avatar head should follow mouse position

[noobula]

The head of the player avatar just scans left and right.
Have the head of the player follow the mouse.

[Roxor128]

I wouldn't count on it. That's the sort of thing that's easy to do in a polygon engine. Factorio uses a sprite engine. It'd require a whole new set of sprites for every possible offset between where the character is facing and where you want the head pointing. Really not worth the trouble.

[Ingolifs]

So, like, I'm the one who wanted the tank's treads to move when it turns while stationary, and even I think this is frivolous.

[bobingabout]

As pointed out by Raxor, due to this being a sprite based game, that would be A LOT of work, for a cosmetic change, that in my opinion is... trivial at best.

[<NO_NAME>]

Reanimate!

Currently, the character looks stupid around all the time. (See? I've combined "looks stupid" and "looks around". Bad puns are 1000% funnier when explained.)

Seriously, though. I don't think we need new sprites. Existing ones are sufficient to cover the entire 360° range (if we take rotation of the entire character into account).
It is enough to just tie sprites to the position of player's cursor instead of looping them. I think it would suffice to do that only when a player is standing still. The run animation could stay the same.

Why? This would help to telegraph player intentions to other players.
When I see a player standing between a train station and a science factory I don't really know if they are waiting on a train, changing a schedule or thinking how to expand the science. Would it bother them if I start changing the science myself? It would become much more apparent when the player's head would follow their cursor. It's an additional information which doesn't introduce a new GUI element and doesn't distract players. Win-win.
And the current animation would still be used to indicate that the player is idle which would also be a useful information.

[Jap2.0]

Currently, the character looks stupid around all the time. (See? I've combined "looks stupid" and "looks around". Bad puns are 1000% funnier when explained.)

I can confirm this.


On a more serious note, there is an option in debug for multiplayer to show what other players' cursors are hovering over. Sure it's not polished in any way, but it's interesting sometimes.