after yesterdays Friday Facts I looked through the forums for currently discussed ideas on blueprints, ghosts and planning and developed a proposal that creates a coherent usage of blueprints throughout the Factorio game stages.
Idea in one sentence:
Use blueprints and ghost placements to the fullest by allowing to modify individual ghosts and easily place to ghost from inventory.
Why it's needed:
Currently placing the same type of structure over and over again is very tedious before construction bots become available and take player time without adding fun.
Design goal
Create a tool that can be used throughout the game to
- plan out structures
- reuse structures in and between games
- reduce misclicks/placement errors
- facilitate communication in multiplayer mode
- Intuitive UI: Especially new players should be able to learn new features quickly. If they don't want to use them, they shouldn't get in the way.
- Expensive scaling: Saving time when doing things big should cost more resources than doing things manually so that the decision what to automate remains interesting in later game stages.
- Roboport construction as fix point: Construction with roboports should not rapidly change in cost in this new proposal to make sure it still fits with the overall game balance.
- Ghost buildings: When holding shift while placing a building a ghost building is placed. It is visible to all teammates but does not interact with any objects in the game world.
- Blueprints: A collection of ghost buildings that can be placed with one click.
- Inventory filters: Buildings can be ghost build from filters in the quickbar without having the acutal item in the inventory.
- Placement modifier key: When holding ctrl while left clicking on a ghost building within reach it is placed from the inventory if available. Filters are set and modules are included as in the ghost. Ghost circuit cables that are now between two placed buildings get placed, too, if available (see #1).
- Ghost filters and modules: When left clicking a ghost building, a menu similar to the one of the actual building shows up. Recipes can be set and modules can be inserted as ghosts (see #2).
- Ghost cables: When holding shift while placing cables they are set as ghosts. Ghost cables can also be set between ghost buildings, or between ghost buildings and placed buildings.
- Colored regions: With a new planner (next to blueprints and deconstruction planners, obtained the same way) you can mark rectangular places in a color of your choice or remove any of these markings. While drawing the rectangle, its dimensions will be shown in the gui.
- Cloning: This is now covered by blueprints and the placement modifier key.
- Mining area: Would clash with design principles 2 and 3 as it would be more powerful than using construction bots, especially while they are still slow.
- Active planning: Would clash with design principle 1 as two different types of ghost would be really confusing to new players.
#2: Manipulate ghost buildings just like regular ones - viewtopic.php?f=6&t=22362
#3: Planning (Signs, Cloning, Ghosts, Blueprinting and more...) - viewtopic.php?f=80&t=4682
