Odd armor gridsize

[sushi_eater]

Why are there odd vertical gridsizes with quality armor? Pretty much all equipment has an even size, so there is a completely pointless empty row when populating a vertically odd-sized armor. Armor quality progression would be much smoother, if the vertical grid size was even.

Alternatively, if batteries could be rotated, it would at least be somewhat useful.

[forums.mattias]

I don't see the grid size itself as a major issue, but rotating batteries is a good idea. I was surprised this didn't work myself when i tried it.

[computeraddict]

I don't see the grid size itself as a major issue, but rotating batteries is a good idea. I was surprised this didn't work myself when i tried it.

Can't rotate batteries since they're not sealed cells, obviously

[Xorimuth]

Why are there odd vertical gridsizes with quality armor? Pretty much all equipment has an even size, so there is a completely pointless empty row when populating a vertically odd-sized armor. Armor quality progression would be much smoother, if the vertical grid size was even.

Alternatively, if batteries could be rotated, it would at least be somewhat useful.

What about toolbelt equipment. Isn't that 3x1 so could fill the bottom row?

[EustaceCS]

1x1 solar panels save lives.

On Gleba.

Having an option to put exoskeletons sideways migh be nice though.
Toolbelts are not panacea in current version - vertical rows are a problem too. Sometimes extra accumulators are not quite desirable.

[Tinyboss]

Legendary is +5 in each direction, so if the base item had an even number of rows, then legendary would be odd, which would be terribly unsatisfying.

[Ranec1]

Quite a few mods have odd sizes. So it is still helpful there.

Rotating would be an awesome feature. Also, having neighbor bonuses for some types of items too!

[AileTheAlien]

Rotating would be an awesome feature. Also, having neighbor bonuses for some types of items too!

I'd totally love rotatable grid items, especially if they had non-rectangular shapes. Add in neighbor bonuses, and Factorio armor grids become a nice Tetris-style minigame!

[Ranec1]

I like neighbor bonuses because it gives a reason to specialize multiple armors. One might have a bunch of lasers. Another might have roboports. A running set with 10 exoskeletons. Right now, I find it not worthwhile to specialize.

[EustaceCS]

Lasers suck in 2.0 vs almost everything from midgame onwards. Having one as an automated laser pointer aiming at nearest enemy is VERY nice though.
Tanks are better roboport (and, partially, exoskeleton) armors by sheer virtue of being remotely drive'able.
I don't think that in current meta anything but shields is viable.
And since we don't have odd-sized shields... praise solar panels?

[DefGie]

Probably a bit clunky to code, but alternating +2 on either dimension with successive quality increments would eliminate the annoyance. As in,
Q0: Baseline
Q1: +2 grid width (-1 slot from status quo, more flexible to fully utilize)
Q2: +2 grid width and height (status quo)
Q3: +4 grid width, +2 grid height (-1 slot, more flexible)
Q4: +4 grid width and height (status quo)
(Assuming the original quality announcement is still accurate. I haven't built any quality armor yet)

If people can tolerate the baseline = Q0 definition... I wish the quality icons embraced this convention.

[Tinyboss]

Probably a bit clunky to code, but alternating +2 on either dimension with successive quality increments would eliminate the annoyance. As in,
Q0: Baseline
Q1: +2 grid width (-1 slot from status quo, more flexible to fully utilize)
Q2: +2 grid width and height (status quo)
Q3: +4 grid width, +2 grid height (-1 slot, more flexible)
Q4: +4 grid width and height (status quo)
(Assuming the original quality announcement is still accurate. I haven't built any quality armor yet)

If people can tolerate the baseline = Q0 definition... I wish the quality icons embraced this convention.

Interesting idea! But I need to point out that +5 in each direction is the current Legendary bonus.

[DefGie]

Interesting idea! But I need to point out that +5 in each direction is the current Legendary bonus.

True, I hadn't looked in the 'pedia and went off of the original FFF on quality. In that case legendary quality could be
+6 grid width, +4 height (-1 slot from status quo, more flexible to fully utilize).

I guess it would be hard to know what to do with people's already-loaded grids if making a change like this though. Moving eq. from grid to inventory or fallback to treating it like newly-crafted ("cannot insert") would be fine I think for the player's grid, but if it applied to tanks, spidertrons that's an arbitrarily large mess to ask the player to clean up.

[Tinyboss]

Interesting idea! But I need to point out that +5 in each direction is the current Legendary bonus.

True, I hadn't looked in the 'pedia and went off of the original FFF on quality. In that case legendary quality could be
+6 grid width, +4 height (-1 slot from status quo, more flexible to fully utilize).

I guess it would be hard to know what to do with people's already-loaded grids if making a change like this though. Moving eq. from grid to inventory or fallback to treating it like newly-crafted ("cannot insert") would be fine I think for the player's grid, but if it applied to tanks, spidertrons that's an arbitrarily large mess to ask the player to clean up.

Yeah, I suppose they could allow existing equipment to stay, overflowing the grid, but only until it's removed. Maybe disallow putting anything else in either, until it's fixed.