Factorio Forums

In another post I suggested moving the player out of the way when placing a building. That would improve one part of the experience, but there is more room for improvement.

It's also quite common when placing buildings to get that error tone because the location is just out of reach. It would improve the player experience I think if the game allowed for a certain additional radius wherein attempting to place a building would cause the player to walk a few meters toward the location in order to successfully place the building rather than sounding the error tone.

The idea behind both of my suggestions is that the player's intent is clear and there are ways the game could accommodate that intent without constantly nagging the player for precision of action.

This is the difference between functional UI and good UX.

I can see that being frustrating when that one step puts you onto a transport belt. Or a railroad track. Or within aggro range of a nest.

A better solution might be a visible build radius when a buildable object is in hand.

I would like to note that blueprints and ghost building has no range limit. Sometimes player is in the way and that can be bit annoying. I think blueprint placement could ignore players.