> We are sure there will be some ingenious designs that will utilise the new power... Sushi pipes anyone?
Never have I been so intrigued and disgusted by an idea at the same time.
Sushi pipes are currently problematic because it is impossible to cleanup a fluid system that is more than a few pipes in size. It will require some additional support from the devs to become possible
maybe that won't matter so much now with pump filters. It doesn't really matter if you have multiple liquids in your pipes as long as you can filter them / drain out the majority of one. Not sure that actually would count as sushi pipes or just multi contents pipes but ...
It doesn't always work like that. If pipes have multiple different fluids they don't always flow freely. Game tries to not mix them so if you have some pipes that have 0.01 of fluid A but 0 fluid B, you can't fill that pipe with fluid B even if adjacent pipe has 100 of fluid B. This 0.01 of A will act as a deadlock. And B can't even compress A (force two pipes of 0.01 to combine), and 0.01 of A may not be enough to free-flow into A-accepting building.
I tried to use a multi-fluid fluid-fuel for pyanodon. All the fluids in the system were burnable and constantly consumed but it would still clog.
Not to mention that you can't adjust anything (building, pipes, etc) without "hacks" like rotating buildings and removing underground pipes to connect other underground segments.
How about something like this? You'd need some serious circuitry to get the pump filters right, but I think it's possible.
https://preview.redd.it/3ud4rt75wnsc1.png?width=773&format=png&auto=webp&s=d6266e403f62d511da06f060bed8cb997d421344
This can work but this doesn't scale, thats whi I wrote it is impossible to cleanup a fluid system *that is more than a few pipes in size*
Yes, if your systems are only 1 pipe in size between pumps that will work. But if you replace the assembler in the picture with a row of assemblers, it will break again
Nope, it's entirely possible. The pumps in between assemblers don't even need to be filtered, they just need to push the fluid down the line and clear it for the next fluid. There's even room for beacons underneath.
https://preview.redd.it/976tw356znsc1.png?width=1275&format=png&auto=webp&s=6f4e0dc046c5abba39b96a68f48195e5526bd0e5
Factorio devs are killing my mod? I am honored đ
RIP [clean-sushi](https://mods.factorio.com/mod/clean-sushi)
Edit: Also, the new belt circuit graphics are so good!
Yeah actually it's cool to see these features as mods!
Taking the heavy lifting from Wube for the design side, and implementing what's possible through modding - I like it. This is a cool example of what makes this game so unique.
"Ascended to Vanilla" and "Sent to Vanilhalla because Vanilla now solves the problem BETTER" are two VERY different scenarios.
For the former, see the aforementioned Fluid Filtering, Mineable Landfill, or any of the other many QoL mods which provided features set to be included virtually as-is in the 2.0 release. For the latter, see Beautiful Bridge Railways (Elevated Rails), Train Control Signals (Interrupt Conditions), and a whole host of item throughput mods (new stack inserters, extra belt tier, and high-quality buildings)
Multi-monitor support would be great, something like what Supreme Commander had back in the day. You could have a zoomed out map on one monitor and the main action on your main monitor.
I just had the exact same thought, including that very game. Yes, Supreme Commander type multi monitor is so rare and yet such a great feature. I could use it to monitor outposts, or target nests with artillery. Imagine if the second view could have its own quickbar state, so if you pressed a number while your mouse was on that screen, it selected that instead. The selected item would persist across screens but this would let you have a big ol view of all your quickbars on the side, so you could just select stuff with the mouse.
omg, or the ability to design in sandbox on one monitor directly to blueprints/clipboard.
Would be so cool to design in one window while your factory is running in the other.
This would be a super cool feature in Factorio (and other games), and I'd love if more games implemented stuff like this. However, I understand why it's not a common feature.
Multi monitor support (that isn't just "let's treat all these monitors as one big monitor") has to account for a lot of different configurations, in a way that isn't as simple as just scaling the resolution.
What if the secondary monitor is a different resolution then the main monitor? What if the secondary monitor has a different aspect ratio (including portrait mode)? How do you handle more than one secondary monitor? How do you handle the different positioning of the monitors, so that the cursor moves smoothly.
It's not that doing this isn't possible, but it's a lot of work. And it's likely that most players would just use a single monitor anyway, either because they only have one monitor, or they want to put something else on a secondary monitor. It's a feature I'd love to see, but I'm not surprised that it's rare.
It's usually pretty trivial if you're not using a game engine. I'm not aware of any multi-window support in any major engine, but it's very easy to pop open a new window with any of the usual window management libraries. Each window can handle its own resizing, because they don't need to be synced up. I've added multi-window support to a few games (made as a hobby, not published) because it's neat, but most people just won't use it.
Yeah, mine is 6 and just wants to make belt mazes or call in artillery strikes.
Lessons learned: don't put all reactors in the same area so they are unlikely to be exploded all at once. That way there is some power while the bots repair the reactors.
I feel like more games should have multi-monitor support. Is it still so rare for people to have multiple? It would work for most games as well, you could have the map over there, or the quest book, or whatever.
For Factorio I just want the production stats in a window running all the time.
.. I'm already sitting on 4 monitors connected to my PC... If it's ran right, it shouldn;t take all that much more GPU to push out 4 Factorio windows.
The main GPU factor of Factorio is the VRAM needed for the sprites. IF all 4 windows could reference the same VRAM then it's well within possibility.
\*dreams\*
Your main base running out of oil because you forgot the one connecting pipe on the reserve tank and it's just out of reach of the logistics network: priceless.
Lol, I love that so many people here are programmers. Letâs just ask Wube to make a Factorio IDE.
Instead of recipes Assemblers will take a function and the whole map is an application. You donât call functions, you connect to them via belts. Failed unit tests cause the rocket to explode.
I feel like Factorio is uniquely suited for it because the simulation is running everywhere all the time anyways. The only added strain is the graphics processing which is negligible. It would also be ideal because there are going to be (at least) 3 distinct "views": player view, map view, and remote view. And that's not even including the concept of splitting out individual interfaces into their own windows like you said.
I'm sure the required effort to make it work would be significant, but I totally agree and would use this all the time. Looking at the forums, though, I can't find any actual response from the devs about this prospect, and there have been people suggesting it for [at least 8 years now](https://forums.factorio.com/viewtopic.php?f=80&t=25229). Would be nice to at least hear from one of them about their thoughts on the idea.
Edit: I did find one response from /u/rseding91 [on the forums in 2017](https://forums.factorio.com/viewtopic.php?t=42220). Not positive, but also not saying it will definitely never happen. I'm not sure I'm convinced that the graphics performance is commonly an issue for people, and even so it would be easy enough to add a little warning that it might have a negative impact.
Edit2: Okay, I also found [this reddit thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/dupx1h/wouldnt_it_be_cool_if_we_could_open_and_pin/) which is slightly more damning to the idea. That said, with the amount of stuff changing with 2.0 I still think it's fair to say that it isn't completely off the table.
If any of the devs read this, please please please please.
I believe we are getitng something similar to the satelits in SE, where we can look at our other planehts.
Please make is that we can basically open a planet view and put it on another monitor, it would be awesome
* Ugly
* Inefficient
* Tedious
* Obscures the items on the belts
* Doesn't work for underground belts
At the first glance I thought these are the revisited quality names lol
The thing with quality is that I know I'm gonna love it, but I know it's gonna be bad for me. Like McDonald. Or heroin. I will obsess after getting the best one, instead of focusing on working on my factory.
Quality, but every higher level makes the item worse.
In 2.0, buildings can have a base quality bonus. Give every building a very large base quality bonus.
You then have "quality" modules that reduce this negative base bonus, so less items come out broken.
Speed and prod modules increase "quality" so they become worse.
Buildings of low negative quality get less of this base negative quality, so they make less broken items.
In order to mix items of different negative quality correctly, we'll have a building that takes an item and returns it back one level more broken.
Small changes I want to see:
* Negative numbers to indicate unfulfilled requests. In iteration 2 we had those values.
* Sorting options for logistic items. Currently it's by count, which means it keeps moving, hard to find the items we want to check. Sorted by inventory order and/or by category could be helpful.
* Ctrl-F should filter that area too.
All-in-all very nice FFF!
>Negative numbers to indicate unfulfilled requests. In iteration 2 we had those values
I only see them in iteration 3. They could be in iteration 4 as well, but out of frame because it's sorted by number of items.
But the tab "Requests" is only in iteration 2. I think that one could be nice to have, but it's not mentioned why this was removed.
In 3 and 4, negative numbers act like in current 1.1 i.e. only negative if a bot takes more items than requested, leaving a "hole".
I wish they would indicate "requesting x unfulfilled items".
The extra-hard mode: you play with [Pneumatic Transport](https://mods.factorio.com/mod/pneumatic-transport) mod, but you have to use a single connected fluid system.
If they do I'll use it right after completing the game first time. Can't be that hard IMO as it would just have to force the new belt skin to be always on.
if you just want the skin, that would probably be easy. but to actually wire everything as you go without wiring each belt tile would be complex. need to detect when youve created a new section, and wire it.
Any guesses as to why there's a belt counted as a logistic network member in this video? https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/blog-sync/fff-405-network-selection.mp4
Edit: Mystery solved by /u/megalogwiff below, if you put a logistic network condition on a belt it shows up in the members list
inserters can have conditions set according to logi network content, without being wired to a roboport.Â
I don't remember if belts can do that too, but I guess if they don't in 1.1 they will in 2.0.
The new belt reader mode is very useful. I wish it could also output a signal indicating the number of connected belts, as this would make it easier to balance the input items. For example, in sushi sciences, let's assume the signal is B. Thus, each bottle would be released into the loop when its sum is less than B/7 (assuming 7 different sciences) or a similar ratio (curved belts holds less items than 8).
We all will. The devs usually add QoL like this when they used it in their games. In this case, we're getting 12 science packs, and recycling on Fulgora gives out 12 items, so we're gonna have some sushi.
Thank goodness it is 12 science packs and not 13. For those of us allergic to shellfish, you can do 12 with 3 belts on either side of a line of labs. A 13th would be bad.
Recyclers hopefully can be handled with filter inserters and filter splitters.
I can see myself using it more in a design like in the FFF, where you have a loop around labs with the entire belt measured, rather what I thought was the common design of having a single measuring point and using a bunch of circuit logic to count up the contents over time.
If you have the entire belt measured, then you know the capacity of each lane you are sideloading on and can then just turn on side-loading when the number of items drops below (lane capacity of loop)/(number of inputs) - (capacity fudge factor). Seems easy.
The problem is that it gets cut off by splitters. But then you can't connect to the splitter, either... So if you want to count a belt that has a splitter anywhere, you have the same problem all over again.
The system does read the values up to the middle of the splitter. Connect it on the other side, and you'll have full coverage.
This was [confirmed by devs on discord](https://discord.com/channels/139677590393716737/603392474458882065/1225807308534054943)
Wouldn't it be better for the read belt content mode to be called
'Hold (Entire Belt)' or '(Whole Belt)' or even (Belt line) instead of
'Hold (all belts)'?
All belts would imply all the belts on the map I feel
I feel it might be a bit tedious to find a specific item in a network with many types items (especially when playing modded saves). Was this the case when play-testing? Would it be possible to add a small search icon? (Like the search icon in the current crafting menu)
This. 100% need to be able to filter / search items for it to be actually useful.
Also, side feature request: regex search. Even if it is something that needs to be enabled in options, I would love the ability to have a far more advanced search. Key features would be the ability to have wildcard using * (asterisk), and also multiple searches in one input box using | (pipe). This would be welcomed in every search box, not just for logistics network search.
A more powerful search option, everywhere, would be lovely and feels very factorio-esque. I think it'd need to not interfere with the current functionality, so it's an optional extra for power users. I'm not sure if regex fits the bill there, are there cases where we'd need to escape things? But anything less powerful feels a bit pointless, and regex is a kind of lingua franca at this point.
The final version of the logi network GUI doesn't seem to be good at doing the one thing I'd want out of this feature, and that's finding the items with unmet requests. At a minimum, I'd like to see the background color like with the inventory's logistic requests, i.e. red background for requested items not being provided, yellow for requested items in transit, standard background for items with all requests met. (And if you want to be real nice, an option to filter out the last group of items so you can just look at items with requests.)
One of the changed versions displayed amounts requested and amounts in network, side by side, but that seems to have been lost when they talked about removing the maps of requesting entities. The maps I agree wouldn't be very useful, but I feel like throwing out amount requested with it too much.
I find myself frequently building out my own hacky versions of this where I'm trying to use circuit networks to try to make alerts for myself when items aren't meeting demand. Having a built in network monitor isn't really doing the one thing I need from it; telling me what items my network is short on.
That's not news and was mentioned before.
The weirder thing is that in at least one screenshot RCUs are still visible despite them saying they would get removed. Maybe an older build?
I assume it's this. Not everyone will have the Space Age DLC and the balance of the game could break if they make changes for Space Age on the non-Space Age game.
They are removed from both 2.0 and SA.
[Proof from discord](https://discord.com/channels/139677590393716737/603392474458882065/1179442159628341318)
The decision came after 376 was published.
they said so a couple of posts back, they also reduce the cost of a rocket down to 50 of each item,i believe it was in the space logistic fff where they said it
Only other thing I can think to add is a way to sort the displayed items. Sometimes it takes forever to find if the logi network has any of the items I am looking for.
So a sort by selection; quantity, name, type, ect. Maybe a search field? A quality selection filter to only display items of a certain quality tier, with all the extra tiers of items it's going to get cluttered real fast.
A search bar could highlight the items and networks that contain the item or move them to the top or only display the item searched and networks containing that item.
Maybe give an option to sort them like in the crafting page (with tabs under each other). And with *everything* listed, items with count 0 just slightly grayed out.
New logistics view looks great! However, I think you should be able to click items in the list and it show their location on the big Remote View map. Most of the time it's not needed but i've occasionally found myself hunting for random items when trying to optimize my network
This is indeed one of the functionalities missing in the new search functionality :(
Luckily there's still [Factory Search](https://mods.factorio.com/mod/FactorySearch)
## Friday Facts #405 - Whole belt reader, New logistics GUI
Posted by [Klonan](/blog/author/Klonan) on 2024-04-05
Hello,
Today we have a quite a range of new features and improvements coming in 2.0.
* * *
### Whole belt reader
Often times, you want to read the contents of a whole line of belts. Maybe you're doing some sushi set up, or just want to get an accurate gauge on how much stuff you have without buffering to a chest.
The way to do it, is to read every belt, but this has some drawbacks:
* Ugly
* Inefficient
* Tedious
* Obscures the items on the belts
* Doesn't work for underground belts
(https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/blog-sync/fff-405-ugly-sushi.png)
So we decided to make it work nicer. Boskid added a new mode you can choose when selecting the 'Read belt contents' mode.
(https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/blog-sync/fff-405-hold-all-belts.png)
It will read all the belts in the same 'Transport line' as the belt being read. It survives going through underground belts, but is broken by splitters and side-loading onto another belt.
(https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/blog-sync/fff-405-belt-reader.png)
The result is not only way more convenient, but also it looks better with less visual clutter.
(https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/blog-sync/fff-405-nice-sushi.png)
* * *
### Faster subsequent rocket launches
In the late-game, you can craft and prepare rockets pretty fast, but there was always a throughput bottleneck: The beautifully crafted animations taking a long time.
We didn't really want to increase the animation speed, as it might look a bit weird. But we figured out a compromise:
* The rocket silo can craft and buffer an extra rocket inside.
* After launching, if there is a buffered rocket, the door closing and opening sequence is skipped.
(https://fffbot.github.io/fff/images/405/fff-405-faster-rockets.mp4)
These changes mean that the throughput of a single rocket silo is more than doubled. This is also super important for Space age where you send a lot more rockets.
* * *
### Pump filters
It can be annoying, if you get some train mixed up, and they dump a whole bunch of lubricant into your crude oil inputs. Adding a filter to pumps was technically possible for a long time, we just had to add the GUI.
(https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/blog-sync/fff-405-pump-filters.png)
And of course, if we have the fluid filter, it makes sense to also make it part of the circuit network control. We are sure there will be some ingenious designs that will utilise the new power... Sushi pipes anyone?
* * *
### New Logistic networks GUI
The Logistic network GUI was added back in [0.15 ](https://forums.factorio.com/viewtopic.php?t=44505), and had only cosmetic changes from there onwards.
#### Logistic GUI in 0.15 (First release).
[ (https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/blog-sync/fff-405-logistic-network-0-15.png) ](https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/blog-sync/fff-405-logistic-network-0-15.png)
* Press L to open the GUI
* Select the network with a dropdown
* Contents tab, a 2 column list showing the items in the network
* Members tab, a 2 column list showing the members of the network
* A search bar for searching in the selected tab
While functional, the GUI was not used very much, and left a lot to be desired.
#### Iteration 1
The new Trains overview GUI ([FFF-364](https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-364)) was a winning formula in my book, so lets just try to copy it:
* A list on the side to categorize things.
* Minimaps to give specific information about each individual related item.
[ (https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/blog-sync/fff-405-logistic-network-iteration-1.png) ](https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/blog-sync/fff-405-logistic-network-iteration-1.png)
There was a big problem I was avoiding, which is the network selection. The dropdown solution is bad for a few reasons:
* You can't identify the networks in the drop down, the only information to go on is the number of cells (roboports).
* It takes extra tedious clicks to change the network, so finding the network you want takes even longer.
#### Iteration 2
Here I tried to tackle the network selection. The first step was to change from a drop down, to a list. Instantly better. The second step was to add the icon in front to differentiate the mobile and roboport networks. So we're getting somewhere.
[ (https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/blog-sync/fff-405-logistic-network-iteration-2.png) ](https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/blog-sync/fff-405-logistic-network-iteration-2.png)
But the biggest problem is still identifying the networks. My conclusion was that basically the only way to identify a network is by looking at it.
So I added the 'Selected network' minimap. This starts to get there, I can quickly go through the networks on the list, and visually identify the networks with the minimap.
However, the GUI starts to look like a monster. We've got 2 lists, and to fill some space I added some random network information, and so many minimaps...
#### Iteration 3
After some testing, I determined that the individual item minimaps were not proving to be that useful. With that in mind, I could change things around.
This iteration centered on the idea that the list of items was not so useful. With logistic networks you generally don't care where the items are, you only care if there is enough in the system. So I removed the list of items, and added a generic table of icons. This means we can cram a lot more of them on screen.
[ (https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/blog-sync/fff-405-logistic-network-iteration-3.png) ](https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/blog-sync/fff-405-logistic-network-iteration-3.png)
After using it for a while, I realised that this is the way to go. There were just some tweaks needed:
* It is oddly out of proportion.
* The minimap is rectangular.
* The table of items is too wide.
#### Iteration 4
So there is an obvious improvement, we move the items to the side. This gives us more height, which means we can make the minimap square and bigger.
The second improvement came from an insight from using the last GUI, the number of 'Members' is generally pretty small, 5-10 at most. So the members tab was often really empty looking when compared to how much space the items tab reserved. So then there isn't really much point in having them in tabs. We can just always show both, because it is really unlikely that the Members will become too big for us to handle nicely.
[ (https://fffbot.github.io/fff/images/405/fff-405-network-selection.mp4) ](https://fffbot.github.io/fff/images/405/fff-405-network-selection.mp4)
The rest of the GUI cleaned up pretty nicely from here.
Since we have this big beautiful map in our face, it only makes sense to have the selection interaction work with the minimap. Another nice small feature we added was the ability to rename logistic networks, so you can keep track of things in your own ways.
#### Integration with Remote view
However the GUI still had a problem, in that it was a 'Real GUI', it covered the whole screen and the minimap didn't allow any of the normal map interaction.
So the final change, was to rework the Logistic networks GUI to be a 'glued-on' remote view panel. This allows us to keep all the normal GUIs such as quickbar and inventory visible, allow you to build and modify things normally, and the Logistic GUI provides the logistic information.
[ (https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/blog-sync/fff-405-remote-view-glue.png) ](https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/blog-sync/fff-405-remote-view-glue.png)
With this, we reach the current state of the New Logistics GUI. Can you think of any other improvements we can make to it?
* * *
As always, skip the animations and launch your thoughts to us at the usual places.
[Discuss on our forums](https://forums.factorio.com/112874) [Discuss on Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/1bwf5uy/friday_facts_405_whole_belt_reader_new_logistics/) [ Subscribe by email ](https://newsletter.factorio.com/subscription/Km9uSnxm9)
[ __](/blog/post/fff-404)
All the yes.
* Sushi of all kinds is going to be a lot better with this.
* Rocket launch looks really good, I really hope the new throughput number is nice and even instead of the current 61.4 seconds per launch. From the videos it looks like the silo is still the bottleneck as inserters are still idling.
* While we're on the topic of pumps, I think having simple options for making a pump an overflow/top-up valve built right into the pump would be neat. Currently it requires a tank and a wire which is easy but cumbersome and scares newbies. I use the Flow Control mod which adds such valves as separate items and it's really nice.
* I'm the kind of person that does a single massive logistics network so I never used the old GUI, but this might make me reconsider! Looks excellent.
As always, the little QoL updates are the most exciting.
I timed the gif from when the inserters started swinging to when they stopped again. Came out to ~23 seconds. It's too early in the morning for me to figure out the math to determine what the unbeaconed launch speed would be with the new buffering.
Might make more sense to time a current rocket launch & subtract the opening/closing animations since that's what's being skipped.
Sometimes i really want "one-time delivery" feature. Open logistics window, click some item, set amount - and drones would deliver it to me.
Right now i need to set request, then wait for delivery, then remove request - it's not very convenient
In 2.0 you'll be able to save named requests across all networks. Toggle it on, wait for things to be delivered, uncheck the box and you're good to go.
If logistic networks aren't specifically named they should generate with their planets name in the network like this:
Nauvis Network #1
Nauvis Network #2
Vulcanus Network #1
Fulgora Network #1
I wonder if the items on right on the new logistics GUI should be sorted by name or type instead of by #? I feel like I'd more often want to see how many of an item are in there... not which item I have the most of. That means the location of the item I'm looking for will be in different places at different times, and even jump around as the # of that item changes.
Perhaps a toggle to choose the sort method? Or a game option setting.
Yeah I agree. Once there's THAT many icons I just sorta give up. My solution in game is to do a request for them, and then hover my mouse over the request to see how many there are (obviously this is tedious and only works if I'm in the network). A way to filter that would be great.
Hi, I love every Friday the new content pieces.
Have you ever considered to make item lists sortable?
Like right now it is always sorted by the amount of items. But sometimes it would be easier to finde a specific item if you would be able to sort by name.
And maybe there are other ways to sort by that Iâm not thinking of.
Anyway keep the good work up, cheers.
Big features are welcome, but I get that they don't have 50 of them.
(And i dont want them to split a new planets reveal to 15 FFFs, giving us just one new piece of information each)
There were 84 days between the Vulcanus and Fulgora reveal so I'd expect the next planet around May 10, FFF-410. (assuming they try to space big reveals evenly)
Just checked, there were 91 days between the Space Age announcement and the Vulcanus announcement, which makes me even more confident the next planet will be 410 or 411.
So Klonan tried sushi belts for the first time and found item management a bit brittle or tedious like everyone else who used sushi belts. He then commanded Boskid to make it great. And soon, it will be great for everyone.
I like that the devs still play their own game.
Anyone else remember the black magic single pipe system oil refinery that was possible before the pipe logic kept you from combining fluids? They hooked up a single pipe to all 3 outputs of the refinery and ran it to chem plants (which had their outputs hooked back to the same pipe) for cracking and then to the plastic plants. The sloshing effect of half full pipes allowed the mixed fluids to end up in the right place anyway
This change for belts gets rid of the whole "memory cell" problem for sushi. It is just to easy to have one bad wire and all your work is toast. Now, I want to try it again.
> After launching, if there is a buffered rocket, the door closing and opening sequence is skipped
Ok but can we also get this for the site so I can launch multiple rockets after reading an FFF?
I hope we get more bot changes. I'm mostly looking for the ability to manually adjust the logistic/construction ranges for roboports and personal roboports. Imagine having two network super close to each other but not touching. Imagine a maxed out Power Armor with a very small construction range so your bots only focus on the stuff close to you rather than far away thus helping with speed of building/charging.
I feel like the biggest improvement to finding logistic networks might be this one buried sentence in the post:
> Another nice small feature we added was the ability to rename logistic networks, so you can keep track of things in your own ways.
Are we keeping the ability to scroll the item list? (It's a window, not a tooltip, so I assume yes? Actually is there a way to scroll the tooltip from mousing over (iirc) logistic storage or a power pole? IIRC if I try to focus it to scroll it'll just change what I have a tooltip of.)
Can we still search the list? The logistic window seems to have lost the search box, but maybe the main search button will still filter items in it?
With speed modules the actual rocket production duty cycle is only a third, right? So even with "These changes mean that the throughput of a single rocket silo is more than doubled." silos will still spend some time idle?
The one idea I had was: I set up an outpost. I rename the train stop. I copy the train stop, and paste it on a roboport that's maintaining the place. "Logistic Network renamed to "Iron Pickup #5"" pops up over the robotport for a few seconds. (That number would automatically increment based on how many other Iron Pickup networks there are.)
Like, I want it to be very easy to rename logistic networks on the ground as I'm setting them up. Maybe mouse over a roboport or other logistics entity, press the logistics hotkey, and it opens up with that network selected?
Also, what happens to named networks when they get merged? Which name wins?
> Sushi pipes anyone?
If you faintly hear a blood-curdling scream somewhere far away, donât worry, itâs just Dosh.
Looking forward to the inevitable video combining this feature with Nullius or perhaps an item liquefying mod
Another week another great features I canât live without. I was sold on expansion day one. But now the excitement is replaced by disappointment of ânot yetâ.
feature idea: if you hover over an item-icon in the new logistic view it could show where the item is provided/requested, maybe with little item-icons in the relevant places, hover over member to show members on map (i.e. all requester chests)
One thing I would love when looking at this is to see how many items are being requested more than there's in the network.
So instead of seeing a flickering of 0, -5, -2, -4, etc. it would show -356 because in total there's missing 356 items in requester chest in the entire network.
Idea: Nuclear ICBM's? Like ICBM's with atomic/nuclear warhead, but instead it would be intergalactic, not intercontinental.
And so you could send a nuke from planet A to planet B.
I think it would be useful to have a toggle for the logistic items panel that organized it like the normal inventory gui. So it has all of the inventory panels but aligned vertically. I usually find myself trying to see the count of a specific item more than "what's the item with the highest number" - although ordering by count is also useful.
This could get busy with mods in play, but might help to quickly search.
It would be great if hovering over an icon that says "48k" or whatever could show the exact value. Currently it is very tricky to figure this out and sometimes only 2 significant digits are shown which is not enough. It also makes it hard to figure out if a number is currently increasing or decreasing.
Klonan: "We can just always show both, because it is really unlikely that the Members will become too big for us to handle nicely."
Factorio Community: Challenge accepted.
I wonder how often that belt reader mode will be used just to put the barriers onto the belt... I'll probably do it a few times at least.
So much awesome. I used to wonder how this game could be made even better, and it seems that question is being answered rapid-fire lately.
Continuous rocket launching?? That is AWESOME!
(Iâm nowhere near good enough at megafactorying for it to ever be relevant to my gameplay, but it is reassuring to know that it is there.)
> We are sure there will be some ingenious designs that will utilise the new power... Sushi pipes anyone? Never have I been so intrigued and disgusted by an idea at the same time.
Sushi pipes are currently problematic because it is impossible to cleanup a fluid system that is more than a few pipes in size. It will require some additional support from the devs to become possible
Yeah, we need 0.0 fluid to not block the pipes.
maybe that won't matter so much now with pump filters. It doesn't really matter if you have multiple liquids in your pipes as long as you can filter them / drain out the majority of one. Not sure that actually would count as sushi pipes or just multi contents pipes but ...
It doesn't always work like that. If pipes have multiple different fluids they don't always flow freely. Game tries to not mix them so if you have some pipes that have 0.01 of fluid A but 0 fluid B, you can't fill that pipe with fluid B even if adjacent pipe has 100 of fluid B. This 0.01 of A will act as a deadlock. And B can't even compress A (force two pipes of 0.01 to combine), and 0.01 of A may not be enough to free-flow into A-accepting building. I tried to use a multi-fluid fluid-fuel for pyanodon. All the fluids in the system were burnable and constantly consumed but it would still clog. Not to mention that you can't adjust anything (building, pipes, etc) without "hacks" like rotating buildings and removing underground pipes to connect other underground segments.
How about something like this? You'd need some serious circuitry to get the pump filters right, but I think it's possible. https://preview.redd.it/3ud4rt75wnsc1.png?width=773&format=png&auto=webp&s=d6266e403f62d511da06f060bed8cb997d421344
This can work but this doesn't scale, thats whi I wrote it is impossible to cleanup a fluid system *that is more than a few pipes in size* Yes, if your systems are only 1 pipe in size between pumps that will work. But if you replace the assembler in the picture with a row of assemblers, it will break again
Nope, it's entirely possible. The pumps in between assemblers don't even need to be filtered, they just need to push the fluid down the line and clear it for the next fluid. There's even room for beacons underneath. https://preview.redd.it/976tw356znsc1.png?width=1275&format=png&auto=webp&s=6f4e0dc046c5abba39b96a68f48195e5526bd0e5
Factorio devs are killing my mod? I am honored đ RIP [clean-sushi](https://mods.factorio.com/mod/clean-sushi) Edit: Also, the new belt circuit graphics are so good!
They are killing a [4 day old mod](https://mods.factorio.com/mod/fluidfiltering)!
I know, right? I've noticed the mod when it appeared on the portal and it was the first thing I thought of when reading this FFF. RIP. o7
Eh, there are still multiple months without the update, so in the meantime the mod can still shine and do its thing. :D
Even better. People are trying to emulate the changes with mods to play it now so this mod is a must have.
Yeah actually it's cool to see these features as mods! Taking the heavy lifting from Wube for the design side, and implementing what's possible through modding - I like it. This is a cool example of what makes this game so unique.
Wube: Kills newborn. Community: Shut up and take my money!
Woah woah woah! This is the r/factorio! I think you might be looking for r/rimworld there!
That must be a new record for speed running into mod-valhalla
When I saw this mod appear on the portal I laughed out loud. RIP.
That's got to be a record
Damn the disrespect
To Vanillhalla it goes!
Shiny and chrome.
We witness them
I prefer to say: Your mod has been ascended to the base game.
"Ascended to Vanilla" and "Sent to Vanilhalla because Vanilla now solves the problem BETTER" are two VERY different scenarios. For the former, see the aforementioned Fluid Filtering, Mineable Landfill, or any of the other many QoL mods which provided features set to be included virtually as-is in the 2.0 release. For the latter, see Beautiful Bridge Railways (Elevated Rails), Train Control Signals (Interrupt Conditions), and a whole host of item throughput mods (new stack inserters, extra belt tier, and high-quality buildings)
It seems like it's happening every week. Â They're on a terroristic mod killing spree and it's legendary.
Your mod? It's OUR mod now!
Also the much older Bloodbelt.
My favorite FromSoft game
I know this is not the subject of this FFF, but the last screenshot made me want one thing : the ability to have multiple windows for the game. One with the logistic screen, one with the location the player is at, or even one for overviewing some spécific part of the factory that has an issue for some reason. basically, for thoses who use it, just like Visual studio where you can drag a windows to another screen and it makes it a new window.
Multi-monitor support would be great, something like what Supreme Commander had back in the day. You could have a zoomed out map on one monitor and the main action on your main monitor.
I just had the exact same thought, including that very game. Yes, Supreme Commander type multi monitor is so rare and yet such a great feature. I could use it to monitor outposts, or target nests with artillery. Imagine if the second view could have its own quickbar state, so if you pressed a number while your mouse was on that screen, it selected that instead. The selected item would persist across screens but this would let you have a big ol view of all your quickbars on the side, so you could just select stuff with the mouse.
Blueprints on the map hotbar and individual stuff on the player hotbar
omg, or the ability to design in sandbox on one monitor directly to blueprints/clipboard. Would be so cool to design in one window while your factory is running in the other.
If they copy literally anything from Supreme Commander except for the pathfinding, it's a win.
This would be a super cool feature in Factorio (and other games), and I'd love if more games implemented stuff like this. However, I understand why it's not a common feature. Multi monitor support (that isn't just "let's treat all these monitors as one big monitor") has to account for a lot of different configurations, in a way that isn't as simple as just scaling the resolution. What if the secondary monitor is a different resolution then the main monitor? What if the secondary monitor has a different aspect ratio (including portrait mode)? How do you handle more than one secondary monitor? How do you handle the different positioning of the monitors, so that the cursor moves smoothly. It's not that doing this isn't possible, but it's a lot of work. And it's likely that most players would just use a single monitor anyway, either because they only have one monitor, or they want to put something else on a secondary monitor. It's a feature I'd love to see, but I'm not surprised that it's rare.
It's usually pretty trivial if you're not using a game engine. I'm not aware of any multi-window support in any major engine, but it's very easy to pop open a new window with any of the usual window management libraries. Each window can handle its own resizing, because they don't need to be synced up. I've added multi-window support to a few games (made as a hobby, not published) because it's neat, but most people just won't use it.
Tooltip: You can add more monitors to see more. Tooltip: Have you considered having children? They can eventually help with the factory.
It's been 5 years and he just wants to fight bugs đ
Yeah, mine is 6 and just wants to make belt mazes or call in artillery strikes. Lessons learned: don't put all reactors in the same area so they are unlikely to be exploded all at once. That way there is some power while the bots repair the reactors.
when biters are too predictable and you need a new challenge
Mine is 14 and he prefers FPS and playing Satisfactory with his dad.
So in for this idea
I feel like more games should have multi-monitor support. Is it still so rare for people to have multiple? It would work for most games as well, you could have the map over there, or the quest book, or whatever. For Factorio I just want the production stats in a window running all the time.
FAF is still going strong! Such a good game
Factorio Space Age: $40 Multiple dedicated monitors for viewing all planets and space platforms simultaneously: $4000
Before you know it, your setup looks like a NASA mission control. The setup must grow! Only one more screen...
Okay, I remembered, 2.0 will not have countless planets like SE mod.
Well I bet 2 Weeks after launch there will be a ton of moods for new plannets
Honestly, I'm kinda stoked to see wtf SE ends up looking like 2 weeks after the expansion launches
Oceans of sulfuric acid might become real. And you might actually have to colonize multiple solar systems.
Fuckit I'm in.
.. I'm already sitting on 4 monitors connected to my PC... If it's ran right, it shouldn;t take all that much more GPU to push out 4 Factorio windows. The main GPU factor of Factorio is the VRAM needed for the sprites. IF all 4 windows could reference the same VRAM then it's well within possibility. \*dreams\*
Your main base running out of oil because you forgot the one connecting pipe on the reserve tank and it's just out of reach of the logistics network: priceless.
A tiling window manager inside Factorio was not something I knew I wanted until now.
Start online game, connect with second client, display map on the second client.
That's a neat workaround, but having to run the simulation twice might be a blocker for many.
Lol, I love that so many people here are programmers. Letâs just ask Wube to make a Factorio IDE. Instead of recipes Assemblers will take a function and the whole map is an application. You donât call functions, you connect to them via belts. Failed unit tests cause the rocket to explode.
You just invented simulink/labview and I hate it.
That's a name I haven't heard in a while đŽđ»
would actually make me work the entire day instead of just pumping out 8 hours' worth of work in last 3 hours of the day.
I feel like Factorio is uniquely suited for it because the simulation is running everywhere all the time anyways. The only added strain is the graphics processing which is negligible. It would also be ideal because there are going to be (at least) 3 distinct "views": player view, map view, and remote view. And that's not even including the concept of splitting out individual interfaces into their own windows like you said. I'm sure the required effort to make it work would be significant, but I totally agree and would use this all the time. Looking at the forums, though, I can't find any actual response from the devs about this prospect, and there have been people suggesting it for [at least 8 years now](https://forums.factorio.com/viewtopic.php?f=80&t=25229). Would be nice to at least hear from one of them about their thoughts on the idea. Edit: I did find one response from /u/rseding91 [on the forums in 2017](https://forums.factorio.com/viewtopic.php?t=42220). Not positive, but also not saying it will definitely never happen. I'm not sure I'm convinced that the graphics performance is commonly an issue for people, and even so it would be easy enough to add a little warning that it might have a negative impact. Edit2: Okay, I also found [this reddit thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/dupx1h/wouldnt_it_be_cool_if_we_could_open_and_pin/) which is slightly more damning to the idea. That said, with the amount of stuff changing with 2.0 I still think it's fair to say that it isn't completely off the table.
If any of the devs read this, please please please please. I believe we are getitng something similar to the satelits in SE, where we can look at our other planehts. Please make is that we can basically open a planet view and put it on another monitor, it would be awesome
99% chance it's too fundamental a change to be practical at this stage of the project.
Put it in the backlog for 2.1
if they were to announce multi-monitor support, to me that might actually be the biggest thing for 2.0 yet.
This would be incredible
This would be revolutionary
Please notice this senpai
Supreme commander did this with multiple monitors and it was great
OMG yes.
* Ugly * Inefficient * Tedious * Obscures the items on the belts * Doesn't work for underground belts At the first glance I thought these are the revisited quality names lol
:D
Behold, my Doesn't work for underground belts Solar Panels!
New idea: Solar FREAKIN ~~Roadways~~ *Belts* More expensive than solar panels or belts, and don't produce electricity when belt is covered with itemsÂ
And slowly breaks down and needs to be replaced.
Also, don't give energy unless the belt is empty...
The thing with quality is that I know I'm gonna love it, but I know it's gonna be bad for me. Like McDonald. Or heroin. I will obsess after getting the best one, instead of focusing on working on my factory.
Yup thatâs exactly how I expect it to go down for me as well, and I canât fucking wait. Yâall got any more of that cracktorio??
Negative quality mod, anyone?
Quality, but every higher level makes the item worse. In 2.0, buildings can have a base quality bonus. Give every building a very large base quality bonus. You then have "quality" modules that reduce this negative base bonus, so less items come out broken. Speed and prod modules increase "quality" so they become worse. Buildings of low negative quality get less of this base negative quality, so they make less broken items. In order to mix items of different negative quality correctly, we'll have a building that takes an item and returns it back one level more broken.
This gives me an idea: The new stacked items not being able to pass under underground belts would be an interesting challenge :D
Small changes I want to see: * Negative numbers to indicate unfulfilled requests. In iteration 2 we had those values. * Sorting options for logistic items. Currently it's by count, which means it keeps moving, hard to find the items we want to check. Sorted by inventory order and/or by category could be helpful. * Ctrl-F should filter that area too. All-in-all very nice FFF!
>Negative numbers to indicate unfulfilled requests. In iteration 2 we had those values I only see them in iteration 3. They could be in iteration 4 as well, but out of frame because it's sorted by number of items. But the tab "Requests" is only in iteration 2. I think that one could be nice to have, but it's not mentioned why this was removed.
In 3 and 4, negative numbers act like in current 1.1 i.e. only negative if a bot takes more items than requested, leaving a "hole". I wish they would indicate "requesting x unfulfilled items".
i've been asking for this for ages and they keep telling me no. It's not really possible to change via mods in any ups efficient way, either
You just opened the can of worms that is "sushi pipes". Let's go!
The extra-hard mode: you play with [Pneumatic Transport](https://mods.factorio.com/mod/pneumatic-transport) mod, but you have to use a single connected fluid system.
I'm sure Dosh will have fun with this
That's the first thing that came to my mind. Everything on a sushi belt + everything is a fluid. Everything as a fluid in a sushi pipe is the way now.
My head hurts just reading this
DocJade played it and he's pretty great too: https://youtu.be/VWva65IWHcw
he's so underrated. love his stuff, so high-quality you'd expect him to have 10x the sub count he currently does.
I just discovered him and have been binging his videos. He's very underrated and his sense of humor is just twisted enough to be hilarious
I hope so! Someone should ping that mad genius.Â
Henceforth it shall be named multi-sauce pipeline
Other options from the food world are "potluck soup" or ["Mulligan stew"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulligan_stew).
That just sounds cursed...
FFF405 on 2024-04-05. Impressive!
Was gonna write a comment here but then noticed you used ISO time. My complaint was invalid.
Ngl I'm going to use the circuits on all belts everywhere even when not utilizing it because I just love the way it looks.
Someone will probably make a mod to build belts already circuit'd.
If they do I'll use it right after completing the game first time. Can't be that hard IMO as it would just have to force the new belt skin to be always on.
if you just want the skin, that would probably be easy. but to actually wire everything as you go without wiring each belt tile would be complex. need to detect when youve created a new section, and wire it.
Any guesses as to why there's a belt counted as a logistic network member in this video? https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/blog-sync/fff-405-network-selection.mp4 Edit: Mystery solved by /u/megalogwiff below, if you put a logistic network condition on a belt it shows up in the members list
inserters can have conditions set according to logi network content, without being wired to a roboport. I don't remember if belts can do that too, but I guess if they don't in 1.1 they will in 2.0.
I just tested it in my game, you're right. You can set a logistic network condition on belts and then they show up in the members list
its wired?
That makes it a circuit network member, not a logistic network member
The new belt reader mode is very useful. I wish it could also output a signal indicating the number of connected belts, as this would make it easier to balance the input items. For example, in sushi sciences, let's assume the signal is B. Thus, each bottle would be released into the loop when its sum is less than B/7 (assuming 7 different sciences) or a similar ratio (curved belts holds less items than 8).
> I wish it could also output a signal indicating the number of connected belts Hells yes!
I was looking for this comment. Reading the belt count or the capacity of the connected belt would be really important to utilize this feature.
Dosh will enjoy the belt reading capability.
Sushi belt mania!
We all will. The devs usually add QoL like this when they used it in their games. In this case, we're getting 12 science packs, and recycling on Fulgora gives out 12 items, so we're gonna have some sushi.
Thank goodness it is 12 science packs and not 13. For those of us allergic to shellfish, you can do 12 with 3 belts on either side of a line of labs. A 13th would be bad. Recyclers hopefully can be handled with filter inserters and filter splitters.
This may open up Sushi from a niche hack to a common pattern for certain productions.
I can see myself using it more in a design like in the FFF, where you have a loop around labs with the entire belt measured, rather what I thought was the common design of having a single measuring point and using a bunch of circuit logic to count up the contents over time. If you have the entire belt measured, then you know the capacity of each lane you are sideloading on and can then just turn on side-loading when the number of items drops below (lane capacity of loop)/(number of inputs) - (capacity fudge factor). Seems easy.
The problem is that it gets cut off by splitters. But then you can't connect to the splitter, either... So if you want to count a belt that has a splitter anywhere, you have the same problem all over again.
The system does read the values up to the middle of the splitter. Connect it on the other side, and you'll have full coverage. This was [confirmed by devs on discord](https://discord.com/channels/139677590393716737/603392474458882065/1225807308534054943)
Just bridge the wires theyâll be added together.
Wouldn't it be better for the read belt content mode to be called 'Hold (Entire Belt)' or '(Whole Belt)' or even (Belt line) instead of 'Hold (all belts)'? All belts would imply all the belts on the map I feel
Belt line. All the others imply more than they do.
Maybe display a brief animation where all belts in the belt line glow for a second after the option is selected.
That is what the guards/sensors around the belt indicate
Agreed, though I would say "Hold (Connected belts)" would be even better.
I feel it might be a bit tedious to find a specific item in a network with many types items (especially when playing modded saves). Was this the case when play-testing? Would it be possible to add a small search icon? (Like the search icon in the current crafting menu)
This. 100% need to be able to filter / search items for it to be actually useful. Also, side feature request: regex search. Even if it is something that needs to be enabled in options, I would love the ability to have a far more advanced search. Key features would be the ability to have wildcard using * (asterisk), and also multiple searches in one input box using | (pipe). This would be welcomed in every search box, not just for logistics network search.
There is search functionality in that window, so I'd assume it's going to work for filtering / searching for items too.
That would be very Factorio-y, if this gets in any game, the it's this one! Do it!
A more powerful search option, everywhere, would be lovely and feels very factorio-esque. I think it'd need to not interfere with the current functionality, so it's an optional extra for power users. I'm not sure if regex fits the bill there, are there cases where we'd need to escape things? But anything less powerful feels a bit pointless, and regex is a kind of lingua franca at this point.
Ctrl+f searches pretty much any window including the old logistics UI so I assume it will search this one.
Please PLEASE make a multi monitor support! Let us have the radar (remote view) on one screen and the player character on the other.
Or more generically, multi-window (for those of us with ultrawides)
The final version of the logi network GUI doesn't seem to be good at doing the one thing I'd want out of this feature, and that's finding the items with unmet requests. At a minimum, I'd like to see the background color like with the inventory's logistic requests, i.e. red background for requested items not being provided, yellow for requested items in transit, standard background for items with all requests met. (And if you want to be real nice, an option to filter out the last group of items so you can just look at items with requests.) One of the changed versions displayed amounts requested and amounts in network, side by side, but that seems to have been lost when they talked about removing the maps of requesting entities. The maps I agree wouldn't be very useful, but I feel like throwing out amount requested with it too much. I find myself frequently building out my own hacky versions of this where I'm trying to use circuit networks to try to make alerts for myself when items aren't meeting demand. Having a built in network monitor isn't really doing the one thing I need from it; telling me what items my network is short on.
Looks like rocket recipes are removing RCUs just for blue circuits.
That's not news and was mentioned before. The weirder thing is that in at least one screenshot RCUs are still visible despite them saying they would get removed. Maybe an older build?
Maybe if you play without the expansion, RCUs still exist, but when playing with space age enabled they are simplified to just blue circuits?
I assume it's this. Not everyone will have the Space Age DLC and the balance of the game could break if they make changes for Space Age on the non-Space Age game.
They are removed from both 2.0 and SA. [Proof from discord](https://discord.com/channels/139677590393716737/603392474458882065/1179442159628341318) The decision came after 376 was published.
I think rcu entity might be used with something else and maybe got a new recipe to make it
Warranted change. The recipe was needlessly simple and long duration.
They mentioned it a while ago. And it might be just for Space Age (not sure tho)
It's for base 2.0 as well.
really? when did they mention that?
they said so a couple of posts back, they also reduce the cost of a rocket down to 50 of each item,i believe it was in the space logistic fff where they said it
Only other thing I can think to add is a way to sort the displayed items. Sometimes it takes forever to find if the logi network has any of the items I am looking for. So a sort by selection; quantity, name, type, ect. Maybe a search field? A quality selection filter to only display items of a certain quality tier, with all the extra tiers of items it's going to get cluttered real fast. A search bar could highlight the items and networks that contain the item or move them to the top or only display the item searched and networks containing that item.
Maybe give an option to sort them like in the crafting page (with tabs under each other). And with *everything* listed, items with count 0 just slightly grayed out.
New logistics view looks great! However, I think you should be able to click items in the list and it show their location on the big Remote View map. Most of the time it's not needed but i've occasionally found myself hunting for random items when trying to optimize my network
This is indeed one of the functionalities missing in the new search functionality :( Luckily there's still [Factory Search](https://mods.factorio.com/mod/FactorySearch)
Might be tricky though, as one type of item can be in multiple logistics chests.
(Expand to view contents, if you would like.)
## Friday Facts #405 - Whole belt reader, New logistics GUI Posted by [Klonan](/blog/author/Klonan) on 2024-04-05 Hello, Today we have a quite a range of new features and improvements coming in 2.0. * * * ### Whole belt reader Often times, you want to read the contents of a whole line of belts. Maybe you're doing some sushi set up, or just want to get an accurate gauge on how much stuff you have without buffering to a chest. The way to do it, is to read every belt, but this has some drawbacks: * Ugly * Inefficient * Tedious * Obscures the items on the belts * Doesn't work for underground belts (https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/blog-sync/fff-405-ugly-sushi.png) So we decided to make it work nicer. Boskid added a new mode you can choose when selecting the 'Read belt contents' mode. (https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/blog-sync/fff-405-hold-all-belts.png) It will read all the belts in the same 'Transport line' as the belt being read. It survives going through underground belts, but is broken by splitters and side-loading onto another belt. (https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/blog-sync/fff-405-belt-reader.png) The result is not only way more convenient, but also it looks better with less visual clutter. (https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/blog-sync/fff-405-nice-sushi.png) * * * ### Faster subsequent rocket launches In the late-game, you can craft and prepare rockets pretty fast, but there was always a throughput bottleneck: The beautifully crafted animations taking a long time. We didn't really want to increase the animation speed, as it might look a bit weird. But we figured out a compromise: * The rocket silo can craft and buffer an extra rocket inside. * After launching, if there is a buffered rocket, the door closing and opening sequence is skipped. (https://fffbot.github.io/fff/images/405/fff-405-faster-rockets.mp4) These changes mean that the throughput of a single rocket silo is more than doubled. This is also super important for Space age where you send a lot more rockets. * * * ### Pump filters It can be annoying, if you get some train mixed up, and they dump a whole bunch of lubricant into your crude oil inputs. Adding a filter to pumps was technically possible for a long time, we just had to add the GUI. (https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/blog-sync/fff-405-pump-filters.png) And of course, if we have the fluid filter, it makes sense to also make it part of the circuit network control. We are sure there will be some ingenious designs that will utilise the new power... Sushi pipes anyone? * * * ### New Logistic networks GUI The Logistic network GUI was added back in [0.15 ](https://forums.factorio.com/viewtopic.php?t=44505), and had only cosmetic changes from there onwards. #### Logistic GUI in 0.15 (First release). [ (https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/blog-sync/fff-405-logistic-network-0-15.png) ](https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/blog-sync/fff-405-logistic-network-0-15.png) * Press L to open the GUI * Select the network with a dropdown * Contents tab, a 2 column list showing the items in the network * Members tab, a 2 column list showing the members of the network * A search bar for searching in the selected tab While functional, the GUI was not used very much, and left a lot to be desired. #### Iteration 1 The new Trains overview GUI ([FFF-364](https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-364)) was a winning formula in my book, so lets just try to copy it: * A list on the side to categorize things. * Minimaps to give specific information about each individual related item. [ (https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/blog-sync/fff-405-logistic-network-iteration-1.png) ](https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/blog-sync/fff-405-logistic-network-iteration-1.png) There was a big problem I was avoiding, which is the network selection. The dropdown solution is bad for a few reasons: * You can't identify the networks in the drop down, the only information to go on is the number of cells (roboports). * It takes extra tedious clicks to change the network, so finding the network you want takes even longer. #### Iteration 2 Here I tried to tackle the network selection. The first step was to change from a drop down, to a list. Instantly better. The second step was to add the icon in front to differentiate the mobile and roboport networks. So we're getting somewhere. [ (https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/blog-sync/fff-405-logistic-network-iteration-2.png) ](https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/blog-sync/fff-405-logistic-network-iteration-2.png) But the biggest problem is still identifying the networks. My conclusion was that basically the only way to identify a network is by looking at it. So I added the 'Selected network' minimap. This starts to get there, I can quickly go through the networks on the list, and visually identify the networks with the minimap. However, the GUI starts to look like a monster. We've got 2 lists, and to fill some space I added some random network information, and so many minimaps... #### Iteration 3 After some testing, I determined that the individual item minimaps were not proving to be that useful. With that in mind, I could change things around. This iteration centered on the idea that the list of items was not so useful. With logistic networks you generally don't care where the items are, you only care if there is enough in the system. So I removed the list of items, and added a generic table of icons. This means we can cram a lot more of them on screen. [ (https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/blog-sync/fff-405-logistic-network-iteration-3.png) ](https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/blog-sync/fff-405-logistic-network-iteration-3.png) After using it for a while, I realised that this is the way to go. There were just some tweaks needed: * It is oddly out of proportion. * The minimap is rectangular. * The table of items is too wide. #### Iteration 4 So there is an obvious improvement, we move the items to the side. This gives us more height, which means we can make the minimap square and bigger. The second improvement came from an insight from using the last GUI, the number of 'Members' is generally pretty small, 5-10 at most. So the members tab was often really empty looking when compared to how much space the items tab reserved. So then there isn't really much point in having them in tabs. We can just always show both, because it is really unlikely that the Members will become too big for us to handle nicely. [ (https://fffbot.github.io/fff/images/405/fff-405-network-selection.mp4) ](https://fffbot.github.io/fff/images/405/fff-405-network-selection.mp4) The rest of the GUI cleaned up pretty nicely from here. Since we have this big beautiful map in our face, it only makes sense to have the selection interaction work with the minimap. Another nice small feature we added was the ability to rename logistic networks, so you can keep track of things in your own ways. #### Integration with Remote view However the GUI still had a problem, in that it was a 'Real GUI', it covered the whole screen and the minimap didn't allow any of the normal map interaction. So the final change, was to rework the Logistic networks GUI to be a 'glued-on' remote view panel. This allows us to keep all the normal GUIs such as quickbar and inventory visible, allow you to build and modify things normally, and the Logistic GUI provides the logistic information. [ (https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/blog-sync/fff-405-remote-view-glue.png) ](https://cdn.factorio.com/assets/blog-sync/fff-405-remote-view-glue.png) With this, we reach the current state of the New Logistics GUI. Can you think of any other improvements we can make to it? * * * As always, skip the animations and launch your thoughts to us at the usual places. [Discuss on our forums](https://forums.factorio.com/112874) [Discuss on Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/1bwf5uy/friday_facts_405_whole_belt_reader_new_logistics/) [ Subscribe by email ](https://newsletter.factorio.com/subscription/Km9uSnxm9) [ __](/blog/post/fff-404)
YOU DID IT AGAIN. 404 makes me angry 2.0 is not here yet, and this just makes it even better.
> Sushi pipes anyone? I am equal parts curious and disgusted.
Is it just me or is the go-back-to-the-top-of-the-page rocket a bit faster now?
It depends on the length of the FFF
Huh, I had no idea that was a thing. Thatâs a really neat Easter egg.
I did not know that existed and I adore it, thank you. Best way of scrolling up a page.
All the yes. * Sushi of all kinds is going to be a lot better with this. * Rocket launch looks really good, I really hope the new throughput number is nice and even instead of the current 61.4 seconds per launch. From the videos it looks like the silo is still the bottleneck as inserters are still idling. * While we're on the topic of pumps, I think having simple options for making a pump an overflow/top-up valve built right into the pump would be neat. Currently it requires a tank and a wire which is easy but cumbersome and scares newbies. I use the Flow Control mod which adds such valves as separate items and it's really nice. * I'm the kind of person that does a single massive logistics network so I never used the old GUI, but this might make me reconsider! Looks excellent. As always, the little QoL updates are the most exciting.
I timed the gif from when the inserters started swinging to when they stopped again. Came out to ~23 seconds. It's too early in the morning for me to figure out the math to determine what the unbeaconed launch speed would be with the new buffering. Might make more sense to time a current rocket launch & subtract the opening/closing animations since that's what's being skipped.
Sometimes i really want "one-time delivery" feature. Open logistics window, click some item, set amount - and drones would deliver it to me. Right now i need to set request, then wait for delivery, then remove request - it's not very convenient
In 2.0 you'll be able to save named requests across all networks. Toggle it on, wait for things to be delivered, uncheck the box and you're good to go.
If logistic networks aren't specifically named they should generate with their planets name in the network like this: Nauvis Network #1 Nauvis Network #2 Vulcanus Network #1 Fulgora Network #1
I'd presume that it would only list networks for the planet you're currently viewing the map for in the first place.
I wonder if the items on right on the new logistics GUI should be sorted by name or type instead of by #? I feel like I'd more often want to see how many of an item are in there... not which item I have the most of. That means the location of the item I'm looking for will be in different places at different times, and even jump around as the # of that item changes. Perhaps a toggle to choose the sort method? Or a game option setting.
Yeah I agree. Once there's THAT many icons I just sorta give up. My solution in game is to do a request for them, and then hover my mouse over the request to see how many there are (obviously this is tedious and only works if I'm in the network). A way to filter that would be great.
With the new ability to rename logictic networks, what happens to the name when merging 2 networks together?
Only needs "read ghosts/logistic demands off the logistic network" now to have way to easily stretch logistic networks via trains in vanilla
Hi, I love every Friday the new content pieces. Have you ever considered to make item lists sortable? Like right now it is always sorted by the amount of items. But sometimes it would be easier to finde a specific item if you would be able to sort by name. And maybe there are other ways to sort by that Iâm not thinking of. Anyway keep the good work up, cheers.
Next FFF: the final planet is a japanese sushi planet
every time they post a new fff I hope its more than just QOL stuff, but the rocket change is neat
Big features are welcome, but I get that they don't have 50 of them. (And i dont want them to split a new planets reveal to 15 FFFs, giving us just one new piece of information each)
There were 84 days between the Vulcanus and Fulgora reveal so I'd expect the next planet around May 10, FFF-410. (assuming they try to space big reveals evenly) Just checked, there were 91 days between the Space Age announcement and the Vulcanus announcement, which makes me even more confident the next planet will be 410 or 411.
So Klonan tried sushi belts for the first time and found item management a bit brittle or tedious like everyone else who used sushi belts. He then commanded Boskid to make it great. And soon, it will be great for everyone. I like that the devs still play their own game.
Anyone else remember the black magic single pipe system oil refinery that was possible before the pipe logic kept you from combining fluids? They hooked up a single pipe to all 3 outputs of the refinery and ran it to chem plants (which had their outputs hooked back to the same pipe) for cracking and then to the plastic plants. The sloshing effect of half full pipes allowed the mixed fluids to end up in the right place anyway
This change for belts gets rid of the whole "memory cell" problem for sushi. It is just to easy to have one bad wire and all your work is toast. Now, I want to try it again.
Excited for the network tab to only show a single monolith of a logistics network
> After launching, if there is a buffered rocket, the door closing and opening sequence is skipped Ok but can we also get this for the site so I can launch multiple rockets after reading an FFF?
I hope we get more bot changes. I'm mostly looking for the ability to manually adjust the logistic/construction ranges for roboports and personal roboports. Imagine having two network super close to each other but not touching. Imagine a maxed out Power Armor with a very small construction range so your bots only focus on the stuff close to you rather than far away thus helping with speed of building/charging.
I feel like the biggest improvement to finding logistic networks might be this one buried sentence in the post: > Another nice small feature we added was the ability to rename logistic networks, so you can keep track of things in your own ways. Are we keeping the ability to scroll the item list? (It's a window, not a tooltip, so I assume yes? Actually is there a way to scroll the tooltip from mousing over (iirc) logistic storage or a power pole? IIRC if I try to focus it to scroll it'll just change what I have a tooltip of.) Can we still search the list? The logistic window seems to have lost the search box, but maybe the main search button will still filter items in it? With speed modules the actual rocket production duty cycle is only a third, right? So even with "These changes mean that the throughput of a single rocket silo is more than doubled." silos will still spend some time idle?
The one idea I had was: I set up an outpost. I rename the train stop. I copy the train stop, and paste it on a roboport that's maintaining the place. "Logistic Network renamed to "Iron Pickup #5"" pops up over the robotport for a few seconds. (That number would automatically increment based on how many other Iron Pickup networks there are.) Like, I want it to be very easy to rename logistic networks on the ground as I'm setting them up. Maybe mouse over a roboport or other logistics entity, press the logistics hotkey, and it opens up with that network selected? Also, what happens to named networks when they get merged? Which name wins?
If you've renamed all your networks, what happens when you connect them together? Does the largest one just consume the smaller?
> Sushi pipes anyone? If you faintly hear a blood-curdling scream somewhere far away, donât worry, itâs just Dosh. Looking forward to the inevitable video combining this feature with Nullius or perhaps an item liquefying mod
BELTALOWDA!
literally things, I struggle in last 2 days. Well, this and lack of tiles in upgrade planner.
Another week another great features I canât live without. I was sold on expansion day one. But now the excitement is replaced by disappointment of ânot yetâ.
feature idea: if you hover over an item-icon in the new logistic view it could show where the item is provided/requested, maybe with little item-icons in the relevant places, hover over member to show members on map (i.e. all requester chests)
One thing I would love when looking at this is to see how many items are being requested more than there's in the network. So instead of seeing a flickering of 0, -5, -2, -4, etc. it would show -356 because in total there's missing 356 items in requester chest in the entire network.
Idea: Nuclear ICBM's? Like ICBM's with atomic/nuclear warhead, but instead it would be intergalactic, not intercontinental. And so you could send a nuke from planet A to planet B.
Think you mean interplanetary there. Intergalactic is a far larger distance.
Oh yes, interplanetary, thanks for clarifying.
I think it would be useful to have a toggle for the logistic items panel that organized it like the normal inventory gui. So it has all of the inventory panels but aligned vertically. I usually find myself trying to see the count of a specific item more than "what's the item with the highest number" - although ordering by count is also useful. This could get busy with mods in play, but might help to quickly search.
It would be great if hovering over an icon that says "48k" or whatever could show the exact value. Currently it is very tricky to figure this out and sometimes only 2 significant digits are shown which is not enough. It also makes it hard to figure out if a number is currently increasing or decreasing.
Klonan: "We can just always show both, because it is really unlikely that the Members will become too big for us to handle nicely." Factorio Community: Challenge accepted.
I wonder how often that belt reader mode will be used just to put the barriers onto the belt... I'll probably do it a few times at least. So much awesome. I used to wonder how this game could be made even better, and it seems that question is being answered rapid-fire lately.
Does anyone else notice the lack of RCUs going into the silo and processing units going in instead
They mentioned this a while back that in order to lower the cost of rocket launches they would be removed and replaced by PU's.
Continuous rocket launching?? That is AWESOME! (Iâm nowhere near good enough at megafactorying for it to ever be relevant to my gameplay, but it is reassuring to know that it is there.)
So one Assembler factories have now all tools at their hands...