User:AceMcCloud/Nintendo Switch version

The majority of Factorio players use a PC (regardless of brand/OS), and so there are some aspects of the game, and the wiki, that just seem off to players that have only played on the Nintendo Switch.

Note that, except for the section on Vanilla Mode & Mods, this page also applies to PC users that use a game controller.

Vanilla Mode & Mods

The Switch has limited memory, compared to most Windows/Mac/Linux systems, and Factorio stretches that memory to the limit. As a result, when playing on the Switch, there are limitations on the size of the save file. Save files over a certain size (approximately 100MB) can't be loaded, as the system will run out of memory and the game will crash. The save file size is mostly dependent on how much the player has explored, though building will also increase this to a lesser extent. Many of the mods that have been developed increase the save file size, and when combined with the difficulties of adding executable content to a Switch due to Nintendo licensing rules, it was decided that mods would not be supported.

Game trivia: The game has a hard limit of 2 million tiles in each direction. The play area is broken up into "chunks" of 32 by 32 tiles, which is the smallest unit of exploration or scanning.

Because Switch users play without mods, what is sometimes called "pure vanilla" mode, many of the Forum and Discord discussions will have limited relevance, as mods are a significant aspect of the active Factorio community. As the wiki is intended for use by all players, its content is mostly restricted to "pure vanilla".

Alt Mode

There is a mode which, on the PC, is toggled by pressing ALT, so naturally it is called "Alt mode". In this mode, the view will show additional information about certain items including the current recipe for any Assembling machine or Chemical plant and the contents of any containers.

On the Switch, alt mode is toggled using Up.

Free Cursor

Character is close enough to chop down tree

On a PC, the cursor is, obviously, controlled by the mouse. On the Switch, there are two different cursor modes: "free cursor" and "auto cursor". To toggle between them, press the right stick.

Character is not close enough to chop down tree

With free cursor, there is a PC like cursor (either a cross hair or an item selected from the character inventory), controlled by the right stick. Its behaves much like a mouse cursor - its position is relative to the physical screen, and pretty much does not ever change, even when the character moves, the player changes views, the view is zoomed in or out, etc. Using the console touch-screen will immediately move the cursor to the touched spot.

With auto cursor, there is NOT a visible cursor on the screen and the system will automatically select some object near the character as the active object, or the selected object from the character inventory will appear near the character. Auto cursor mode is more like conventional video games, such as Stardew Valley, where operations are centered on the character itself. The right joy stick can be used to change placement of an inventory item or influence which object is selected, but it isn't possible to reliably select a specific item without moving right next to it. In an area with lots of objects, the selected object will be the one in a particular direction from the character - this is where using the right joystick is sometimes helpful.

There are two things players should remember when using free cursor. First, it is often not necessary to move the character, at all, to perform some actions. The second is the action range limit - all actions on external objects have a distance limit, how far away from the character the cursor can be, when performing the action. Some actions (chopping down a tree) have a very short range. If the object's selection frame is yellow then it is in range, red is out of range. In auto cursor mode, an object that is out of range will never be selected.

In combat, free cursor can be used to target a specific enemy, or enemies in a specific area, and is especially useful for selecting targets for long ranged weapons (such as the Tank gun or a Rocket).

Auto cursor will fire at the enemy closest to the character, which may be more useful in some combat situations.

Quick panel

There are some elements from the computer version that the developers decided to roll into a single popup panel.

The quick panel is displayed when the L (left bumper) is held down and disappears when it is released.