Factorio Forums

Add map markers for all vehicles that a player places so that they can find their vehicles again if they walk away etc.

As an enhancement, add a checkbox to the vehicle GUI to show map markers for that vehicle or not and save it with the vehicle even if it's picked up. This would go hand in hand with naming vehicles, which would be a great thing to add and would also extend to naming trains (I already posted a suggestion for this a long time ago).

Add an option in configuration to show all vehicle markers or only vehicle markers for vehicles owned by the current player.

There is already, it appears as an arrow. I think it's red with a blue outline but don't quote me on that.

Vehicle markers already exist, but require radar coverage to be visible.

Any vehicle within range of an active radar will be marked as such.

Unfortunately vehicles outside of radar coverage are not marked, so you do have to at least keep track of a little bit. Or just don't leave your vehicle away from a radar-equipped base.

OdinYggd wrote:Vehicle markers already exist, but require radar coverage to be visible.

No. Trains require that. Vehicles not. Vehicles follow the rest of the fog-of-war logic: If painted with the last chart, then it keeps visible in the fog that follows after charting.

Moved to implemented.

And BTW: you can keep the trains also visible with the - hust, hust - https://mods.factorio.com/mods/ssilk/RadarTracker

OdinYggd wrote:Vehicle markers already exist, but require radar coverage to be visible.

Any vehicle within range of an active radar will be marked as such.

Unfortunately vehicles outside of radar coverage are not marked, so you do have to at least keep track of a little bit. Or just don't leave your vehicle away from a radar-equipped base.

I have radar coverage and don't see my vehicle. I guess you mean it has to be in the "always visible" range of the radar. That is quite limited. Useful, but you should be able to see it regardless of where it is.

Think of intel in RTS games. It should give you the last known location until the next scan. Also any units that go by that area should update the intel. Eg. the player walking by, trains going by, logistics and construction bots should all update the radar coverage of the areas they go through.

ssilk wrote:

OdinYggd wrote:Vehicle markers already exist, but require radar coverage to be visible.

No. Trains require that. Vehicles not. Vehicles follow the rest of the fog-of-war logic: If painted with the last chart, then it keeps visible in the fog that follows after charting.

Moved to implemented.

And BTW: you can keep the trains also visible with the - hust, hust - https://mods.factorio.com/mods/ssilk/RadarTracker

Really? I don't think i've seen any vehicles marked on the map ever, except for trains. I will have to double check. Are you sure this is always working?

The last time I tested it it was so: my radartracker mod charts stopped vehicles every 17.5 seconds. When charting happens, the train keeps 10 seconds visible then disappears on map (10 secs is the charting cool-down ). The car keeps visible on the map all the time. After 7.5 seconds it repeats.

The result is: trains pulses on map, cars not. Ergo: trains disappear into fog of war, cars not, ergo: no markers needed.

ssilk wrote:The last time I tested it it was so: my radartracker mod charts stopped vehicles every 17.5 seconds. When charting happens, the train keeps 10 seconds visible then disappears on map (10 secs is the charting cool-down ). The car keeps visible on the map all the time. After 7.5 seconds it repeats.

The result is: trains pulses on map, cars not. Ergo: trains disappear into fog of war, cars not, ergo: no markers needed.

Are you saying this works in your mod or the base game? I thought you said that vehicles show up in the base game.

I re-read your post. I think what you are saying is that the vehicle that is parked in the fog of war has to be charted by a radar, then it's marker will be visible indefinitely. If that is what you mean, then that is not very useful. Radars take forever to chart or scan a sector. Why not just update everywhere the player is. I mean the map is already drawn and rendered as the player has to see it as they are driving. So the player should update the radar and vehicle markers should be placed when they exit the vehicle. It shouldn't require a radar to chart the sector again. That just seems silly.

factoriouzr wrote:I thought you said that vehicles show up in the base game.
I think what you are saying is that the vehicle that is parked in the fog of war has to be charted by a radar, then it's marker will be visible indefinitely. If that is what you mean, then that is not very useful. Radars take forever to chart or scan a sector. Why not just update everywhere the player is. I mean the map is already drawn and rendered as the player has to see it as they are driving. So the player should update the radar and vehicle markers should be placed when they exit the vehicle. It shouldn't require a radar to chart the sector again. That just seems silly.

It does work that way in the base game. The player constantly updates the map in a 2-3 chunk radius wherever they go, the same way a radar would do. When you drive a vehicle to outside radar range and then exit the vehicle, you can see the triangle marker on the map. When you now walk away from your vehicle until it's outside player range then it's still marked on the map and will stay that way, unless it's destroyed somehow and the area was recharted by a radar or the player.

Note: it is always visible on the big map when zoomed in far enough (at least 1 step further in than the minimap), on the minimap it's sometimes displayed as a red or blue pixel and sometimes not at all, due to the way Factorio handles downscaling of the map.

factoriouzr wrote:the vehicle that is parked in the fog of war has to be charted by a radar, then it's marker will be visible indefinitely. If that is what you mean, then that is not very useful. Radars take forever to chart or scan a sector. Why not just update everywhere the player is. I mean the map is already drawn and rendered as the player has to see it as they are driving. So the player should update the radar and vehicle markers should be placed when they exit the vehicle. It shouldn't require a radar to chart the sector again. That just seems silly.

Have you never tried that out? Please read https://wiki.factorio.com/Radar#Charting I updated the article just now.

ssilk wrote:

factoriouzr wrote:the vehicle that is parked in the fog of war has to be charted by a radar, then it's marker will be visible indefinitely. If that is what you mean, then that is not very useful. Radars take forever to chart or scan a sector. Why not just update everywhere the player is. I mean the map is already drawn and rendered as the player has to see it as they are driving. So the player should update the radar and vehicle markers should be placed when they exit the vehicle. It shouldn't require a radar to chart the sector again. That just seems silly.

Have you never tried that out? Please read https://wiki.factorio.com/Radar#Charting I updated the article just now.

I understand how charting is implemented in the game now. Thanks, but what I said still makes sense. When the player exists vehicle, update the bitmap and chart that area.

factoriouzr wrote:I understand how charting is implemented in the game now. Thanks, but what I said still makes sense. When the player exists vehicle, update the bitmap and chart that area.

See my answer above. This is already implemented in the base game. When the player exits the vehicle the area is charted and the vehicle marker is placed on the map (iirc the player doesn't even have to exit the vehicle as the vehicle is constantly charted if a player is in it / next to it).

This marker stays on the map even when outside player/radar range.

daniel34 wrote:

factoriouzr wrote:I understand how charting is implemented in the game now. Thanks, but what I said still makes sense. When the player exists vehicle, update the bitmap and chart that area.

See my answer above. This is already implemented in the base game. When the player exits the vehicle the area is charted and the vehicle marker is placed on the map (iirc the player doesn't even have to exit the vehicle as the vehicle is constantly charted if a player is in it / next to it).

This marker stays on the map even when outside player/radar range.

Yeah I noticed the vehicle marker now. It's just a triangle. If it stays on all the time even with no radar coverage across any distance then that's good. Though it would be great to name vehicle and maybe even search for things on the map by name, but those are different suggestions.