Factorio Forums

Or just go hardcore and give no alerts, alerts as they currently exist are kind of wizardry in a tech game when you think about it

Still, any time when an alarm is playing twice is a situation when you should probably be looking at the map for attack markers anyways since that usually means you're not killing aliens fast enough and need to plop some more turrets wherever that occured. So it feels like a moot point even if it is kind of annoying.

I highly support this.

Added to viewtopic.php?f=80&t=16566 Alerts, Alert-Info (Map), visible/audible Indication

The previous example save no longer clearly demonstrates this in 0.15.

New save attached.

Xeanoa wrote: Unless the devs say they designed it to work differently than it does, it doesn't fit the definition of a bug. It's just counter-intuitive design.

A software bug is an error, flaw, failure or fault in a computer program or system that causes it to produce an incorrect or unexpected result, or to behave in unintended ways.

There is such a thing as a design or documentation bug. If the design doesn't satisfy the purpose of the feature, it's a bug too. The purpose in this case is to get the player's attention when there's an immediate problem. The current behavior is either a design bug or a software bug.

They've said time and time again, bugs are flaws in the programming (difference between intent and execution), while design is subject to interpretation and thus belongs under Ideas & Suggestions.

I uploaded the updated save to highlight the continued effect of this subject and provide a solid test case. Let's not get off track with a debate about semantics.


Edit: Scenario save is out of date and no longer has the appropriate timings. See example video from 0.16, below.

The subject of this thread continues to be an issue. It is misleading, very annoying, and common enough so this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TxtYk3dysM&t=2295

...is not the first time it has happened in that video series.

Listen for the second alarm, making the streamer say "Uh, what?" and look around in frustration.

Solution: Do not play the sound component of an alert if it is about to expire. Only repeat the audio alarm if the destruction notification is refreshed very recently (a fraction of the time delay between the sounding alerts).

I think we're looking at it the wrong way. The destruction alert itself isn't really compatible with what's being asked for, and to fix it would be complex and would probably impact performance.

Possibly the best solution is to change the style of the alert. The problem currently is that you get an alert that plays, what, once every 10 seconds? 20? With the large time between alerts it's very easy to assume it's a new alert. If this were changed to an ongoing alert, such as a siren or even just the same alert but just one beep (maybe extended a bit) every 2 seconds. Then it should be very clear that it's an ongoing alert and not a new one.

Could be further improved by reducing the duration of the alert and, once triggered, perpetuating it with damage to nearby structures (if it doesn't do this already?) which will make it more obvious more quickly when there is a second location being attacked.

I think we're looking at it the wrong way. The destruction alert itself isn't really compatible with what's being asked for, and to fix it would be complex and would probably impact performance.

- Something blows up
- Play alert
- Cooldown a few seconds
- wait for something to blow up
- play another alert.

It's like watching the UPS slip through my fingers!

The issue is that the alert is a looping SFX with a lot of dead air, and not a single play SFX that is triggered on conditions. This is a problem with the in game alarms as well, because alarms can not be set up to single play mode.

bobucles wrote:This is a problem with the in game alarms as well, because alarms can not be set up to single play mode.

Yes, I haven't verified with an old version that pre-dates the programmable speaker, but I suspect that when it was introduced they used the same underlying system for the in-game alerts as the programmable ones.

Result: Audio that loops for the whole time the visible alert exists, regardless of freshness / whether it's about to expire.

That's the other side of this. Even if the second alarm is when you finally notice / respond to the problem, you might try to click on the alert and fail because it disappears, since there's no guarantee on the relative expiration times of audio vs. visual.

Edit: Talk about a case in point. Watch as the audio plays at the exact moment the alert disappears!

https://youtu.be/8unxAYoDoq8?t=1238

At that point, the audio alert is worse than useless. He goes to click it, annnd... nope.

Here's how to fix it:

Before the alert sounds, it checks to see if it is still a valid alert. You always get the first alert on building destruction, but you won't get alerts after that one if the biters that broke it are already dead and there are no enemies currently aggressed in that area.

Before the alert sounds, it checks to see if it is still a valid alert

Active event checking is very expensive. There's no need to test every tick if the alert is valid, and it's also very difficult algorithmicly to determine what a "valid alert" is.

It's very easy to check for the time since the last alarm. Something blows up, play the alarm and wait 20 seconds. If something blows up 20 seconds later, play another alarm. repeat.

This "feature" has always bothered me. The alarm sounds for a bitter killing something. Then again a few seconds later, making you think there's been another bitter killing something, when all it is, is just a repeat of the first alarm.

Here's another solution: don't have alarms sit around waiting to play. Any alarm that can't play because it's suppressed doesn't play. That's simple and obvious solution, which begs the question: why have the devs specifically programmed in the feature that causes this unwanted effect? I can't think of anything the feature does other than cause this annoyance.

I'm not sure which method for fixing this is the best, but I will note that this is probably the only thing in the game that still feels "wrong" or broken that I noticed the first time I played and is still in the game now. It's annoying at best and actively confusing for new players at worst.

Just noticed I forgot to tell how much I did agree in here. A LOT actually . The last "post-everything is dead" alarmis very worrying. On a side note, I'd love to have all my alerts logged so that I can get back to one that has stopped ringing, because when you have 5 alarms that fire at the same time, it's hard to remember when they fired when they go off.