Friday Facts #202 - High res circuit connectors

[kovarex]

https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-202

[Malachite]

Worm in the roboport AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[Omarflyjoemacky]

I see these *gorgeous* high res circuit connectors and I cry for loader graphics.

So beautiful. .16 is gonna be the complete deal-eo.

[distortions864]

Looks great!
Nice work guys.

[HammerPiano]

I really like that the connectors doesnt align, it really gives it a somewhat steampunk/robust(I don't know which word to use ) look which suits the game perfectly. This satisfies the weekly dose of factorio HD graphics!

[Xterminator]

Oh no, the worms have taken over our robo network!

Those High Res connectors look beautiful though! They do look a bit odd on the lower res stuff like you mentioned, but that will definitely improve once everything becomes High Res.

Excited to hear about the stack size optimizations, even though there are some issues, that is part of the process. Pretty much just like designing a factory actually.

Can't wait until next week's Friday Facts.

[Maxi3000]

Are the red and the green debug point on the accumulator wanted? ^^

[bergi9]

Additionally, the green LED in this example doesn't make any sense, as the chest will always have only read mode, which is also addressed in the new graphics.

What if you add "set chest limit"-circuit support for the chest. So the red LED can used if the chest has set the limit.

[tehfreek]

The requester chest will have both LEDs, right?

[vanatteveldt]

Wait, you can connect miners to the network and read ore contents? How come I didn't see that before...

I'm pretty sure connecting walls is new though. I guess we can use that for intrusion detection?

[Twinsen]

Wait, you can connect miners to the network and read ore contents? How come I didn't see that before...

I'm pretty sure connecting walls is new though. I guess we can use that for intrusion detection?

Both of these are in 0.15 right now.

[QGamer]

I'm pretty sure connecting walls is new though. I guess we can use that for intrusion detection?

You can connect wires to a gate controller (the section of wall right next to a gate) to control the gate or read its status. It's been around for a while.

[vanatteveldt]

Wait, you can connect miners to the network and read ore contents? How come I didn't see that before...

I'm pretty sure connecting walls is new though. I guess we can use that for intrusion detection?

Both of these are in 0.15 right now.

[5 minutes of frantic clicking later] A right, it's the wall next to a gate that is connected, and it controls/reads the gate.

A propos: Can we get any sort of 'biter detection', for example by connecting a radar to the network and getting a signal or biter count within it's active range?

While I'm asking favours: can we get some indication that a heat exchanger is working? a light and/or signal would be good. Heat pipes that glow if >500 degrees would also be cool. Also, it would be nice if steam engines / turbines could output fluid consumption or performance available / realized to the circuit network. I like making pretty performance lights

(also, I think burner miners (and burner inserters?) should not be circuit connectable. Especially the primitive burner miner should not be able to read the full field content...)

[AlienX]

Are infested buildings coming to Factorio, as per your Worm in a Roboport image?

SPECULATION AT IT'S BEST! WOOO!

[Mooncat]

hm... only one led on roboport.

How about make it 2 by adding on/off control for roboport?

[maniak1349]

Not sure about separate LEDs on belts. It may be a little disorienting.

[zyklame]

Im not sure about the blue (cyan) and green lights.
It is hard to distinguish them.

[Mylon]

A propos: Can we get any sort of 'biter detection', for example by connecting a radar to the network and getting a signal or biter count within it's active range?

You can detect biters already with laser turrets, accumulators, and power switches. Have the laser turret + accumulator on an isolated network and read the accumulator charge. When the laser fires, the accumulator drains. The power switch is so the laser can keep firing and recharge the accumulator.

[Optera]

The good:
Having the connector on top of train stops is a good idea. Did the connection length increase to that of a normal med pole to reflect that height advantage?

The bad:
The bracket and wires cover too much of corner belts. It's very hard to make out where that belt is going.

It would've been an opportunity to move signal connectors to the side facing away from tracks, so rails and trains don't clip through connectors and wires as easily.
This signal in particular looks as if it would derail trains.

fff-202-hr-circuit-connector-module.png (45.5 KiB) Viewed 12613 times

The ugly:
Mixed with low res it truly looks ugly. Especially those weird positions and angles on storage tanks and pumps.

[Xeteth]

I like those new graphics, awesome work!

One thing that has always bugged me about those circuit connections though is how large they are on lamps. I love the circuit network and being able to display things visually on digital displays, but since the connectors were brought in I have always felt that they are too large on the lamp and can cause too much 'noise' visually.

Here's an example which I think highlights what I mean:

Example

Notice the two top displays ("Ston" and "Iron"), the Stone display has wires connecting all lamps and has an almost yellow/green 'haze' to it whereas the Iron display is clean and crisp. This can also be seen when comparing the T, O and R rows with the numbers associated with them.

My suggestion to fix this might be to slightly shift the yellow 'connector box' down a bit and scale down it's size as well.