Would power usage be better represented with a stacked area chart?
Currently, power usage is measured with a simple line chart. Considering a lot of power consuming objects use a similar amount of power, it makes it very difficult to read without filtering for the object(s) you're most interested in. Similarly, if you're using several sources of power (eg solar-accumulator and steam), the power production is tricky to read. You can train yourself to see patterns in it (for example, if the solar line is a full trapezium, then your accumulators won't fully charge in a day), but it's not very intuitive.
I think it would make a lot more sense to use a stacked area chart, like this:
http://www.java2s.com/Code/JavaImages/JFreeChartStackedAreaChartDemo.PNG
Essentially, instead of each variable's magnitude being its distance from the x-axis, it's the distance from the variable below. That way, the total height of the chart is the total power usage (or production, for the other side).
I don't have any Factorio data to produce a mock-up, and I don't know of a way to export/extract it from the game. I'd appreciate any feedback you all can give, particularly if you could get me a (say, 10-minute) data set for power usage, or - even better - produce a mock-up stacked area chart from it.
Posted Aug 13, 2018, 1:47 PM UTC