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.

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

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.

With free cursor, there is a cross hair cursor, controlled by the right stick. Its behaves much like a mouse cursor - its position is relative to the physical screen, and does not change when the character moves, the player changes views, or anything like that. There are some circumstances where using the free cursor can simplify the selection of a particular item.

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. 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 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.

The 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 red then it is out of range. In auto cursor mode, an object that is out of range will never be selected.