Helping new forum users catch up...

[FreeER]

Edit: I moved that from ideas and suggestions to general discussions. -- ssilk

First, sorry ssilk for breaking (most of) the rules here but I do have reasons!
Second most of this stems from: We seem to be getting a number of new players at the moment (on the forums that is, I'm sure there are quite a few buying the game)...and they're (mostly) aimed at the devs/moderators...

First the ones not dev/moderator related:
If anyone has the time and desire maybe a nice post consolidating the 'common' ideas and suggestions could be created (with, of course, links) so that it can be stickied for users to look through rather than using the search function (which not everyone thinks to use..., even with it mentioned here). I'd mention the same for the bug reports but it'd have to be kept updated too constantly...and there's a dev related question below about that.

off (primary) topic: This has been suggested before, I'm not sure if it's been implemented (if so point me to it please!): A todo list that members of the community can help with (wiki improvements etc.), it should probably be a topic in the Contributions section.

Now the dev related:
The first posts in the Development Proposals should probably be updated with at least what's been done and is (not) being worked on currently/soon and possibly the major discussions that have been done in the topic so that new people don't have to read 3-8+ pages (which most won't, we all know that)...

The bug reports section has grown to 5 pages (currently) and I'm wondering if you've placed any further consideration towards another bug tracking system (if I recall correctly you do use one internally but I mean for the users of course) Just curious.

...I think that's everything right now, of course if anyone else thinks of an idea which might help new players 'catch up' easier please post below!

[slpwnd]

Thanks for the good suggestions. So many things to do We will definitely have a chat about a bug tracker. Updating the development proposals is a good point as well. As for the "community todo list" there is imho not that much that would go there: help others on the forum, expand the wiki, write mods / maps.

[ssilk]

Well, two things to add:
- suggested to use mantis since October last year ( https://forums.factorio.com/forum/sea ... mit=Search )
- currently can't read through all posts thoroughly.

[Garm]

+1 on Mantis

[ssilk]

I think we can add something which allows posting new ideas only if they read that list, or if they are forum member since two day... Eh, week... hum, I mean of course month (kidding ) or more such radical ideas.... I'm not a friend of that, but more such weekends and I need to quit moderator or shrink to one board or so. (Perhaps on the long run nonetheless needed)

[FreeER]

I think we can add something which allows posting new ideas only if they read that list

If this is possible it'd be great
But I don't think a 'time elapsed' limit will really help...maybe there could be a reminder when people click the "new topic" button, there's plenty of space there for it (idea shamelessly stolen from mlp forums...ignore the fact that it's mlp...it just so happened to be the first result when I googled "prevention of duplicate ideas on forums") or maybe have a list of similar topics (by automatically searching for keywords in title/body?) appear on the side as mentioned on simple machines)
some extra googling also found this phpbb3 mod... I hope at least one of those can be helpful

[robhol]

How about something like this? It could be linked from the top of the subforum, I think phpBB supports that.

https://forums.factorio.com/wiki/inde ... uggestions

[ssilk]

I like this phpbb-mod. We can then create meta-posts, which cover these topics...

[Gammro]

Too bad a lot of people are bad at writing topic subjects. (Also noticeable when receiving E-mail)

But that is a cool plugin. I'm no mod, but it seems useful

[Sedado77]

I gave you my idea in the PM yesterday... I think we need:
A. More Subforums
B. Moderators for every forum
C. All of the above

I agree New users have to catch up, and in a game as complex as Factorio, its HARD.
BUT this can't stagnate the progress of people giving suggestions, and it's not fair for the people (new to forums or not) that found ONE LITTLE THING that they think will IMPROVE THE EXPERIENCE FOR EVERYBODY.
Little things like that are what gives the devs the ideas from which they end up doing GREAT STUFF.
That's why we need order.

In spanish there is a saying: "Si nos organizamos, cogemos todos", wich means something like: if we get organized, everybody gets laid

Lets get laid!!!! =D (Sorry, too much work and not seeing my wife in days makes me like this )

[ssilk]

A: Right. I've some ideas but too tired to think about. If someone has an idea how to categorize the suggestions: Welcome, but I cannot create new boards.
B: Hmmmmm... not essentially, the mods board doesn't need much, the help board should have more than one. (BTW: Forum = Board)

[Sedado77]

A: Right. I've some ideas but too tired to think about. If someone has an idea how to categorize the suggestions: Welcome, but I cannot create new boards.
B: Hmmmmm... not essentially, the mods board doesn't need much, the help board should have more than one. (BTW: Forum = Board)

For Starters, The wiki shoud get more attention. I just spent the last hour creating a "Oil Processing" page, because after looking it up for almost half an hour, I couldn't find anything other than THIS (which is a start, but It isn't in any way complete, AND it's hard to find.) and lots of forum posts, BUT the posts where from 0.9.0 to 0.9.7 also, and things have changed a LOT from that, so I need to have my game open to see the differences, and some are NOT MINOR (ex. In forum and wiki it says that Engine Unit needs lubricant, but it doesn't anymore. Now Electric Engine needs the Lubricant.)

Also "Cracking" is not explained in the wiki. ANYWHERE.
It is just MENTIONED.

@ssilk: BTW, can you help me adding the images to the wiki page i eddited? I'm @work, so I can't host images, nore screenshot and upload anything... F***ing Internet security Filters...

[FreeER]

If someone has an idea how to categorize the suggestions

maybe subforums for:
transport suggestions (aka suggestions for inserters, splitters, belts, trains, etc.)
Ore & Ore Processing (about new resources and ways to make those useful)
New machines (other new entities that do not fit the above)
logistic suggestions (suggestions about logistic robots)
circuit/logic suggestions (suggestions for improving the circuit/logical network), possibly combine with the above?
combat (suggestions for combat mechanics, possibly with it's own subforums of Changes to existing and New...)
User Interface (changing what the player sees, the GUI itself, names, graphics, etc.)
Abstract (for those hard to explain ideas that are not full ideas yet but can become real suggestions with the help of other players, aka "expect long discussions here" subforum lol)
and then use the regular Ideas and Suggestion forum as an 'unsorted' location (for what doesn't fit anywhere else)
of course if I've left something out or something specific becomes common a board for those could be created....

As for help maybe...
Campaigns (for help with Factorio's campaign missions
Power (about generating and manipulating power of course)
Trains
Logisitic Robots
Assembling Lines (help with efficient lines to build a specific item, or using oil for instance)
General Tips and Tricks?
Combat (taking care of biters and pollution)
And as with Ideas and Suggestions the main Help board is for everything else

Those should all have a "Common Suggestions/Problems" announcement that, of course, lists the already/commonly encountered suggestions and issues that are seen.

That would all, of course, make it more complicated to 'browse' the forum but...it would organize it fairly well....a bit of a give and take here, are people likely to use those (and find it helpful) or would it just lead to the mod(s) having to move them to the proper subforum?

[ssilk]

@ssilk: BTW, can you help me adding the images to the wiki page i eddited? I'm @work, so I can't host images, nore screenshot and upload anything... F***ing Internet security Filters...

No problem, but not yet, it was a long day, here it's 2 o'clock now.... zzzzzzzzz

[Sedado77]

maybe subforums for:
[...]
That would all, of course, make it more complicated to 'browse' the forum but...it would organize it fairly well....a bit of a give and take here, are people likely to use those (and find it helpful) or would it just lead to the mod(s) having to move them to the proper subforum?

I think you covered almost all the bases. You forgot maybe "smelting" and "liquids"... but that's just details.

On the other hand, it doesn't matter if it makes "more complicated to browse the forums" because the main reason we're talking about all this is because PEOPLE DON'T BROWSE THE FORUMS!!! xD
So, MAYBE if someone comes with a certain problem with (lets say) belts, and sees a subforum "BELTS", it's more likely to
A. find the answer there
B. If not, post his question there
C. If neither of the above, then that person is NOT going to search for/read anything, and probaly his post woud be something like this:
"I HAVE PROBLEMS BELTS DONT WORK FIX IT I PAID MONEYS WANT MY PROBLEM FIXED NOW"
and I don't think ANYONE wants to help him...

EDIT:

@ssilk: BTW, can you help me adding the images to the wiki page i eddited? I'm @work, so I can't host images, nore screenshot and upload anything... F***ing Internet security Filters...

No problem, but not yet, it was a long day, here it's 2 o'clock now.... zzzzzzzzz

Thank you!!!

[FreeER]

I think you covered almost all the bases. You forgot maybe "smelting" and "liquids"... but that's just details.

Smelting = Suggestions/Ore & Ore Processing and Help/Assembling Lines (that may not be the best name for it...I can't think of a more general one right now though)...not sure about the liquids in Suggestions (maybe it should be resources and resource processing rather than 'ore', would make it more obvious that liquids would also go there) but It'd be the same in Help as the smelting (I even mentioned oil in my description previously)

On the other hand, it doesn't matter if it makes "more complicated to browse the forums"

by 'browsing' I was thinking about the older members....and of course by 'give and take' I meant that HOPEFULLY users (especially new ones) would see those and do as you mentioned, but I phrased in a way that I hoped would get a few comments saying, 'YES that will help' or 'it would just lead to giving the mods more work!' (obviously we want to find things now that people will say YES this will help! not just implement something and say "well, i hope this helps a little bit..." cause if it doesn't help then you have more work to reverse it )

[ssilk]

transport suggestions (aka suggestions for inserters, splitters, belts, trains, etc.)
Ore & Ore Processing (about new resources and ways to make those useful)
New machines (other new entities that do not fit the above)
logistic suggestions (suggestions about logistic robots)
circuit/logic suggestions (suggestions for improving the circuit/logical network), possibly combine with the above?
combat (suggestions for combat mechanics, possibly with it's own subforums of Changes to existing and New...)
User Interface (changing what the player sees, the GUI itself, names, graphics, etc.)
Abstract (for those hard to explain ideas that are not full ideas yet but can become real suggestions with the help of other players, aka "expect long discussions here" subforum lol)
and then use the regular Ideas and Suggestion forum as an 'unsorted' location (for what doesn't fit anywhere else)
of course if I've left something out or something specific becomes common a board for those could be created....

Well. I think 8 categories is too much, good categories split not more than 7 per level, the less, the better. So when I clean that up a bit it looks like so:

• Transport System:
  Belts, especially splitter (not! ), inserters, but also train (and railway system) or anything around transport aspect (stacks, inserter stack size...), also new kinds of transport (Ship, Air ...) and general logistic problems. No pipes, because transporting non-item packed fluids belongs in my eyes more to production.
• Information & networks, pollution, modules and non-item-production:
  Control and handling (circuits, logistics and other networks, like electricity). Pollution and modules.
  Devices like the smart inserter or new stuff (lamps, switches, logic gates...). Controlling production devices via electricity etc. and other non-productive stuff.
• All around robots:
  Logistic network, construction, ghosted buildings, blueprints, also robot-fight (not directly controllable, for all other fight/defense see below).
• Around item production and fluids, game progress and research:
  Production and about handling items and fluids and their flow. Pipes, oil production, also electricity production (steam, solar, wind...). Crafting, building, processing, assembling, mining, smelting, new devices. Production in general or new items or recipes, research and research tree.
• Natives, combat, fight, defense:
  Everything about fight (or how to avoid fight), about the natives (biters, worms, and how they behave), strength, difficulty
• Player-interaction, user interface, configuration, map-editor and other non direct game-play specific stuff:
  Interface, how to built, how to interact with all the stuff. But also non-game dependend stuff, like new config options (new play modes, key bindings) or content like music, graphics... Update, startup, techniques, optimizing...

I think that are the six most basic categories. And the rest can stay in the above (already existing) category!

...
Pffff... Hard work was that... I mean this list is good work, and eventually also useable for the wiki?

As for help maybe...
Campaigns (for help with Factorio's campaign missions
Power (about generating and manipulating power of course)
Trains
Logisitic Robots
Assembling Lines (help with efficient lines to build a specific item, or using oil for instance)
General Tips and Tricks?
Combat (taking care of biters and pollution)
And as with Ideas and Suggestions the main Help board is for everything else

Well, I see more the problem of having newbie problems. Startup. Payment. I start on an island... those 50% of posts, which are really avoidable, if they just read a bit. And for the rest I mean a list of FAQ-articles which are sticky should be enough. That's easier to maintain.

Those should all have a "Common Suggestions/Problems" announcement that, of course, lists the already/commonly encountered suggestions and issues that are seen.

Of course. I see here a meta-FAQ, which preselects the most important issues and forwards to the right sub board/wiki-page.

That would all, of course, make it more complicated to 'browse' the forum but...it would organize it fairly well....a bit of a give and take here, are people likely to use those (and find it helpful) or would it just lead to the mod(s) having to move them to the proper subforum?

Yes I'm sure it will work much better somehow like that.

[ssilk]

I moved that from ideas and suggestions to general discussions....

[CobraA1]

For community suggestions and bug fix requests, how about Get Satisfaction?