Factorio Forums

Duplicate of 117956

The 0.2 times per hour I want to enter a formula I can stomach putting in a leading "=" or something. The 20 times per hour I am irritated because the UI doesn't act consistently I can't.
Point being: If theres a (conceptually) number field typing text can and should be the option that is saddled with extra effort, just by balance of usage.

mergele wrote: Tue Nov 26, 2024 2:04 pm The 0.2 times per hour I want to enter a formula I can stomach putting in a leading "=" or something. The 20 times per hour I am irritated because the UI doesn't act consistently I can't.
Point being: If theres a (conceptually) number field typing text can and should be the option that is saddled with extra effort, just by balance of usage.

I often enter formulas, so writing = would be more annoying. Especially as I can just use "enter" instead of "e".

Not a solution for everyone, but in my "General Mousing" mouse binding profile, the two side buttons are "Enter" and "Escape". Convenient reach for oft-used keys inconveniently far away from the gamer/programmer's home row (shiftWASD).

I wouldn't say that Escape is far away, and these buttons by default are for Previous / Next, which Factorio now uses too, and is quite convenient once you have to deal with multiple surfaces (once you go to space).

+1

I also want to just tap a number and hit 'e' to close the ui.

BlueTemplar wrote: Tue Nov 26, 2024 3:34 pm I wouldn't say that Escape is far away, and these buttons by default are for Previous / Next, which Factorio now uses too, and is quite convenient once you have to deal with multiple surfaces (once you go to space).

"I have to move my hand" == "far away"

Re: previous/next, I guess I'm fortunate that I have more programmable mouse buttons available.

I agree with the "=" compromise, it's already ingrained. Maybe a new setting we can enable?

Oops, thank you.

Fully support this, I have found myself pressing E, then having to backspace and hit enter... nearly every single time I use a number field.

The 2.0 change of making dialogs NOT close when you hit E while in a text field is probably the single most frustrating change the game has seen.
Basically every single time I want to make a logistic request, or change a value in a combinator I hit E, wonder why the dialog does not close, click the checkmark button instead and then get frustrated noticing that the instead of changing a number from 50 to 250 for example it actually got changed to 2 instead, because it truncates the number instead of at least ignoring the letters.

Please for the love of all that is right, change it back and make fields that will only accept numbers ignore non numeric inputs and close the dialog as it used to be.

Disable advanced hidden debug setting use-formulas-in-number-input-fields (Ctrl+Shift+click Settings in Main menu, The rest, then search for it with Ctrl+F).

Also duplicate of Allow pressing E to confirm number input fields, by dropping support for scientific notation.

IsaacOscar wrote: Sat Nov 23, 2024 9:35 am

Wiwiweb wrote: Fri Nov 01, 2024 4:05 am There's also "The property where the expression is used may provide variables.", but I don't think that applies in-game as a player, it seems to be only when defining prototypes as a modder. Let me know if wrong.

You can have a blueprint parameter define a variable "e" and then use it in formulas for subsequent paramaters.

That is *exclusively* in the parameter window though, if that window behaves differently it's fine (most definitely better than the current situation). That window has explicit text inputs which are obviously meant to enter text (such as variable names) and I don't instinctively expect it to close it by hitting E like I do with just about every other dialog you interact with in the game every single time.
Additionally you use the parameter window like once an hour maybe, whereas you will enter numbers into combinators or logistics requests about 20 times an hour. It would be infinitely better to have an infrequently used (and new) dialog be slightly inconvenient rather than every single dialog that you use many many many times while playing the game.

IsaacOscar wrote: Tue Nov 26, 2024 2:12 pm

mergele wrote: Tue Nov 26, 2024 2:04 pm The 0.2 times per hour I want to enter a formula I can stomach putting in a leading "=" or something. The 20 times per hour I am irritated because the UI doesn't act consistently I can't.
Point being: If theres a (conceptually) number field typing text can and should be the option that is saddled with extra effort, just by balance of usage.

I often enter formulas, so writing = would be more annoying. Especially as I can just use "enter" instead of "e".

= is one key press at the start if you want some special handling (which you do), after all you could also simply do the math yourself and enter the result instead, which is the exact same thing.

And the enter key is inconveniently located nowhere close to any of your hands when playing the game, as you rarely need the right half of the keyboard playing the game.

What if 'ee' closed the window? It is slightly inconsistent but it would provide a compromise.

Yes please, or as an option in the settings.

+1

Like so many things of this nature, it seems that the only real solution is to make it configurable in the interface settings somewhere, and it's configurable in the console that means it can't be that complex to add it there, no?

Assuming this can be added to the interface settings without much fuss, the only real debate would be what ends up being the default option. In my opinion, the default should be whatever most players are going to intuitively or even reflexively perform based on prior conditioning. And so, I think the earlier point that most players will intuitively assume pressing E will confirm, based on how that is how it works with so many other interfaces, is a sound assumption. I can admit that that is still an assumption, however, and my perspective is biased because that's exactly what I intuited, and I have typed many an unintended e into a text field lol.

Though I sympathize with them I do think the players who will get confused when typing e into a text field closes the interface, because they're doing some kinda math thing, have got to be the minority. But again, no one has a lasting issue anyway if we could easily configure that setting in the menu.

+1 on the need for a toggle between "Press E to accept, use = for formulae" and "Type all formulae in-line".
+1 on the default favoring new players and non-power users