A Few Small QoL Ideas
Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2023 3:27 pm
- When dragging and running out lengths of underground pipe, if something is in the way the pipe isn't placed, or one end will be placed but not the other. I'd like it if this was done like belts and power lines, where if there's an obstruction in the way of the underground pipe at maximum length, it is placed in a clear spot instead
- An option to toggle which sides of a belt an inserter picks up items from and deposits them on. I think this is self-explanatory, it would be a HUGE change for keeping belts balanced if we could arrange for our inserters to do it for us. An option to toggle a visual indicator of which side inserters pick up and deposit items from would also be nice, as it isn't always obvious when things aren't perfectly lined up.
- Option to manually place items ourselves when ghost-building instead of relying on robots, if the item is in range and we have it on-hand. Why do I want this? Say you're running out power lines, placing the poles automatically as you do, but then you run past a cluster of trees and the power line is placed to avoid them. I don't care, just deconstruct the trees and put the power pole where it ought to have gone before. Now I can do this by ghost-building, but if I'm holding Shift while building, my robots are placing the poles now. A minor nuisance but one that would be nice to avoid and I'm sure is applicable to other situations.
- Allow us to toggle the grid when in map view. We can see it now via the way pollution graphics spread, but being able to see it anywhere on the map without having to zoom in would be appreciated.
- I've seen in a previous FFF that power lines and logistics lines will be able to be connected freely without using resources, excellent. That in mind, could we have an option in blueprints to include or exclude power lines and logistics, the same way we could opt to include or exclude ground tiles?
- Could blueprints and planners have the functionality to interface with modules? Enough said there, can quickly upgrade modules, but could also use deconstruction planner to remove modules from buildings. The latter could be especially handy when building blueprints that call for modules you don't intend to put in them yet, and that accusing blue icon is hovering over the machines staring at you
- When building blueprints that include technologies we haven't researched yet, could there be an option to allow us to still place them as ghost buildings that become enabled once we have them? Like if we place a belt array before we have blue belts, earmark the machines that'll assemble blue belts to do so once we research them and just have them be inactive until then.
- If the research queue is enabled, allow us to choose a research goal beyond what is immediately above what we already have. Like if I want to research Rocketry but don't have the tech required for it yet, an option to set it as a research goal and the queue will automatically fill with the researches required to get up to Rocketry. Given the queue size is limited, could simply have a message warning if the researches is too advanced and there's too many intermediate researches to queue it up