please add another type of force build on top of the 3 modes there are now for replacing all in area for blueprints

[factoriouzr]

Please add another type of force build on top of the 3 modes there are now for replacing all in area.

Currently you can place a blueprint normally, or force place it and have it only put down the items that it can, or you can super force place it which will remove existing entities and put the new ones on top.

I would like another mode of placing blueprints that replaces all things in the area of the blueprint based on it's bounds or based on any tiles included in the blueprint.

What this would do is even if the blueprint was empty in a certain area, but where it's placed down, in that same area there were entities, they would get removed.

The best use of this kind of force placing blueprints is to upgrade existing space platforms. Right now, you can super force place a new space platform blueprint on top of an existing one but it will not make the ships identical as it will not remove existing entities that are not in the same place as ones in the blueprint. This leaves old remnants of the previous ship around that don't work and can be hard to find and clean up.

The best way to work around this limitation now is to first deconstruct all things on the ship, then place the new blueprint on top. This has a few big issues however. One is that it requires enough storage space in the hub for all the deconstructed parts, which can be an issue very easily if the ship is hauling other things and space is limited on the ship. It also loses all items on belts, ammo on belts and in turrets, machines, etc and requires the ship to produce them again, which can take a long time and thus the ship is not ready for flight.

This would all be fixed with a new blueprint placing/building mode (I suggest calling it "replace all") that will deconstruct anything that doesn't match the blueprint in the blueprint's bounds. The bound would simply be determined by the entities/tiles in the blueprint at the extreme edges.

[Rseding91]

Feature requests do not go in bug reports.