Friday Facts #397 - Factoriopedia

[Marc90]

Don't worry you can just ALT + Left click practically anything

Sooo... default keybinding for changing Alt mode from left alt to right alt when? I have already done that long time ago, it's annoying if Alt+Tab turns off Alt mode. Probably more so with new keybind like this for Factoriopedia.

No one uses the alleged ALT+TAB anymore. It is said that all who used it switched to using SHIFT+TAB instead! (Spooky noises)

Except that Shift+Tab doesn't do the same at all as Alt+Tab. My "Alt-Mode" key has been F1 for as long as I can remember.

Another thing I've noticed: You're displaying the Day/Night cycle duration for the planet, but not the duration of or ratio between daytime/nighttime/twilight, which is very important for solar power and accumulator amount calculations. It would be very handy to have that information in there, even if it is the same for all planets.

[kitt159]

I like this idea. For me, a real game changer was this tool that can calculate a whole supply chain and the needed factories for it:
https://kirkmcdonald.github.io/calc.htm ... ircuit:f:1

Maybe, it is worth an idea to add a similar functionality also in the Factoriopedia, so for example provide an extra button "Show supply chain" which shows a graph of all raw ingredients that are necessary to craft this product.

Thats exactly what I was thinking at the beginning. A flow graph view would be much more straightforward - like a research tree.

[Nidan]

Looks normal to me, foundry (tech) unlocks foundry (recipe) which creates foundry (item) which places foundry (entity). In 1.1, techs that only unlock a single thing also tend to follow this pattern.

You're right about the naming, but as far as I've seen in the FFF, the corresponding research packages are listed under the research image when research packages are needed to unlock. However, this is not the case with the Foundry. That's why I got suspicious.

I see; it looks the foundry is a trigger technology (see FFF376).

[Danjen]

Hopefully you can give the tech tree a proper overhaul too, searchable, sortable by name/cost etc, maybe the user ability to pin or group a few techs (useful with mods since there are a few key techs I want work toward, but dont want to redo the queue because I forgot a sister technology etc)

[floven1]

fun fact - the tungsten carbide icon looks like a clenched, three fingered, right fist
YOUR WELCOME!!!!!

seriously tho, this is a welcome addition to factorio, honestly I have yet to see anything I DONT like in these FFFs besides a lack of new planet info (day 1 asking)

[Kadet123]

Another thing I've noticed: You're displaying the Day/Night cycle duration for the planet, but not the duration of or ratio between daytime/nighttime/twilight, which is very important for solar power and accumulator amount calculations. It would be very handy to have that information in there, even if it is the same for all planets.

I'd assume the day:night cycle is evenly distributed.

[BraveCaperCat]

Don't worry you can just ALT + Left click practically anything

Sooo... default keybinding for changing Alt mode from left alt to right alt when? I have already done that long time ago, it's annoying if Alt+Tab turns off Alt mode. Probably more so with new keybind like this for Factoriopedia.

No one uses the alleged ALT+TAB anymore. It is said that all who used it switched to using Window Button instead! (Spooky noises)

Except that Shift+Tab doesn't do the same at all as Alt+Tab. My "Alt-Mode" key has been F1 for as long as I can remember.

Another thing I've noticed: You're displaying the Day/Night cycle duration for the planet, but not the duration of or ratio between daytime/nighttime/twilight, which is very important for solar power and accumulator amount calculations. It would be very handy to have that information in there, even if it is the same for all planets.

I updated the quote you made in this 'quote'.
Plus, if you are using WIndows you might not be able to use the RIght Alt button soon! They are replacing it with a new key!

[volkoff]

Now you should add some version of the calculator, like Helmod, or the online one, which shows the resource flow diagram (which is very helpful).

+1

i can't imagine how to build lategame base without it.
And in 2.0 when we will have different quality of tables it's impossible to calculate by yourself production lines

[FuryoftheStars]

Oh, very nice! Like some others have mentioned, that space the Unlocked By should be dealt with. I, too, am against the idea of moving it to the bottom, but I don't think it should take up so much space. Just shrink the icon down (a lot) for when displaying there. I'm fine and good with scroll bars when needed (I don't think they're "poison" to a game), but it is good to minimize their need as much as possible.

(Edit: Oh, forgot to mention that I noticed that the tungsten carbide icon looks like a placeable tile!!! )

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Could we please be able to mouse over entities and explore this while the game is paused? Checking stats on moving objects is very difficult and pause stops tooltips dead.

Absolutely agree with this! This has annoyed me for a very long time with this game.

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Don't worry you can just ALT + Left click practically anything

Sooo... default keybinding for changing Alt mode from left alt to right alt when? I have already done that long time ago, it's annoying if Alt+Tab turns off Alt mode. Probably more so with new keybind like this for Factoriopedia.

No one uses the alleged ALT+TAB anymore. It is said that all who used it switched to using WIndow Button instead! (Spooky noises)

If I don't have something open already, yes, I use the Windows key to get the Start menu to open and show the task bar (as Alt+Tab does nothing in this case). But if I already have something open, I absolutely use Alt+Tab to switch between.

Just putting that out there.

[VADemon]

It might be nice to move "Unlocked By" to the bottom.

I logged in to say I agree with Stringweasel! I'd go as far as to propose to only move it to the bottom if the research is already done. Required research would still appear in the current place.

[Acid_Burn9]

There is one thing i would like to be added in addition to the "Used in" tab. It would be nice to see "Used as fuel in" where it shows which buildings/vehicles can accept this item as fuel. Same goes for other "consumables" for example "Used as ammo for" etc.

[mmmPI]

I'd assume the day:night cycle is evenly distributed.

That would not be the same as Nauvis where the "night" is shorter than the "day" similar to Northern hemisphere in summer. I think i read that it was choosen for gameplay reason, to avoid puting players too much time in the the dark, but there are still 4 distinct phase of 1)"sunrise" = solar pannel production increase 2) "day" = solar pannel production is at the max and stable 3)"sunset"= solar pannel prodution decreases 4) "night" = solar pannel production is 0.

1) and 3) combined would be "twilight" mentionned earlier i supose, currently the same amount of energy is produced by pannels during one or the other phase, it's just reverse.

You can also find the precise timings for nauvis and the internal names of those in the wiki page about time

[Kadet123]

I'd assume the day:night cycle is evenly distributed.

That would not be the same as Nauvis where the "night" is shorter than the "day" similar to Northern hemisphere in summer. I think i read that it was choosen for gameplay reason, to avoid puting players too much time in the the dark, but there are still 4 distinct phase of 1)"sunrise" = solar pannel production increase 2) "day" = solar pannel production is at the max and stable 3)"sunset"= solar pannel prodution decreases 4) "night" = solar pannel production is 0.

1) and 3) combined would be "twilight" mentionned earlier i supose, currently the same amount of energy is produced by pannels during one or the other phase, it's just reverse.

You can also find the precise timings for nauvis and the internal names of those in the wiki page about time

I don't think I ever noticed how much longer the day is than the night. Saying it was 50/50 felt right, but apparently isn't, 100% daylight is 5x longer than 100% night.

[Henry Loenwind]

Plus, if you are using WIndows you might not be able to use the RIght Alt button soon! They are replacing it with a new key!

That'll be funny for the half of the world that needs the right alt key for things like {, [, @, ], }, ~, |, ...

[ChoGGi]

May I suggest Factorpedia as something slightly easier to roll off the tongue? Though I see factped as the likely name no matter

[Rebmes]

Great post, sounds like an amazing addition to the game.

[Lithane]

Plus, if you are using WIndows you might not be able to use the RIght Alt button soon! They are replacing it with a new key!

That'll be funny for the half of the world that needs the right alt key for things like {, [, @, ], }, ~, |, ...

My understanding was that they will be adding a new copilot key. Not replacing the right alt key.

[Skellitor301]

I couldn't help but notice some information that we have now is missing such as the "Crafted In" information. Is this going to not be in the Factoriopedia and only the tooltip? Because if that's the case I feel like that would be good to have as part of the entry page. An example of items that could be confusing without this information are the products of sulfuric acid. It is used to create batteries and processing units, but sometimes I forget that one requires a chemical plant and the other requires an assembling machine.

May I suggest Factorpedia as something slightly easier to roll off the tongue? Though I see factped as the likely name no matter

I mean, Factoriopedia is pretty easy to say imo.

[Koub]

I couldn't help but notice some information that we have now is missing such as the "Crafted In" information. Is this going to not be in the Factoriopedia and only the tooltip? Because if that's the case I feel like that would be good to have as part of the entry page. An example of items that could be confusing without this information are the products of sulfuric acid. It is used to create batteries and processing units, but sometimes I forget that one requires a chemical plant and the other requires an assembling machine.

May I suggest Factorpedia as something slightly easier to roll off the tongue? Though I see factped as the likely name no matter

I mean, Factoriopedia is pretty easy to say imo.

I would have voted for Factopedia, but Factoriopedia is OK too .
I love the concept of ingame whateverpedia, it helps me stay immersed in the game. Having to alt-tab for a wiki search has become common now, but I never really liked having to resort to it.

[Svip]

I assume some of the UI presented here is still work-in-progress. I cannot help but be bothered by the fact that in the Vulcanus screen, the letter x is used in place of the proper × character, which is used everywhere else in the UI. But text, etc., all that can be cleaned up. Though, I wonder why for robot energy usage, you use ×N, when for solar power you use N % (and even weirder, for evolution factor, just N), when they are just 2-3 ways of expressing the same thing. Maybe use N % for them all? So 100 % for robot energy usage, and 0 % for evolution factor?

I recognise that evolution factor might mean that evolution factor is now isolated per planet, and it's just that evolution on Vulcanus hasn't started yet, but then I'd recommend writing 0.00 instead of 0, i.e. making sure to always write at least two decimals. That's just a quick "%.2f", I believe. We know the evolution factor goes from 0 to 1 (though you might want to reveal that in a tooltip).

(I'm pretty anal about these things, it bothers me to no end when people use an acute accent (´) in place of an apostrophe (' or ’).)