TL;DR
Signs with icons are the one of the most common helpers for factories and multiplayer and are currently created by abusing combinators.What ?
Currently, to simulate a sign, you use constant combinator, which:- Works only in ALT-MODE.
- Works only if visual combinators view is enabled in settings.
You can also create sorter inserter, but it's the same abuse.
And it doesn't go well with lampish meters, since they are always visible.
My idea is to add an icon sign item to Vanilla. Always visible, no matter ALT-MODE.
You could set an item/fluid/signal icon to display on it. With many on them, you could make simple ASCII text.
Maybe you could also set an icon with circuit network. This would allow to create much nicer factory meters.
"There is already mod for this."
It's called Dectorio and gives many other, much less useful decorations to the game.I think signs are the only, really needed item.
And the less mods are needed for proper Factorio experience, the better. This is especially important in multiplayer.
But look how useless it's to create anything more than ONE type of a sign.
Iron stick and iron plate and off you go.
Why ?
Every sandbox game has signs in one or another way.There is an other Lua-powered mod-engine game like Factorio, which is Minetest, and it does have native signs. So if other games include them, why not Factorio?
