Factorio Forums

What i suggest is a simple thing.

And ON/OFF button in the menu/window for machines.

Like the Assembly machine, or the Stone Furnace(Maybe wait with that till the Steel Furnace?)

I think it could give players a lot more control of their economy in the game

Regards. Lalu.

Yes, that would actually be very nice to have.

In my currently weekly MP game, we had a severe power shortage, and so had to run around and try to manually disconnect certain factory sections from power, such as the Laboraty section. That was difficult and cumbersome to do. An on/off switch would be preferable, and ideally with the ability to assign machines to groups, e.g. so that I can assign all Labs to the group named Lab or 1/4 of them to Lab1 and the rest to Lab2, and then switch things on and off group-wise.

Seems there is a power switch coming in 0.12, as part of the circuit network.

Indeed. It makes sense to turn off complete parts of the factory. By poles, because turning off parts means to turn off a part of the network.

Turning off one building: Why? I have no idea. It makes only sense in the early game. But for assemblies I can also remove the recipe, and the drain is really not that hard to handle in that case..

Some links I found which are a bit about this and might be useful.
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... hp?f=9&t=5 Electric energy - THE. THREAD.
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=1345 Power switch
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... urn+on+off 17+ IDEAS to make FACTORIO an even more AWESOME game!
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=1261 Handling different electric networks

And related:
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =6&t=12317 About upcoming Power Switch & Blinking yellow Indications

ssilk wrote:Turning off one building: Why? I have no idea. It makes only sense in the early game. But for assemblies I can also remove the recipe, and the drain is really not that hard to handle in that case..

Turning off one key building (e.g. assembler making gear wheels) will make all subsequent assemblers relying on gear wheels stop.

FishSandwich wrote:Seems there is a power switch coming in 0.12, as part of the circuit network.

The difference here is that you'd need to understand how the power switch / circuit network works and it would also need some resources and space. If you just wanted to disable one assembler, you'd need to build the combinator/additional buildings/wires (maybe even research it), place it and configure it. It would be simpler to just click on the assembler and disable it with one click. Ssilk mentioned removing the recipe, but that only works for assemblers, not for furnaces, drills, or inserters.

I don't mind having this feature, but I also probably won't use it, cause I haven't needed it before. However, should this be implemented, it should be possible to easily see on the screen (like the no power sign) that the entity is currently switched off, at least in ALT-view. Because currently you can see a picture of the setup in ALT-view and spot all the possible error points, but if you could switch off every entity anytime, this won't be so easy, especially in multiplayer.

daniel34 wrote:

ssilk wrote:Turning off one building: Why? I have no idea. It makes only sense in the early game. But for assemblies I can also remove the recipe, and the drain is really not that hard to handle in that case..

Turning off one key building (e.g. assembler making gear wheels) will make all subsequent assemblers relying on gear wheels stop.

Yeah, but I can also rotate the inserter to that building. Same effect. Or remove the recipe. Or cut one belt. But in general you don't want to do that, only if you are in the very beginning of a game or an absolute newbie.

It would be simpler to just click on the assembler and disable it with one click.

I would be with you, if it would be able to switch on/off everything. That would be indeed eventually useful, while building stuff, because it happens too easy, that some wrong item comes into an assembly, the inserter cannot take it away.

Ssilk mentioned removing the recipe, but that only works for assemblers, not for furnaces, drills, or inserters.

I really don't know any reason, why I should turn off the smelting. In the beginning phase (what I suppose that we are speaking about) it costs no electric power (besides the inserters) and there is really no better strategy, than to smelt as much, as you can, because the output material takes generally less space in the stacks (more items per stack) and the smelting is one of the main-bottlenecks.

But there are very good reasons to turn off a beacon. Or maybe pumps.

... it should be possible to easily see on the screen (like the no power sign) that the entity is currently switched off, at least in ALT-view. Because currently you can see a picture of the setup in ALT-view and spot all the possible error points, but if you could switch off every entity anytime, this won't be so easy, especially in multiplayer.

Well, that argument is better. And well, I think that switching on/off should be modable to see, how this can be used. Maybe it has really more uses?


And there is another thing: If we follow this path with the modules, we come to suggestions about how the modules are currently handled:
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =41&t=4584 [0.10.x]Blueprins do not copy modules (Bugticket)
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=4818 Blueprints storing module configuration
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=8175 Mass insert/removal of modules
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=7904 Copy-paste modules (in addition to settings)

(Also ideas in my backlog, about refurbishing modules (change a red into a green for example))

And seeing, what the assembly currently does:
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=3674 Showing up/see/visualize modules in assemblies...
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=9289 Factories Indicate Why They Aren't Working
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=5108 Lights for devices
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=3984 More Info button
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=8024 Swap input on chemical factory

All these ideas make sense and need some kind of interface. I mean it must be on the top of that device and you see only some very small LEDs. If you click on it, it pops up and you can see it clearly. And if there is a switch for turning it off... why not? It doesn't hurt. But - to make that really clear - game-play wise this isn't needed or only needed for one or two devices and even that can be handled, if we have power-switch-poles.