Factorio Forums

TL;DR

Make it possible to show constant combinator settings in alt-mode, without showing the settings for other combinators.

What?

Split the interface option for 'Show combinator settings in "Alt-mode"', into 'Show constant combinator settings' and 'Show other combinator settings'.

Why?

The 'Show combinator settings in "Alt-mode"' setting serves very little purpose right now - it is basically mandatory to always be on, for two reasons:

1. Currently the only way to label belt inputs for blueprints is with combinators.
2. Constant combinators actually used as constant combinators for circuits always need to be visible because it's often the only thing that tells you what that circuit does - especially if you're dealing with "set recipe".

However, on the flip side, the alt-mode for other combinators (arithmetic/decider/selector) is actively unhelpful. For example, 99% of my arithmetic/decider combinators just use EACH, which looks like this in alt-mode:
This is ugly and completely counterproductive. I would rather see the operator indication, and more importantly this mode obsures most of the wires, which is a massive issue.

The non-alt-mode version is much more helpful in most cases:
But currently the only way to disable this overlay is to disable it for all combinators, which is not possible because you absolutely MUST have constant combinator icons visible for the reasons discussed above.

It would be even nicer if the combinator displays were more useful. For example, make the icons small enough to put 4 in a row, then when all your operands are EACH, you could show EACH, operator, EACH, and implied output EACH. The operands could have a plain background if both red and green inputs are checked, or a red or green background to indicate programmed to only consider red or green inputs respectively.

I do understand your annoyance with wires being obscured by icons. I have given up worrying about it, and simply open the combinators to double check the network IDs. Yes it is a pain, yes it requires manual verification (I use a physical notepad to draw the configuration and label the IDs), but I find it works, while trying to look at the wires simply doesn't work for me.

The other option that's worth considering is having a "Show in alt-mode" option on the combinators themselves, so that you can show it when useful and hide the rest. It would need to default to yes for constant combinators, and I could live with it defaulting to yes for everything.