Player Features and Ideas Discussion

The only major changes to the PI interface I seriously desire are:

• The ability to move the command center without destroying everything on the planet (or alternatively, have the auto-center feature zoom on the launchpad/ECU/storage facility instead of the command center. I spider planets a lot)


• The ability to select multiple structures and batch-action them (ie. select all my factories, set the same recipe on each, and set all of their routes to the launchpad). Also applies to deleting multiple structures at once.


• The ability to shift-click to retain the current action. For example, say I was placing factories. If I shift-clicked, it would retain the factory on the mouse, so I could just shift-click in succession to place multiple factories instead of having to reselect the factory each time. Same with links. Also, same with routes. If I want to route to each of my factories, it's a 5 click process per factory atm, which can get rather annoying when you have 20-25 factories on the same planet.


• Alternatively, an "auto-route" feature for factories. Instead of routing from storage to the factory, allow us to select an "auto-route" on the product section, select source, and it automatically creates a route from that structure for each of the components required by that factory's current blueprint.


• When I select an ECU's survey, it should inherit whatever resource I already have set as a filter on the planet, if any, rather than simply resetting to no filter.


• When I try to route over a link that is too full (for example, ECU to storage facility on a basic (non-upgraded) link, it should tell me, as it does now, that the link is too small, but instead of not allowing me to do anything, the "create route" button should be replaced with an "upgrade link" button to do it without deselecting everything.


• I'd love something in the planets tab that informs me of problems on a planet, like an ECU being inactive. Also, alternatively or concurrently, it'd be amazing if structures that are outputting materials (factories, ECUs) could be highlighted somehow (preferably in red) if they lack valid routes for their output.


• It'd be amazing if, while placing structures, when we move our mouse over another structure, instead of the one being placed turning red and not being placeable, if it would instead move to the closest legal placement position the mouse. For example, if I have a pair of factories next to each other, and, while placing another factor, move the mouse directly between those two factories (where the new one would overlap both, in the current system), it would instead place the factory right up against both of the current factories. Currently, we have to place very careful games with the mouse pixels if we want as tight a building setup as possible (and there are a couple build setups on certain planets where that tight of a build is required to fit that extra ECU head, or extra factory).

That said, the auto-repeat ECU cycle would also be rather amazing.

+10

I would like to be able to store factory configs as templates. Then after the initial setup i can switch from Integrity Response Drones and Sterile Conduits to Broadcast Nodes and Nano Factories by selecting from a drop down list of templates.

I'd also like to be able to set a number of runs on a factory.

Also the schematic should tell me if i have the goods locally from the storage available on planet.

Make factories default the inputs and outputs to available storage in sìze order.

Honestly, I'd settle for something as simple as P1 factories having an accept/cancel offer to install the right schematic for you when you try to route a P0 to them.

I'm in the process of doing some major overhauling to my PI. and I just found out this morning that i have 3 factories not routing their goods to my spaceport > I thought I had everything linked and routed but no. Lost like 8 hours of goods per factory.

so again + 1 to smarter PI!

since kronos is industry mostly expansion would be cool, is PI could get a hug too ....

i think it won't pull much more people into PI, but people thet decided not to do it any more might come back.

One additional thing that has become an issue to me recently:

Make routing prioritization more sane.

There's two serious problems with routing prioritization right now. The first is that, if multiple sources of a good (example, factories or storage facilities) are routed to a factory, the factory seems to pull from them at random. I had occasion to set up two launchpads on a factory planet, and put my P1 in each factory, then set a route for each of the P1s to each relevant factory, for each launchpad. I sort of assumed that, since each factory needed 40 units of each type of P1 per cycle, 20 would be taken from each launchpad per factory per cycle.

This was apparently highly incorrect. Each of my PI characters had this same settings, and none of them performed the same. On one, 5 out of 6 materials were pulled exclusively from one Launchpad, while the 6th was pulled exclusively from the other. On another character, they seemed to be split, with about 30% of materials coming from one launchpad and the other 70% from the other, even within a single P1 (so it's not a consistent priority, as someones one launchpad was used and sometimes the other, for the same P1 product. Maybe each factory pulled with a differing priority?) On the third, every single material was pulled exclusively from one launchpad, while the other one was, unfortunately, the destination for my P3.

As a result, over the 24 hours that I left it like that before noticing the issue, I dropped some 7 hours of P3 on the ground. I've since corrected the issue by manually setting the routes from each launchpad to be only 20 of the 40 units required for each factory (and this has worked flawlessly so far, but required me to use 8 keyboard/mouse actions per route, for a total of 216 routes across 3 characters. Ow.), and I was also informed that simply allocating 3 of my 6 P1s to each launchpad would have worked equally well (oop >.>), but it's still a serious problem with the prioritization, when it's so unpredictable.


The second issue is with routing of insufficient goods. As an example, I have three P1->P3 lines of PI running on my factory planets. For each, 6 P1 -> P2 factories are needed for each P2 -> P3 factory, for a total of 21 factories on the planet. On one of my characters, I was having major issues with simply routing the P2 from the P1->P2 factories directly to the P2->P3 factory. It should have worked just fine, as the input buffers on the P2-P3 factories were always empty (as soon as it got all 3 goods from the 6 factories, it started, consuming and emptying the input buffer, so no conflict ever arose). However, I was having issues with one of my P1->P2 factories seeming to "hang" on delivering it's P2 to the P2->P3 factory, and delaying the entire line (for no readily apparent reason, and no materials were ever lost, just delayed).

As a solution on that character, I instead routed all of the P2 to my launchpad and routed it from there back to the P2->P3 factories. This has completely eliminated the delay/hanging issue, but highlighted another prioritization issue. If I have enough P2 product in my launchpad to run one cycle on each P2->P3 factory (specifically, 30 of each of 3 P2 products), as is the case when my P1->P2 factories have just cycled, by logic is should route 1/3rd of that product to each of my 3 P2->P3 factories so they each can start producing. Instead, it routes 10 units of each P2 to the first P2->P3 factory, which is immediately consumed to start that factory cycling, then routes another 10 units of each P2 to the same factory to fill its input buffer. It then routes the remaining 10 units of each P2 to the second factory, starting it cycling but leaving it's input buffer empty, and the 3rd factory fallow. When my P1->P2 factories cycle again, the first factory only has enough room for 10 more units (since it already had 10 in its input buffer, which got consumed at the same time the P1->P2 factories cycled to start another cycle), so 10 are routed to the first factory to refill its input buffer, then 10 to the second factory (restarting it into a new cycle, since its input buffer had been empty), and the last 10 go again to factory 2 to fill its input buffer. I now still only have two factories cycling, with full input buffers, and the third still not doing anything. Only on the third P1->P2 factory cycle does that third P2-P3 factory get any P2, as it only takes 10 units each to fill the input buffers of factories 1 and 2.

TL/DR: make route prioritization more predictable on over-routed products (two routes providing the whole amount each needed by the destination factory), and make routes from storage to a factory prioritize product to factories not currently running over factories already running but with empty input buffers.

bump

I would like to mark all my Extractor Heads at once and Change their position in one Block without changing their position to each other.
Currently you have to change every single Head when daily resources are changing.

I 100% agree, these changes are needed. Remove the grind.