Factorio Forums

Since some GUIs got a Re-Design i thought the same could Happen to the Electric Network Info.
just to make it Simpler... so that Idiots like me can actually get Useful Info from it.
now i'm not a GUI Designer. but this is a idea on how it Could look like.


maybe not in that size, not in that Font, not in that Layout... i don't know.
i just want to know when i'm making enough Power or not.
(now that i write this, maybe something that shows how long your Accumulators will last at the Currect Consumption?)

Added to viewtopic.php?f=80&t=25233 Electric Network Info (Power Bars...)

I like it. Makes more sense. You know you need to build 1.9MW worth of energy production, instead of "a quarter-ish of a progress bar"

agree. good idea. just simple.

I support

Energy consumption and production are always the same. Without a buffer it would create a power dip. That's why steam engines speed up and down, depending on the required amount of energy. But they can only go as far as their maximum production.

Maybe we need a bar that shows the maximum energy production possible with the current setup. The bar then "fills" till or above this point with the current required power

Never liked the design of the electric info screen. This is the cleanest and most informative redesign I've seen to date, sincerely hope something similar (if not this exactly!) Is used.

The problem with showing max possible production is that it can vary, sometimes unpredictably.

Solar cells are the most predictable-production during the day, no production during the night, very strict schedule-but it still varies.

Steam engines are dependent on the temperature of the input fluid. Depending on the set up, this can vary by quite a bit, and it's inherently unpredictable because it's reliant on lots of external effects(boiler runs out of fuel, a pipe gets cut, etc.)

Not saying this is a no, just that it might no be as useful as you might-

*lightbulb*

Actually, we can still use this as a power diagnostic. A sudden and rapid drop in possible production can alert the player to problems with their power source.

I agree that the electrical information in the game could be improved - Generation and Demand are the terms used throughout the Electrical supply Industry in the UK and abroad , in the real world when Generation and Demand are matched then the frequency is constant ( in the UK its 50Hz ) however this never actually occurs and the frequency varies by up to +or - 6% . I am not advocating that frequency is implemented in the game although the changing outputs of the various types of generation do track this feature . The Generation bar could have 25, 50, 75 and 100% markers along it to help production planning - Altogether though I fantastic game that has claimed over 400 hours of my life .
Keep up the good work .

Twinsen wrote:I like it. Makes more sense. You know you need to build 1.9MW worth of energy production, instead of "a quarter-ish of a progress bar"

Which is especially tedious when "1/4 of a progress bar" worth of satisfaction is like 15MW / 25 MW making it totally useless other than an easy indication of if you have enough (full) or not (not full).

And what kind of things are you interested in from the power grid?

1: How much spare power supply do I have? Currently the only way to get this figure is to tally up all your power sources and compare them to your actual production.
2: How much more power do I need to meet this demand? No practical means of knowing this figure now, just a vague bar that doesn't seem to follow a linear 0-100% plot.
3: Do I need to add more power or is there a problem with the existing supply? Unless there is a drastic problem this isn't easily noticeable from the screen, need to calculate as with (1:), easier to go check the engines yourself.

Hmmm so the three main reasons we would be checking the power grid and NONE of them are fulfilled by the stats screen xD Good call Proxy

EDIT

Something tricky to consider is accumulators, ideally we would have the capacity AND throughput of accumulators. For example if my power was to cut right now would the accumulators be able to keep up with demand?