Telling inserters where to place items on transport belts

[DexterNemrod]

At the moment Inserters place any items automatically on the outer lane of the transport belts (from their position).

It would be very helpful for factory design, if instead we could tell inserters that they should always place their items into a specific lane (i.e. left, middle or right lane)
(yes, there is a middle lane ... if you start your transport belt directly at a mine output or inserter (with the belt running away from the mine/inserter [instead of running sideways]) items get placed in this lane)

[ssilk]

There are more than 3 "lanes". Get much iron in your hands, go over a belt and press Z some times. There are some moving stones, which are "out of the belt".

Putting stuff into the middle of a belt doesn't make sense from the gameplay, because it blocks all other items or brings the hole flow to stuck (strong curves with the belt).

It is always possible to bring an item to the "other side" by using some tricks and I think it is part of the gameplay to handle this "left/right lane" things and all the cludder you can produce, when you make it wrong.

[MF-]

+ this works as intended, it is a part of the design challenge.

[DexterNemrod]

Ah O.K., if it is intended then just imagine that I wrote nochting at all

[AndaleTheGreat]

Would like to see an option (likely in gui) to set the Inserter arms to set on a specific side. I have watched and mine puts to farthest 4 to 8 times, then once on nearest.
Same option could work for taking things off as well. This would mean we'd need a third option like 'default' that uses the old method.

[Molay]

I have watched and mine puts to farthest 4 to 8 times, then once on nearest.

I've never had that happen to me on a straight belt. Did that happen on a curved belt? How did you manage this?^^

[Garm]

I've never had that happen to me on a straight belt. Did that happen on a curved belt? How did you manage this?^^

I believe this can happen when belt is moving directly away from inserter. The inserter places it in the middle ad item itself decides where to go. It usually chooses one side but if there are other items it can go the opposite I believe.

[AndaleTheGreat]

It happens from the side.
If placing on end it tends to go to right (as viewed from insterter position).

[Garm]

never seen it happening on side. in fact a lot of my designs revolve around the fact that inserters always put at the opposite side. even if i got 1 in 50+ chance of happening i would've noticed it as it would've broken a lot.

[GewaltSam]

It only happens sometimes if you insert on belts in curves or "from behind". If you add from the sides, inserters ALWAYS put stuff on the far side, never seen it any other way (and i use that mechanic a lot for my creations).

Please show us a screenshot in which case this wasn't working for you, AndaleTheGreat.
BTW, you don't really need an option for the side of the belt used (it could in fact even be problematic for multiplayer, scenarios and stuff). If you know how, you can easily switch sides, merge things together on belts with products on the side you choose them to be, and so on. It's just a question of design, but there are many little tricks to learn. But that's a bit offtopic; fact is, the problem you're describing shouldn't happen at all, except for the mentioned cases.

[MF-]

Pictures, please.

If the belt is not running directly away from the inserter or curved, the side should remain constant.

[AndaleTheGreat]

I'll try to catch it happening when I play again. I only realized it at one point cuz of my stuff getting blocked up. I wonder if something else was on the other side possibly.... I can't remember how that build went. Using no autosave and I got on the phone with a client but forgot to hit ESC so lost that build. I will make a point try and recreate tho.


This doesn't change the fact that I'd still like it for retrieval tho.

[ssilk]

No, declined , this is already a mod (wide & near inserters): https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =14&t=3403

[Hyena Grin]

Inserters will in fact stop putting items onto a belt if the far lane is full. They are so reluctant to place items on the near side of the belt that they will cease to function. So I'm not sure what your situation was.

When picking up objects, they will prefer the near side of the belt, but will take from either side if the near side is empty.

When placing down objects, they will only place on the far side of the belt. Which is good, because if it was random then a lot of my designs would have gummed up entirely.

I think that it would be a suitable feature for the Smart Inserter. It already has a UI, so it'd be nice if you could use the UI to choose which lane the arm was placing stuff on.

But it looks like you're stuck with a mod.

[AndaleTheGreat]

Inserters will in fact stop putting items onto a belt if the far lane is full. They are so reluctant to place items on the near side of the belt that they will cease to function. So I'm not sure what your situation was.

When picking up objects, they will prefer the near side of the belt, but will take from either side if the near side is empty.

When placing down objects, they will only place on the far side of the belt. Which is good, because if it was random then a lot of my designs would have gummed up entirely.

I think that it would be a suitable feature for the Smart Inserter. It already has a UI, so it'd be nice if you could use the UI to choose which lane the arm was placing stuff on.

But it looks like you're stuck with a mod.

I shall take hold of this mod and squeeze it and love it and call it George. Also, good idea with smart insterter having it. Still haven't recreated, but haven't been playing as much as drinking tonight.

[khh]

No, declined , this is already a mod (wide & near inserters): https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =14&t=3403

Makes sense, this seems like a design choice to me. After all small but surmountable problems is the very thing that makes this game fun.

[pawel.dawidowski]

joined into here, cause identical -- ssilk

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Simple addition to a inserter would be a simple button which allows you to choose whenever the inserter put an item on close side or far side of the belt (lcurrently they always put it on far side).

This might help to project more complex production chains.

[arl85]

I think that having to face this "limitation" of inserter putting on far side is part of the game.
And you can easily change side using belt (see here)

[tecxx]

Simple addition to a inserter would be a simple button which allows you to choose whenever the inserter put an item on close side or far side of the belt (currently they always put it on far side).

This might help to project more complex production chains.

i put my vote up for this.
i'd also like inserters to have a switch or button which defines if they should put items to the "near" or "far" side of the belt.
same goes for drill outputs. i dont see the gameplay advantage of constructing workarounds just to output the item on a different side of the lane.

[ssilk]

Userstory: See title.
Prerequisites: complete.
Game-value:
- Questionable, cause it changes a basic concept, which is part of the game.
- devs stated, that it is part of the game to handle the problems with near/far side.
- this is available as mod (see previous page in this thread)
Developer-costs: Unknown.
User-opinions: Especially older gamers are against this.