Ability to draw on map

[saors]

tl;dr/what: I would really like the ability to draw on the map.

Why: To help with larger-scale planning that blue-prints aren't quite good for as well as keep everyone focused on different goals.

How this would work:



Different Maps are listed on the left. Each is toggle-able individually ("Resource Allocation" map is toggled off in image)
Drawing tools on top. (line, circle, point, square, arrow)
(not shown in image is an add new map button).

Maps would be global (or shared via the existing blueprint system).

Thoughts?


Edit: Some formatting changes to make the suggestion better.

[JohnyDL]

I kinds of which there were 2 levels of blueprints a one that bots would fill in and one that they wouldn't so you can literally plan out huge bases from the start and then have no worries about bots or nano-bots wasting energy building things you're not ready for even going as far as preventing areas from being built on until they're selected as ready for construction.

As for on the global map there are map pins but yeah being able to draw lines between pins would be cool too

*recommends you read the how to post a suggestion thread and update your post so more people will actually read and consider and talk about your idea*

[quyxkh]

Blueprints bots won't build is doable now if you don't mind some kludgery. Pop into some no-roboport armor then `/c game.player.force=game.forces.neutral` then place your blueprints, then back to game.forces.player and your regular armor.

[JohnyDL]

yeah but it's not as seamless as I'd like for them making it build

[quyxkh]

Do you know about chart tags? Click on the map aka chart, pick text and/or icon, confirm.

[saors]

@quyxkh , yeah, I know about chart tags. They're great for doing simple "this is where things are" or "this is where things will be" but the issue with them is it's hard to express area/perimeter. If you're trying to convey where a wall should start, a point (tag) is fine. If you're trying to display all of the aspects of where you want the wall to go (let's say you need a zig-zag wall, or multiple separate walls) then using points is tedious as you would need at least several points, but could easily get to 10-20 points easily. Then having to delete all of those independently makes it not even worth putting them down in the first place.

Another example would be if you're trying to show the areas that you want each step of your bus system to go. You draw a square around where you want green circuits to go, then you draw a square around red circuits to go. Points don't really express how much space you want the sections to take up.

[Maxi3000]

I like the idea.
Expecelly for multiplayer it would be a nice feature, because you can better plan the base ^^

[kermdawg]

TL;DR

I propose a tool that would allow you to highlight a section of the map and mark it with text for factory planning purposes.

What ?

What I believe would be a simple solution is just a box with a label in it. Similar to a select tool for windows, sometimes I just want to mark an area and square it off so I dont inadvertantly build anything there. I've resorted to drawing pictures on paper to plan out general areas of my factory-This would be much easier and efficient in the game itself.

Why ?

Factorio is a very unique game. There is no right or wrong way to do anything. However, this leads to a rather unique situation. After spending several hours on a factory, you usually have a pretty good idea in your head of what you plan to put where. However, after you save and go do something else for the rest of the day(or even several days) when you come back to the factory, lots of times I struggle to remember exactly what I was going to do where I was going to do it.
Yes there is ghosting and blueprints, and those help immensely along these lines. However, lots of times your not going to blueprint something, and ghosting(to me) just wastes alot of time-Your basically doing everything twice. Since the very nature of Factorio veterans is doing things as efficiently as possible, having to do something twice is very counter productive from this viewpoint.

[JohnyDL]

There are already map markers in the game just click on map mode some additional features like connecting with lines might be useful but if you're doing that sort of planning arguably using an external image editor, using stone for outlines and map markers for labelling and/or blueprints would do the job with no extra in-game things.

[eradicator]

+1 for adding line-drawing to the map-marker system (e.g shift+mouse-drag).
The ability to draw a straight line would already help immensly, rectangles or circles would just be a nice bonus after that.

Why?
Have you ever tried to tell someone in what area on the map exactly the new $circuti_production_facility should be? So far i've worked around it by making a rectangle from lots of symbol markers

image

map_rectangle.png (73.1 KiB) Viewed 6519 times

.

[JohnyDL]

I'd like to point out this is still doable in game as it is right now and with a little more patience a whole lot more versatile than just lines and boxes (from about as soon as you have smelting set up for stone)


Edit I can't spell Circuits, I hate my dyslexia. Oh well not changing it now.

[kermdawg]

I think that rectangles would be great. That was exactly what I had in mind. Not sure about the useability of other shapes but if its not to much trouble, why not?

@JohnyDL, your 100% correct, it is certainly doable as it stands right now. The issue is 1)it would be a pain in the butt to do it for every sub-factory in your factory how you described(although certainly doable), 2)the time it would take to do so, and 3)the main issue I have with it. I want to do this in the early game, like the first 30 minutes or so. Doing it how you described is not feasible due to the resource requirements it would take in that time period. Also, if you wanted to expand or collapse the area, it would take a bit of doing.

I know what your saying. Damn near anything is possible in this game if you put your mind to it. I was just hoping that adding in a couple little tools for planning purposes wouldn't be a big deal. I wouldn't "think" it would be, but I know the programmers have alot on their plates already. This little QoL improvement would help the overall game immensely in all three stages(early, mid, late) and for anyone that wants to do the smallest bit of planning on their base.

In the end its certainly not a huge thing, but it sure would be nice and make life a bit easier!

[Koub]

It would totally make sense to have such QoL tools for planning the base.
However, it might be irrevelant if the ability to make ghosts of buildings you haven"t yet unlocked was added (for planning purpose). Or both could be paired.
The ability to ghost buildings you can't build yet has been suggested and discussed formerly (viewtopic.php?f=38&t=48033, ), but we don't know if it will happen.

[JohnyDL]

I know picking up the stone can be a pain but popping it down can be done fairly quickly. That demonstration took about 2 minutes to set up including running to get the stone. (Although I admit it's something I had smelted) you don't need solid lines either placing a dotted line for provisional areas works too though you can't see it as far zoomed out.

Diagonal lines and just lines in general are the things I'd use most if it was added in game (I currently use paint), for setting up train paths as best as I can and working out where the 45 degree lines and junctions should go without putting my stuff on top of patches I want to target.

I do understand the early game argument but for me it seems weak, when I was designing the bus for my MegaFactory even before I had enough belts and undergrounds to mark out the width I had labelled the plans for the belts with 8 tall lettering for the bus (in fact it's still there though I've belted over it) I'll look at the earliest saves but I don't think I had red/green science running full auto (with my temporary starting setup) before I had at least a wooden chest of stone bricks made, 100 stone bricks takes about the same time as 200 iron ore to mine and with half as many furnace cycles. And it's not like it's a waste of time to do, if you make the jump to steel furnaces having bricks available is part of the path and when you're setting up steel you can reuse the furnaces that initially made bricks in the steel set up.

The bonus of early multiplayer is that after a few of you have laid out the design with ghosts it'd only take one person with a little boredom and a few stone bricks to go and mark it out so it's visible in map mode for everyone.

Also Koub you can place ghosts of entities you haven't unlocked already but you need to get the BPs from other saves (and recipes you haven't unlocked can't get plopped to the map, I'm all for ghosting recipes that haven't been unlocked and having to have construction bots come along and set them when you have the science)

[Koub]

Johny, I'm not saying it's impossible, just that doing asciiart with stone path (no offense) is not exactly what I call a builtin feature to plan future parts of a base.
Same thing for the blueprinting of not-yet-discovered buildings. Needing to have a blueprint from another game to be able to place a ghost is ... just a workaround for not being able to do it straight gameplay wise.
What I'm saying is that if people need workarounds to do things that make sense in in the game, and these workarounds are not needed for gameplay value (they are not part of the puzzle), then adding features that would make these workarounds obsolete would be a good thing.

[Gr3atsaga]

Sorry to necro this, but honestly... this still needs to happen.

I've even tried finding mods that add the functionality, and I can't. Unless I'm just an idiot and looking up the wrong things. I would draw so much stuff on my map right now if I could.
I plan to completely block off a very large area from aliens with walls and turrets, essentially giving myself a huge area to work in free from Alien torment. I also want to plan out sub
factory stations, train stations, etc.

I love the way this suggestion is shown, being able to toggle through different colored drawings would be really nice indeed.
Though, in addition to the pre-made shapes, there should be a free draw tool as well. Especially since I really want to
make curved walls and stuff (instead of just straight slanted).

[saors]

My turn to necro this, since it's likely better than starting a new thread.

I would still really like to see this feature and I haven't heard a "on the roadmap" or "we don't want to do this" from the devs yet...

[Oktokolo]

I like the idea of having a potentailly unlimited amount of strategic maps to plan things.

But even just being able to draw lines on the current map would still be a huge improvement. Could draw arrows to mark direction of ongoing liberation of land and resources. Couls also draw lines where walls should be and mark the line with one wall icon.
And i could encircly areas with lines to mark industrial zones reserved for specific needs (like reserving areas for train infrastructure or the main bus early on).

[ickputzdirwech]

[ick] Merged four topics about drawing freely on the map.

[SupplyDepoo]

People are going clinically insane without a line drawing tool. Look at what I randomly found today!

railroad-plan.png (389.45 KiB) Viewed 3375 times