Factorio Forums

I'd love to be able to see if a power pole is hooked up to the grid.
This should probably be optional, or be linked to the detailed view (alt), but it'd be incredibly handy as a warning that you've accidentally disconnected a line.
This happens to me quite often when I'm running rail manually, or if I'm dragging out a line so I can use some laser turrets when fighting.

As a workaround I'm running around with a blueprint that adds a light to a large power pole, but you can't run-and-drag with a blueprint the same way you can with power poles..

HiddenWolf wrote:I'd love to be able to see if a power pole is hooked up to the grid.

How will you determine that? What is "THE" grid? There could be several grids.

Or do you mean a visible feedback, if the pole has (enough) power?

The yellow or red icon as it appears above factories and lights, I'd love to have that on power poles as well.

Lamps will take care of this for the most part. If they don't light up they aren't connected.

If you like dev tools, press F4. One of the options is to label every power pole with its grid number.

bobucles wrote:Lamps will take care of this for the most part. If they don't light up they aren't connected.

Only during night.

ssilk wrote:

bobucles wrote:Lamps will take care of this for the most part. If they don't light up they aren't connected.

Only during night.

but if they are connected they won't flash the disconnected icon

IF a pole is not connected to a power or consumer source then display the disconnrected message.

Also, add a way to display the network each pole is attached to, so you can know if the poles, and the networks are actually connected.

I'm thinking that substations and/or large power poles could display some sort of visual effect when the electrical grid is nearly overloaded, like the occasional sparks or faint glow. I think it would add nice atmosphere to the factory, and serve as a constant reminder that you're walking a razors edge with all that power drain.

A red blinking light on the substations could serve as a nice indicator that your power output is dropping, too. Like when you're in the yellow or red.
Low priority flavor for sure, though. Still.. polish is nice and it would encourage you to use Substations to gate new outposts, since they can display important status on the network with just their visuals. Showing, not telling, and all that...

Can you tell us the difference to this suggestion:
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =6&t=16696 Power indicator on power poles
?

ssilk wrote:Can you tell us the difference to this suggestion:
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =6&t=16696 Power indicator on power poles
?

Sure.
They way I figure he was thinking was that he wanted some sort of light to glow on all the poles if they had power.
I want a visual sparking effect on substations/big power lines to show whether you're about to overload your network or not.
...and other indicators to indicate the state of power on substations only.

Alright, fine. I see the similarities. Guess I'm just taking his concept an evolving it a few steps further to something more natural-looking & useful.

network the pole is connected to is a debug option

I'd really like to have actual power poles with lights on them. To do this properly devs would need to add that I think.
They would consume a bit power then ofc.

I really like the idea to give information about an electric network state through small lights on top of the poles.

Because currently I think it's far to late, when you see in the night the lamps are flashing.

Look here https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... ler#p84589

There is a linked thread " Lights for devices". And other threads. This suggestion goes into the same direction but for poles.

I'll throw my support behind this one. A nice blinking light on top of a power pole would work nicely.

I was thinking about something bigger then small light maybe
Altho if we get pole with light from devs it should be easy for modders to play around with light parameters.

Can You add a little red, blinking light on top of metal poles?
It would indicate if there is a power connected to that pole (easier finding missing wires/power shortage), and also help avoid hitting it in the night.

Search for "Aircraft warning lights" for real life example.

Maybe add to lights some functionality?

• Green light - pole connected to powered network;
• Green flashing light - pole connected to unpowered network;
• Red flashing light - pole are not connected to any another poles (missing pole)

One big thing is that if you have several places making power, I.e 20 solar fields, wherever they easily fit due to fluid nature, plus a reactor or two, it is easy to break the network and not notice immediately, because there is still power, at least for a while. Would be nice to have the power overlay use different colors, similar to rail chunk separation.

Lights on poles, having them green if fully powered, yellow if there is a deficit, and off if no power. Inconsistent pole colors would indicate a break as a bonus.