Factorio Forums

I was testing out Backer Name for use of holding strings, like train stops, and I got the error "entity does not support a backer name." even though the oil refinery has "has_backer_name = true" and can have it set. I do have that value set in my custom lamp entity but, as stated, it doesn't work.

has_backer_name doesn't work that way. It's a prototype property on the crafting machine prototype.

You can't just set it on arbitrary entities - they have to be coded to support backer names.

OK... alittle saddening... is there a reason why backer names can't be applied to all entities and have a flag to auto spawn a name when placed?

vzybilly wrote:OK... alittle saddening... is there a reason why backer names can't be applied to all entities and have a flag to auto spawn a name when placed?

Because the behavior would have to be programmed into every entity. The same reason that every entity doesn't support a logistic network connection: most entities would never use it and it adds bloat to the code and time that the game would have to spend processing it for each entity each tick - slowing the game down.

Things such as trees would 99.99%+ of the time never need something like a logistic network connection so they don't have it programed in. The same goes for the backer name on an entity - most would never use them and as such most don't have the property programmed into the entity.

Maybe there could be an entity that's exactly like that, that only modders would use. That would allow REALLY COOL mods