Factorio Forums

(This is my first post on the forum, so please let me know if I've done something wrong)

Currently, if you set up an engine and don't wire in any power-drawing machines, it displays the "unplugged" error symbol. The result is multiple new players posting on the subreddit saying "why isn't this working?".

Can we change it so we have the red writing (like the "no path" message on trains) which says something like "no power consuming entities connected" or something more succinct? I'm open to other solutions, but that seems easy enough for the devs.

As it is, it's pretty unintuitive if it's your first time seeing that error appear.

[This is a clone of a post I put on the subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comme ... gine_with/ I'm more likely to respond to Reddit messages, so if I don't respond here I'll be more likely to respond there]

I kind-of agree, it took me HOURS to solve this and I almost gave up on factorio right here when I started. That stated, the hard part of solving this is thinking of a better idea. At least by the time you figure this out you are starting to get a better idea of how much hand-holding to expect going forward .

Maybe a tutorial should pop up for the first fueled but unloaded power-generating entity (or maybe it already does)?

In terms of a text description, you could say "no load". That describes the situation pretty succinctly. Whether that is going to be interpreted correctly by new players, at least some of whom aren't native english speakers, and some of whom may never have heard people talking about a load on a generator before, I'm less sure.