Move train status indication from floating text to locomotives

[atomizer]

What ?

Remove floating text above trains and move it to the standard status line inside tooltip of the locomotives and (optionally) icons on top of locomotives.

Why ?

In my opinion the floating text makes sense only when it is in direct feedback to an action (for example, mining) or lack of action (for example, trying to build on water). Spamming the same floating text above an entity that isn't actually in response to anything but indicates a status seems now out of place when a common status mechanism already exists on most other entities through the tooltips and icons.

[eradicator]

I think the floating text is there because they indicated *unexpected* train status changes. Players that don't expect anything to go wrong wouldn't mouse-hover every loco they see, and thus if the status was "hidden" in the tooltip it would be much harder to notice.

That said I'd like to have trains some kind of generic status indicator. Currently it's not even possible to tell automatic and manual trains apart visually.

[Amarula]

I use station limits everywhere, and I expect many of my resource trains to be waiting for room to deliver. It is nice to see at a glance that the train is waiting for room at the destination; I have to agree that it is more a status than an unexpected condition, like no path or out of fuel, that I need to fix.

Adding a status icon to trains would be a nice QoL improvement.

[ssilk]

I would suggest instead, that the train itself indicates it’s status (driving, auto/manual, waiting, wait for load/unload, target full, no path etc.) by some lights on top (instead if icons) and that the moving indicator is an option in configuration that can be turned off, if I learned the lights. Because it is quite important to see immediately the state of a train.

The status in the tooltip is for me only an optional feature, as said it is very important to see how the state of many trains is, I would not like to hover over each train.

[eradicator]

I would suggest instead, that the train itself indicates it’s status [...] by some lights on top (instead if icons)

Modding icons for it has been on my things-that-could-be-made list for years (I'm only a mediocre icon-artist). The difficulty with non-icons is that there's already 11 different states (and the list is already missing "no fuel"), and you'd have to design it in a way that is both intutitive and allows for future additions without redesigning the whole thing. Something similar to combinator mode "icons" would be more feasible. And even then you have to design the icons in a way that they're easy to read regardless of how the loco is rotated. Alt-mode icons are much simpler to implement.

Code: Select all

defines.train_state.on_the_path
defines.train_state.path_lost
defines.train_state.no_schedule
defines.train_state.no_path
defines.train_state.arrive_signal
defines.train_state.wait_signal
defines.train_state.arrive_station
defines.train_state.wait_station
defines.train_state.manual_control_stop
defines.train_state.manual_control
defines.train_state.destination_full

[atomizer]

Here are some suggestions for status icons. As far as I'm aware, everything else corresponds to normal automatic operation and doesn't need an icon. As long as every state is also indicated in the tooltip, no information is lost there, and the icons themselves don't really matter much as long as they are distinctive.

[atomizer]

Glad to see this implemented in 2.0 (and with better icons, too).

[Koub]

[Koub] Moved to Implemented for 2.0