Friday Facts #405 - Whole belt reader, New logistics GUI

[Batmates]

Perhaps you could still add the option that if one clicks on a specific item (or member), the minimap will add icons of where that item is stored/located? So you can re-add the functionality of showing where things are, but it is less obtrusive as you do not need all the different minimaps, and you can toggle things individually.

+1

[Xoriun]

Faster subsequent rocket launches = nope
- if you make the expansion such way that more rockets is needed, then rather add new tech, more tonnage ( item capacity) technology to research.
- start of a rocket should stay a precious moment, always. Do not add inflation, rather make it even more precious or even more spectacular. You cat get a holiday every single day, right? That is what you need to keep in mind when thinking about rocket launch.

Something I want to add here: for me it kinda feels weird to build a rocket while the old rocket is launching only meters above it. All that heat has to go somewhere and a rocket in construction doesn't seem like a good place for it. I know that you only take inspiration from reality and toss it away if it's in the way of performance/feasibility (which I'm ok with), but for me personally, this is a bit too much.

[Necandum]

I second, third and fourth the ability to select items and have the GUI filter to display where those items are. Even better if you can also filter for certain members. The new GUI looks great, this would just be the icing on the cake.

The read whole belt contents feature is super neat.

Filtered pumps...does this mean that fluid mixing is viable and potentially desirable?

[Terrahertz]

No more Rocket Control Units? Rockets take blue chips now? I’m not crazy, am I? I saw that right?

They mentioned this in FFF-382, although I thought this would be only the case if the expansion is active. Since in FFF-376 they were still shown in one of the new productivity researches.

[layus]

Nice ! I like seeing iterations and design process

Speaking of whole belts, could there be a way to delete a whole belt ? Or rather mark a whole belt for deletion. That would be super useful. Same for whole belt upgrades.

Also, is there any way to limit the whole belt feature without introducing an extra balancer ? Does the whole belt stop at the next sensor maybe ?

[Terrahertz]

I'm wondering if this "Remote view" is supposed to replace the map, or if it's a separate interface?

In SE I always disliked the split between "map view" and "satellite view", and I'm hoping that 2.0 will find a way to unify those.

Seems like it's replacing the map.

[pleegwat]

Regarding pump filters. Say I have two pumps with different filters stationed next to the same fluid car connection point. Does the filter affect which pump connects to the car?

[Terrahertz]

Faster subsequent rocket launches = nope
- if you make the expansion such way that more rockets is needed, then rather add new tech, more tonnage ( item capacity) technology to research.
- start of a rocket should stay a precious moment, always. Do not add inflation, rather make it even more precious or even more spectacular. You cat get a holiday every single day, right? That is what you need to keep in mind when thinking about rocket launch.

Something I want to add here: for me it kinda feels weird to build a rocket while the old rocket is launching only meters above it. All that heat has to go somewhere and a rocket in construction doesn't seem like a good place for it. I know that you only take inspiration from reality and toss it away if it's in the way of performance/feasibility (which I'm ok with), but for me personally, this is a bit too much.

I see this as some kind of new Achievment, if your production reaches a point where you skip opening and closing the silo door.
I also don't think this breaks the imersion, because this is just some deep dark hole and nobody knows what kind of underground complex there really is.
The rocket could be built inside a compartment on the side of the launch tube or there could be flame diverters shielding the new rocket from the start of the old one.

[gGeorg]

Regarding pump filters. Say I have two pumps with different filters stationed next to the same fluid car connection point. Does the filter affect which pump connects to the car?

I think you can make a universal fluid train station. Set first pump with no-filter, then attach several pumps in T pattern, each pump takes one fluid. Then any train is sucked off then particular pump takes only her type of fluid.

[GluAp]

One problem there is with the current GUI is that the item counts cause all the elements in the list to shift by 1, which I assume is sorted alphabetically, so when you have an alphabetically first item constantly added and removed from the network (e.g. you run out of buffer and consume as as much as you produce), then the whole concept of item list is unusable, because you neither can reliably click or even read it if everything jumps around each tick. You should investigate sorting by "update frequency" or some other way to display this information.

THIS!

This problem will be worse with mods adding (lots of) additional items. A secondary annoyance could be, that you need to use the scrollbar to find all items of interest.

If I think about this - do you really need or want to know every item all the time? Probably many times there are just a few items you are really interested in.
Maybe an easy solution would be to add a filtered view, similar to the options we have with the power/production/fluid graph. Make the item-icons in the list clickable, so they will stay in a fixed location and even show if the signal value equals zero.

[gGeorg]

Faster subsequent rocket launches = nope
- if you make the expansion such way that more rockets is needed, then rather add new tech, more tonnage ( item capacity) technology to research.
- start of a rocket should stay a precious moment, always. Do not add inflation, rather make it even more precious or even more spectacular. You cat get a holiday every single day, right? That is what you need to keep in mind when thinking about rocket launch.

Something I want to add here: for me it kinda feels weird to build a rocket while the old rocket is launching only meters above it. All that heat has to go somewhere and a rocket in construction doesn't seem like a good place for it. I know that you only take inspiration from reality and toss it away if it's in the way of performance/feasibility (which I'm ok with), but for me personally, this is a bit too much.

I see this as some kind of new Achievment, if your production reaches a point where you skip opening and closing the silo door.
I also don't think this breaks the imersion, because this is just some deep dark hole and nobody knows what kind of underground complex there really is.
The rocket could be built inside a compartment on the side of the launch tube or there could be flame diverters shielding the new rocket from the start of the old one.

That is different point of view.
I do not want reach a point, when my goal is shoot rockets like mini-gun. It is just wrong.
I want to keep the precious moment of release as a magic moment.
Therfore give me an endless space research for gigantic size of cargo space ship.

[Tohim]

The new logic/graphics for circuited belt lines look superb! Although, the lines being broken by splitters is a bit dissappointing, even if understandable. Can they still read the belt contents on the side of the splitter they connect to, at least?
Better yet, you should be able to connect a splitter to the circuit network directly (imagine being able to circuit-set filters on splitters ) with the added bonus of the "all belts" read mode extending to all the belts the splitter is connected to!
All in all, circuit control of splitters in general is something we've been missing for a long time. Please, devs...

[bnrom]

1. The belt reader seems a great feature, enabling easy access to more varied builds.
2. I also love the new queued rocket feature. Having continuous rocket launch feels like an achievement!
3. Pipe filters seem interesting.
4. The logistic network UI seems useful. One thing I value is having features and tools readily flagged visually, e.g., an icon on the remote view panel (with shortcuts shown on mouse-over). Experienced players will likely mainly use the shortcuts, but providing an icon helps introduce new players to all the features they could benefit from. It seems this update (and others) further this beginner friendly ease of use; awesome!

All the changes seem great!

[GamerGuru]

Can you think of any other improvements we can make to it?

I would like to see information about active and inactive bots like you had in iteration 2.
This would have a few usecases:

• If you have enouth idle construction bots you might want to stamp another blueprint
• If you have no idle logistic bots you might want to build more to stay ahead of demand

[Bi0nicM4n]

Knowing the mod makers (and users), the Members table is guaranteed to become "too big to fall show" eventually. You could add a checkbox to both tables to keep any of them (or both) shown or hidden (and preferably keep those settings in a save file so they persist between play sessions)

And while we're at it, I'm gonna say that there's more places where such or similar settings could be more than welcome, for example - Controls menu. It could use a "toggle all" button to quickly navigate to a required dropdown in Controls, and having those dropdowns keep their states would be another nice QOL feature.

Another thing: I think there should be an option to sort items/members by their categories. For example, it could be useful to group ores together, same with plates, same with circuits, power poles, you name it.

Also this:

Maybe an easy solution would be to add a filtered view, similar to the options we have with the power/production/fluid graph. Make the item-icons in the list clickable, so they will stay in a fixed location and even show if the signal value equals zero.

[aka13]

Ooh very sexy, I like it. I am not sure I have strong opinions on possible improvements, until I have played around with it for a sufficiently long time. Looking forward to it!

[DavidBadura]

Amazing!!!

About "Integration with Remote view":

Can we please have the same for trains too? I don't find the view with the 100 small maps for each train very helpful in getting an idea of where the trains are. Sometimes I don't even recognize the place I then have to click on the map and then zoom out to find out where the train is.

[kerrin]

It would be nice to be able to find specific items in the logistics network, so maybe selecting an item in the Items list could show all the locations they are stored (maybe even with totals)

[jodokus31]

For me personally the biggest issue with the list of items is their order and finding the particular item in them.

So I would try to group and sort the items in the list similar to the crafting menu/combinator picker so the order is more consistent across the game.

+1
That is also my idea, which lead me to the comment section.
Maybe allow to change the order somewhere. I can see, that the current order can also be useful from time to time.

Another idea is, that you can collapse the network list to have more map view.

[Hares]

The one more thing I'd like to ask is to add ability to see requestors & providers for the specific item. I.e., you know that somebody is eating all of your steal, and you don't know who it is. Pretty useful in the larger bot-based bases (or at least malls)