Friday Facts #277 - GUI progress update

[Klonan]

https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-277

[Gergely]

Woooooow....

You know I was really looking forward to the Shortcut Bar in 0.16 hoping it has higher priority than worldgen.

Speaking of world gen... IS IT FIXED?!

[Twinsen]

"Action bar" is the internal name for the new quickbar(shortcut bar).

[DaveMcW]

For me, Wave Defense became boring after I learned that Flamethrower turrets are overpowered and the answer to everything.

[Serenity]

Speaking of world gen... IS IT FIXED?!

Yes, is it? This the FFF I'm looking most forward to. 0.17 really needs proper water generation like in pre-0.16 versions. Or all the nice GUI and HD stuff is just useless polish on a frustrating surface.


As for wave defense. I haven't played it much, but I remember the biggest issue is that you can just easily build lots of flamethrower turrets burning crude oil

[Muppet9010]

hope the wave defense does allow use of generated worlds as then we can tailor the world gen to help control difficulty, i.e. make resources further apart or less rich in MP with 10 experienced players

Recipe Explorer, is this a new feature or a name for the little window that tells you the recipe for an item?

[SuperSandro2000]

Split the wave defense in an easier pre generated mal and a harder random map.

[glee8e]

What is the general art style of new GUI?

I mean, I have read probably all FFFs, and I somewhat understand what our new GUI will look like, but I just can't come up with a good description to yell to my roommate.

[IronCartographer]

Wave defense would look nice if it had actual water and mapgen for borders instead of void tiles.

While there's some merit to being able to use the same map between players, wouldn't that still be possible with exchange strings?

I'm not seeing many disadvantages to using procedural, assuming there's enough control over map generation to ensure resource and pathing conditions are satisfied. Difficulty settings (such as starting defensive structures items / tech / biter evolution) and procedural terrain would be great.

Will there be a slider for controlling personal roboport range? [0-Max] = [Disabled/Enabled] with extra control.

[Tankh]

I think there is a point in being able to replay the exact same scenario multiple times in order to improve your previous time, so maybe just make sure that you can manually enter the seed of map generation so you can perfect your strategy if you want. Then when you are bored of the same map, you could try a new seed and see if your strategy is good enough to work on all maps or if you optimized it too much to that specific one.

[luc]

Is it a thing in Czech to write a comma before the word "that"? In German it is ("mann muß sicher sein, dass das dreht"; translated with the comma: "one should be sure, that it turns") and I see some German colleagues applying the same rule in English, where it is wrong. Wondering if it's the same with Czech.

[Ohz]

I never noticed that kovarex isn't written with a big K.

[LoSboccacc]

wave defense: you can always make so that random wave defense unlocks after surviving enough time in the static map wave defense, best of both worlds. also, if the script is generic, let user provide maps for wave defense.

[authorized411]

Please don't hold up the 0.17 release for a GUI update.

Iterate. MVP (minimum viable product)

Add an option to allow the players toggle between the old GUI and new one until it is stable. This way, if there are any game stopping bugs (ie can't click or access some UI), then the player can flip back to the old one until that issue has been addressed. This way, you get feedback faster.

[MicFac]

I generally like the style of the new GUI but I find the confirmation button being shaped like an arrow (as can be seen in the graphics settings GIF) a little irritating. It makes it seems like there is a second screen to this particular settings category. I would prefer the button to be a normal rectangle.

[luc]

Please don't hold up the 0.17 release for a GUI update.

Yeah I was thinking the same while reading the post: why wait if you can just release versions while we can already play all the other awesome stuff packed in there?

[IronCartographer]

This way, you get feedback faster.

Part of the reason Factorio experimentals are so stable is precisely because they want to avoid the excess of user-feedback on issues they can see themselves. When there are obvious issues and a storm of feedback, the noise can slow down progress!

There may be issues and suggestions, but in general the devs have thought through their designs very carefully and know what works before releasing it. They actually playtest the game, and the gameplay is so similar to programming that the mindset has a lot of overlap--you can predict most of what will happen with a given design.

Once Experimentals begin, they want to focus on fixing bugs and only changing the design when there is something they truly hadn't considered before.

Experimental -> Bug fixes / high-quality suggestions -> Stable -> Work begins on the next experimental.

[Avezo]

Hope new GUI will have both logistic requests and trashing on same slider - if after so much work requests and trashing are still on separate tabs, I will be sad.

[Muppet9010]

Iterate. MVP (minimum viable product)

There is no financial or operational imperative to release in this scenario though. It's not like new graphics drivers are released that require an update to work or similar.

[rhynex]

Please don't hold up the 0.17 release for a GUI update.

Iterate. MVP (minimum viable product)

I agree, but I think it is too late for that.

GUI and gameplay are different elements. It would be better to focus on one of these elements in a patch instead of overhauling the game entirely in many different levels with big/small changes. I dont know if everyone is waiting for 0.17 just for the new GUI but I prioritize gameplay in Factorio. No idea why devs chose this approach (make a big fat patch instead of a GUI patch + gameplay patch), probably discussed multiple times here on forums.

Considering bugs that shall popup from 0.17 experimental, it shall be still under dev until spring I guess so there is a long time for 0.17...