Personal Laser Defense Cannot Be Inserted Into Armor?

[azoundria]

When I go to craft it, it says that it can. However, when I go to insert the final armor into the armor slot, it wont let me. I'm not having trouble with using any other types of armor that I know of.

[FreeER]

Hm, just to make sure since I've never encountered problems (and just did a quick test with all three modular armors). The Personal Laser Defense requires a 2 wide by 3 high grid to be placed, if there is less room than that then you will not be able to insert it.

[kovarex]

Aren't you inserting the personal laser defense in the armor slot?
You need to make the modular armor and open it (by right clicking), this gui appears and you can insert stuff into the armor.

[azoundria]

I'm trying to put it in the armour slot, same as I would for any other type of armour. How do you get to that armour screen? I've tried every keystroke I can think of (and every one that's in the 'Options'->'Controls' section). I also discovered a Production screen which I didn't notice before.

[ssilk]

Read! You need to research modular armor first.

@kovarex: such types of dependencies should be either avoided or explained in game. Otherwise they become a support case. I think a hint how to use an item when hovering would help.

[azoundria]

Okay wow this is confusing.

I made the basic modular armour.

Same way I made other armour, I made 10 of them in case the first one breaks. Then I find out they don't stack. Okay, so I guess I can only have one armour. Is it invincible? What happens when it runs out?

Now I right click, which is a good thing they don't stack since that would take half the stack based on my previous guess. I only figured that out because you told me here. A new dialogue comes up.

I can put the laser defense system in there. Now it's red. Only two fit.

I assume the red means it needs power, though there's no visual clue of what is wrong. I also assume that the power has to come from other modules, although maybe it could work next to a power pole. There are 4 different options. Batteriesx2, Solar, and Fusion. I have no idea how much space any of them take up.

I initially went for solar, but then I realized that's stupid because if I start relying on this system, it will fail every night. Fusion is going to take a really long time to start, and the second battery level as well. So I'm going to do the basic battery. I don't know how to charge the batteries, I doubt it will be intuitive.

And now I was looking, and there are shield parts too. So, does the basic module do nothing on it's own? Do I need to make room for those as well? Again, how much room?

So I guess there are a few things:
1) It's not intuitive how to use this technology or the interfaces. Very little is explained anywhere.
2) The armour system uses a different interface and different style from the rest of the game. (I think it's from Diablo.)
3) There are confusing messages, such as when I try to put 'Personal Laser Defense' in the armour slot. It doesn't help me in any way.
4) The entire system seems overly complicated for the simple function of armour, which is such a small aspect of the game. Armour now seems to be used for both offense (lasers) and defense (shield).
5) It's not building a factory, which is what's fun about this game. It seems like even if I understood it, it would still be cumbersome to use and not engaging.

[FreeER]

Okay wow this is confusing.

Yes, I'm afraid I agree with you lol. Once the basics are understood it's not too confusing though.
The basic idea is that it is modular and so can be customized to how you wish to play/use them. Their defense is either
passive shields which absorb damage: mk 1 size: 2x2 , power: 20J or 20Watts/second for 50 shielding, mk2 shields are 2x2 (same as mk1) but use 30W/s for 150 shielding
or active and deals damage to nearby enemies: personal laser defense (2x3, 300W/second) and Discharge defense (3x3, 4000W/5 seconds, area damage. I actually don't know how to use this one).

The power for these are provided from solar panels (1x1, 10Watts) or, when affordable, the fusion generator (4x4, 750Watts), each component has a small buffer but batteries can improve this (1k for mk1, 5k for mk2).

There is also a night vision item (10W) and an exoskeleton (30% increase in movement for 200W)

There are 3 modular armor suits
1) Basic modular armor - inventory size of 5x5, durability 10000 (damage it can take when defenses fail)
2) Power armor - inv 7x7, dura 15000
3) Power armor MK2 - inv 10x10, dura 20000
They have a few differences in respect to the resistances to damage (durability resistance really), but the point is to have shields which absorb that damage (which do not seem to care about what the damage type was, only how much).

I rather like them, but they do need to be more intuitive (hover text, etc.) I have only 2 other complaints
1) There should be some way to charge the batteries in a steam engine/accumulator
2) is that the shields don't completely block poison/acid damage (whatever the worms spit), since that damage should only be applied when they touch organic/solid matter and the shields (since they use energy) can only be some form of force field (so it should hit the shield and just slide down to the ground harmlessly)

Also, not sure why the personal laser defense is red (but I assume because it is an active defense)
Anyways, hope that helps

[ssilk]

A (more or less small) part of Factorio is to find out, how the things are working.

[datadesigner]

Its red because while its in your inventory. If you wear it, and it has a solar panel, (and a battery?) then you'll see the battery will start to charge.

[Loewchen]

Its red because while its in your inventory. If you wear it, and it has a solar panel, (and a battery?) then you'll see the battery will start to charge.

datadesigner? Archeologist would have been a more fitting username