I've had alls I can stands and I can stands no more

[PTTG]

Belts start out yellow, upgrade to red, and then to blue.
Assemblers start out gray, then upgrade to blue, and finally yellow.
Inserters start gray for burner, but the most basic electric ones are yellow. Then they get complicated but eventually upgrade to red, blue, and then diversify.
Furnaces are yellow for a basic burner kind, but then turn gray for the next two versions.

This is figuratively unplayable. Please regularize the tech levels of equipment and their coloration.

[Oktokolo]

This is figuratively unplayable. Please regularize the tech levels of equipment and their coloration.

You might have OCD.

the problem is, that for some, tiers should have the same colors - while for others, an all-the-same colored base looks boring (me too).
Also, inserters, while having tiers (gray/burner, yellow/electric, blue/fast, green/stack) - they also have multiple types in most tiers (yellow/electric and red/long, blue/fast and purple/filtered fast, green/stack and white/filtered stack).
Inserters are basically a mess because Wube had to keep the interface simple somehow. The long-handed inserter is really nice to have and filtered versions also have their use cases wich are a PITA to solve with non-filtered variants.
So it is likely, that we will keep having at least six different inserters in vanilla (but see Bob's Adjustable Inserters for a well-known mod showing how to get rid of the need for long-handed inserters by significantly increasing user interface complexity).
So unifying tier colors would also mean, that they would have to have different models for some of the inserters, wich are just variants sharing the same performance tier. They could do that - and maybe they will.

Until then, you could also try to make a mod unifying tier colors to your liking. Recolor mods are not as hard to make as adding entirely new sprites.

[evopwr]

From what I've been reading in the FFFs lately (and perhaps some reading between the lines), there is a lot of work going on this exact area of "common sense and consistency" - so I wouldn't be surprised if there is at least some discussion on standardising colours of these items. Whether things change or not, who knows.

Although, I do have to agree with Oktokolo, that a base that is all yellow in early game, red in mid game, and blue in late game, wouldn't be very visually appealing.

[T-A-R]

I understand your point, engineers love standardizations. Scroll back to FFF-262: Red assemblers?. Here a simulair point is discussed. Agreed thare are a lot assemblers, but main part of the game, and you have more belt parts.

I agree if one points out that colors in video games are a important aspect, but as an engineer colors are a functional rather than decorative. The game is all about engineering, quite a paradox here.

We already have yellow and blue and gray assemblers(as a fueled version?;). Nuclear equipment is green by the way, pump jacks too. And labs white. Those stuff does not have a early and a late game version and thereby do not need to comply the standard. But since they have have simulair colors as the inserters the different types of producers could be interpreted as part of the standard. Leaving yellow blue and red for the assemblers. But why would nuclear have the same color as a stacker inserter, etc?
Brain fart: A chem-plant is orange like a basic inserter, would purple be more appropriate? Or...

My brain thinks more about the logic compared to the visuals, it is hard for me to visualize, but i do have a sort of vision of a colour code by tier:

As mentioned in reactions of FFF-262: Shouldn't the flasks ("science pack" in-game, to refer to FFF-265;)) comply in this standard since those are the source for the newly colored machinery. So yellow flask makes yellow T1-belt/inserter/assembler/furnace. I think this would made sense if equipment has some part of it's tier in it. But don' t go crazy, we should not end with less color than we do now, the are a lot of assisting colors that are not in the standard. (example the refinery). Some detail of it's tier would make the tech tree more clear too.

The joy of all random colors is not something you'd expect in a industrial environment where colors are just there to boost productivity of human employees. In a video game it is a different story, but will it help the immersion? I am not sure that it would not be more visually appearing when there is more unity in the colors of assemblers and inserters.
I think the continuous need for expanding and upgrading will change your scheme enough. In late game you still have to make compositions of different inserters (most of the time i only use stackers when needed, you can save a lot resources by not omni-upgrading).
There is a separation between tiered stuff and single invented stuff, those would ideally be in line (or contrasted with assisting colors) with the science packs.

To kill any exitement, the red assembler is just a placeholder and is not announced to be in-game, and the rest of the other thread contains no replies on the idea which i support.

Sort of off-topic: What grinds my gears about inserters is that the black burner inserters can't be sped up with rocket fuel, speaking about consistency.

[zOldBulldog]

If we are going to talk colors and consistency... I am going to bring out my pet peeve and complain about locomotive colors:

- There is no match between the RGB colors and what comes out when you apply it to a locomotive.

- Also, there is no good way to make a locomotive take the color of the cargo it transports. And never mind that the colors of iron and copper are nowhere near the globally accepted colors for copper and iron.

Yes, I know. Trivial matter. But we *are* talking about colors and consistency here. Perfect opportunity for me to whine

[evopwr]

working in the print industry, i prefer to use CMYK =P

[Rseding91]

This is figuratively unplayable. Please regularize the tech levels of equipment and their coloration.

No. They're that way on purpose so you don't end up with a "red factory". The colors are meaningless in the context of "tech level" on anything and are simply decoration. That's not going to change

[AngledLuffa]

Also, there is no good way to make a locomotive take the color of the cargo it transports.

I would love to be able to assign colors to cars the same way you can assign them to trains. I would make the ugliest trains you've ever seen. The biters that get run over would die happy because they no longer have to look at my trains

[psychomuffin]

Now, I'm certainly one that loves to critique, but this has never been a problem for me. I have never once associated with color alone to tech level. It's always been red belt is faster then yellow belt; yellow assembler is faster than blue assembler. That, combined with how many of these different tech levels look different as well, I think it is just fine. For me, it is like reading RED BLUE GREEN YELLOW, the actual color doesn't matter because I understand the letters and words.

[sarcolopter]

I understand your point, engineers love standardizations. Scroll back to FFF-262: Red assemblers?. Here a simulair point is discussed. Agreed thare are a lot assemblers, but main part of the game, and you have more belt parts.

I agree if one points out that colors in video games are a important aspect, but as an engineer colors are a functional rather than decorative. The game is all about engineering, quite a paradox here.

We already have yellow and blue and gray assemblers(as a fueled version?;). Nuclear equipment is green by the way, pump jacks too. And labs white. Those stuff does not have a early and a late game version and thereby do not need to comply the standard. But since they have have simulair colors as the inserters the different types of producers could be interpreted as part of the standard. Leaving yellow blue and red for the assemblers. But why would nuclear have the same color as a stacker inserter, etc?
Brain fart: A chem-plant is orange like a basic inserter, would purple be more appropriate? Or...

My brain thinks more about the logic compared to the visuals, it is hard for me to visualize, but i do have a sort of vision of a colour code by tier:

As mentioned in reactions of FFF-262: Shouldn't the flasks ("science pack" in-game, to refer to FFF-265;)) comply in this standard since those are the source for the newly colored machinery. So yellow flask makes yellow T1-belt/inserter/assembler/furnace. I think this would made sense if equipment has some part of it's tier in it. But don' t go crazy, we should not end with less color than we do now, the are a lot of assisting colors that are not in the standard. (example the refinery). Some detail of it's tier would make the tech tree more clear too.

The joy of all random colors is not something you'd expect in a industrial environment where colors are just there to boost productivity of human employees. In a video game it is a different story, but will it help the immersion? I am not sure that it would not be more visually appearing when there is more unity in the colors of assemblers and inserters.
I think the continuous need for expanding and upgrading will change your scheme enough. In late game you still have to make compositions of different inserters (most of the time i only use stackers when needed, you can save a lot resources by not omni-upgrading).
There is a separation between tiered stuff and single invented stuff, those would ideally be in line (or contrasted with assisting colors) with the science packs.

To kill any exitement, the red assembler is just a placeholder and is not announced to be in-game, and the rest of the other thread contains no replies on the idea which i support.

Sort of off-topic: What grinds my gears about inserters is that the black burner inserters can't be sped up with rocket fuel, speaking about consistency.

It's spelled "similar"

[Mauslag PIngman]

OP, just from looking at the title is it possible that the first letter of your name stands for "Popeye"?

[dog80]

what about biters??

grey -> red -> blue -> green