[0.16 / 0.17] LTN Tracker - a GUI for LTN

[eduran]

This mod adds a GUI to display information about your LTN network.

LTN Tracker displays:

• Depot stops, their current status and assigned trains.
  Depot Tab

  
• Stations with provided/requested items, current deliveries and their control signals. Clicking a station name will open the station UI and zoom your view to the station. If you use LTN Combinator, an additional icon allows you to open the LTN-C UI from anywhere on the map and change station settings.
  Station Tab

  
• The combined inventory of all stations, with detailed information for each item.
  Inventory Tab

  
• A history of recent deliveries.
  History Tab

  
• Alerts for trains being loaded or unloaded incorrectly and timed out deliveries.
  Alert Tab

  

The GUI can be switched on and off using a toggle button in the top left corner or a configurable hotkey. The toggle button lights up in red whenever a new alert is detected.

Special thanks to Optera for creating LTN and for his continued support during the development of this mod.

License: private use only, no modification, no redistibution, no commercial use (with the exception of streaming, which is allowed)
Source: GitHub
Download: Mod portal (0.16 version)


I found a bug! What do I do now?

Post it either here or on GitHub. Please include the displayed error message (if any) and your Factorio and LTN-T versions. Attaching your factorio-current.log can help me resolve the issue quicker. In some cases I might ask you for additional information.

[Light]

I had to disable shipment alerts after the number of stations became too numerous, but that also meant being unsure of what stations aren't getting supplies or the train took too long to get there and timed out. It was either that or having alerts clutter the screen constantly, so it was a double edged sword.

This looks like a godsend for keeping us posted on what providers aren't keeping up with demand without the spam, so I'm looking forward to giving this a go for sure.

Thank you.

[eduran]

That is pretty much what got me started with LTN Tracker. I was hoping for a way to see issues without having to pay attention to the console. And when I looked into the LTN code I found a wonderful interface, exposing most of the internal information of LTN to other mods.

[Light]

I was hoping for a way to see issues without having to pay attention to the console. And when I looked into the LTN code I found a wonderful interface, exposing most of the internal information of LTN to other mods.

There was one issue that has plagued my LTN network which wasn't reported to the console but has now come to light thanks to this mod.

I was perplexed that one requester was begging for shipments, yet one provider had plenty to spare but didn't seem to provide. It turns out the control signal for 4-car trains wasn't programmed in, so it was sending 2-car trains which loaded only half the silos compared to the other providers.

I'm absolutely stunned that I failed to notice this blatant omission for tens of hours. After setting up dozens of stations, I guess it's not surprising that I overlooked a couple. The inventory tab is so invaluable to the success of train deliveries and diagnosing shortcomings, that it's a constant reference tool for setting up stations going forward.

[eru]

In LTN_Tracker_0.8.2.zip there is the LTN_Tracker_ 0.8.2 folder.
Because of that, it does not appear in the MOD list.
You can use it properly by deleting the LTN_Tracker_ 0.8.2 folder from zip and re-zipping it.
Report once.

[GrumpyJoe]

nice, will test tonight!
Should go to LTN subforum (if Optera is ok with that), as it looks like i missed it here

[eduran]

I meant to create the thread in the LTN subforum, but messed up. Will try to get it moved there.

In LTN_Tracker_0.8.2.zip there is the LTN_Tracker_ 0.8.2 folder.
Because of that, it does not appear in the MOD list.
You can use it properly by deleting the LTN_Tracker_ 0.8.2 folder from zip and re-zipping it.
Report once.

Thanks for the report, should be fixed now. My zip-creation script had a small mistake in it.

[GrumpyJoe]

I meant to create the thread in the LTN subforum, but messed up. Will try to get it moved there.

Just reported it as offtopic (with a friendly note ofc), figured that might be the easiest way.

Think this should be made sticky by Optera once it arrives in the right forum, as its a perfect addition.
Iirc he said it was just waiting to be made.

[Optera]

When it gets moved I'll make it sticky.

[Koub]

[Koub] Moved to LTN subforum .

[GrumpyJoe]

Did not have much time to look at it yet, but what i saw is awesome.
Very self explaining, there is not much to add.

Best thing about is that you have an overview of network ID and provide/request priority set.
Which i use for the first time and have preplanned for using it ALOT.

Also, with the help of "recent deliveries" i was able to find a station that was overfilled cos of missing wires.
Previously i only saw that when the train arrived in the depot, where i got an alarm for items returning to the depot. Since schedules get deleted there, you wouldn´t be able to tell where it came from. It was also an item that gets used all across the map, even with a mostly idle base thats not easy to spot.

The only thing that came to mind was either a sort or a search/filter function.
At least for station names.
There is not as much to gain in functionality when searching for an item, because that could just be not produced because of a bottleneck in the factory.
The network overview isn´t helping that much, because that could combine multiple stations providing the same item, it would be unclear if they are 10/90% filled or 50/50.
But searching for lets say "Iron provider" and then seeing there is no iron in one, could help alot.

The reason i´d like this feature is that i have close to 5k stations prebuilt.
I wont ever use them all, but a good portion of them is gonna stay.
And even tho i only filled like 1/4 of my blocks yet, the list is "kinda" long and even a mod like that doesn´t provide much in terms of "easy to see problems"

Preplanning & Blueprinting still is the best debugging tool

[Optera]

The reason i´d like this feature is that i have close to 5k stations prebuilt.
I wont ever use them all, but a good portion of them is gonna stay.
And even tho i only filled like 1/4 of my blocks yet, the list is "kinda" long and even a mod like that doesn´t provide much in terms of "easy to see problems"

What kind of performance do you get from LTN, having this many unused stops?
In case you run into performance problems, I'd recommend disabling those unused stops (either give them duplicates name, set them do be disabled or short circuit them) so LTN doesn't have to fully scan them each update.

[GrumpyJoe]

What kind of performance do you get from LTN, having this many unused stops?

The blocks were copied with [x] Station Name in the BP, so they are already named the same, until i build something there.
Since there is also a PAX station per block, where i´d need to set stops manually, i didn´t want to search through that many autogenerated stops.
Also had the disabling mechanic in mind, but mainly it was PAX schedule convenience.
And even more so for having a clean base, cos actually the "!PAX Rename" comes before "#LTN Rename" when searching.

The station list is already long enough with the currently working blocks, even with like 3k named "#LTN Rename" remaining

[eduran]

The station tab is problematic for large bases. I will implement some form of filtering and/or sorting, but that is not a simple task. Also, I am not really sure what kind of filter would help. My bases are a lot smaller than yours and filtering by network ID + scrolling through the list works reasonably well. What functionality would you like to make a large number of stations easier to handle?

Edit: I am currently experimenting with a filter for names and alphabetic sorting. Would that be helpful?

filter_test.JPG (64.97 KiB) Viewed 22772 times

[GrumpyJoe]

phuuu... good question...

Network ID...
is "problematic" i think, in the sense that its not helping me. I´ll just talk about mine, im not sure many people actually use it.
Im using it for the first time, cos at least for the moment i dont care about efficent routing of multiple depots.
So its only in use to not circle around storage blocks, where it would otherwise take from the provider and put it back at the requester.
The requester should only getting it from waste products of other blocks and that where i use IDs.
Mostly thats crushed stone, Slag and other byproducts like Limestone from Titanium (that one isnt really a problem as the "storage" is more like the secondary provider, with built in production)
I dont know where it would make sense otherwise. I only use LTN in AB(+MC) games, with lots of small trains, its not like vanilla´s few bulk goods
Thats where the huge number of stations come from.
Its more like the bot network that only carries stuff you dont want to belt all over your main base in a normal game. Its alot of little "transactions" instead of shipping millions of vanilla green chips.

As for filter and/or sorting...
i dont know.... I know very little about actual coding (i know how mods work and can read and understand the files abit) so i guess whatever is easier for you.
I dont think Factorio has alot of alphabetic sorting ingame, but there are search functions everywhere. So i think that would be more convenient for users that dont come here and discuss this. Dont have to be that big of a base to be kinda timeconsuming, even with browsing through lets say 200 stations.

But dont worry about it too much. The mod has already helped me within the first 10 minutes and those things from my previous post are quite common i think, seeing how many people struggle with provide/request thresolds (thats where my assumption about IDs comes), so it might already help alot more people as it is right now.
And i can live without it. Was just a suggestion
This is some awesome stuff as it is.

If i had to, i would say filtering, as its still faster than scrolling through a sorted list.
As tedious as i find it, you should always name stations after what they are meant to do, so if i want see how "item XXX" is doing in my stations (how much is on stock, where is it needed(could be alot of different places with AB)) i would simply filter for "item XXX".
I dont think filtering by actualy items is worth your trouble, if its easy enough for station names, i would gladly take that.

[Optera]

While a search filter is nice, it'd be faster to use if I could just click on the column header to sort by that column.
Options for sortable columns could be:
station name: alphabetical sorting (descending might be good enough)
provided/requested: requester > mixed> provider
state: blue > yellow > green to have active stops first
scheduled deliveries: descending by number of deliveries

Out of those the most useful for me would be station name and state.

[GrumpyJoe]

it'd be faster to use if I could just click on the column header to sort by that column.

yeah, thats one click, compared to find search box (or CTRL+F) and type what you want.
but then you acutally gotta browse through all the stations. If its descending only and you look for something middle to bottom... thats a lot of scrolling, even with a side slider (where you then miss it cos you are scrolling too fast)

[Optera]

it'd be faster to use if I could just click on the column header to sort by that column.

yeah, thats one click, compared to find search box (or CTRL+F) and type what you want.
but then you acutally gotta browse through all the stations. If its descending only and you look for something middle to bottom... thats a lot of scrolling, even with a side slider (where you then miss it cos you are scrolling too fast)

Even with stops named in a specific way, e.g. Midlands - Mine 1 (Iron & Copper), scrolling down 50 stops to the middle to see Midlands is generally faster than typing into a filter.

My Megabase is divided into 4 Networks, Supply, West, East and Fluid. Setting a network ID first shrinks the list down considerably with the added bonus of optimizing LTN usage further.

[GrumpyJoe]

WHOOOOPS

was just having my first real gaming session with this enabled, yesterday was just a quick look
Did not look at it at all, was just playing along.

LTN 1.9.11
LTN Tracker 0.8.3

Edit: luckily, this was just after an autosave.
Its reproducable, there is some event firing in the background that makes this happen every time ~10s after i load it
Removing LTN tracker solves it.

20190214205314_1.png (198.9 KiB) Viewed 22737 times

[Optera]

You know Joe, if you properly report a bug with attached logfiles it makes debuging what's happening a lot easier.