Factorio Forums

TL;DR

This suggestion is about integrating the Blueprint library it into the inventory menu things to be more accessible and intuitive,
lessen inventory management
and hopefully be a bit clearer on "where" blueprints are, or end up, to new players.

What?

example of how it would look at the start of the game example of how it would look at the later game example of how the blueprint library might change to fit In my own head, blueprints would not be counted as things you can't take to space with you
you should be able to place blueprint books here also.
now, you can put blueprints in boxes if you want, but if you put them in your inventory, they will go in this specific slot, much like ammo has its own slot.
This feels most intuitive to me, I can put them into my hotbar from the inventory, or if youre like me, ill just open my inventory to use whatever i want.
i wanted to say something because I know the game is winding down with features.
The blue bit is a suggested place for a button that takes you to the "universal blueprints" currently "my blueprints" I know about the button on the top right.
I just think having a button taking you to the "universal blueprints" here makes sense, as you are looking at your blueprint slots, thats where your eyes are gonna look for buttons about blueprints. but this is minor. my main suggestion is having the space at all.

I tried to keep in mind the amount of space in the menu, as it stands, the crafting menu ends up taking up less space than the inventory of some players anyway, and with scrolling being a thing, I think it will be ok to do it like this, even for people with mods with way more items, a scroll solves that issue too.

Why?

The new blueprint screen I would suggest, removes the "game blueprints" tab, since the new inventory slots would fill that purpose instead.
There is now one less confusing menu, blueprints dont take up space in inventory, I can take blueprints to space automatically,
players dont have to manage blueprints as much as before. these would all be boons, I hope that technically its not too difficult to do something like this,
I tried to keep in mind that blueprints + books still need to be items.
This is more intuitive to new players as well, where are blueprints? theyre right there at the start of the game.


Thank you for this wonderful game!

+1
What a great suggestion! Blueprints are a wonderful part of the game but managing them has never been intuitive for me. Some end up in your inventory, sometimes they just disappear! Sometimes you find them in a box near a rocket silo on a different planet where you emptied your inventory without realising they were there. Sometimes i try to use one from the hotbar but it is kind of greyed out like when you run out of a physical item.

This suggestion would make the process of managing them easier and more intuitive, and (I imagine) could be done in such a way to not affect the flow of anyone who has figured out exactly how they work already.

Would be a lovely little bit of polish as development comes to an end x