Factorio Forums

This is a suggestion/plea to have the ability to create ghosts prior to researching construction bots. These wouldn't have any function other than placeholders, but it would make it a lot easier to plan out a base. I frequently run into the problem that I miscount my steps and have to redesign a portion of my setup, especially where conveyors are concerned.

Either 'all buildings' or 'all researched buildings' could be used for these ghosts, but just having them would make life so much easier.

EDIT:: Yes, this is in the wrong forum. I realize that now. If a mod could move it for me, that'd be great, because I have no idea how to get back to the ideas forum.

You mean, something like shift + click ?

When I shift click on something, it just crafts it. If you mean to shift click on something in your inventory, I was really hoping for something even before I got to that point--if I've got it made already, I may as well just place it. The ghost would be so I don't have to craft it to figure out if it fits. ^_^

EDIT:: and shift-clicking something on my toolbar puts it in my inventory, and shift-clicking it in my inventory does nothing. Am I doing something horribly wrong?

animagus_kitty wrote:When I shift click on something, it just crafts it. If you mean to shift click on something in your inventory, I was really hoping for something even before I got to that point--if I've got it made already, I may as well just place it. The ghost would be so I don't have to craft it to figure out if it fits. ^_^

EDIT:: and shift-clicking something on my toolbar puts it in my inventory, and shift-clicking it in my inventory does nothing. Am I doing something horribly wrong?

I believe you can take a building you made, and grab it like you wanna place it, but instead of left-clicking, shift+left-clicking to place a ghost of the building. I've never used the feature myself, but I can see the value in it.

@Frightning

Appareently, that is how it works. It still isn't quite what I was looking for, but it *is* good to know. Thanks for spelling that out for me.

So what I want is the ability to place a ghost *without* having to build it first, even if that's limited by what you know how to make.

Added to viewtopic.php?f=80&t=20566 Changes for the Personal Roboport
Very similar for example
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=15568 Personal RoboPort - Ghost Items
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=17247 Placing Ghosts from Construction menu

Much similarity also to viewtopic.php?f=80&t=4682 Planning (Signs, Cloning, Ghosts, Blueprinting and more...) where I also added this.

animagus_kitty wrote:@Frightning

Appareently, that is how it works. It still isn't quite what I was looking for, but it *is* good to know. Thanks for spelling that out for me.

So what I want is the ability to place a ghost *without* having to build it first, even if that's limited by what you know how to make.

Well, I use it when i build rails. It enables me to make long rail segments or turns or whatever.

I keep a library of single item blueprints, so that I can place a ghost of something I have not yet researched in my current play-through. For example, roboports, blue tracks, concrete, etc.

That way I can place blueprints of anything I can't yet build.