Factorio Forums

Couldn't think of a better way to word the title right now.

What I would suggest is that splitters should be able to choose between soft and hard filters

Hard filters: what we have now - if you choose coal for the right lane, then coal will only go the right hand lane, and the right hand lane will only take coal.

Soft filters: if you choose coal for the right lane, then the coal will only go to the right hand lane, but other items won't be prevented from taking the right hand lane.


Also, there should be a filter for no item, which in effect would close a lane's output. At the moment I can workaround this by selecting something that I know will never appear on the belts, like a rocket silo, but that just seems a bit janky and has the possibility to back up if something unexpected happens.

Thanks

I see... right now filters are exclusive ALL the coal AND ONLY the coal, and you are asking for a non-exclusive filter, yes ALL the coal, but I don't care what else goes with it. That would allow a whole bunch of new designs, I like it!

I copied a design that used a deconstruction planner as the NO EXIT THIS LANE marker, the big red square is a nice visual indicator that that lane of the splitter output is blocked. I do agree that it would be nice if that was a setting rather than a workaround, especially if it was configurable via circuits.

If I understood right, it could easily be achieved with combinations of splitters.
It's general rule of thumb not to add such things, to keep core idea that anything from basic ones and zeroes, even if you had to come up with some 'trick' that has become basic themselves. That's why they don't add splitter of lanes for example, because you can do it by 'unorthodox' (not anymore) use of underground belts. Same goes for settings for inserters to choose a line, etc.

What are use cases for both suggestions?

Use case for soft filters:

Multiple parallel sushi belts, with one exit for red circuits.

At present, you need separate filtered splitters for each sushi lane, merging the red filtered outputs after the exit.

With soft filters, each lane can send red circuits towards the exit without blocking other items from going forwards.


Use cases for blocked exits:

#1 - stopping expensive items getting trapped in exits - self explanatory
#2 - more compact layouts - imagine a splitter going south, left hand is open and right hand is blocked - immediately after the right hand lane is a left-right underground belt (entry or exit) - at the moment without the block items will filter onto the underground belt.