When you run into a tree when building, stop, don't sidestep

[TheBeardyMan]

I'm sure this has happened to everybody: you're running and placing conveyor belts, and you're sure that you're clear of that tree ahead of you, but when you reach it, it turns out that you're not, and you step to one side and place several belts out of line with where they're supposed to be.

This could be prevented by having the act of continuous building change the player's behaviour when running into a tree from sidestepping to stopping completely.

[Harkonnen604]

Good point, +1.

I'd also mention my other suggestion here (about trees, not buildings) - some form of ctrl-click placement that automatically harvests trees and rocks on the way instead of stopping or sidestepping.

[BlakeMW]

Another thing is with belts and pipes it hardly makes sense to lay them in any orientation other than their direction of transport - this is especially true with underground belt and pipe-to-ground. I would prefer it if these things snap to a line aligned with their rotation and maintain that line as long as you are holding down the mouse key.

[siggboy]

There's a mod that does what Blake suggested (Easy Belt Layer). I'm not sure if it's updated for 0.13.

I've used it most of the time, it worked really well but sometimes it got in the way. I'm sure something like it could easily implemented in Vanilla, and then probably work more reliably. (I don't know enough about modding Factorio to know if there's a limitation there that made Easy Belt sometimes a bit awkward.)

Actually I might have misunderstood: Easy Belt Layer allows you to basically "draw" a line with the belt and it makes the belt turns for you.

What Blake suggests would go against this, but it would also be great. +1 to that.

[LuckyStar]

It's funny, this plauged me today a great deal when i was trying to make my bloody stone outpost work.

+1 +1 +1 +1

Even if mods cover the subject, there is no reason why this shouldn't be in vanilla.

[xuhao]

could such a feature be a problem when figthing critters? would you be able to run/escape trough a forrest without stopping every time you run into a tree??

[siggboy]

could such a feature be a problem when figthing critters? would you be able to run/escape trough a forrest without stopping every time you run into a tree??

You're probably not busy laying belts while you're running away from biters...

[LuckyStar]

could such a feature be a problem when figthing critters? would you be able to run/escape trough a forrest without stopping every time you run into a tree??

You're probably not busy laying belts while you're running away from biters...

He probably means that this feature should independet, he wants to simply run away from the biters with ease, regardless of belts.

[ssilk]

Added to viewtopic.php?f=80&t=22305 Walking on Belts (New Power Armor module)

This describes the problem more or less viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1084 Placement when walking

[kpreid]

This problem is annoying but removing sidestepping would also be annoying, because there's plenty of small sidesteps around trees and power poles and so on that don't interfere with building most of the time. I have an idea for a different solution to the problem:

If you are building and sidestep due to running into something, then don't move the camera, i.e. the character is no longer exactly at the center. Thus the cursor position relative to the world doesn't change, and you keep building. When you let go of the mouse button, the camera would then slide back to where it normally would be.