Factorio Forums

Hi altogether,

when I use "remove all entities" in editor mode, it seems so that there is no event triggered for that.

Although it's obvious that there can't / shouldn't be an event for each entity removed from a surface, i would expect that at least one event is triggered for this action to have a chance to react to it - IMO on_surface_cleared (which is raised when importing a save file) would be fine.

Is the absence of any event really intended behaviour?

xyzzycgn wrote: Mon Oct 20, 2025 9:03 amIs the absence of any event really intended behaviour?

Yes. You can use https://lua-api.factorio.com/latest/cla ... _destroyed

Rseding91 wrote: Mon Oct 20, 2025 11:10 am Yes. You can use https://lua-api.factorio.com/latest/cla ... _destroyed

Hmm - sounds a bit weird - and quite cumbersome - for me to register a lot of distinct entities and to raise a corresponding number of events instead of a single one, but it is what it is.

Thx for your quick answer

There are many ways for entities to go away without an explicit event. The above link handles them all guaranteed.

This is also the reason that checking any stored Lua object references for .valid==true before use is important even if you don't think it should have changed. Editor causes multiple things to happen that don't in normal gameplay.

Ah - didn't see at first that it is possible to register the surface itself with https://lua-api.factorio.com/latest/cla ... _destroyed - and that is what I need

You can use on_surface_deleted and on_surface_cleared for surface deletions or calls to LuaSurface.clear.

Sorry - my fault. Didn't double check the usability of registering the surface itself with https://lua-api.factorio.com/latest/cla ... _destroyed for my problem. I had overlooked that using "remove all entities" in editor mode doesn't delete the surface at all .

Bilka wrote: Mon Oct 20, 2025 12:41 pm You can use on_surface_deleted and on_surface_cleared for surface deletions or calls to LuaSurface.clear.

And the lack of any event being risen by the usage of "remove all entities" is the core of my problem - if on_surface_cleared would be risen when using it, everything would be fine and convenient.

So registering all relevant entities on the surface with https://lua-api.factorio.com/latest/cla ... _destroyed is a valid solution - although not my favorite

You'll get the same behavior if any mod simply calls destroy() on anything, or if someone enters a simple command such as:

Rseding91 wrote: Mon Oct 20, 2025 2:08 pm You'll get the same behavior if any mod simply calls destroy() on anything, or if someone enters a simple command such as:

Code: Select all

for _,v in pairs(game.player.surface.find_entities_filtered{}) do
  v.destroy()
end

A good hint - I hadn't noticed that yet. Thx for the clarification

P.S.: Such nasty mods should be forbidden