Blueprints! Why didnt you tell me this before?

[pipvac]

OMG! Guys and girls? Why or why didn't you ring me up to tell me about this before now?

Just completed my first vanilla play through, and absolutely loving this game. However, I didn't discover Blueprint functionality until VERY late into my 40+ hours (yes I know I'm a plonker!). There was a moment where I was thinking it was getting a bit repetitive and grindy, repeating some standard set up over and over. I just happened across a video on youtube (studying how to launch satellite) where they were using the blueprint technique. An angel chorus of voices sounded in my head, as a shard of light shone on my face projected through a gap in the clouds above my home, as enlightenment lifted me.... and BLUEPRINTS!!!!!! So that's what the personal roboport and construction bots are for!!!

Stop laughing, its not funny. Your fault, you should have told me sooner! :p

[BlakeMW]

are you a new player since 0.15? Just wondering because before that blueprints were on a technology (and were crafted from a green or red circuit IIRC) so you would unlock them and be like "hmmm, what's that then?". Now they're available from the start of the game but kind of hidden away in a corner of the ui.

[Koub]

When I play a game, the first thing I do is get in every single menu, option, keybind possibility to have a look at what's there. And blueprint book is now accessible right from a button next to minimap

[Daid]

Blueprints, personal roboports, rail planner and double-headed trains where things that for me the game failed to explain and I didn't discover for myself how they worked. So I think the campaign or mini tutorials should expand on those areas. (The rail planner is handled now with the tutorials. Signals I already understood from Transport Tycoon)

[nuhll]

Srsly, its in the research tree, like always, thats how i found about this, as i startet...

[orzelek]

Srsly, its in the research tree, like always, thats how i found about this, as i startet...

It's no longer in reasearch tree. Blueprints are not researchable anymore directly - they are simply available from their own menu.
Some small tutorial pointing new users to go there and play with them would be good - maybe after researching construction robots?

[nuhll]

Okay, you are right, but the logistic network is researchable. Should be probably changed so that blueprints are red science or something like this...

[Kametec]

Playing Dwarf Fortress is not the same anymore, now that I've seen blueprints in Factorio...

[Mooncat]

I think this thread is introducing a task for the devs: improve the accessibility of blueprint / blueprint library.

[Ripshaft]

The blueprint functionality is definitely not obvious to new players as of the update, though I expect they'll be adding a tutorial or something for that soon.


Keep in mind you're choosing to opt into the experimental branch and that presumably there will be a clear tutorial series on blueprint functionality by the time it moves to stable.

Though I agree this is a pretty serious issue as far as the new player experience goes, as the bar is really not something your attention is ever drawn to, since all the cool stuff is happening in the play area.

[rcp27]

A blueprint tutorial that comes up like the railway ones when you unlock construction bots would definitely be a good addition.

[Koub]

The devs have stated that proper tutorials on all key aspects of the game were to come. Right now, we have a proof of concept of the tutorials can be with the few that are ingame, but :
1) The whole campaign will be updated to better accompany the player in his discovery of the game.
2) Tutorials will be added for the most iconic parts of the game, to help newbies learn all the core concepts of the game.

All this should come before/with release of 1.0

Sources :
https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-160
https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-178
viewtopic.php?p=273016#p273016

[ibeatbabybiters]

If you love the blueprinting idea, but dislike the handling in it's current form, let me introduce you a mod I discovered just yesterday which increased my productivity blueprinting stuff by 300%:

Cut n Paste: https://mods.factorio.com/mods/mickael9/cut-and-paste

Can highly recommend. It's so simple now to move stuff around.

[purdueme91]

I think the HUGE improvement in blueprints now is the library and being able to import blueprints from your other games. So I went out yesterday and grabbed builds from my previous games that would still load (concentrating on the Bob's mod builds with the insane amount of fluid processing). So now I don't have to think about how I processed gems or gold or whatever previously.

Having the ghosts to plan building from the start is also such a help with planning the factory from the get go.

So yes welcome to the dark side where the bots do ALL the work for you.

[Nich]

so dissapointed in the cut and paste mod.

I was hoping for something the give ctrl-x, ctrl-c and ctrl-v functionality

ctrl-x creates a blue print and deconstructs

ctrl-c creates a blue print

ctrl-v pulls up that last blueprint created

[Factorie]

The devs have stated that proper tutorials on all key aspects of the game were to come. Right now, we have a proof of concept of the tutorials can be with the few that are ingame, but :
1) The whole campaign will be updated to better accompany the player in his discovery of the game.
2) Tutorials will be added for the most iconic parts of the game, to help newbies learn all the core concepts of the game.

All this should come before/with release of 1.0

Sources :
https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-160
https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-178
viewtopic.php?p=273016#p273016

Looking forward to this! I'm still so lost