0.6.4 transport belt backup glitch

[boltyhead]

So a problem I have been having is a glitch with my transport belts, I don't know exactly what is causing it but it can end up being pretty detrimental. They occasionally become blocked up at a turn like this one did as I was rebuilding my factory.

[kovarex]

Hi, thank you for the report.
I see, we might do something to make this more of a rare occurance.
Until then, I give you a protip:
Never use inserter/mining drill to put something on transport in turn, or from the front (so it is on the center/random).
If you use it just from the side, it will behave correctly.

The point is to prevent items in the center of the belt, when they are just on left/right side, it works.

Edit: Alternative way to prevent this is to not use U turns.

[n9103]

The above problem is exactly that kovarex. He had something placed into the middle of a belt.
U-turns only slightly exacerbate the problem, but this can happen with any turn when item flow is altered from/to center feed or side feed.

@OP:
Until you fully grasp the intricacies of all the belts and belt-components, (and theres few that can really say that,) you need to give it a quick review from end to beginning anytime you change the item flow, to ensure that it hasn't gotten a hitch somewhere in the process.
With what I see here, it looks like you had a miner at the head of a belt somewhere before you rotated the belt to have it on the side, or you made a belt change from a turn to a side feed in the middle of a flow, and didn't clean up the belt section affected. (The latter is a good habit to pick up in-game )

[ssilk]

Reminds me strongly to the problems with roller coasters in rollercoastertycoon and it was also part of the game. I mean, they implemented it in a way, that if there was a problem with the coaster, they pointed it out like this.

So the problem is not to make this happen less often! No! More often! Because if you let it happen less, the problem gets really annoying: you built some stuff and look if everything works well and after 20 minutes the whole stuff is blocked; if you make it happen immediately the player will immediately see, that there is a problem.

And I think that the most players think, this is a bug. So the target should be, that he sees, that it is his fail. I mean blinking of the causing item would clearly let the player see, what the problem is. I mean this would be also a good effect, that every item, which is blocked in a way, that the border of the belt is involved blinks.

[kovarex]

Now, when item is on the edge of the belt, it is pushed towards the center (until it reaches the 1/4 of the width from one or the other side).
The same method could be used to push items from the center to the side, to make sure you have 2 lines everytime.

I don't see any other good solution, as items will always get stucked in the U turn when they are on the belt randomly.

[MF-]

@ssilk
Hehe, making it block more often for two lines of center/random pieces sounds like a good way to me

[boltyhead]

Haha, I just didn't know if it was intended or just an error.

[kovarex]

0.7 changelog:
Straight belt pushes items from the center to one of the sides, so randomly inserted items on belt shouldn't cause stucks in the U turns.

I move this bug to resolved in the next release (hopefully on friday)