgeek]

I like the new buttons, and the consistency that they'll provide, but I hope they'll be backported to 0.14 during 0.15's experimental phase. If not, I fear many mods will not use them, since they'll still be maintaining the 0.14 fork of the mods, and will have to keep the old-way button code for that anyway.

[Klonan]

Do we have an ETA on .15? (Sorry if I missed this in a previous FF)

No ETA yet - Further news when we have it folks

[KatherineOfSky]

Interesting! It will be nice to see a more cohesive layout for the mod buttons!

One thing I have been wanting for trains is the ability to name them with Route Names, (and sort by this function). In a large factory, I have dozens of trains, and I have to identify them by their stops... which is time-consuming. They also change their order on the page, so I can't remember them by their position.

With a Route Name, it would be MUCH easier to identify them, enabling simple Copy & Paste of their schedules to add throughput, etc.

[Klonan]

I like the new buttons, and the consistency that they'll provide, but I hope they'll be backported to 0.14 during 0.15's experimental phase. If not, I fear many mods will not use them, since they'll still be maintaining the 0.14 fork of the mods, and will have to keep the old-way button code for that anyway.

With 0.15 mods will have to be updated anyway, which will be a good time to try the new system.
Generally modders don't maintain version of the mods for previous versions of the game, and simply say update to experimental if you want the latest version.

We won't be releasing another 0.14 version, so there is no way to backport the Lua file

[apriori]

Standardisation of GUI-appearance is cool. But its unification is better I suppose. I been thinking of making mod that unifies several mod GUI elements into popup groups.

e.g.

Code: Select all

Actions
    Personal Teleportation
        <PT tab>
    FARL
        <FARL options>
    OneMoreModName
        <OMM options>
Info
    Mod level
        Mod options level

It should free the screen greatly, but causes usability issues... Dunno what to do. =)
Can't wait for 0.15!

[jockeril]

Station color change (and the ability to copy it from the train! ) is a small detail - but one that shows how much you guys care - you guys are great and I LOVE this game!

My gf knows - if I'm playing Factorio - it's a lost day for her and I cannot be interrupted

Think I'm going to stream now

[Xenomorph]

Do we have an ETA on .15? (Sorry if I missed this in a previous FF)

No ETA yet - Further news when we have it folks

I hate when there is no ETA and i love it at the same time.

Take all the time you need to make 0.15 perfect.

[Glitterspin]

Another problem is that with multiple mods installed, there is no overall control about how and where the Gui elements interact and 'fight' with one another for space.

So to begin to help this, I've implemented an optional Lua script that modders can use, which should help unify things, as well as being simple to use for anybody new.

require("mod-gui")
function create_gui(player)
mod_gui.get_button_flow(player).add
{
type = "sprite-button",
name = "My_mod_button",
sprite = "item/my-mod-item",
style = mod_gui.button_style
}
mod_gui.get_frame_flow(player).add
{
type = "frame",
name = "My_mod_frame",
caption = "My mod frame",
style = mod_gui.frame_style
}
end

I don't speak Lua yet sadly. The code doesn't look like a priority list; what does it do to prevent conflicts?



@KatherineOfSky, I love the route-name idea! It would help a lot even in small factories with relative newbies like me; a route name makes it a lot more obvious what's going on.

[BlackLight]

Station color change (and the ability to copy it from the train! ) is a small detail - but one that shows how much you guys care [...]

Indeed, I find that also very neat!

P.S.
Since landfills got added to the game I only played vanilla Factorio.
First I was, ok lets read that MOD stuff, but I don't really care to much about that. Then at the end the station color and "NICE!".

[bNarFProfCrazy]

It would be nice if there is an option to hide a (mod) GUI element or sort them as a player, because if the big ones are located in the middle of the window they take away precious space.

[SHiRKiT]

Are you still planning to add the configurations for mods as you previously said?

[justarandomgeek]

I like the new buttons, and the consistency that they'll provide, but I hope they'll be backported to 0.14 during 0.15's experimental phase. If not, I fear many mods will not use them, since they'll still be maintaining the 0.14 fork of the mods, and will have to keep the old-way button code for that anyway.

With 0.15 mods will have to be updated anyway, which will be a good time to try the new system.
Generally modders don't maintain version of the mods for previous versions of the game, and simply say update to experimental if you want the latest version.

We won't be releasing another 0.14 version, so there is no way to backport the Lua file

During 0.14's experimental, I had to release some bugfixes for some of my mods for both versions. I released *identical* code for both, apart from the one line in info.json listing waht version it was for. (As a sidenote, it would be nice in such a case to be able to declare it works on both.) It wouldn't surprise me if others use a similar strategy during the interim period, but that would mean being unable to use the new features at all until such releases end - and especially given that the old way still works and works on both, I can see people doing this, which means we may not get nice standard buttons until some time after 0.15 goes stable.

[steinio]

It would be nice if there is an option to hide a (mod) GUI element or sort them as a player, because if the big ones are located in the middle of the window they take away precious space.

Yes sorting them by myself would be great.

[Adil]

No way to backport a lua file?!
Just how much compatibility did you break there?
Also, even in your example, most of the buttons are there simply because they have nowhere to go and optional hiding functionality implementation would take more lines than the core logic of the most of those mods.
So, some applet panel equivalent, which player could tweak himself might be good.

[Klonan]

No way to backport a lua file?!
Just how much compatibility did you break there?
Also, even in your example, most of the buttons are there simply because they have nowhere to go and optional hiding functionality implementation would take more lines than the core logic of the most of those mods.
So, some applet panel equivalent, which player could tweak himself might be good.

Theres no compatibility issue, just that we won't have a whole new 0.14 release just to add a single Lua file

Its right that mods put the button there because there is nowhere else, but also because its the simplest and most convenient way of adding the button -> frame functionality

[Rseding91]

Are you still planning to add the configurations for mods as you previously said?

It has been done for a few months now.

[DaveMcW]

What we really want is a built-in manager to show/hide mod guis.

In theory this could be done with a player-created mod, but the marketing and support is so tedious that no one wants to do it.