⚡ MinimalWire – Clean Power Networks

MinimalWire eliminates power pole spaghetti in Factorio 2.0 by automatically enforcing efficient wire connections. Every time a pole is placed or removed, the mod computes a Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) using Kruskal's algorithm, producing the cleanest possible wiring with the fewest connections.

🧹 No more messy criss-crossing wires. Just clean, minimal power networks.

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✨ Features

• Automatic MST wiring – Poles are rewired optimally every time one is placed or removed
• Deterministic tie-breaking – Consistent, clean-looking results even with symmetrical pole layouts
• Tick-spread operations – Wire changes are spread across multiple game ticks to avoid UPS spikes
• Quality-aware – Correctly handles pole quality tiers and their different wire distances
• Fully configurable – Tune radius, pole limits, and performance via mod settings
• Works with robots – Handles both player and robot-placed/removed poles
• Debug mode – Visual overlays and console output for troubleshooting

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⚙️ Settings

All settings are runtime-global and can be changed in Map Settings mid-game.

Setting	Default	Range	Description
MST Generation Radius	42	1–1000	How far (in tiles) around a placed pole to search for other poles
Maximum Poles in Radius	30	1–1000	Max poles to include in a local MST rebuild
Full-Network MST	false	—	Rebuild the MST across the entire connected network instead of just nearby poles. ⚠️ Can be laggy on large networks, but useful for one-time cleanup
Operations per Tick	10	1–1000	Wire connect/disconnect operations per tick. Higher = faster but may cause lag spikes
Debug Mode	false	—	Print debug stats and draw visual overlays

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🔧 How It Works

1. When a pole is placed, the mod gathers all poles within the configured radius (or the full connected network, if enabled).
2. It builds a weighted graph of all possible pole-to-pole connections, respecting each pole's maximum wire distance.
3. Kruskal's algorithm computes the MST — the minimum set of connections that keeps every pole reachable.
4. Connections not in the MST are scheduled for removal; missing MST edges are scheduled for addition.
5. These changes are applied gradually over multiple ticks (controlled by Operations per Tick) to maintain UPS.
6. When a pole is removed, a temporary hidden dummy pole is created for one tick so the mod can re-evaluate and reconnect the remaining network optimally.

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📦 Installation

1. Download from the Factorio Mod Portal
2. Or place this folder in your Factorio mods/ directory

Requires: Factorio 2.0+

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🤝 Contributing

This mod is now community-maintained! The original author (SleepyStew) no longer has time to actively maintain it, so contributions from the community are very welcome.

How to Contribute

• Bug Reports – Open an issue with steps to reproduce, your mod settings, and any error logs
• Feature Requests – Open an issue describing the feature and how it improves the mod
• Pull Requests – Fork the repo, make your changes, and open a PR. Please:
  • Keep changes focused and well-scoped
  • Test with a variety of pole configurations and network sizes
  • Update changelog.txt following the existing format
  • Bump the version in info.json for any release-worthy changes

Project Structure

minimalwire/
├── info.json        # Mod metadata (name, version, description)
├── control.lua      # Core logic — MST algorithm, event handlers, tick scheduling
├── data.lua         # Prototype definitions (hidden dummy pole)
├── settings.lua     # Mod settings definitions
├── changelog.txt    # Version history
└── thumbnail.png    # Mod portal thumbnail

Architecture Notes

• control.lua is the heart of the mod. Key systems:
  • calculate_mst() – Kruskal's algorithm with Union-Find
  • rebuild_mst_for_subnetwork() – Orchestrates gathering poles, computing MST, and scheduling wire changes
  • gather_nearby_poles() / gather_connected_poles() – Two strategies for finding relevant poles
  • on_tick_handler() – Processes connection/disconnection tasks across ticks
• data.lua defines dummy-hidden-pole, a zero-size invisible pole used during removal events to preserve network context for one tick
• settings.lua defines all user-configurable parameters

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🐛 Known Issues & Areas for Improvement

• The pole cache (pole_cache) is never explicitly cleared — stale entries may accumulate during long sessions
• gather_nearby_poles() uses a two-pass search (small then large radius) that could be simplified
• The full-network MST mode can cause significant lag on very large networks
• No localisation support (all strings are hardcoded in English)

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📜 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.