Factorio Forums

I think the rail planner is really great, but it has a serious flaw.

As anyone who's used it knows, the direction of the 'blue' rail is at the cursor position (the end piece of the proposed track). It can be in one of 8 directions.

However, if the cursor is at a position where the end piece of rail cannot be placed, you get a red 'X' instead and the rail just disappears into thin air!

So... you then have to move the cursor to somewhere else to 'remind' yourself what direction the end rail rail was facing, OR keep pressing 'r' over and over until the 'X' disappears again and you get some sort of ghost back! In between pressing 'r' though, you have lost track of which direction the end piece of track is facing!

A really simple and helpful aid for visual feedback when the ''X' just pops up leaving no rail ghost, would be to have a directional indicator to remind you what direction you are 'in', e.g. an arrow pointing to one of the cardinal / intercardinal points, N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW, or some other graphic that was unambiguous.

It wouldn't necessarily have to be at the cursor position, just somewhere visible on the screen.

I was gonna suggest something similar and super easy.

If the directional override of rail planner has been activated, show the arrow at cursor(or the closest coordnate that if empty could place a rail) but make it point in the remembered override direction. This has been beyond frustrating, please consider the easiness of simple always showing the intended angle once you have pressed the rotate button to force a direction.

Yes, at the cursor seems the best option for visual feedback which is the most important thing.

A simple solution would be to superimpose the red X over the rail at the cursor, as opposed to replacing the rail with the red X as implemented currently.

This way, when you press R to rotate the rail direction, you wouldn't lose track of the direction the rail is facing, whilst at the same time it would be clear that the rail cannot be placed (in that particular direction) because of the red X superimposed on top.

It would be a great QOL improvement I think.

but if the rail where on the bottom that wouldn't quite give the correct direction, as a rail segment has 2 directions. If the arrow which is there when the rail planner has detected a possible path, were still there to show direction, but turned red, or perhaps with the existing red x on top of it. this would indicate "you are aiming this direction but it is not possible", instead of simply, "I cant do that"