Friday Facts #384 - Combinators 2.0

[FactorioBot]

Here it is! (beep boop)

https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-384

[SnowZyDe]

Omg

[Hares]

First: Great changes!
Second: It hurts to see that on the 1st set of gifs, on the right (train station in v2) the frame expands *a bit* after connecting to the network.

[FunMaker]

Nice one! Loving it.

[Feather]

I was wondering actually, since the wire connection logic has been rewritten, do combinators keep their connections when 'cut & pasted'

[Tooster]

At least, the combinators of the XXI century

Is it possible to send output signal only to specified network color? I see we can compare or send input count value from selected inputs, but there seems to be no selection on which output to put a signal to. I am for example thinking about a case where I compare coal on green input but send output only to the red output. This seems like a missing puzzle when we can choose R or G input but can't change the R or G output. Maybe it would be a bit better to add some kind of 3 state switch like "G", "R", "G+R", because using 2 checkboxes you have one invalid state with both unchecked. Maybe something like a green, red, gree+red colored square.

Also maybe some UI changes could be done to color R and G?

[IForgotMyName]

Some time ago I was thinking about how to enumerate all non-zero signals in a circuit. I thought that I didn’t have enough knowledge about combinators, but it turned out that this is now almost impossible. But at least it will be like this until version 2.0

[Hares]

I have a question. Usually (pretty often) you need to *conditionally* output a constant value. I.e., if A<B then C=10. Could you change "1" output option of a decider comb to the "constant"?

[kovarex]

At least, the combinators of the XXI century

Is it possible to send output signal only to specified network color? I see we can compare or send signal value from different inputs, but there seems to be no selection on which output to put a signal to. I am for example thinking about a case where I compare coal on green input but send output only to the red output. This seems like a missing puzzle when we can choose R or G input but can't change the R or G output.

Also maybe some UI changes could be done to color R and G?

It is stated that this topic will be covered later as it is not yet implemented and we are deciding how and where do we want to do it.

[Ghoulish]

I'm too dumb to use combinators, maybe it's time I learned!

[IForgotMyName]

At least, the combinators of the XXI century

Is it possible to send output signal only to specified network color? I see we can compare or send input count value from selected inputs, but there seems to be no selection on which output to put a signal to. I am for example thinking about a case where I compare coal on green input but send output only to the red output. This seems like a missing puzzle when we can choose R or G input but can't change the R or G output.

Also maybe some UI changes could be done to color R and G?

Take another look at the "Output" section, it looks like you can configure the color of signal output there

[husnikadam]

At least, the combinators of the XXI century

Is it possible to send output signal only to specified network color? I see we can compare or send input count value from selected inputs, but there seems to be no selection on which output to put a signal to. I am for example thinking about a case where I compare coal on green input but send output only to the red output. This seems like a missing puzzle when we can choose R or G input but can't change the R or G output.

Also maybe some UI changes could be done to color R and G?

Take another look at the "Output" section, it looks like you can configure the color of signal output there

The checkboxes take the input count from R, G or R+G inputs. It doesn't set the output wire

[Justderpingalong]

This is nice and all... but does this FINALLY give us a way to 'sanitize' our inputs? Specific case: I was working on making a station using LTN that would allow me to load multiple types of cargo. The problem is that LTN's station, alongside expected cargo, also dump out a whole bunch of other data. And as I was using filter inserters with set filter, this could lead to them trying to set their filter to a signal instead of an item. If I were able to 'sanitize' my input, this would be a lot less cumbersome. Because right now the only way I could would be to add an arithmatic combinator which multiplies the values of all the data I didn´t want by -1. I think a nice feature for the 'selector combinator' would be to specifically filter out either groups of signals (so u can filter out any 'non-entity' signals like letters) or specific values, though a group would be most useful in my specific case.

[Sigma1]

big fan of the new UI, and especially the AND and OR in the decider, and the selector also seems useful

however since this stuff is being worked on, most of the times i work with complex circuits, the biggest problem tends to be following the wires, so some type of overlay thingy that shows wires as straight lines, kind of like that one belt path visualiser mod, would be a great addition imo

[Tooster]

Also maybe some UI changes could be done to color R and G?

...
Take another look at the "Output" section, it looks like you can configure the color of signal output there

That was my initial thought until I took another look, then I realized it just lets you choose which input to relay to outputs, not which output to choose. But kovarex said above that "it's not yet implemented and they are thinking where and how to do it", not "if they want to do it", so I guess it's on the table and maybe will be coming one day ^^.

[Hares]

Another question related to the items' descriptions.
Currently, Factorio hardly limits blueprint description length, and it can't include fully detailed description with numbers and formulas (when they are needed). Could you increase the allowed length of the text field? Something about 10x times?

[j_matya]

Hi.
First of all, mind blown, I was shedding a tear, so many new possibilities!

One thing I would highly recommend / request:

Add the possibility to output any other constant other than "1" and "Input count". How many times I have wanted to output a number other than 1, and had to restort to many signal-transposing shenanigans, and this would still be required with this magic new combinator...

pleeeeeease!

update: similar to this (excude me the rude version, only have gimp at work)


update2: this picker could then also allow to transpose the value of a signal as another output signal (if you think about the value picker, you usually can pick either a virtual signal, or a static numeric value)

[gGeorg]

Great !

Regarding : "Circuit slots show the values
... super simple when setting up a condition to know what ballpark of value you need to set."

when value in the slot is over 1000 it (I assume ) shows shortened version. Like 14k of Stones.
Can you make an mouse_over_tooltip which shows the exact number like 14 237 ?


Regarding : "Description for all combinators "
Thanks for god, this was long asked feature. By me at least three times.

Decider combinator 2.0
also long asked feature to read-write to different wires.
- glad to see you have re-used UI design and logic of user interaction of the train departure condition dialogue. That is great way of software development.
Multiple conditions I/O can brutal simplify circuitry, does it means that SR-latch contraptions are no longer needed because you make it all by just one combinator ?

Selector combinator is just great to be true , especially switch "ascending/descending order" is exciting.

Selector should have a feature to modify Logic Groups (TM).

[thedoh]

An alternate point of view to the combinator UI elements appearing "out of nowhere" is that the behaviour of UI elements appearing only when needed keeps the combinator UI from becoming overly cluttered.

[thermomug]

Really amazing,

I cannot wait to finally build myself a turing complete computer, maybe a lisp machine, compilers etc.
Tinkering around with optional stuff and all the options you have to your goal makes factorio the amazing game that it is.

There are few games that tell you so much about the personality of the player by only looking at their savegames.
Building a factory is a way of expressing yourself, like music, dancing, craftsmanship. It is ART

I LOVE THIS GAME !!!