Auto Research

by canidae

Automates research. Toggle GUI with Shift+T (customizable).

Utilities
4 years ago
0.13 - 1.1
55.8K

g New entity discussion

8 years ago

Hey Canidae, love this mod and just wanted to voice my thoughts on your new entity in the latest version.

I have rolled back to 1.0.0 because at least for me, that entity is the opposite of the purpose of the mod (at least as I see it's utility). The whole point to me is to be incredibly low thought, automatic research if you don't queue anything. I always run with a research saving mod (and after our last massive multiplayer session it sounds like the devs may consider implementing research saving in vanilla anyway) so changing research if autoresearch picks the wrong thing is never a big deal.

I am just not sure why the mod needs to be made more complicated. We already have a mod specifically designed to do research in a specific order, namely "Research Queue". Why try to cover both things with one mod? Can't it just stay simple and perfect at what it does?

Anyway those are my thoughts, curious if anyone else has anything to say on the matter.

-Arumba

8 years ago
(updated 8 years ago)

Hi there Arumba. Thank you for voicing your thoughts, I appreciate the feedback.

That entity (Research Center, I presume) is strictly not something you need to build. Auto Research will work just as it used to even if you don't build it and just continue using the mod as before.

As for why I made it more complicated then the primary reason was that Research Queue does not seem to be maintained anymore. As I write this Research Queue isn't updated for Factorio 0.14, and users have to modify the mod themselves to make it work (even though it's as simple as changing "factorio_version" in info.lua).

Another reason was that in AR 0.7.0 and earlier I set up some default technologies (Automation, Logistics, etc.) that I (and presumably many others) want to research first. I didn't really like this approach. One solution to this is of course just to remove it, but I still fancy the idea that you somehow should be able to tell Auto Research what to research first.

And a third reason was that one user requested the possibility to avoid certain technologies (for example military stuff in a non-biter game). Previously this was only possible by modifying the config.lua file for the mod, now you can do it in the Research Center by setting the signal value of an item or technology to 0.

The Research Center entity really should be thought of as nothing else than a "settings module" (much like the one you find in the Robot Army mod). I called it "Research Center" rather than "Auto Research Settings Module" (or something along those lines) as I intended to make it seem more thematic to the game (and then I realized I don't possess any artistic skills and just made it a purple lab). It's quite possible this was a bad decision on my part.

These were my reasons for the change. I still believe having settings in the game as an entity is a better solution than not having any settings at all, keeping them in the mod files or adding a button in the GUI.
I'd like to hear from you again (or anyone else) on this matter. I agree with your sentiment that this mod should be low thought and "just work". I intent to make AR work just like it used to even if you completely ignore the new entity, but I still believe adding some (optional) control through a settings module is an improvement to the mod.

8 years ago

I have to disagree with Arumba on this. I think the new research center is very nice addition to the mod. If i want a train, i just select the train from the research center popup, and i'm done. it's much easier than trying to find the thing i need from the research list, because sometimes it's hard to remember what research enables the stuff you need.

And because this isn't mandatory entity to be using the mod, you can just ignore it if not needed.

8 years ago

I've come to the conclusion that I don't really like the research center entity either, while I do like the addition it brings, namely what Gonamies points out.
However, I'm trying out a new approach: The entity will be replaced by a GUI (only visible through keybinding), but I intend to keep the possibility to specify tech using a signal (such as the train).
I need a few days to implement this.

8 years ago

sigh
It looks very much like you can't use the signals dialogue from a custom GUI.
I'm going to try out some different things, see if I can come up with some good solutions.

8 years ago

Give AR 2.0.0 a go, and let me know what you think of this direction.

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