For Players
What this mod does
In vanilla Factorio, the tasks of construction robots cannot be read as circuit signals, yet this is crucial for automating construction. This mod focuses on solving that. Ghost Reader aggregates all those requests into a clear item list and outputs it as circuit signals, letting you automate material-deficit calculations, drive display panels, or feed logistics requests.
It reads four kinds of requests and tracks them in two directions — supply and recycling:
| Type | Supply | Recycling (to be deconstructed/recovered) |
|---|---|---|
| Entities | Ghost of an entity to be built | Entity marked for deconstruction |
| Tiles | Ghost of a tile to be placed | Tile marked for deconstruction |
| Upgrades | The upgraded target entity | The original entity replaced by the upgrade |
| Items | Requested items to deliver | Items already inside a deconstructed entity (including modules), storage-slot recycling requests (remove items), recycling products of environment entities (trees/fish/rocks...), on-ground items |
About "Items": here, "items" refers to item requests produced when you perform a ghost operation on an entity's storage slots (set directly in remote view), which are served by construction robots. It does not refer to the item-logistics requests served by logistics robots.
- Supply = items construction robots are missing while working.
- Recycling = items construction robots will deconstruct or recover.
Unlocking
- Research the "Ghost Reader" technology (prerequisite: construction robotics).
How to use
- Place a "Ghost Reader".
- Connect it to a circuit network with red/green wires.
- Click the reader to open its GUI panel and set the scan range, filter, and quantity modes.
- The circuit network will then carry each item's signal, computed according to the current quantity mode.
GUI panel
A standard vanilla-styled, draggable window with a close button in the top-right corner.
- Scan range mode
Surface: scan every request on the whole planet surface.Logistics network: scan only the requests inside the reader's logistics network (construction area).- Current range: shows the active range in real time.
- Surface mode: shows the location, e.g.
【新地星】. - Logistics network mode: shows
【网络#id】. - Filter mode
All: entities + tiles + upgrades + items.Entities/Tiles/Upgrades/Items: only the selected category.- Quantity mode
Supply - Recycling: outputs supply minus recycling (may be negative, for net deficit).Supply only: outputs supply quantities only.Recycling only: outputs recycling quantities only.- Current output signals: lists the signals to be output in real time, using the vanilla signal-icon style (icon with the count in the bottom-right corner).
Calculation details (important)
- In logistics network mode, entities, tiles, upgrades, and items are all computed as the union of each roboport's construction area (the green area). Because only requests (or ghosts) whose center point falls inside the construction area can be served by construction robots, the inclusion check matches that rule.
- In logistics network mode, the reader itself must be inside some roboport's supply area (the orange area) to be considered "in a logistics network".
- Item requests on moving entities (e.g. tanks, spidertrons) are counted as well.
- If a container entity (e.g. a chest) is marked for deconstruction, the items/modules already inside it are classified under the "items" category as recycling, and its temporary item requests are voided (not double-counted).