BlockFactory:Field Manual and HUD

The Field Manual is your in-game encyclopedia: a recipe browser for every Block Factory item, a statistics page for your factory and your team page. This page also explains the HUD: the goal tracker, the minimap and world map, the status icons over machines and the factory warnings.

The Field Manual

• Every player gets a Field Manual on joining a world. If you lose it or throw it away, you get a new one the next time you join, or when you type /recipes.
• Right click with the Field Manual in your hand to open it.
• /recipes opens the recipe browser without the book. Every player can use it.

The manual has three tabs on its left edge: Recipes, Statistics and Team.

Recipes

• Type into the search field to find items by name.
• All items shows everything; Only unlocked hides items whose recipe still needs research. Locked items are marked red in the list.
• Left click an item to see how to make it (Recipes), right click to see what it is used in (Uses). This works everywhere in the window, also on the ingredients and products of a recipe, so you can click your way through a whole production chain. Back walks the path back step by step.
• For a machine, a third view, Processes, shows what the machine takes and makes.

A recipe shows:

• ingredients and products with amounts,
• where it is made: Handcrafting, a machine such as the Brick Furnace or a Fabricator, or By hand from a tree, rock or large rock,
• the time per craft, and for machines also the rate per minute,
• for fuels the fuel value in MJ,
• for machines their power use: Power: … kW of electricity while working or Burns fuel: … kW while working,
• for fluids the minimum pipe they need.

The research line tells you where an item stands:

Line	Meaning
Available from the start	You can make it now.
Unlocked by research …	Your team has researched it.
Locked: needs research …	Research it first; see Research.

Statistics

The page refreshes every 2 seconds. Buttons at the top switch between the last 1, 10 or 60 minutes (10 by default).

Section	Shows
Production	Per item: how many your furnaces, fabricators and drills made and how many were used, per minute, with the net result. Sortable by column.
Research	How many researches are done out of all, and the Gob and Gol points on the account.
Power	Per power grid: power delivered against power wanted, in percent, the average of the last 60 seconds, and the number of generators and consumers.
Enemies	Unrest in percent (calm, raised, high), the noise in the world and how much new noise your factory makes per minute.

If an item is used faster than it is made, build more of whatever makes it.

Team

The third tab manages your team. See Teams and Raids.

HUD

The HUD with the goal tracker on the right

Panel	Where	Shows
Next goal	Right	Your current goal with progress bars, for example the materials of the current portal phase
Tip	Right	A short tip that fits the moment, for 15 seconds
Minimap	Top right	Your surroundings, the time of day and your current epoch
Research & towers	Top left	Gob and Gol points; tower ammunition as total shots, with the number of empty towers
Factory warnings	HUD	Attacks on the factory: N and Towers without ammunition: N; each line hides at zero
Crafting	Bottom left	Your pocket crafting job: item, count, waiting jobs and progress
Machine info	Under the crosshair	The machine you look at: product and remaining time, fuel or power, inputs and output

Goal tracker

The Next goal panel always shows the first open goal:

1. Power the bunker: connect the power connector at the bunker exit to a power grid.
2. Portal of the Ancient (phase 1 to 4): rebuild the portal on the ruin near the bunker. Each material is listed with have / need.
3. Open the Great Portal (3 steps): research Great Portal, build a Great Portal Altar within range of the Great Portal, then deliver goods and power (in MJ) to the altar.

When the Great Portal is open, the panel disappears. See Getting Started and Great Portal.

Tips

Tips appear when they fit: at the start, when a machine nearby has no fuel, no power or a full output, when a boiler runs dry, when a drill finds no ore, when enemies are on their way, or when it is time to start research. Each tip shows once per player, at most one per minute. /tips --off turns them off, /tips --on turns them back on.

Minimap and world map

The round minimap at the top right shows your surroundings, the time of day and your epoch.

The world map colors ore fields in their own colors and labels the fields in areas you have explored. Block Factory adds these markers:

Marker	When
Bunker, Portal of the Ancient, Great Portal	Always
Ruin guarded by a War Golem / Ruin (freed)	Once its golem has risen; freed ruins turn white
Small Nest, Large Nest	Once a player came within about 96 blocks, or a powered Rangertower spotted it
Attack	While your factory is under attack
Train, Train (stuck)	Your trains
Creatures on the move	Spotted by a powered Rangertower (only its team sees them)
Cryo Capsule, Rangertower	Powered ones of your own team, in your team's color
Death Chest	Where a player died

Map layers

Buttons at the top right of the world map switch extra layers on and off: Noise, Power lines, Nests, Ruins and Goblin Hut range. Green means on. The switches apply to everyone in the world. /maplayers opens the same switches.

Status icons

When a machine has a problem, a spinning icon floats above it. Fuel, power, output and recipe problems show only after they have lasted about 4.5 seconds, so short waits do not make icons flicker. Icons are shown within 64 blocks of a player. When a machine works fine, the item it is making floats above it instead.

Icon	Name	Appears when	What to do
	No Fuel	A fuel-burning machine has nothing left to burn	Add Coal or Wood (crouch + Use), or feed it with a grabber
	No Power	An electric machine gets no power at all	Connect it with power poles to a grid with a generator
	Low Power	The grid delivers less than the machines want; the machine works slower	Build more generators
	Output Full	The output is full, so the machine stopped	Take the products out, or let a grabber move them onto a belt or into a chest
	Tank Full	The output tank of a fluid machine is full	Connect a pipe that carries the fluid away
	No Recipe	A machine with recipe choice has no recipe	Open it and choose one
	No Ammunition	A tower has nothing to shoot	Fill it with ammunition by hand or with grabbers
	Wrong Pipe	A fluid connection sits on pipes that cannot carry its fluid	Use a better pipe
	Wrong Pipe: needs Pipe T2	As above; at least Pipe T2 is needed	Replace the pipe with Pipe T2 or better
	Wrong Pipe: needs Reinforced Pipe	As above; a Reinforced Pipe is needed	Replace the pipe with a Reinforced Pipe
	No Creature	A Goblin Hut has neither goblins nor hob-goblins	Put creatures in
	Marked for Deconstruction	You marked the part with the Goblin Planner	Hob-goblins will tear it down
	Marked for Upgrade	You marked the part for an upgrade	Hob-goblins will replace it with the chosen tier

A drill on ground without ore shows no icon, but its window and info panel say Nothing to mine under the drill. See Fluids, Power and Goblin Planner.

Factory warnings

Warnings cover problems you may not see from where you stand. They pop up as notifications for the team that owns the affected parts, with a rough location (Near x, z).

Warning	Appears when	Sound
Your factory is under attack!	Creatures damage or destroy one of your parts, or an attack group sets off toward your factory	Warning horn
A Gun Tower is out of ammunition	A tower shows the No Ammunition icon	Warning tone
A train is stuck (no fuel or no path)	A train cannot move on	Warning tone

• Attacks are grouped by area (64 × 64 blocks). An attack stays active until 30 seconds after the last hit.
• Each kind of warning pops up at most once a minute, so a long fight does not flood your screen.
• Attacks also show on the world map, and stuck trains as Train (stuck).

See Defense, Enemies and Railways.

See also

• Recipes
• Research Tree
• Commands
• Controls and Building