Factorio Forums

TL;DR

Thrusters should have a simple GUI option to toggle them via the circuit network for better control.

What?

I think it would be great if we could control the thruster directly via the circuit network. Sure, you can achieve something similar by toggling a pump on and off, but since thrusters have a fairly large internal tank, they’ll still burn through that fuel at full power before finally shutting down due to fuel starvation.

My Idea of the GUI:

Why?

I'd like to limit my ships' speed to conserve fuel by allowing them to "coast" at lower velocities. I also assume it's easier to protect a ship from asteroids when it's traveling more slowly. This would be much easier to manage if there were an option to deactivate the thruster based on the platform's velocity parameter. I imagine I'm not the first to think of this, but I haven't come across a forum post discussing it yet. If one already exists or there is a bnetter way to achive my idea, feel free to delete this post.