Factorio Forums

I guess you COULD play Factorio without planning ahead

I don't.

So, it is a pretty normal experience that I will do something while at the same time having some sort of (of course "evil") masterplan in my mind. A plan I might add, that hinges on me actually remembering it and doing stuff later on to make it work.

My memory is roughly that of a fruit fly with ADHD which forces me to put important stuff into writing. Handwriting is of course more or less out of the question (this isn't the stone age after all) so I end up with using whatever comes handy on my computer.

It would be so much easier, if I could have an ingame notebook.

Ideas on the kind of neat gimmicks it could include:

- A timer: I have something I KNOW I ought to check regularly (because I haven't yet automated it fully, or I want to check on progress, or I want to see how that lay-out works in the long run ...). What I do right now is forget about it until the problem bites me in the rear end of my armor. With a timed function, a reminder could pop up.

- Fixed notes: You have a great idea for something you can only do later ingame (or simply something with a lower priority than what you are doing right now) and it has something to do with a fixed location? Well, stick a note to that location to remind you (e.g. "Oil refinery HERE"). That would also prevent you from building something else there because you had forgotten, remember a while later and grumblingly tearing everything up again.

I am very well aware that this anything but essential, just something that would help me organize and plan. But isn't that as Factorio as it gets?

The idea to combine notes and timers is very good. It would make a time feature "complete". Some kind of schedule. Could be very helpful for people, which want to make a speedrun. Or to remember to taking the laundry out of the washing machine.

On the other hand: I have only the problem, to remind me to stop the game. And incomplete automating is never a good idea in this game, cause if you're doing a job in Factorio the 3rd or 4th time, an automated thing nearly always wins (compared to the usefulness of player-time).

It is also a good question, if a timer based device connected to some kind new type of alarm (in game) wouldn't do this job much niftier? The new circuit network in 0.12 might be able to do this...?

So I have two issues, or preconditions:

1. when this comes, it must be seen in the bigger scope of planning.
See this thread: https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =67&t=4682
I will make a note back to this one.

2. I see such an idea first as a mod (that might be easy to implement), because the multiplayer-interaction is something, which cannot be planned from the forum (too complicated I mean), that must grow with such a mod. When we know, what is needed to implement this also for multiplayer, it can be implemented into the vanilla. My opinion.

ssilk wrote:The idea to combine notes and timers is very good. It would make a time feature "complete". Some kind of schedule. Could be very helpful for people, which want to make a speedrun. Or to remember to taking the laundry out of the washing machine.

On the other hand: I have only the problem, to remind me to stop the game. And incomplete automating is never a good idea in this game, cause if you're doing a job in Factorio the 3rd or 4th time, an automated thing nearly always wins (compared to the usefulness of player-time).

True, incomplete automating is bad. But unfortunately, it happens. And I admit that checking on some things (sufficient supply of raw material) should/could be done via smart set-ups.

ssilk wrote:It is also a good question, if a timer based device connected to some kind new type of alarm (in game) wouldn't do this job much niftier? The new circuit network in 0.12 might be able to do this...?

True again, and very much in holding with what I like to think of the spirit of Factorio ("Don't do it by hand").

That still leaves the usefulness as a household alert Hands up everybody who forget a real-life chore while playing Factorio? I have automated the cats: They'll sit between the keyboard and myself and stick their (very reproachful) faces into mine.

ssilk wrote:So I have two issues, or preconditions:

1. when this comes, it must be seen in the bigger scope of planning.
See this thread: https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =67&t=4682
I will make a note back to this one.

With the advent of active planning and a construction plan, a number of the functions I wanted the notepad for would be obsolete. Still, as you say, the game is so complicated that it's sometimes better to have a place where you can write it all down. If nothing else, it can tide us over until we get the upgrades

ssilk wrote:2. I see such an idea first as a mod (that might be easy to implement), because the multiplayer-interaction is something, which cannot be planned from the forum (too complicated I mean), that must grow with such a mod. When we know, what is needed to implement this also for multiplayer, it can be implemented into the vanilla. My opinion.

Sound solution ... now I just need someone to mod it (or learn how to do it myself *sighs*).

Edited afterthought: A notepad could be useful as a personal list of favourite console commands. Sure, there are other ways you can do that, but having it ingame would give it very good accessability.

Ok, I think this could be useful, because it joins some other things together. I try to make it more complete.


A in-game notepad can be used for
- editing/reading notes which are
--- a text,
--- a position on map
--- a time (either real time or game time, either a fixed time or a duration), that display an alarm/notice, when time is reached
--- a screenshoot
--- a calculator (simply line based),
--- you can access in-game values of entities (for caluclation for example), items, tech or recipes (e.g. iron-ore->hardness or assembly-3->speed), with by auto-complete
- a simple spreadsheet, where you can align "cells" by dragging notes in line.
- a save/load function

This last points are of course much more optional, then the first.


There are quite big dependencies to
- a planning tool (see link above)
- displaying player tasks
- multiplayer communication
- and naming of train stops, roboports etc. (areas for example)

Edit: This is also useful for handling blueprints and blueprint-books.

Ingame Notes

I would like to be able to make fast in-game notes.
This could maybe be solved by adding an extra button like the ones above the minimap, which then opens a notebook menu.
And an option to make a note public, private, or to share the note only with specific players and a checklist option would also be nice and handy.

Why?

It would improve the planning/ coordination of a single project and the planning of multiple projects.
The ability to share a note and a checklist would also improve the game because, for example, it's hard when you are playing Factorio at times like 2 o'clock to remember stuff, which often happens.

Related work from some years back: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6197, check the links in the second post there.

This is a great idea.
Why do we not have this already?!
The original topic was like 2 and a half years ago!
We need this...pls...

I would love a button to open a single notepad type file that I can keep notes in such as which train stops I have feeding which stops, what my next project is, etc. a scratch pad would be great in game. (I hate windowed mode, which is an obvious solution)

These threads are also related:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=58685 Signs
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=71021 Icon sign posts in Vanilla

These threads talk about being able to make notes tied to a specific map location, i.e. signs placed in the game world.

Plus 100 to something - even just better support for mods storing data in blueprints - that would make it possible to attach notes to combinator constructs. Regretfully, I'm not always able to remember exactly which input is for the robot count, the logistic inventory, the static needs, and which output goes to the containers, inserters, and remote when I'm looking at a dozen combinator setup I haven't thought about hard recently...

The "Attach Notes" mod is great, except that it no longer works to transfer through blueprints. I can kind of work around it with a half dozen to whole dozen programmable speakers, but it isn't exactly a great user experience. I'm not necessarily stuck on this for core, but making it easier to use in mods would be really good.

My fallback has been playing around with the "text plates" mod to get blueprintable letters, but ... well, it works, but it isn't the best experience at one tile per letter. Constant combinators with letter signals and alt-mode work too, but even more annoying to work with, honestly.