TL;DR
Allow Hand crafting using barrels of fluidsWhat ?
When I was learning Factorio, I was surprised to find Recipes that call for fluids can't currently be crafted by hand even if you have the fluid "on hand" in barrels (such as purple circuits or Express conveyors) [0.17.32].To me it would make more sense if you have a barrel on hand you could craft the recipe (unless expressly forbidden such as engines).
Why ?
I did not really understand what the functions of barrels was, to be honest. I found out later that fluid train cars were a relatively recent development (and barrels used to hold more fluid), so they historically make sense, and can have applications by putting them into the logistics network.WHY do you think it increases the value of Factorio as a game?
By the time players can make barreled fluids, they will likely be mid-game with Assembler2 or 3 which can out-perform players, so I do not see it as unbalancing, but still handy as an alternative (to have X on hand to make chips or conveyors).
[0.17.32] as of writing.
More on barrels:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=49623&p=288455&hili ... ls#p288455
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=47316