Factorio Forums

If I run in straight line and hold lmb to place power poles

How it works currently:
places power poles on maximum distance away from closest power pole. sometimes does not place a power pole at all if running close enough to another line of power poles.

Problem: this makes it cumbersome to place power poles on specific kinds of grids of solar+accumulator (without bots). There are power poles closer than max connecting distance away from poles you are about to place but they dont actually deliver power where you are planning to place your new poles. but the poles are "too close" to place holding lmb and running.

How I would like it to work:
Power poles are placed max connecting distance away from the previously placed power pole, the one that you placed just before the current one, ignoring all other power poles even if they are right next to you. if lmb is released, then the functionality works like before for the duration of placing of ONE power pole and then again changes to the new style. (so you can place the first power pole max distance away from any other pole but following ones max distance away from previously placed one)

+1

This is one of the few things that still bother me about Factorio. When running towards a factory that already has power poles set up then the last pole won't place. Or when running past an existing power pole the same thing happens. I have seen this suggested a few times, most recently as a bug report: [0.12.33] click and drag power pole end connection problem

I agree with the way you described it should work (which is also the same in the bug report), however there are more solutions / ideas for automatic pole placement:
Autoplacement (further ideas + discussion, very old thread)
UI: Tight Power Pole Autoplace (using CTRL/ALT poles should give complete coverage, removing the 2 tile uncovered space between medium poles)
Autoplacement Fine Control (allow to manually set power pole spacing)
Tweak to power pole auto-placement (same as this suggestion)
Automatic power poles placement should consider coverage (as title says, put down power poles earlier if there would be uncovered entities otherwise)
Dragging power poles should connect power networks

Yes, I had this situation yesterday and this is indeed not optimal.

As player I want to place a "new powerline" by running. In that case I don't want to be interrupted in my task, but if the new pole isn't connected with the old (not placed at all), this is not so useful.
In general: If a player presses the LMB then he starts a "task", that he don't wanted to be interrupted.

Note: This behavior seems to be in complete opposite to viewtopic.php?f=58&t=27456&p=219281&hil ... ch#p206359

Moved to frequently suggested.

+1

yes! +1