Factorio Forums

A calculator and notebook, right spank on the hotbar

What ?

Think a tiny calculator and notebook, would be a neat addition to the new hotbar, that came from 0.17.

Could fit down here

Calculator: Of course just a normal calculator.
Notebook: Perhaps with the ability, to quickly note down numbers/crafting speeds/belt speeds/ect when hovering over items or machines. And adding it to the notebook with a little icon attached

Why ?

Seems like an odd suggestions. But i think it'd be a simple addition, that could help to incentivise better productivity. To calculate an output accurately.

Now there's nothing stopping me from getting out my trusty Texas Instrument n' Notebook irl, and do some mathematics on my desk, but it would just ease it a little bit to have straight dang in the game.

A weird suggestion but i thought i'd share

Both suggestions have already been made before. A quick search is all what would be needed to find them, but I'm feeling lazy too tonight .
Now to the point. While I clearly see the use I would make of an integrated notepad (take notes of what I was doing for the future me to remember when I come back from a ause), I don't see why a calculator. If I need a calculator, it's to make a calculation (thanks cap'tain obvious) just once, and forget about it. There's no need to do it ingame, I'll just use the one provided with my OS.

Notepad to take some random notes? Yea. Has been on my "list of things i should make" for ages.
Notepad to write down ratios? Meh. Might as well automate the ratio calculations helmod style.

Calculator? Yes. Saw something on the portal that looks like one here but haven't tested. @Koub. Ever since my physical desktop calculator died i sorely miss it. No app or program so far has been able to give me that ease of use back. Having one in-game would at least stop the immersion breaking of alt-tab.

If I feel brave enough, I'll do the effort to unlock my smartphone, which has all the calculator features I need. If not, the Windows calculator will do the trick for me.
If the devs add it, I won't petition to get it removed, but I'd rather them focus on more important parts of the game (personal opinion).

Koub wrote: Mon Sep 23, 2019 10:01 pm the effort to unlock my smartphone

Dunno. Just doesn't have the same easy-of-use for me (compared to my good old late physical calculator).

Koub wrote: Mon Sep 23, 2019 10:01 pm If the devs add it, I won't petition to get it removed,

Now i'm interested. What does one have to get into the game for you to start actively attempting to push it back out again :D?

Koub wrote: Mon Sep 23, 2019 10:01 pm but I'd rather them focus on more important parts of the game (personal opinion).

That is my opinion of about 90% of the threads in this subforum ;).

Helmod (and other planners like Max Rate Calculator) have built-in calculators (though usually very simple ones).
Why else do you need a notebook for ? I find that Todo-List + map notes tend to cover all my other use cases ?

helmod have a calculator and more

I'd love to see both a calculator and notebook as part of 1.2, or at least part of the expansion. I don't think they're mod-worthy.

These aren't mod-worthy because it's an inherent part of the game, everyone probably just doesn't realize how often they do calculations in their head or make obscure "notes", in-game.


"Notes" are haphazardly made with laying stuff out, spelling it out with items, or using tags.
Notes could significantly supplement the calculator: "I forgot that last result after doing a lot of multiplying again"
It could be local-only function, and not part of the deterministic portion of the game.

Or...maybe notes could be "more simply" added in the same manner in which blueprints are, with a copy-paste-edit, rather than a whole new function from scratch.
Make a noteBOOK, too. Instead of the hash/code/whatever for each blueprint, it's normal text.
They could be shared and people would always have their originals, as well.

If you make the notes/books factorio-style, let the icons be dropped in.
Some more advanced features like bold/italic/underline/tabs would be handy, but maybe that's asking too much.

And maybe it's way too much to ask, but the ctrl+alt+click map ping? That'd be handy to somehow copy&paste that into a note like [ping=x.y]This train station needs to be disabled until...[/ping].

Jon8RFC wrote: Mon Jul 04, 2022 9:43 pm Or...maybe notes could be "more simply" added in the same manner in which blueprints are, with a copy-paste-edit, rather than a whole new function from scratch.
Make a noteBOOK, too. Instead of the hash/code/whatever for each blueprint, it's normal text.

Oh I like this idea! Being able to copy and paste stuff from the game, like the ping, would be a bonus, but even just having plain text notes organized into books would be pretty amazing.