Added the ability to have different calculation modes.
None Calculator:
This does no calculations, but feel free to enter numbers on machines for your own notes.
Manual Calculator:
A new calculator mode that does not take into account how splitter/merger or priority splitter/mergers prefer to split. Priority splitters and mergers are useless in this mode. For ambiguous splits/merges, you must define it with values entered into machines, thus requiring more info entered than in Full mode. Like Full mode, this ensures that all inputs and outputs for a given machine are in the correct ratios and the values on the conveyors add up to their connected inputs and outputs. However if you enter more values than needed, it can create conflicting definitions, in which case extras will be ignored. Which ones are ignored is arbitrary and may spontaneously change, so don’t use conflicting values. This may also produce negative numbers or numbers higher than entered if other machines require it. It is your responsibility to enter the numbers sanely. Since this mode does not take into account how splitters and mergers prefer to split/merge, the numbers produced may not always equal what happens in game, so it is your responsibility to ensure your splitters and mergers split in the correct fashion when building in game. This mode is probably the most similar to using a spread sheet to calculate or how most other tools would calculate. This mode is very fast and will probably be near instantaneous except for extraordinarily large builds, where it will still be a reasonable amount of time.
Full Calculator:
This is the existing calculator. It tries to model what would happen in game and takes into account how splitters and mergers prefer to split/merge evenly and also takes into account how priority splitters and merger prefer to use the top priority. You can enter limits or leave blank for unlimited and the calculator will tell you what would happen in game. This will never give you negative values or values greater than a limit entered, and all number entered can be used to limit. This mode may help you spot places where the splitting/merging preferences might cause a deadlock. Figuring out how things split/merge is a surprisingly hard problem and this mode may slow down greatly for larger builds.
Additional Changes:
The settings menu has gotten large and needed to be split into sub menus. The new calculator setting can be found under General. The calculator mode is stored with a save file. You can set it to switch calculator modes if an incoming save is different than the current mode, with the option to prompt or not.
There is a new settings under Style that allows the coloring of machines red when the calculated value is negative or greater than the entered value. This can only happen with the manual calculator. There is also a setting to color orange when a machine’s calculated value does not match the entered value. This can happen in the Manual or Full calculator. An outpost will be colored if it contains any colored machines inside it.
Added the ability to hold SHIFT when dragging a selection to append in addition to the existing ability to hold CTRL to toggle the selection when dragging.
Several minor bug fixes.
FAQ:
Does the new Manual calculator fix the bug where everything goes to zero?
No. Because this is not a bug, it is a feature. Things go to zero because that is what would happen if you built it in game. The modeler is telling you that what you built is going to get all jammed up and everything will stop. This is caused by having too much or not enough of a resource somewhere. You need to either find an outlet for the extra or input some where it is needed.
The manual calculator may hit this scenario less because it does not model how splitters and mergers prefer to work, but this is a drawback, not an improvement. For example, in game, if you set up a recycled rubber/plastic loop with a three-way split from the rubber output as well as a three way split from the plastic output with only one going back into the loop for each, not enough rubber and plastic will be sent back into the loop to sustain it and eventually it will stop outputting rubber all together. The Full calculator will show this by everything going to zero. The manual calculator can solve this if you enter enough values, but you will have to manually note that the splitter is sending half the materials back into the loop and thus need to take this into account when building in the game and not use a plain old three-way split.