Factorio Forums

TL;DR

radar should have a mode to output a signal corresponding to nests nearby

What?

2.1.13 introduced a feature that alerts the player when an expansion nest is built, if you're going to provide this kind of utility, why not integrate it even further into the identity of the radar? possibly even have it report on other entities in its radius, such as a player, as a signal with a unique ID, similar to train ID features.

Why?

If radar emitted a signal for nests in its radius, I could:
dynamically request artillery trains to visit an outpost when biters expand nearby
set up an alarm for enemy presence in a chosen area
...and if radar emitted a signal for engineers/other stuff, I could:
build a passenger shuttle system that brings a train automatically when I'm near a station
build a radar network that can triangulate the location of engineers for fun

+1

It shouldn't be too complex. Just a boolean "is there a nest nearby?" yes/no: output signal. Or at most the number of nests, but I don't think that would be much more useful than a bool value anyway.