Friday Facts #400 - Chart search and Pins

[Arch-kain]

I'm glad to read FFF every times ^^ As always, I can't wait to have this features and contents in my hands ♥

This FFF makes me think that I have some trouble sometimes with search function.

When I add a mod (new, or not), I always (ish) change its options and shortcuts.
But, searching with the mod's name isn't possible and option's & shortcut's names are not always similar enough to simply use a Ctrl+F (plus, we don't know these names when its a new mod). So I need to scroll down until I find the mod's name in bold.
When we have a lot of mods, it's kind of tedious. Especially when we change a setting and we are not happy of this after all.
Sometimes (in shortcuts option), I fold some categories to more easily get the part I need to find ("mods"). But when it's starting to be the third time in a row, I just scroll down vaguely and scroll up/down again because it bothers me to fold again and again x)

I always have the fuzzy search checked. It is easier to search things quickly without typing the whole thing.
But, sometimes I would like to not use this, and be able to disable this on the fly, just for a few search without to uncheck and re-check this option (which I don't do, since it's more complicate then writing correctly what i'm looking for ^^)

I'll be happy to have, even a tiny change like this:

• mod: awesome mod name   to find all of option/shortcut related to this mod
• "exact match"   to ignore fuzzy search

Thanks

[MiniHerc]

Please give a way to mute/ignore alert types we don't care about. I play with alerts muted because endless minor damage alerts seriously trigger me.

[glee8e]

How about a shortcut/button to immediately clear all pins that are on screen?

[Enderdraak]

We could consider to add more to the search, like the locations of logistic chests containing some item, but we decided to not go down this rabbit hole for now.

Of course, there might be some good ideas of other things we could make searchable, you can let us know!

My first instinct was to make items searchable by logistics network. Like you get to know that power armor is available in network X. And then it is up to the player to go to that network and request that power armor they want.

[kirkbauer]

This might be my favorite new feature! I'm always losing my spidertron and forgetting where I'm going.

[Kyralessa]

Every week I'm reminded of how good a game can be when its developers play it and love it.

And I'm champing at the bit to play it with these changes.

[kerrin]

I do feel like the pin functionality could have been added to tags, rather than having it's own thing...

You could have shared tags (like now), and private tags to the current player.
You could set a tag to temporarily show a direction marker (like the new pins always do).
You could have temporary tags, that disappear when you reach them.

Having Tags, Pins and Pings does seem a little bit much. It will probably be too much for some people.

[Cabble]

I absolutely love this kind of QoL feature!
Is Regex supported?
I hope or suggest that pins are temporary (by default) or configurable to be temporary. So when you come close to the pins coords, the pin automatically gets removed. The pin in hte list could be blinking 3 times to indicate arrival and removal of the pin. Anyway I trust your UI/UX decisions and if or how you will implement such a feature.
Every friday makes waiting for 2.0 harder... in a good way at least.

[monopompom]

First of all: Oh my GOD searching the map is something I didn't know I needed.

Secondly:
What the heck are these trains doing here?!


Thirdly:
SPIDERTRON REMOTE IS NO LONGER AN ITEM CONFIRMED?!

Also, there is something hidden here:

CleanShot 2024-03-01 at 14.48.08@2x.png (165 KiB) Viewed 3167 times

[FritzHugo3]

Very nice. Without the searching mod https://mods.factorio.com/mod/FactorySearch i really find nothing in my "all the overhauls" Modpack.
Dont forget an option to say at all planets or only this planet. And the option for in chest, in player, at ground, logistc inventory

And we need scale able symbols/textes for the radar in detailed view and the radar view. This would help to find the big mass areas in oure bases. Now the Pins/Marls/Tags are to smal and if we zoomed out they hidden completly.


One thing more.
You have something build, now you have a bit chanced Blueprint. You mark to delete the buildet things and put the new blueprint over the old - problem, the bots pickup all the stuff whats identicle in builded and blueprinted.
We need a function to say merge it. only pickup all different and let this whats same in blueprint and whats buildet before.

[Feather]

Kind of unrelated, but legendary spidertrons with legendary legs seem to have a 'braking problem' so they just overshoot by massive distances, I was just wondering if this is going to be adressed in the new version

[mexmer]

Yo dawg,we heard you like alerts, so we put more alerts into your alerts, so you can see alerts while looking at alerts.

[picklock]

Very nice. It's the little things you change that make the gaming experience even better. And with all these changes, it's clear that you put your heart into the development. I often miss that in other development teams and it makes Factorio and you so special.

The pins are a very good idea. How often have I built or checked something and then looked for my car or the Spidertron? And in a complex built-up area of the map, I've often overlooked the symbols for the car in particular when I was first looking for it. Now I can pin it and that's that.

[Aesedai]

One detail that would really help on the weekly update would just to tell us at the start when these changes are implemented. Like is this in the latest update or a future update?

[FuryoftheStars]

I hope or suggest that pins are temporary (by default) or configurable to be temporary. So when you come close to the pins coords, the pin automatically gets removed. The pin in hte list could be blinking 3 times to indicate arrival and removal of the pin. Anyway I trust your UI/UX decisions and if or how you will implement such a feature.

I did not get that impression, but from what I could tell, all pins will be listed on the right even when not in map/remote view, so when you get there, you can just simply click the delete button.

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Please give a way to mute/ignore alert types we don't care about. I play with alerts muted because endless minor damage alerts seriously trigger me.

Not to say a mute for these wouldn't be good, but at what point to you is "minor" damage no longer minor? When things start getting destroyed? When certain entities are getting damaged or destroyed? It strikes me that for something like that to really work well, it may have to have a very complex customization system.

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For map search: please also add options for resource patches (especially in modded can some of the rarer resources be easy to overlook)

This could be good, though seems you mention modded, there are mods out there that automatically tag resources when discovered, including the amount of resource in the patch.

[Usul]

Great features!

Somewhat related: Could you please please make the flashing of the alert icons soft/pulsating instead of rigid/hard on/off (HUD and map)? This constant incessant hard flashing is quite irritating and I have sometimes resorted to disabling alerts altogether for this reason. However I do not want to miss out on the information of the alert. It would be better if in the corner of my eye, that I register there is something going on (e.g. attack), but it's not important enough to break my concentration/immersion on whatever task I am working on. Hard blinking or soft blinking would make a big "ergonomic" difference, imho.

[orbit]

Hi, congrats to 400 posts!

I will be able to find my corpse? Wow I never dreamt about that

I am happy that I will be mark my friends i play with to find them quickly by glance. Thank you!

I need to start testing expansion Can i drop by your office?

[Syriusz]

That's great!
I hope you can set up pins to automatically pin for example trains that run out of coal. Also I hope we could search specifically for trains without fuel or with certain cargo. So for example you could type:
train: iron ore
and it would highlight trains with iron ore in cargo. Or train: empty to show trains without cargo. And other tags would be great too, like
steel chest: iron ore
chest: iron ore
chest: ore
car: coal
miner: coal
I'm not sure if it is feasible (to code and for performance, especially with 1000s of chest in the base) but it would be nice to heave.

[Terrahertz]

I hope you can set up pins to automatically pin for example trains that run out of coal. Also I hope we could search specifically for trains without fuel or with certain cargo. So for example you could type:

Last time I played trains alerted you when they had no fuel anymore, at least I think, this happens very seldom to me.

[Terrahertz]

Secondly:
What the heck are these trains doing here?!

Good eye!

I could think of a couple of things:

• Hovertrains, obviously thats the correct one

• Unfinished construction, altough the bottom one is pointing directly into a drone port

• The devs are messing with us

• This is part of some weird circuit logic thing

I stared at this for a while now and I think I know what this is:
Option 4: Circuit setup
As it is close to a nuclear power plant, this might be an enrichment setup.
The cargo wagon is used as a long chest and the engine and station are used to get circuit access to the contents.