TL;DR
Provide a setting or keybinding to prevent auto-connection of power poles when pasting from clipboard, or blueprints.What ?
Use the same behaviour that the map editor clone tool uses. This could default to the current behaviour of auto-connect, but allow players to choose whether it is disabled.Previous queries and mentions concerning this behaviour:
- Place power poles without wires?
- [0.17.79] Overlapping electric networks can cause increased power draw - Reproduction steps provided by myself.
- Option: disable auto-connect for a power pole - Similar request, but power pole specific.
- an idea for fixing auto-connecting power-pole problems - Similar, but has several suggestions in one, and does not follow the template so probably overlooked.
- power and blueprints workaround - doesn't seem to get the message across.
- Toggle autoconnection and power suply of power poles - Old suggestion that pretty much mirrors this one except for the mention of clones.
- [urll=viewtopic.php?f=11&t=27456][0.14] [kovarex] Power Switch blueprint doesn't remember power line positions[/url] - Old bug report, turned feature request made prior to current blueprint handling.
- About Cables and Wires / Make Wires Free / Power Poles Contain Cables - The granddaddy thread that this suggestion will probably end up in.
- Probably many others that will need searching out ...
Why ?
When pasting from clipboard, or placing blueprints, auto-connect is active and invariably causes carefully laid out power networks to make undesirable connections. Players then have to rework the network to regain the original functionality. I was under the impression that this behaviour was immutable, but a recent discovery in a bug report would indicate that this entirely possible. The map editor clone tool does not have auto-connect active, so makes a true and exact copy of the original power entities and connections. This is exactly the behaviour I would desire in the main game.This behaviour has always been a hot topic, but with the recently improved UI for copy/paste and blueprint handling, combined with the map editor behaviour makes this fresh request salient though not unique.