Blueprints should be available on game start.

[Vas]

Copy Paste, Blueprint Saving, Blueprint Library, all of these things should be immediately available on game start, not locked behind the requirement of research which, you seem to have hidden away further and further for some reason.

Blueprints aren't for robots. They are for layouts and plans. You can manually place things on ghosts. I use ghosts early game to plan my base out, but I can't save my early game layouts or anything because your system rejects the ability to load and view saved layouts or to use blueprint features till I'm at the end of the game already with robot research. What good is a blueprint when I no longer need it?

This shouldn't have to be a mod to enable. We need access to blueprinting features without any research of any kind. Please change this in the base game so that they are forever visible to everyone.

I searched for a mod that only enables blueprinting and nothing else, and I've found no such thing. I've also searched suggestions for the term Blueprint, no suggestions ask for this. I don't want this to be a mod though, I want it base game, because it should be available for everyone by default and there's no reason to lock it behind research. As I've said, blueprints are not a robot thing, they are a planning tool. Just because robots can use them doesn't mean they are only for robots and thats why, it should be base game.

[boskid]

I do not understand. Most of the buttons in shortcut bar (if you are refering to those buttons as features locked behind research) are hidden to not confuse new players and they unlock as soon you get to required tech. After that they are unlocked permanently. You can also use the `/unlock-shortcut-bar` command (should not lock achievements) or you can start a temporary single player game and type `/cheat` (may need to be typed twice as it will disable achievements) to get all the technologies researched then quit and start new game with every button enabled.

What is your problem with hiding them only for a short period before new player gets some technology?

[Vas]

I can't access these things, and I have beaten the game in the past. So if you decided to suddenly hide them and reset any sort of progress players once had, now they aren't available unless you complete that far into the game once again. Which is a bit silly to just hide them to not confuse new players.

From my perspective, the shortcut bar just said, requires research. It didn't say "And then unlocks permanently", which made me feel like it'll require research each play through.

I've been starting the game over and over again the last few days, trying to balance out the set of mods I'm using to get rid of overpowered stuff and make the game last a decent amount of time. Testing and tweaking things, restarting again and again. I last played in 0.17ish, and now I'm back at 1.1. All I could see is that the blueprints were locked.

All you ended up doing is confusing old players, I very much doubt blueprints would confuse new players.

[jodokus31]

Did you reinstall Factorio?
I had the same confusion, when it was introduced, because I downloaded a fresh factorio zip.
I guess, if you update "normally" via steam, it doesn't happen, does it?

[Vas]

I haven't reinstalled, no. But I did move the steam drive from one laptop to the other when I upgraded. I also transferred most of my appdata folders to keep saves and whatnot. All my mods and such were kept.

[jodokus31]

I remember, when it was introduced, i saw streams, where the players had those buttons right from the start, with no words how to get them
I was confused, because i didn't have them. At that time also the command /unlock-shortcut-bar wasn't a thing. I cheated my way to bots to get it

My guess is, that's is somehow connected to the profile or appdata

[blazespinnaker]

+1

Some type of blueprint lite near the beginning of the game would be a very good idea. It's a large part of the game, and I have a hunch that a very large portion of players quit before ever realizing how much better they make the game.

One idea is a rate limited ghost placer type feature, like a mechanical arm that has larger reach and can place items out of your inventory as your mouse over the ghosts. Have to be careful not to obviate bots, but with proper restrictions it can be done.

There is a slight concern of course that folks will just use blueprints from blueprint libraries out on the web and sort of ruin the game for themselves. Something to consider, but the truth is that you can already do that today.

[Vas]

I mean its just silly to hide features of the game away from the new players because, as stated earlier, people likely get this game after seeing gameplay of other players and may be confused as to why they don't have the same features, or they may end up quitting before they get to those features finding it frustrating to not be able to easily duplicate things they've done.

I too would like a limited early game ghost placer, something that'd place things for me within my range, but thats not what this topic is about. Its just about getting these features to the players without them having to have beaten the game first.

Now I realize the devs here hate robots, at least thats what I've been told many times. But blueprints are not a robotic feature. Though, I cheat spawned myself modular armor with a robo port and 5 robots, simply so I don't have to spend forever manually rotating and placing shit down to match what my blueprints are. I mean, its not like I can get achievements anyway because the devs disabled them in modded gameplay so why bother worrying about command usage. However, I do use blueprints early game to set up early production lines. Its up to the new players to play legitimately, or cheese the game by downloading people's blueprints. I, for one, refuse to download other people's blueprints.

[JayS]

I'm pretty sure the blueprint shortcuts still work (alt-b, alt-d, ctrl-c/x/v), even if the buttons don't appear on your toolbar? I can't test this though. Honestly doesn't seem like it's a big deal.

[ptx0]

just came here to say "No! use mods."

[jodokus31]

I'm totally ok with hiding the buttons for new players. I just said, that they are also hidden in some cases (new install, etc.), where they probably shouldn't

[ptx0]

I'm totally ok with hiding the buttons for new players. I just said, that they are also hidden in some cases (new install, etc.), where they probably shouldn't

i'm talking about the original poster not the hangers-on that came along to glom their vision onto the request.

they want the Copy/Paste and Blueprinting to be available from early game, when the devs have actively pushed the other direction in 1.0 making the buttons invisible until they're researched.

it's not going to change.

[jodokus31]

I'm totally ok with hiding the buttons for new players. I just said, that they are also hidden in some cases (new install, etc.), where they probably shouldn't

i'm talking about the original poster not the hangers-on that came along to glom their vision onto the request.

Yep. My post was also for the others, who want the buttons to be shown from the beginning. I also don't endorse early game ghost placer mechanics. If the user wants it, there are more than enough mods.

[blazespinnaker]

I mean its just silly to hide features of the game away from the new players because, as stated earlier, people likely get this game after seeing gameplay of other players and may be confused as to why they don't have the same features, or they may end up quitting before they get to those features

Well, the blueprint buttons are available to me on a new game. I have a larger monitor. Ctrl-C creates a blueprint automatically. Shift-click prints ghosts beyond your reach. Blueprint library button ('B') is the first button above the minimap. Sure, it's not super in your face, but factorio is a very complex game with a lot of different options. Simplifying for new players so they are not overwhelmed is a wise thing to do. That's just the nature of the beast, I'm afraid.

And really, players aren't going to be advised or hear through the grapevine about blueprints in early game, because they are kinda weak without something like bots or ghostplacer, imho. In fact, they are downright f'ing aggravating if you have power poles in them and no auto placing functionality. I don't know if this is why buttons are being hidden, but it'd be a good reason if it was.

So yeah, early game blueprints really are a poor experience and I don't suggest using them until you have bots, which really isn't that hard to do and doesn't require much planning. In fact, you could just hand craft the majority of intermediates to get to bots in a relatively short period of time, that's how little planning is required. A few miners pointing at furnaces, assemblers for science packs and engines, labs, some oil for plastic and red engines, and you're done. Rushing bots in less than 2 hours is totally doable.

Another reason they may not emphasize BPs for new players is that the game designers worry about making the game to planny. There is something zen about just spamming spaghettic ad hoc willy nilly, and maybe they don't want to ruin that too much by creating pressure on players to plan out things when they start. There are other things that they do which hint that they are resistant to making the game too calculated. And of course, as I mentioned above, they probably worry about people ruining the game for themselves by leaning too heavily on 3rd party blueprint libraries.

But it's valuable, I think, hearing from new players and their impressions. It really should be encouraged. There's no reason that I can see that the audience for factorio can not be broadened.

[Trific]

I too would like a limited early game ghost placer, something that'd place things for me within my range, but thats not what this topic is about. Its just about getting these features to the players without them having to have beaten the game first.

Now I realize the devs here hate robots, at least thats what I've been told many times. But blueprints are not a robotic feature. Though, I cheat spawned myself modular armor with a robo port and 5 robots, simply so I don't have to spend forever manually rotating and placing shit down to match what my blueprints are. I mean, its not like I can get achievements anyway because the devs disabled them in modded gameplay so why bother worrying about command usage. However, I do use blueprints early game to set up early production lines. Its up to the new players to play legitimately, or cheese the game by downloading people's blueprints. I, for one, refuse to download other people's blueprints.

It's not quite an early game ghost placer, but have you tried using the pipette? Makes setting up early game blueprints much easier.

[jamiechi1]

The problem I have with this is mostly the Cut, Copy, paste, and Undo icons that get disabled when I create a new Offline game. I have played well over 6000 hours and I am not a New User. Saving some of these values in the Registry or a file would help prevent this. If it is in the Registry, I can easily create a Backup of the keys and restore them later if I have a hard drive crash, or have to re-install Windows.

[mrvn]

The problem I have with this is mostly the Cut, Copy, paste, and Undo icons that get disabled when I create a new Offline game. I have played well over 6000 hours and I am not a New User. Saving some of these values in the Registry or a file would help prevent this. If it is in the Registry, I can easily create a Backup of the keys and restore them later if I have a hard drive crash, or have to re-install Windows.

That must be a windows or steam problem. I've played a few online games and tons offline and this has never ever been a problem except when reinstalling factorio. The values are stored in the factorio folder normally. But with steam this might be different and stores it on the steam drive. You can just play a sandbox game offline and research all the techs to unlock all the shortcuts when you play offline for the first time. Or edit the player-data.json file, which is where those values are stored.


That said I don't quite see the problem anyway. It's not like you can cut&paste prior to construction bots and have it do anything much useful.

Now placing blueprints from your last game to give you a guide how to build the factory you optimized for hours last game is worth it. But if you don't have the shortcut bar values then you won't have any old blueprints either. I consider that a far bigger problem.

[Nidan]

Aren't the keybinds still available? In any case: /unlock-shortcut-bar

[FuryoftheStars]

The problem I have with this is mostly the Cut, Copy, paste, and Undo icons that get disabled when I create a new Offline game. I have played well over 6000 hours and I am not a New User. Saving some of these values in the Registry or a file would help prevent this. If it is in the Registry, I can easily create a Backup of the keys and restore them later if I have a hard drive crash, or have to re-install Windows.

Something is wrong with your install, file permissions, or you have a mod that's messing with you, because I do not have these issues. The unlock status of these are (afaik) kept in your player-data.json file in the %localappdata%\Factorio %appdata%\roaming\Factorio directory. In that file there's a section called "shortcut-bar" with enabled statuses true/false on them.
Edit: updated path. I wasn't paying attention and had that wrong.

That must be a windows or steam problem.

I do not believe it is either of those. I am on Windows with the Steam version and do not have the issue they describe.

Edit1: Oh, unless they're using Steam Sync and have more than one PC... I suppose that's a possibility.
Edit2: Although, isn't that only taking the save directory and, if the option in game is enabled, the blueprint-storage.dat file?

[jamiechi1]

The problem I have with this is mostly the Cut, Copy, paste, and Undo icons that get disabled when I create a new Offline game. I have played well over 6000 hours and I am not a New User. Saving some of these values in the Registry or a file would help prevent this. If it is in the Registry, I can easily create a Backup of the keys and restore them later if I have a hard drive crash, or have to re-install Windows.

Something is wrong with your install, file permissions, or you have a mod that's messing with you, because I do not have these issues. The unlock status of these are (afaik) kept in your player-data.json file in the %localappdata%\Factorio directory. In that file there's a section called "shortcut-bar" with enabled statuses true/false on them.

That must be a windows or steam problem.

I do not believe it is either of those. I am on Windows with the Steam version and do not have the issue they describe.

Edit1: Oh, unless they're using Steam Sync and have more than one PC... I suppose that's a possibility.
Edit2: Although, isn't that only taking the save directory and, if the option in game is enabled, the blueprint-storage.dat file?

I just checked, and I don't have a %localappdata%\Factorio directory. After I restored Windows 10 and reinstalled the latest version of 'Online' Factorio in Steam, shouldn't this have been restored? Edit: I Do have the %appdata%\Factorio Directory. And yes, I forgot I could edit that.