Factorio Forums

There are two variables for recipes to manipulate their visibility/availability ingame, one is the "enable" variable the other is the "hidden" variable. I suggest to add an effect to the technology API to change the "hidden" via research like it is for "enable".
The idea is to tie a hidden recipe to a furnace type machine at the game start and make it later available via research to more advanced machine as selectable recipe.

Hidden is a prototype property and as such can't be changed runtime. Hidden simply makes the recipe not show up in GUIs. It has no other effect.

Enabled hides the technology and disables it so it can't be used at all and can be changed runtime. Hidden is useful when you want a technology to exist normally but for some scenario you don't want it enabled/researchable so you disable it.

Then this might ne a cases where your intended use is outmatched by the way mod makers use it. In most cases it is used to hide recipes in/for furnace type machine since they will automatically choose their recipes. See most recycling mods for example, or mods with void features.

Arch666Angel wrote:Then this might ne a cases where your intended use is outmatched by the way mod makers use it. In most cases it is used to hide recipes in/for furnace type machine since they will automatically choose their recipes. See most recycling mods for example, or mods with void features.

Yes, that's what the hidden flag is for in the recipe. The enabled flag disables the recipe completely.