Reduce Collision Box On Items

[azoundria]

Personally, I love how the collision boxes have been reduced on a number of items already. I remember when you couldn't get around underground belts, for example. I think that there are still a few items that could have a reduced collision box.

- Chests. The chest doesn't look like it takes up the whole square height-wise, and even width-wise there is a bit of space to squeeze by. In real life, I would climb over the chest (though I obviously don't expect that kind of complexity). It's annoying to try to get through a line of chests (as I often end up with in my factory).

- Mining drills. Most of this drill itself seems to be simply space that's allocated for the machine. (Or maybe it's some kind of border.) Anyways, I can't think of a reason why it should be solid right to the edge and it's annoying when you have to place them in a way that blocks the passage to get all the ores being mined, and then you can't get by.

- Lasers. These look like you could also squeeze by.

I'm sure this isn't an inclusive list. Letting the player get around items more freely makes the game more enjoyable overall.

[FreeER]

First I'll say there are things, chests and turrets and underground belts, that this does make sense with

Mining drills

This however does not because the electric mining drills (and how often do you use the burner drills once you have electricity?) mine one tile on the edge as well, so you can place drills with 2 tiles of space inbetween and still mine everything. Though obviously placing drills right beside each other means you can place more drills and so mine faster, but that is a decision you can choose to make.

[ssilk]

Agreed to all, except mining drills, FreeER explained already.

I mean going through narrow space should slow the character down, depending on space.

[azoundria]

I usually place electric mining drills 2 squares apart, but there are situations where it's not possible or it requires redoing all the layout that I've done.

For proof of a situation, just imagine a passage between two lakes that is exactly 3 tiles wide and more than 3 tiles in length. The passage happens to be inside an ore patch. There is no possible configuration of electric mining drills that can make that passage passable and mine all the ores.

Placing of electric mining drills can get to be a very complex search space problem on large ore patches. (My map I am playing now is almost completely covered in such patches.) I rarely reach one of the optimal solutions which would use the least mining drills and result in no blockage. I could spend extra time to achieve this condition, though it takes far more time that crafting an extra mining drill or going around a bunch of mining drills or destroying and replacing the mining drills that are in my way. So I usually settle for a relatively near optimal solution and stumble around it every time I need to go that way.

[ssilk]

Well, good example. That's also true, if the passage is only 2 wide, and you can ore it only with coal-miners.
But maybe the map generation should avoid that?

[azoundria]

There is no legitimate reason I can think of to not have a small space around all the buildings so you can freely move, with the exception of walls which are designed for the express purpose of blocking passage. (And I feel those badly need gates.)

Right now I spend a good chunk of time stumbling around buildings and accidentally getting into dead ends. One of the greatest feelings was how the new electric furnaces have space around them (and I didn't have this problem). I just feel it's an unnecessary annoyance.

[ssilk]

Well, when I think now over it: yes and no.

Yes, because currently I always left space for me to walk through my factory. With this the factory could be built more condensed.

And no, because I think, that the resulting factories look a unnatural. I mean,there should be some space between the buildings and to left space to walk inside is part of the game. I began also to left sometimes much more space to drive with my car through the factory, which is a good thing. And I found also, that letting space makes it easier to built tracks.

And no, because it looks quite unnatural to walk between buildings, which stand side by side.

So, my opinion is no, it's not needed, that every building has a smaller collision box.

[azoundria]

I think you summed up quite nicely some of the other reasons for more spread out factories, including being able to drive around and leaving space for railway lines later. The main reason I like to have a spread out factory is so that I have space to expand sections and add additional conveyer lines later on.

As for the unnatural look of moving between buildings, I also thought this before. You can check out the electric furnace, which is the first building that looks like it takes up the full space and has a smaller collision box. I don't think it looks very unnatural when I see it. For some buildings, it may be good to shrink them just a little to avoid this appearance.