Factorio Forums

Problem: Playing, I realized the only time I can look at the electrical grid is by clicking on one of the poles. There's no hotkey for the grid like there is for Logistics. If I place down a blueprint of solar panels with some accumulators and it's 1 tile off of being connected to my base, I wouldn't know until I notice my power not keeping up and even then I'd have to notice my accumulators being full during a period where they should be drained.

Suggestion: Group electrical producers into separate grids. If 2 producers are connected by electrical poles, their grids are merged (like roboports). Most players only have 1-2 electrical grids, so I would think this shouldn't be hard on performance unless you set up a block-style base and have independent electrical generation at each block... idk lemme know what I'm missing @rseding

How would you count grids connected to power switches? One network or separate?

I would defer to the devs, as I don't know the limitations, but I would assume they would be counted separately and then merged once connected.

when you click on a pole currently that has a disconnected switch, they are counted separately, so consistency is preferred.

Stuff can be on more than one network though.

eradicator wrote: Tue Oct 30, 2018 9:03 pm Stuff can be on more than one network though.

What is the real purpose of that?

Stuff can be on more than one network though.

That's a good point. The only way I can think of to handle that case is to just treat that grid as one grid. I think it would be too taxing to try to calculate if there are any connections on the route, etc.

So perhaps for that reason this request might not be viable.

Sad_Brother wrote: Tue Oct 30, 2018 9:20 pm

eradicator wrote: Tue Oct 30, 2018 9:03 pm Stuff can be on more than one network though.

What is the real purpose of that?

in the pictured case, that's a throughput limiter. Electricity will enter the accumulators from the main power grid, then split off into the two others. It helps make sure that whatever you connect on grid B still has power, if Grid A is full of laser turrets that have primary input... just an example.