Factorio Forums

TL;DR

Adding some more variety in the size of equipment grid modules would be nice.

What ?

Some examples of the kind of changes I'd like to see:

• Make level 1 batteries 1x1 (and halve their capacity and crafting cost if needed for balance)
• Make night vision goggles 2x1 (same size as current battery but horizontal)
• Add new equipment in any size that isn't 2x2 or a multiple thereof

Why ?

It's great that personal solar panels are no longer useless, and we even got a new 1x1 equipment module. But other than that, we still haven't got much variety. Batteries are 1x2, and everything else is 2x2 or a multiple of that (Exoskeleton is 2x4 and Reactor 4x4). This is especially unfortunate since two of the three equipment grids are sizes that don't divide by two, but even aside from that equipment grids would be more fun in general if there was more variety in how they could be filled out.

Tetromino-shaped equipment would be even better! :)

The purpose of the space is to limit your options, not play Tetris. If anything the suits should be more accommodating of 2x2 modules. The current 5x5 and 7x7 sizes leave some awkward space, which is less awkward after the solar buff but still.

bobucles wrote: Sun Mar 10, 2019 12:04 pm The purpose of the space is to limit your options, not play Tetris. If anything the suits should be more accommodating of 2x2 modules. The current 5x5 and 7x7 sizes leave some awkward space, which is less awkward after the solar buff but still.

Sure, they could go the other way. Just get rid of the grid and assign "size points" or something. But the way it is right now suggests to me it was intended to be more, and I don't think it's quite living up to that.

ManaUser wrote: Sun Mar 10, 2019 12:11 pmthe way it is right now suggests to me it was intended to be more

They put in the time and effort to have a 2D grid instead of just weight/mass and a 1D usage-limit. The puzzle right now, though, as you point out, isn't very good. Even just with rectangles, we could have different sizes. 1x3, 2x3, 4x7, whatever. Too many items in the game right now are nearly squares, and it makes the armor-modules very boring.

Make each new crafted equipment unit have an odd, random shape (without holes), but keep the area the same.

For example, that pesky batteries come in horizontal and vertical flavors, night vision googles can have shape of any tetromino, and reactor can have a gear-like shape, or be a 3x3 square with an extra pip at one side. It does leave some challenge about icons placement, but i think it could be pretty interesting. Although, what to do with surplus of items that don't fit anywhere?

weaknespase wrote: Sun Mar 10, 2019 9:49 pm Make each new crafted equipment unit have an odd, random shape (without holes), but keep the area the same.

Jut add the ability to rotate modules and we really would be "playing Tetris". I don't really think that belongs in the game, but it might not be terrible. Totally worth it as a mod idea if it's possible. Rotation is key though, without that I feel like it would just be annoying.

I'm in agreement with manauser. I'm not sure what I think of equipment with non-retangular shapes... just doesn't quite seem right in my mind, but it might honestly be really interesting if we were given the ability to rotate equipment.

I've seen two approaches.
The one I took was to make smaller, earlier varients of the modules, and added a few more horizontal shapes. This let you fit things pretty well in a 5x5 grid.

The other approach is to alter the armor shapes to fit 2x2 modules. So modular armor is 4x6, power armor is 6x8, and Mk2 is 10x10. Loss of one slot, but you can fit 2x2 modules in easily.