Is it possible to hide the GUI buttons? For me, I don't wish to change my character very often and would be happy to get the screen real estate back. It is also causing overlap with other mods (https://imgur.com/ybyNAAY)

How should I do that? The GUI buttons should be visible per default if there are multiple characters available, so that players know they can change their character (thinking of multiplayer games, where players get the mod when syncing with the saved game running on the server).

There are two options that would seem reasonable: A per-user setting "Hide GUI toggle buttons", or a command you could run from the chat console, e.g. "/char-selector-gui hide". While this wouldn't be too hard to implement, I'm not sure yet what to do when a player hides/unhides the GUI buttons: If the player has deactivated the toggle buttons while the GUI was open, should the GUI be closed immediately, or should it stay open?

Add a per-user setting to hide the GUI buttons on the top-left; the GUI should still be accessible from a keybind/shortcut, so it shouldn't change anything else. If you find the GUI is still open when a setting changes, you don't need to do anything as there are other ways to close the GUI. Just add the setting so the top-left bar can be used for mods that are more frequently needed. Also, don't worry about the players not having access to your GUI, since it's a per-player setting they have to turn it off themselves and they can always turn it back on from the vanilla Factorio settings window.

I second this. Please add an option to hide the button, as I don't need it at all, and it takes up space. Thank you for the great mod nevertheless. But the button is one thing that made me think whether there's another mod to use instead. Thanks.

OK, I'll look into it, but I guess I could use some help. :-)

The thing is, everything is laid out for GUIs now, shortcuts require listening to other events. While adding these shouldn't be too hard as such, getting the interaction with the GUI events right could be a bit harder, so it could take me a while to get this implemented.

There's something where you could contribute perhaps, though: I think I must have an icon for the shortcuts -- something which makes sense even on the little room provided in the shortcuts menu, but also as a toggle button for the GUI. Using text works around the problem of not having a suitable icon, but as you've already noticed, it may waste a lot of screen real estate (depending on the locale).

If you can help me out with some nice, original graphics, you can contact me here or on the forum.

Hi,
Indeed, the ability to hide your buttons through a mod parameter would be a plus. Some character mods depend on your mod, and if they choose the character selector of RitnCharacters, your buttons become just clutter. I don't want to hide them with my mod if it's active. I saw earlier that you may not know how to do this.

Here's an example of code:

You need to create a settings.lua file. This is an excerpt of code from RitnTeleportation available on Github.

RitnTeleportation/lualib/modules/player.lua

Helmod and Factory Planner also use options (per player) to hide their button.
In the hope that it helps you.

Hi,
Indeed, the ability to hide your buttons through a mod parameter would be a plus. Some character mods depend on your mod, and if they choose the character selector of RitnCharacters, your buttons become just clutter. I don't want to hide them with my mod if it's active. I saw earlier that you may not know how to do this.

Thanks for the hints! I know how to hide the buttons, the "Available characters" button will already be hidden if there are no characters to choose from (the main GUI still is useful to return from god- or editor mode).

I've thought about moving the "Available characters" button out of the way and putting it on the main GUI. But my main problem is removing the toggle button for the main GUI in favor of shortcuts.

Again: I know how to deal with shortcuts regarding the code, my real problem is coming up with meaningful icons. Even finding a suitable icon for the toggle button was hard (and the buttons are bigger than the icons in the shortcut bar, so they allow for more detail), that's why I chose to use buttons with text instead -- which, of course, will take up more space than an icon in most languages, and waste a lot of space.

Ooh, okay I see.
For the button "available character", maybe something like a character icon and a question mark.

example:

Then, a tooltip with the text of the current button would add help to the understanding of this button if some are wondering "what is this?"
Players are naturally curious, so they will click on it and see the effect for themselves in the worst case.

For the other button, the icon of the chosen character could be displayed, somewhat like next to weapons and armor.

Sorry, I didn't see this before -- was too busy requesting an icon. :-)

For the button "available character", maybe something like a character icon and a question mark.

I think keeping the "available characters" button as it is would be OK: I want to move that button to the main GUI anyways, and it would be consistent with the buttons for god and editor mode, which also have just text.

For the other button, the icon of the chosen character could be displayed, somewhat like next to weapons and armor.

I don't think that's a good idea, for several reasons:

• Buttons that change icons are confusing.
• While some characters can be easily recognised (e.g. "Among Us", "I, Robot", or the default character), others are too small (e.g. Paimon from Genshin), or the contrast isn't right. Check out this screenshot to see what I mean.

For the next version, I've moved the toggle button for the "Available characters" GUI to the selector GUI. Instead of "Available characters", the caption will now show how many of the available characters the player is using. I've also added a custom-input. However, as I'm not good at coming up with key combinations, I've left this empty, so you must define the controls yourself before you can use it.

Add a per-user setting to hide the GUI buttons on the top-left; the GUI should still be accessible from a keybind/shortcut, so it shouldn't change anything else.

Yesterday I've made a startup setting that let's you decide whether you want to have the toggle button on the top-left or a shortcut. This was easy to handle (if the shortcut is used, I can listen to the event without further ado), but the choice would affect all players and changing it would require a restart. Now I've moved that setting to user-settings (much more hassle because I must keep track of whether any player needs the shortcut event): The shortcut can be used and is visible when the toggle button has been turned off; but if a player turns on the toggle button, there is no way to make the shortcut disappear from the shortcut bar! I can only disable it, but not hide it.

I've added a per-user setting to toggle between the GUI button at the top of the screen and a shortcut. There also is a key-binding for toggling the main GUI which is always available. However, you must configure it yourself before you can use it (Main menu --> Settings --> Controls).

Please try out version 1.1.26, I'm looking forward to your feedback! :-)

I just tested and for my part it suits me very well.
The buttons are much more discreet now.
Thanks for these updates!

Thank you for the update! I was able to hide the buttons. Exactly what was needed. :)

Glad you like it! :-)

Great change, thanks so much!