Factorio Forums

Minor Features

• Items on the ground can be mined manually for precise control of what you pick up.
• Added 'duplicate starting entities' option to PvP.

Changes

• Changed splitters so they work more intuitively. The left and right lane splitting is now completely independent. The decision whether item goes to left or right output is now independent of the item type.
• Hide cliff explosives in bonus GUI as they don't really receive any bonuses. (56318)
• Tweaked the balancing of the PvP production score.
• Changed size of offshore pump from 3x1 to 3x2 in order to prevent pump placement in overlapping positions. (55110)

Optimisations

• Optimized drawing of artillery range visualization when many artilleries were in range of viewed area. (56224)

Bugfixes

• Fixed that consequtive splitters could uncompress compressed belt. (55645)
• Fixed that loading from the game-over screen would result in a crash if loading failed. (56336)
• Fixed several settings copying issues when placing blueprints over existing entities related to multiplayer. (56339)
• Fixed machines disabled by circuit network sometimes staying disabled when they shouldn't. (56327)
• Fixed Linux users sometime crashing when relaunching the game. (53650)
• Fixed that blueprint library GUI would lose your filter when you view a blueprint. (56210)
• Fixed that biters would sometimes be deactivated when they shouldn't. (55370)
• Fixed that artillery would target forces marked with cease fire. (56360)
• Fixed a crash when using LuaTransportLine::remove_item(). (56352)
• Fixed that the beacon would show energy consumption twice. (56359)
• Fixed PvP production score calculation for hand crafting and launching satellites.
• Fixed jittering when walking into a straight water/land border. (56362)
• Attempt at fixing missing symbol on macOS 10.9 (54549)
• Fixed that turret range map and hover overlays didn't quite match. (56332)
• Fixed that RCON would only respond to the first command in a packet. (55918)
• Fixed PvP no rush restriction could be bypassed using a vehicle.
• Ensure that there is always at least a minimal lake in the starting area.
• Fixed script error if a removed modded item was sent in a rocket. (56411)
• Fixed that loading logistic heavy saves after changing mods would take 20+ minutes. (56402)
• Fixed a crash when mods would try to set item health values to negative amounts. (56407)
• Fixed requester chests could get stuck in some cases. (56408)
• Fixed that manually putting damaged items in the output slot of an assembling machine could lead to lost items. (56038)
• Fixed chunk edge cliff discontinuities due to ore patches. (56022)

Scripting

• Added LuaEntity::cliff_orientation read.

Use the automatic updater if you can (check experimental updates in other settings) or download full installation at http://www.factorio.com/download/experimental.

First!

FactorioBot wrote: Changes

• Changed splitters so they work more intuitively. The left and right lane splitting is now completely independent. The decision whether item goes to left or right output is now independent of the item type.

Does this mean that the magic splitter sorters will stop working now?
https://i.imgur.com/5U9jeYF.gifv

Edit:
May have been unclear by what I mean by magic splitter sorter, added stuff!

provet wrote:First!

Does this mean that the magic splitter sorters will stop working now?

Yep

RIP Black magic sorters, no-one knew how you worked anyways.

FactorioBot wrote: [*]Changed size of offshore pump from 3x1 to 3x2 in order to prevent pump placement in overlapping positions. (55110)

RIP my 'water in the starting area only' factory. You served me well.

FactorioBot wrote: Changes

• Changed splitters so they work more intuitively. The left and right lane splitting is now completely independent. The decision whether item goes to left or right output is now independent of the item type.

Bugfixes

• Fixed that consequtive splitters could uncompress compressed belt. (55645)

Really nice to see the change and the fix.
I think there will be some flame about splitter magic but this change is definitely for good!

Changed splitters so they work more intuitively. The left and right lane splitting is now completely independent. The decision whether item goes to left or right output is now independent of the item type.

Was this change also due to optimizations or fixing the belt problems? Or was it just a design decision? Because I liked that feature.

I used it for loading different types of ores at a loading station equally on train wagons. And I built a slag sorter on my seablock map when I was bored. Oh well...

FactorioBot wrote:Changed splitters so they work more intuitively. The left and right lane splitting is now completely independent. The decision whether item goes to left or right output is now independent of the item type.

http://www.nooooooooooooooo.com

Another cool feature lost

PacifyerGrey wrote:I think there will be some flame about splitter magic but this change is definitely for good!

I fully agree. Although the splitter magic was somewhat cool, it was an unintuitive hack. Therefore, I am very happy that they changed splitters to work in a more intuitive way.

Now the only unintuitive hack that remains to be abolished are underground belts, when being abused for splitting individual belt lanes. In my opinion, a more intuitive way to block individual belt lanes should be introduced, either in the belts themselves or by being able to configure a splitter to block individual lanes. See the following suggestion threads for more information:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=56248 Shouldn't unmerging a belt be as simple as merging it?
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=48047 Underground belt lane splitting, anyone else hate it?

Tekky wrote:Now the only unintuitive hack that remains to be abolished are underground belts, when being abused for splitting individual belt lanes.

I still think that we should have a "zipper" or a checkbox on splitters to change it's behavior.

I never had any problems with the "unintuitive" splitters and I appreciate if black magic is possible in the game, even if I couldn't come up with it myself or understand how it works. It makes it me feel like there always is more stuff to figure out. If it is for optimization and cleaner code the change could be OK.

FactorioBot wrote:Changed splitters so they work more intuitively. The left and right lane splitting is now completely independent. The decision whether item goes to left or right output is now independent of the item type.

Thank you!!! The dependence between the two lanes once caused me so much trouble while I was trying to implement a relatively basic belt behavior that I quit playing the game for many months out of frustration. (When easy things are not actually easy, it can feel like the game is insulting you, even if that is just a silly emotion.) I will have to give those ideas another try now that the lanes do not affect each other through splitters.

RIP Black Magic Splitter :/

Please introduce a legit belt part with a lane sorting function, because inserters (and even stack inserters) are no comparation...

Greetings, Ronny

I think there is a mod for that. I used one a while ago.

Changed splitters so they work more intuitively. The left and right lane splitting is now completely independent.
The decision whether item goes to left or right output is now independent of the item type.

Per-item splitting was the way to distribute belt contents independent of input patterns. It was one of the delights in Factorio, one of the subtle quirks that didn't matter until it really did, and turned out to be exceedingly useful.

Losing the alien artifacts improved the game overall, because the killing just got tiresome, but it cost something too. There was a real tristesse to the situation you found yourself in before, where now the game world is more bland, more generic. But the gameplay cost for setting up that situation was at least articulable: a real gameplay penalty was paid to avoid an arguably even bigger one.

This change doesn't improve the game at all. People who don't pay attention to how splitters work never noticed this subtlety. People who _did_ pay attention to how splitters work could do clever and useful things. There was a distinct reward to paying attention to subtle details. That reward's gone now. The game world got more bland, more generic, and for what?

rldml wrote:RIP Black Magic Splitter :/

Please introduce a legit belt part with a lane sorting function, because inserters (and even stack inserters) are no comparation...

Matthias_Wlkp wrote:I think there is a mod for that. I used one a while ago.

Yes, here is a link to a mod which peforms this function:
https://mods.factorio.com/mods/judos/beltSorter

I would like to see such a sorter in vanilla, or at least some basic building blocks that allow you to construct your own, such as loaders with filters. Having to build many inserters to saturate a belt is not as nice, at least in the late-game.

I, too, feel like we're losing something useful, even though I've never actually used a splitter sorter. But it was always on my list of "when I level up my Factorio skill another time or two, I'll try doing it this way."

In the spirit of multiple ways to do things, I too would like to see an actual belt sorter in the vanilla game. It is something that would be useful enough under certain conditions that I'm sure I would be willing to sink lots of research to enable, and then expensive resources in order to build (blue circuits, perhaps?). I think this would go a long way to satisfying those who are certainly going to be unhappy about the splitter change.

I also believe that adding functionality via straightforward implementations/features is generally better (and makes the game more accessible) than relying on subtlety or black magic. A vanilla splitter together with this change would be a step in that direction.

FactorioBot wrote: Changes

• Changed splitters so they work more intuitively. The left and right lane splitting is now completely independent. The decision whether item goes to left or right output is now independent of the item type.

Bugfixes

• Fixed that consequtive splitters could uncompress compressed belt. (55645)

So, does the Change come as a side-result of the Bugfix? Does it improve performance? Or is it just another fix of a thing that wasn't broken?

If the latter, then I have to second this:

quyxkh wrote:People who don't pay attention to how splitters work never noticed this subtlety. People who _did_ pay attention to how splitters work could do clever and useful things. There was a distinct reward to paying attention to subtle details. That reward's gone now. The game world got more bland, more generic, and for what?

About underground belt lane splitters...
IMHO, to make lane splitting the best way is add item of 1x1 tile size that will have 2 input belts and 2 output belts next way: I1 and I3 -- lanes of 1st input (2 lanes)
I2 and I4 -- lanes of 2nd input
O1 and O2 -- lanes of 1st output
O3 and O4 -- lanes of 2nd output

Honestly, to all those who want the unintuitive black magic powered splitters :
https://xkcd.com/1172/