Factorio Forums

There are many reasons for why the various factories in Factorio may stop working. They may not have power, they may not have a need input resource, or they may just be full. However, this is not conveyed to the player as well as it could be. At a glance, a player can tell that a factory is not working, but they can't see why unless they open up the factory.

So, what I propose is that factories show icons that indicate what the problem is. I'm going to list the electricity icons first to serve as an example.

Electricity Issues

1. Not connected: Yellow triangle with plug
2. Insufficient electricity: Red triangle with plug

Input Issues
1. Not enough of an input resource: Yellow triangle with the resource's picture on it (iron plates, copper wiring, et cetera)
2. None of an input resource: Red triangle with the resource's picture on it

If several inputs are lacking, it shows an icon for each.

Output Issues
1. Factory has a full stack of one of its outputs: I'm not sure what the icon for this should be. Any suggestions?

Please look about for this:

For modules:
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=3674
This is also in the devs todo-list.

For the internal informations about the buffers etc:
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=5108
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=3131
I think especially this is a good idea: https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... 127#p23127 - showing the states of the internal stacks/fluid-boxes via lights. That will immediatelly show you, what's going wrong, especially with chemical plant/refinery.


So the idea is, that there are some lights on top of the device, which show you the current state of the internal buffers/modules.

I don't think that lights or flags are informative enough. They tell you that something's wrong, but unless you're familiar with what the lights for that specific building are, you're still left wondering what's going on until you open up the factory. Showing icons like I described would tell you, unambiguously, that there is a problem and what that problem is.

The idea is
a) that it looks nice
b) not only to show you, if there is something going wrong, but also if it works correct and especially how efficient it works.