Exteros Quality of Life System

A modular Quality of Life system for Factorio 2.0 and 2.1. It streamlines the parts of the game that get repetitive, without removing the challenges the factory is built on.

Quality of Life Features

Every feature ships disabled by default. Turn on what you want in the mod settings, or in the in-game Settings Hub for the runtime ones. All hotkeys listed below are defaults and can be rebound in Options > Controls > Mods.

⚙️ Settings Hub - A draggable menu for the runtime options, opened with SHIFT + E and closed with Escape. The top-left button can be hidden per player, and the hotkey still works when it is. Settings of installed addons show up here too.

⚙️ Even Distribution - Spreads items evenly across several entities in one drag, instead of filling them one at a time.

⚙️ Force Insert - Fast transfer normally stops at a container's red bar limit. This lifts the limit for the duration of the transfer, in open GUIs and while dragging across entities in the world. Machines that would immediately consume the items are held for that moment and restored afterwards.

⚙️ Belt Brush - Hold a belt, underground belt, pipe to ground, loader, wall, heat pipe, or inserter, and pick a lane count to paint that many lanes at once. CONTROL + SHIFT + B cycles the shape between straight, corners, and underground or pipe pairs. CONTROL + SHIFT + N cycles through balancers, or the cascade shape for underground belts. Balancers cover every combination from 1 to 8 lanes, plus 16 to 16. The lane count is changed with ALT + mouse wheel.

⚙️ Belt Reverser - Reverses the direction of a whole transport line at once with CONTROL + R, including underground belts and loaders.

⚙️ Copy Chest - Moves the entire contents of one container into another. SHIFT + C copies the source, SHIFT + V pastes into the target.

⚙️ Chest Limit - While you hold a container, a small window sets how many of its slots stay blocked. Every container of that kind you build afterwards starts that way.

⚙️ Squeak Through - Lets you walk between pipes, solar panels, and other structures that normally block the gap.

⚙️ Auto Deconstruct - Marks miners for deconstruction once they have exhausted the resource under them.

⚙️ Inventory Repair - Repairs damaged placeable items in your inventory over time, using repair packs you are carrying.

⚙️ Time Controls - Buttons in the top-left corner adjust game speed while you play. In multiplayer, only admins can use them.

⚙️ Auto Alt Mode - Turns on Alt mode when you join a game, whether that is a new save, a loaded one, or a multiplayer server.

⚙️ Auto Inventory Sort - Sorts chests, cargo wagons, and vehicles when you open them. SHIFT + I sorts an open container by hand.

⚙️ Held Item Count - Shows how many of the item in your hand you are carrying, in the centre of the screen.

⚙️ Player Searchlight - Turns your character to face the entity you have selected.

⚙️ Wire Shortcuts - Cycles the wire in your hand between red, green, and copper with ALT + W.

⚙️ Planner Zapper - Clears a planner from your cursor without putting it back into your inventory.

⚙️ Quality Scroll - Cycles the quality of the item in your cursor with CONTROL + SHIFT + mouse wheel.

⚙️ Renamer - Opens a small window for renaming the entity under your cursor with CONTROL + SHIFT + R, for anything that carries a name such as a train stop or a roboport.

⚙️ Player Colors - Sets your character and chat colour from the mod settings.

Addons

Optional mods that build on the QoL System. Install them only if you want what they add.

🧪 Exteros' QoL System - Cheats - Reach, crafting and mining speed, inventory slots, stack sizes, and productivity on every recipe. Cheat Mode used to be part of this mod; since 0.3.3 / 0.4.3 it lives in the addon, so installing the QoL System never changes the balance of your game. Your cheat settings carry over once you install it.

Installation

Install through the in-game mod manager, or download the mod from the Factorio Mod Portal.

Compatibility

• Factorio 2.0 and 2.1 - released as two rows built from the same source.
• Space Age, Quality, and Elevated Rails - supported.
• Other mods - any feature that a mod you already have provides is switched off automatically, so the two never compete for the same hotkey or the same entity.

License & Contact

Developed by Exteros, licensed under the MIT License.
Project source: GitHub Repository
Contact: GitHub Profile

Localization

• 🇬🇧 English
• 🇨🇿 Czech
• 🇷🇺 Russian - contributed by V1ncvega

Inspiration & Credits

This mod builds on ideas and mechanics from several mods in the Factorio community. Thanks to their authors:

• Even Distribution Lite - For the core concept of equal item distribution.
• Squeak Through 2 - For the essential movement improvements.
• Auto Deconstruct - For the clever automation of exhausted miners.
• Picker Extended Reborn - For quality of life features I had not thought of.
• Force Inventory Insert - For the idea of lifting the red bar limit during a fast transfer.
• Belt Brush - For the idea of painting several belt lanes at once.