Bottom leds to belts to distinquish belt types?

[Mendel]

Ever had that problem where you fail to see the one point on a long belt where you still have the old slower type of belt and that one piece is slowing the whole belt down and you are having trouble finding it on a full belt that might be currently halted due to another issue?

I think the belt color should not be only on the top of the belt where it can easily be almost completely blocked by whatever is on the belt.

Maybe something like this could work? (mspaint illustration)


Another possibility is maybe the whole metal bottom part could be slightly colored?

[ThaPear]

If the belt is being fully utilized, you'll see where the belt speeds up again after a slower piece of belt. If it's not, then the slow piece is apparently keeping up with demand just fine.
Honestly, I don't see the added value of this suggestion, other than cluttering up the visuals.

Additionally, you can use the upgrade planner to check an entire belt at once.

[foamy]

It is incredibly annoying trying to troubleshoot a loaded belt for glitches. Making something that can be seen even when the belt's loaded -- and those arrows look pretty unobtrusive otherwise -- would help me a lot.

I like this idea.

[conn11]

An upgrade planner, configured for belt Updates already takes care of it. Either by fixing it directly or at least highlighting lower tiers of belt if bots are not avaliable.
Anyway any modestly sufficient throughput makes the problem obvious.

[Mendel]

This is going to sound dumb but I haven't actually used the upgrade planner, nor do I know how to. Nor do I know exactly what it is but...
Before I ask, I'm going to try to see if I can find out what it is and how to use it

[Mendel]

Okay so I found the "make new upgrade planner" feature and found out how to use that.

But if I got it right, I still have to stop and drag a box around belts to see what is what.

I would really prefer just easily spotting individual wrong colored belts while just running through the area. It shouldn't be any less obvious than spotting different colored assembling machines for example.

[conn11]

Okay so I found the "make new upgrade planner" feature and found out how to use that.

But if I got it right, I still have to stop and drag a box around belts to see what is what.

I would really prefer just easily spotting individual wrong colored belts while just running through the area. It shouldn't be any less obvious than spotting different colored assembling machines for example.

true, it's a kind of workaround. But as mentioned before, relevant throughput issues are easably spottable. And you can drag and run an technically upgrade the whole factory at once.

[darkfrei]

Maybe some covers for belts?

[Mendel]

true, it's a kind of workaround. But as mentioned before, relevant throughput issues are easably spottable. And you can drag and run an technically upgrade the whole factory at once.

Another funny thing is... I don't like to use bots. I prefer belt spaghetti. Which kind of makes my problem distinguishing belt colors a lot worse.
I use bots in like once in five factories or so I know. That's my problem. So uh... I guess this is kind of pointless but could be a mod? And I'd probably have to do it myself. So it would have to be a big enough problem for me to justify spending that time on modding instead of playing. Which it isn't

[darkfrei]

I guess this is kind of pointless but could be a mod? And I'd probably have to do it myself. So it would have to be a big enough problem for me to justify spending that time on modding instead of playing. Which it isn't

Yes, you can use the LuaRendering just as small line near of the belts. It needs a little bit more time by save/loading, but works.

[theolderbeholder]

Maybe something which can be toggled using ALT.

[darkfrei]

Not tested, but must working:

Code: Select all

local tabl = -- colors
  {
    ['transport-belt'] = {r=1,g=1,b=0}, -- yellow
    ['fast-transport-belt'] = {r=1,g=0,b=0}, -- red
    ['express-transport-belt'] = {r=0,g=1,b=1} -- cyan
  }

function on_built (event)
  local entity = event.created_entity
  if entity and tabl[entity.name] then
    -- draw_circle{color=…, radius=…, width=…, filled=…, target=…, target_offset=…, surface=…, time_to_live=…, forces=…, players=…, visible=…, draw_on_ground=…, only_in_alt_mode=…}
    rendering.draw_circle
      {
        color=tabl[entity.name], -- from table
        radius=4/32, -- in pixels
        filled=true, 
        target=entity, 
        surface=entity.surface, 
        forces={entity.force.name}, 
        only_in_alt_mode=true
      }
  end
end

script.on_event(defines.events.on_built_entity, function(event)
  on_built (event)
end)

script.on_event(defines.events.on_robot_built_entity, function(event)
  on_built (event)
end)

[theolderbeholder]

Not tested, but must working:

I will treasure this line until that wonderful day I am able to code as confident as you. And then I´ll cite you.

[steinio]

So literally the bottleneck mod for belts.

[darkfrei]

For Factorio 0.17