TouchDeck Bridge

Shows your Factorio game on TouchDeck – a free macro
remote for your PC that turns a phone or tablet into a control panel. Research, speed, power,
production, evolution and (with UTLogistics) your trains appear live on the buttons, and buttons
pause, speed up, save or queue research.

English · Deutsch

• Needs Factorio 2.1. Space Age is optional.
• Works together with UTLogistics if it is installed:
  then your trains, stations, networks and alerts appear on the TouchDeck too (see below). Without it
  everything else works the same.
• Languages: English and German. French, Spanish, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian and Chinese
  (simplified) are AI translations – corrections are welcome.
• Linux: tested. Windows: not tested yet – feedback is welcome.

What you need

1. TouchDeck on your PC – download: github.com/Marcel1853/touchdeck/releases
   (free, with an Android app for the phone or tablet).
2. The TouchDeck plugin “Factorio” – in TouchDeck: Plugins › Marketplace › Factorio › Install.
   It is an advanced plugin, so TouchDeck asks you to switch on advanced mode first.
   It also brings ready-made pages (Factorio, Time, Research, Game, Production, Power, UTLogistics).
3. This mod in Factorio. Nothing to set up: no launch options, no network, no RCON.

How it works

• The mod writes small files to script-output/touchdeck-bridge/ in your Factorio user folder
  (Linux: ~/.factorio/script-output/). The TouchDeck plugin watches them.
• Commands come in through the mod's own key bindings (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+…). TouchDeck presses them
  in the Factorio window and shows the game's answer on the button. You can change the keys in
  Settings › Controls (then change them in TouchDeck as well).

Commands for the command field and /touchdeck <command> in the chat: pause [on|off],
speed <number|up|down>, save [name], screenshot, research <name or #1..#3>, cancel,
center, refresh, utl [tab].

UTLogistics (optional)

With UTLogistics active, the mod reads its data through UTL's interface (read only, as the UTL wiki
recommends) – per planet: trains idle and on the way, deliveries, stations, networks, alerts in full
text and requests without a train. In the UTL station window there is a section “TouchDeck”:
tick “Show on the TouchDeck” and pick a slot 1–8 to see that station on the TouchDeck page
“UTLogistics › Stations”. The UTL manager gets a tab “TouchDeck” with all pinned stations.

Good to know

• Single player: the game stops while it is paused – also in the Esc menu and while the research
  screen (technology tree) is open. Then no mod code runs and nothing new is written. TouchDeck keeps
  the last values and shows “halted”. I do not know a way around this yet – ideas are welcome.
  In multiplayer the game keeps running in those screens.
• Multiplayer: every player gets the files only on their own computer. Pause, speed and save need
  admin rights. The per-player setting “Write files for TouchDeck” turns it off.
• At the start of a game all research is “trigger research” (craft, mine, build …), which cannot be
  queued – so there are no suggestions yet.

How it is made

I'm Marcel. TouchDeck Bridge is written with AI (Claude by Anthropic) – the code and most of the
texts. I decide what it should do and test every version myself in my own saves before it goes
online. There are also automated tests in
tools/. I play and test on Linux.

Bug reports and ideas help a lot – post them in the
discussion.

Examples, license and ideas

The features are examples of what a game and TouchDeck can do together. The mod is under the
MIT license: build your own mod or TouchDeck plugin from it, change it, use parts of it – however
you like. It works for me the way it is now, and I like using it; whether it is useful for you, you
decide. Suggestions are welcome – what to change, what is missing, how it could work better.