Question about factory queues

[levstk]

Why does the factory not start the work when I order it, but instead just puts it on pause until some seemingly arbitrary point?
Is it related to other processes being full, like can I not have 20 cutting jobs and 20 smelting ones going at the same time? Because if so, that makes the factory nearly worthless.

[Sapentiam]

yeah i dont unstand the factory in portia was all okey and finde but here, i iuse 15/20 point in smelting and they work, okey fine, use 5/5 point in cuting but they only do my barrels, and cuting say "pause" and tell 0/5 make no sense this all

[computerquip]

I think its a touch buggy. The idea (I think) is that you can use each "queue" to process one thing at a time. So if you have 15 queues, you can split 90 Bronze Bars into 15 queues, each one should get 6 each and they're all built in parallel.

I *think* that's how it's supposed to work. It usually just... doesn't though. Until the most recent patch, it was straight up unusable. It's usable now but some of the math does some a little off sometimes.

[Endora]

In Portia you could put as many as queues as points you'd have, so the melt wouldn't interfere with the grinding, as an example, and all that works at the same time, pretty much as the machines on your yard, with the difference that you don't need to refil the machines and all the production would end on the same box.

Here you don't need to refill and the production goes to the box at the side your mailbox, so not much different. The problem is that the queue seems to be still kinda bugged and it doesn't work at the same time. Add to that the limited space and you end up with an inferior product wich is good only for recycling. For me, just now is still prefereable to relay on the Magic Mirror.

[Shaitan]

Yep -- I despise the Factory. For something that is supposed to make life easier, it is just an unintuitive mess. Ugly UI that actually gives you LESS information at a glace than when you had to individually select your machines -- or not at all when it came to the helpful live countdown timer.

I'm about to downgrade my Factory, make it substantially smaller, and just use it for Recycling.

Overall the implementation of the Factory and the Greenhouse is just BAD.

[TaylerBootz]

The factory is such a huge issue for everyone. They should have stuck with the Portia formula there. HUGE mistake on their part IMO. I'm just not going to build it. There's too crap on my land anyway as the buildings and stuff are almost double the size of many of the ones in Portia.

Apparently they keep saying they'll rework it. Not sure how though or if it will be worth it.

[Shaitan]

EXISTING FACTORY BUILD (with changes)
Reworking it should be easy enough -- largely it is just combining their already existing U for the machines, but in one UI with tabs across the top for the machine types'
- Remove Assembly capability
- Tabs across top should Machine Type only (Recycler, Smelter, Processor, Grinder, Forge/etc)
- Queues should equal the number of that machine type in the Factory to allow for simultaneous construction
- List should show total you have AND the total you can make, just like when the machines are in the yard
- Factory Production Paused popup should be changed to <Insert Item> Production Completed. The Pause popup is a pointless warning.
- Factory should have is own hopper output on the side of the building with a UI not dissimilar to a chest so you can see what items have been outputted without have to get spammed by the delivery box.
- New Item: Production Screen. I can see all items that are currently being produced, with a live countdown timer -- not a paused UI as is current with Factory, so if I'm waiting for a particular item I don't have to keep pausing the counter just to see how long it has left.
- Alternate to the Production Screen -- put back the popup with item logo and timer above the machines if I am standing in the factory.

OR

ALTERNATIVE FACTORY BUILD (Easy Mode)
- Only allows you to set required targets with priority. For example if I want to ALWAYS have 100x Copper, 100x Bronze, 10x Hardwood Planks, etc, etc. The Factory will attempt to accommodate and meet these item thresholds automatically.
- Set a priority, and whether you want a simultaneous build, or individual based on how many machines you have. For example I could allow it to refill to 100x Bronze Ingots using 4x Smelters, or if I needed 100x Bronze and 100x Iron, the factory would automatically allocate 2x Smelters each. Or priortise Iron over Bronze so it will complete one then the other using all 4x Smelters.
- Build a UI that then can give me at a glance, how much material it needs to meet its demands if it runs out. I can then decide to go and get those resources now or later.

--
Basically the Factory does not need to be a giant hot mess that makes life harder, but easier and more streamlined. Oh and the Factory should still provide XP on item collection/completion.

[levstk]

Thoughts on that last post ...

- I don't see an issue with the assembly capability, although it would be thematically nicer if it just queued assembly on the actual automatic assembler (like it did in Portia).
- Second point seems totally arbitrary, I don't think there's any issue with giving you extra tabs for finer filtering, since there's no proper filtering or sorting available.
- Each machine should give you multiple queues just to make the factory worth it, imo, but the queues should be independent, not have an arbitrary global maximum as they appear to have now.
- Agree that the list should give all the same info as the individual machines, but the factory allows you to queue things even if you don't have the materials for them, which is a good thing and should be maintained (it should indicate what you're missing though).
- The "production paused" popup is just spam on screen, it should be reserved for when production stops due to lack of materials only, imo.
- Factory should have its own output, yes, because when I just made 50 different items (and possibly some pet expeditions and/or morning deliveries) they just zoom past on the screen when I take them out of the delivery box. It should also have some kind of integrated storage though, having 30 separate inventories for all my materials is just clunky (and pointless since you never need to take materials out of storage anyway). The storage could even be modular if the devs are really married to the concept, just so long as it's one single inventory.
- An unpaused production screen seems pointless to me but I think that one's just personal preference, I don't really babysit my production machinery, I'm usually halfway across the map when production finishes. Also I like the game pausing a lot, because that means I'm not wasting the extremely limited time I get each day just because I'm looking at a menu for way too long.

Dunno about having the "maintain x amount of item y" capability, that never seemed all that useful to me in games, especially when it's a more hands on game like this and not a big picture management game, but again, personal preference.

The main benefit of the factory as is (and was in Portia), is that you can make (and easily order), for example, 20 bars simultaneously, which speeds up production, so it's still worth it, it's just really clunky and unsatisfying.
Also, I didn't know it didn't give experience, that could be pretty bad if you somehow hadn't maxed out your production level by the time you get the factory.