Blueprint Library - Add a "Community" section tab

[RiverRob]

Hi,

The blue print library currently has
"Game Blueprints" section where the Blueprints (BPs) and Blueprint Books (BPBs) are specific to that game/save.
"My Blueprints" section where the BPs/BPBs are specific to that computer/account.

I suggest a third Blueprints section for "Community Blueprints" where when a player puts BPs/BPBs there, they become visible to other players around the world. There are third party sites that already do this in a clumsy way like Factorio Prints, Factorio Bin, etc, but they each are limited in different ways. Factorio Bin just creates a really nice image but no library or search and Factorio Prints has a limited search and library but no image creation. Also people have to know about these and take the effort to add things to them which is painful.

An in-game tool like this would be ideal and most if not all the pieces are already built to put it together. It would work like publishing Mods but for BPs instead. And instead of publishing through a mod portal type thing (factorio prints, etc) a BP is published in game just by adding a BP/BPB as they already do regularly while playing.

This opens up a lot of possibilities. While only the player who published the BP/BPB can update it, but other users can copy it, tweak it, and publish a new version. The blue print can even go away if the creator removes it from the community library.

Just basic functionality would be great, but I can think of a lot of features that could be added -
Ranking system
Favorites
Versioning
Forking
"Common BPs/BPBs" that are published/owned by the game itself
4 to 4 balancer, belted early stone furnace array, etc
Stuff we all have in are libraries

Search functionality -
By Tags
By creator
By Mod used by BP
or doesn't use (some mods people avoid do to glitches, incompatibility, poor support, etc)
By Item used by BP
By max dimensions
Who else has sorted through balancer for one that you can shoehorn into a tight spot?
By estimated output speeds
">10000 iron plate per minute"
"between 1000 and 2000 Red science per minute"

These lists could go on for a while. (I might edit and add them as they come to me)

It seems simple to create in my eyes, but you guys are the ones who would know best

Thanks for reading.

River

[Amarula]

Brilliant!

[Tertius]

An interesting idea. If kept absolutely simple with not much addition to the GUI, keep the blueprint book and book in book structure/look and feel. As highest organization level there could be an "author" book that contains all blueprints/blueprint books published by this user, labeled with his steam user name/multiplayer user name. If you subscribe to some author, a book appears containing his blueprints and blueprint books.

[RiverRob]

An interesting idea. If kept absolutely simple with not much addition to the GUI, keep the blueprint book and book in book structure/look and feel. As highest organization level there could be an "author" book that contains all blueprints/blueprint books published by this user, labeled with his steam user name/multiplayer user name. If you subscribe to some author, a book appears containing his blueprints and blueprint books.

I think it should literally be just like the other two tabs on the front end UI. Player takes a BPB out of his local library and drops it into the Community library, and that's their part done. You (another user) click on that community library tab on your PC, and magically a new BPB has appeared to look at.
The content will explode size wise quickly, so search is kind of a must. I really like your subscription idea like Youtube. See new BPs from the users you like (KoS, Nilaus, etc)

[Melodi-of-Crystals]

I could see something like this with a few modifications. A player could be limited to one added book, and there could be a search system included as well to search for tags added to the books.

This would be ESPECIALLY helpful for switch players since there's no way to import schematics other than recreating them, or copying them from other players.