Friday Facts #426 - Resource search & Assembler GUI improvements

[Svip]

Ah, did not know that setting, thanks for telling me it was just a custom option of whoever took that screenshot ^^

They do that in a lot of screenshots, so you can see the tooltip with its context.

[vpsj]

I don't know if the devs read these threads or not, but since the topic is about searching there is one feedback/suggestion I would like to give:

TLDR: Ability to search for items based on their color

In detail:

This has happened countless times for me where I have NO idea what a specific item is called. For example: I have been playing the game for over 300 hours and I still don't know what the sciences are. I just call them red science, green science, blue science etc. It's the same for chips. Red chips, blue chips, green chips, so on and so forth.

Many times I open up the inventory menu, quickly start typing "green chips" and when nothing shows up I have to remind myself that they are actually called "Electronic circuits". This wastes a lot of time and in my opinion it would be a lot quicker if - let's say I start to type "green" and all the items in the factory that are primarily green in color show up. (Like the chips, Uranium items, etc)

Obviously I am not expecting it to work for every item and every color. But at the very least I'd love if some of the most common color or alternate names that most players use can be added in the game.

I have no idea how easy or difficult would it be to implement something like this but I do feel it will be useful.

Thoughts?

[gnutrino]

RE: negative quality modifier, from reddit:

Negative quality doesn't do anything. We were considering just hiding negative quality from the tooltip, but I believe it is better to keep it for the sake of consistency.

[maniak1349]

Resource search

Now thats some feature I wanted since 2015. I even started to make a working mock up on SDL to show how convenient it would be, but then decided that you guys probably know all about it already, just don't have time to put it into the game. And there it is. Was I right or what? Thank you!

[BrainlessTeddy]

"Yummy value"
I hope that stays.

[Upserter]

Wondering if "negative quality" could be integrated with damage. So it would be possible to overcrank an assembler with speed modules to make it produce slightly-damaged outputs, for items that can be damaged.

[Koub]

Yummy value, best name ever \o/. Hope it's not a placeholder.
Nice to have more QoL. The more time flies, the more I appreciate QoL.

[QGamer]

The Map view where train tracks go diagonal thru the wall makes me wonder whether rail gates will work on diagonal or curved tracks now.

Looking at the map some more, they're actually elevated tracks going *above* the wall.

Looking at the map even more, the fact that there are walls & defenses (looks like laser turrets to my eyes) around the ore patch suggests that Vulcanus is a dangerous planet indeed, & it's not just that you might lose your footing & fall into a lava lake.

So... is this a teaser for cool new enemies to fight? Or environmental hazards? Or both?

[Justderpingalong]

The Map view where train tracks go diagonal thru the wall makes me wonder whether rail gates will work on diagonal or curved tracks now.

Looking at the map some more, they're actually elevated tracks going *above* the wall.

Looking at the map even more, the fact that there are walls & defenses (looks like laser turrets to my eyes) around the ore patch suggests that Vulcanus is a dangerous planet indeed, & it's not just that you might lose your footing & fall into a lava lake.

So... is this a teaser for cool new enemies to fight? Or environmental hazards? Or both?

The previous FFF also teased something about Vulcanus enemies and I expected them to be showcased in this FFF. But alas, we must wait another week.

Also can we please get an april fools option which gives silly names to all the stats. Please.

[RocketManChronicles]

This is a great FFF, the Assembling Machine tooltips will really help. But....

I am still waiting for Assembling Machine Graphics updates! This thing looks so out of place with everything else being high-res.

[adam_bise]

My first thought is, could resource search be used in a self-expanding factory setup?

Long time ago there was a post about a self-expanding factory called grey goo. It used mods like recursive blueprints, but as I recall, the biggest hurdle was scanning the terrain for resources.

[mmmPI]

I like "Yummy value"

I think it's quite the change to have the ouput "calculated" for us now. Most likely for the better considering all those extra little seconds wasted here and there and the inefficiency it represented. I understand it's not quite the helmod or factory planner, it's a minimal approach, i think it's good because it won't overwhelm (me) with various mandadory spreadsheets attempting to provide different ways of presenting the information in the game but it still makes the basic info available easily in a way that allow (me) to make sure interpretation of the math is correct.

I like the ressource hightlight on map view, i do that manually in train world particularly, it's another extra inefficiencies removed and i suppose will be very helpful to find ressources on different planets. It makes me anticipate a lot the new map view, with all the changes it's hard to keep track.

I like the ability to pin the outposts, it will help me organise those things if there's some updating going on with the ore value. I know i would have lots of trouble otherwise

[Loewchen]

I would like the option to hide the resource name on the map and only show icon and amount, like Resource Map Label Marker allows to:



I can scan easier for icons than for text, and the text is quite obstructive. The search can still find the icon name.

[againey]

I don't know if the devs read these threads or not, but since the topic is about searching there is one feedback/suggestion I would like to give:

TLDR: Ability to search for items based on their color

The devs most definitely read these.

As for your suggestion, I concur. A fairly standard way to implement this is to add an aliases field to every item definition which can contain one or multiple alternate names. Not sure how Factorio does localization, so it might be more complicated in that respect, especially if modders wanted to change or add aliases. Maybe the list of aliases should specifically be something that the language system supports, instead of the raw item definitions themselves. That way, different languages could have a different number of aliases for each item. (Example, "gray" or "grey" for military science.)

[Galapagon]

Hi devs, thank you for your hard work!

In the Electromagnetic plant tool-tip example, it says 28.1 and 84.4 but doesn't list a value. Is it safe to assume those are also per second?
With the new recipe tool-tip, will it show the default values, or the modified values like the previous example?

[Terrahertz]

I just noticed something, whatever creatures run around on Vulcanus are probably quite terrifying, otherwise how would you justify that packed ring of turrets around the coal patch:

[Terrahertz]

Hi devs, thank you for your hard work!

In the Electromagnetic plant tool-tip example, it says 28.1 and 84.4 but doesn't list a value. Is it safe to assume those are also per second?
With the new recipe tool-tip, will it show the default values, or the modified values like the previous example?

As the image shows +100% productivity and 28.1 is roughly half of the 56.3/s output, it is highly likely those other values are also /s

[GregoriusT]

I just noticed something, whatever creatures run around on Vulcanus are probably quite terrifying, otherwise how would you justify that packed ring of turrets around the coal patch:

how would you justify not protecting the mine to the top right at all whatsoever if they were truly terrifying? xD

[mistotebe]

One thing stands out to me:

Technologies that increase recipe productivity.

Does it mean there's research that irreversibly changes productivity of some recipes? How does that work with things like Gleba where your factory might need to be tuned well not to spoil and productivity changes changing the balance...

[Terrahertz]

I just noticed something, whatever creatures run around on Vulcanus are probably quite terrifying, otherwise how would you justify that packed ring of turrets around the coal patch:

how would you justify not protecting the mine to the top right at all whatsoever if they were truly terrifying? xD

Fair point. Although we don't see, if it is truly undefended or if defense is just missing on the side we can see. Maybe this side is defended by the wall at the bottom, the coal mine and the lava pool around it. Who knows?

OR

Whatever is running around there, has just a taste for coal