Factorio Forums

Author: Apriori

HOW IT WORKS
• When you take blueprint (or book with active blueprint) in your cursor, mod buttons appear in the top GUI - now you can quickly request as many items as many times you want to build the blueprint.
• Input multiplier if needed (1 by default).
• Click "=" or "+" button.
• Wait until your robots bring requested items.
Note: If you input not a number or number below 1 - the value becomes equal to 1. If it's not an integer - it will be rounded down.

KNOWN ISSUES
• If inventory is opened, request slots will not be visually updated (reopening does visual update), see viewtopic.php?f=25&t=31696#p199826

I'm getting an error every time I left-click on (try to pick up) the blueprint book that's sitting in my tool belt: The full list of mods I am using is: I am using Factorio version 0.14.1.

EDIT: It appears that the problem only happens if there is no active blueprint (nothing in the top slot in the blueprint book).

Thank you for the bug report. I'm using 0.14.1 too, but when I get a book with no active blueprint in my cursor_stack I just don't see buttons in the top of the screen. I'll check my code and try to add additional checks to avoid any errors. And then post fixed version here.

NotABiter wrote:I'm getting an error every time I left-click on (try to pick up) the blueprint book that's sitting in my tool belt:

message

Code: Select all

6956.224 Error MainLoop.cpp:738: Exception at tick 2955968: Error while running event on_player_cursor_stack_changed (ID 29)
LuaItemStack API call when LuaItemStack was invalid.
stack traceback:
        __Blueprint Items Request__/control.lua:18: in function <__Blueprint Items Request__/control.lua:9>

The full list of mods I am using is:

Code: Select all

BlackMarket_1.0.28.zip
Blueprint Items Request_0.1.0.zip
CircuitAlerter_0.0.4.zip
Fastforward-Start_0.14.0.zip
ItemCount_0.0.5.zip
Omnibarrels_1.1.2.zip
Rampant_0.0.8.zip
Swarm_1.0.6.zip
TimeTools_1.0.26.zip
tree_collision_0.4.0.zip

I am using Factorio version 0.14.1.

EDIT: It appears that the problem only happens if there is no active blueprint (nothing in the top slot in the blueprint book).

Now fixed. Thank you.

Fix confirmed. Thanks.

apriori wrote:requested count will be increased ... try to fill empty request slots with needed items
• That's all. Now stay and wait until your bots bring requested items

what happens afterwards, when the requested items have arrived ?
would i need to clean up everything again myself manually,
reducing the numbers of requested items and/or deleting the requests ?

some ideas without having tested this mod :
(I'm still waiting for some more mods to be updated before i can upgrade to an experimental 0.14.x)

• maybe the buttons always should add the number of items
  (and not only increase the number for already requested items)
• that also would allow to click a button multiple times to get a multiple of items
  (if not wanting exactly 1x,2x,5x,10x, but eg click "+1x" 3 times for 3 sets of items)
• then, maybe one button for 1x would be enough, or two buttons for 1x and 5x or 10x
  (that would allow to quickly get eg 12 sets of items by clicking "+5x" and "+1x" twice each)
• a new second row of buttons could be added to remove those numbers of items from requests
  (to clean up all previous additions)

as a result of the above, you could click "+" buttons (a few times), wait until items have arrived, click "-" buttons (a few times), and then place the blueprint without having surplus items or the need to cleanup the request slots manually. done.

i think, adding all items (instead of only increasing numbers of existing requests) could also be useful to prepare for eg an expedition to build a new outpost: add everything which is needed for the new outpost by clicking several blueprints several times and add everything that is needed (this wouldn't be possible when only increasing numbers to the values of one blueprint), then drive to the new location and subtract the items from those blueprints again. place the blueprints, and done.
i also might try to create a blueprint that holds all rails, poles, lamps, etc for one chunk, push the "+10x" button 10 times, wait for items to arrive, push "-10x" 10 times, load everything in a FARL train, and then drive off to a chunk 3.2 kilometers away :-)

also when using robots, this might be useful: click "+" only once (or twice depending on how long it takes for ordered items to arrive), place blueprint any number of times and let robots do the work. when they are done, click "-" once (or twice) to properly cleanup all request slots. only at most one set of surplus items will be in the inventory (and there are trash mods that can take care of that surplus for unrequested items). done.

ps : for larger amounts of items, would it be possible to copy this functionality to requester chests (either in this mod or in a similar second mod), so that there is one such chest nearby a construction site. when it is filled, it could be "fast replaced" by a provider chest, and robots could use the items or an inserter could be placed to move the chest's contents to a train (to build an outpost, or a farl train, see above)

I haven't been thinking of buttons for decreasing count or removing items yet.
Adding is implemented (in addition to setting) - I wanted to do it since the first release.
Generally, I wanted devs to implement key modifiers. For example, if you click button "x5" - it works like now, sets minimal requested count to needed. If you click holding Shift - it adds blueprint*5 to count, if you click holding Ctrl - it subtracts blueprint*5 count. But now it's not realized.
Also, I wouldn't like to add MOAR buttons, because of two reasons:
1. You cannot hide this GUI while holding blueprint, so it shouldn't be monstrous.
2. Some guys (like me) prefer playing with many mods, and they have many GUIs of these mods, so additional GUI... shouldn't be monstrous. ))

I'm already thinking of how to control requested count in requester chests, because current values madden me.

And thank you for your feedback!

PS: I'm not satisfied with current GUI-elements layout: two textfields is too much. But it looks fine, so I've left 'em. If someone has thoughts on this issue - you're welcome to offer. Requirements: no (or minimum) text should be in the GUI, munimum elements, maximum clarity and functionality. In short - concisely.
Maybe smth like this? EDIT: As I know, this mods should work with all Factorio versions since 0.13

Anson wrote:

message

apriori wrote:requested count will be increased ... try to fill empty request slots with needed items
• That's all. Now stay and wait until your bots bring requested items

what happens afterwards, when the requested items have arrived ?
would i need to clean up everything again myself manually,
reducing the numbers of requested items and/or deleting the requests ?

some ideas without having tested this mod :
(I'm still waiting for some more mods to be updated before i can upgrade to an experimental 0.14.x)

• maybe the buttons always should add the number of items
  (and not only increase the number for already requested items)
• that also would allow to click a button multiple times to get a multiple of items
  (if not wanting exactly 1x,2x,5x,10x, but eg click "+1x" 3 times for 3 sets of items)
• then, maybe one button for 1x would be enough, or two buttons for 1x and 5x or 10x
  (that would allow to quickly get eg 12 sets of items by clicking "+5x" and "+1x" twice each)
• a new second row of buttons could be added to remove those numbers of items from requests
  (to clean up all previous additions)

as a result of the above, you could click "+" buttons (a few times), wait until items have arrived, click "-" buttons (a few times), and then place the blueprint without having surplus items or the need to cleanup the request slots manually. done.

i think, adding all items (instead of only increasing numbers of existing requests) could also be useful to prepare for eg an expedition to build a new outpost: add everything which is needed for the new outpost by clicking several blueprints several times and add everything that is needed (this wouldn't be possible when only increasing numbers to the values of one blueprint), then drive to the new location and subtract the items from those blueprints again. place the blueprints, and done.
i also might try to create a blueprint that holds all rails, poles, lamps, etc for one chunk, push the "+10x" button 10 times, wait for items to arrive, push "-10x" 10 times, load everything in a FARL train, and then drive off to a chunk 3.2 kilometers away

also when using robots, this might be useful: click "+" only once (or twice depending on how long it takes for ordered items to arrive), place blueprint any number of times and let robots do the work. when they are done, click "-" once (or twice) to properly cleanup all request slots. only at most one set of surplus items will be in the inventory (and there are trash mods that can take care of that surplus for unrequested items). done.

ps : for larger amounts of items, would it be possible to copy this functionality to requester chests (either in this mod or in a similar second mod), so that there is one such chest nearby a construction site. when it is filled, it could be "fast replaced" by a provider chest, and robots could use the items or an inserter could be placed to move the chest's contents to a train (to build an outpost, or a farl train, see above)

Looks like you hadn't understood the description or I wrote it too bad. This mod not only increases number of items that are already requested. This mod requests all items from blueprint. If some item hadn't been requested yet - it will be requested. If some item had already been requested - mod ensures, that requested count is not less than needed for selected blueprint.

apriori wrote:I haven't been thinking of buttons for decreasing count or removing items yet.

then: how did you want to continue playing after many "personal item requests" are increased and you are done placing the blueprint ?

apriori wrote:Looks like you hadn't understood the description or I wrote it too bad. This mod not only increases number of items that are already requested. This mod requests all items from blueprint. If some item hadn't been requested yet - it will be requested. If some item had already been requested - mod ensures, that requested count is not less than needed for selected blueprint.

yes, that's exactly what i understood. but take this as an example :

you always request 50 rails, 100 walls and no gates. now you select a blueprint which needs 60 rails, 80 walls and 10 gates.

result when only setting the new limits so that enough items are requested would be 60 rails, 100 walls and 10 gates. good enough to place the blueprint, but how do you undo that afterwards ? you would need to manually set rails back to 50, no need to change the walls, but you also would need to clear the gates. quite a lot of cleanup work to do, that i would like to avoid ...

by adding the numbers for the blueprint, you will temporarily have requests for 110 rails, 180 walls and 10 gates, and to clean everything up, you wait until all items have arrived, then subtract the blueprint (immediately and automatically being back to 50 rails, 100 walls and no gates), and then place the blueprint. done.
(if you place the blueprint before subtracting, some more items might be requested automatically; but as it is implemented in 0.13.x and probably also in 0.14.x, you even should be able to add the blueprint and immediately subtract it again, since the system remembers high numbers in requester chests and personal requester slots and delivers everything, at least as long as the items are available in some storage and don't have to be produced first).

apriori wrote:I'm already thinking of how to control requested count in requester chests, because current values madden me.

concerning the default quantities, it is quite difficult or even impossible to find a solution which fits every player, every playstyle and every situation. i think they did the best possible as new feature in 0.13.x: an option in the option settings to reduce the default number to 1. thus people can set items first, then increase the numbers, and not automatically be flooded with eg 500 artifacts when they only want to request 1 or 2 for making modules mk3. if you want other default values, there are some mods that change the defaults and can be configured in their control files.

the only problem when adding (instead of setting) values for BPs might be that the personal inventory often is quite full even without temporary storage for those BP items. that's why i had the idea of using the same principles for temporary requester chests.

apriori wrote:Also, I wouldn't like to add MOAR buttons, because of two reasons:
1. You cannot hide this GUI while holding blueprint, so it shouldn't be monstrous.
2. Some guys (like me) prefer playing with many mods, and they have many GUIs of these mods, so additional GUI... shouldn't be monstrous. ))

i completely agree. on my last game, i had so many icons (and some time display, etc) at the top of my big screen that they barely fit, and sometimes fell out off the right edge :-(

on your previous layout, you had 2x2 buttons for different multiplicators. i had tailored my suggestion so that (after reducing that to 1x2 buttons for +1x and +5x or +10x, and adding the subtraction buttons for -1x and -5x or -10x) you end up with the same total of 2x2 = 4 buttons again.

apriori wrote:PS: ... If someone has thoughts on this issue - you're welcome to offer.
Requirements: no (or minimum) text should be in the GUI, munimum elements, maximum clarity and functionality.

see above: my suggestion would have been identical in size (2x2 buttons) to your first design. and now that you do it with a text field for the number, i don't think that 2 buttons are too much. to add a third button for the subtraction, layout might be something like this: another layout might be to have the picture button being a real usable button for setting the values, and only two other buttons for "+" and "-" ...

apriori wrote:EDIT: As I know, this mods should work with all Factorio versions since 0.13

maybe the mod works with 0.13 and 0.14, but the ingame mod portal and the ingame checks for mod versions won't allow it. when i try to download this mod with the latest stable version of factorio, i get an error to the effect of "mod not released for your version of factorio".
mods for 0.13 need to have "version: 0.13" in the json file, and for 0.14 it needs to be 0.14. thus there need to be two different versions of a mod which shall work with both factorio versions :-( an additional problem is that the stable version already has got updates which are newer than the first experimental 0.14 versions :-( discussions of these problems can be found in several other threads ...
when you use so many mods (see your quote above), you should have encountered that problem too: when using 0.14, lots of mods are not yet updated and thus big parts of old factories would not work any longer, but when using 0.13, many mods that are buggy are no longer supported in that version and thus another big part of factories might become unusable.
i spend my time with some test maps to check out some new and/or unknown mods, some big modpacks, etc to see which combination of mods i might use when enough mods are updated to 0.14, and by reading all descriptions of all other mods, including this.
maybe that's also why this answer got so long again :-)

Anson wrote: then: how did you want to continue playing after many "personal item requests" are increased and you are done placing the blueprint ?

apriori wrote:I haven't been thinking of buttons ... YET.

Because I'm thinking of automatical removing of requests after configurable (config.lua) cooldown. It may be 3 secs for example. And also I've lied. I've been thinking of such buttons, and even imagined a way of subtraction of counts. And number of buttons doesn't seem a problem, because "=" button seems useless after adding of adding button. Just "+" and "-" are enough.

Anson wrote:quite a lot of cleanup work to do

According to the popularity of this mod, nobody cares of it.

Anson wrote:the only problem when adding (instead of setting) values for BPs might be that the personal inventory often is quite full even without temporary storage for those BP items. that's why i had the idea of using the same principles for temporary requester chests.

When people request many items, they usually get some free space before, and it's another issue. I wanted to solve requestion issue, not clearing.

Anson wrote:the ingame mod portal and the ingame checks for mod versions won't allow it. when i try to download this mod with the latest stable version of factorio, i get an error to the effect of "mod not released for your version of factorio".

That's why you can download it directly on mods portal or here. Manipulations with json are well known to the most of mod users, I assume. When I want to get additional mods I first of all go to the mods portal and search for link to the forums portal, because in-game I usually cannot understand how mod works. And I have all mods unzipped. Maybe, that's why I don't understand that people may have issues because they do it another way.

In general, I'm going to replace "=" button with "-" button. Awaiting for the next update.

Love it, although I usually don't use it much, I prefer to cover all the map with one vast logistics/construction network.

But this map, I'm trying to be a good little Factorio player (no, main bus is still right out) and do the outpost thing, where this comes in so handy.

Except... it apparently doesn't recognize a blueprint book held in the cursor as a blueprint. I of course (currently) have no idea if that's a bug or a limitation (which I'd call API bug) of the game itself, namely, that the mod cannot (but I don't see how) see a BP book as a BP.

I updated your mod to work with version 0.16. The changes are in these lines:
info.json:9
control.lua:198,207
style.lua:5,12,13,29,47,73

Chaoticus wrote:I updated your mod to work with version 0.16. The changes are in these lines:
info.json:9
control.lua:198,207
style.lua:5,12,13,29,47,73

Blueprint Items Request_0.1.4.zip

you should post this on the mod website.

Jürgen Erhard wrote:Love it, although I usually don't use it much, I prefer to cover all the map with one vast logistics/construction network.

But this map, I'm trying to be a good little Factorio player (no, main bus is still right out) and do the outpost thing, where this comes in so handy.

Except... it apparently doesn't recognize a blueprint book held in the cursor as a blueprint. I of course (currently) have no idea if that's a bug or a limitation (which I'd call API bug) of the game itself, namely, that the mod cannot (but I don't see how) see a BP book as a BP.

a BP book is not a BP. you can dump it to a string for export but you can't build 'the book' you have to build one of the blue prints inside the book.

Iccor56 wrote: Fri Apr 27, 2018 1:51 am

Jürgen Erhard wrote:Love it, although I usually don't use it much, I prefer to cover all the map with one vast logistics/construction network.

But this map, I'm trying to be a good little Factorio player (no, main bus is still right out) and do the outpost thing, where this comes in so handy.

Except... it apparently doesn't recognize a blueprint book held in the cursor as a blueprint. I of course (currently) have no idea if that's a bug or a limitation (which I'd call API bug) of the game itself, namely, that the mod cannot (but I don't see how) see a BP book as a BP.

a BP book is not a BP. you can dump it to a string for export but you can't build 'the book' you have to build one of the blue prints inside the book.

Very late reply, somehow missed this: you don't have to take the blueprint out of the book first to put it down, you can build it *while holding the book in your cursor*. That's the point.