Better use of trash slots

[BloodyRain2k]

TL;DR

Use the trash slots for crafting and resupply.

What ?

The TLDR pretty much nails it, when my auto trash is trashing all the wood I pick up, which is exactly what it's supposed to do, then I still can't craft wooden chests.
I have to first pick up a stack of wood and then switch to the crafting page and then click the wooden chest, otherwise the materials in my trash slots don't exist for crafting.
And it shouldn't be like that in my opinion.

Another thing that bugged me forever about the logistics supply and the trash slots is this:
Assume you got a resupply set for 50/50 electric poles. Now if you pick up 2 they go to the trash slots for later storage in the base, so far so fine.
But if you now place 2 you're at 48/50, but the ones in your trash are NOT put back in your inventory.
Why?! Like honestly, I don't get why the game's not doing that o_O

Why ?

Possible saving of logistics activity because drones won't have to take things out of your trash just to give them back to you, because that's just silly.

[Zarylo]

I can explain why it is like that.
Trash is items that you've abandoned for your bots to dispose of.
The main advantage of trash is that they do not take up inventory space.
This allows you to clear forests, or chests filled with more items that would fit into your inventory space alone.

Now if you could actually use those items it wouldn't really be trash anymore but just more inventory space. (I suspect that is what you really want)

To balance your suggestion into something feasible game-design wise, one would have to merge trash inventory with actual inventory, meaning trash items would take up inventory space until drones pick them up; then it would be perfectly fine if you could craft with them as well, as it wouldn't expand usable inventory. But I believe a lot of people would be pretty bummed with that solution.

[BloodyRain2k]

It's not that I want more inventory space per se, though I admit that the maximum you can get in vanilla is a bit lacking, especially since blueprints and marking tools also take up inv space, those could deserve an inventory of their own or something.

What bothers me is the sillyness of needing a working logistic network including logistic drones to move items back from the trash to fulfill request demands.
It would be also nice if construction drones from your personal roboport would take materials first from the trash too, just because of the above.


Plus you already can use the trash slots as extra inventory by just disabling the logistic supply.
So I'm not really counting that as a valid reason to varrant any 'balancing' : /

[MEOWMI]

If they're still in the trash slots, you can just drag them back into your inventory, I do believe? Admittedly I do forget whether turning off logistics means it won't autotrash items either, which may be of relevance...

That aside, as Zarylo was hinting at, I think this wouldn't be added because it'd basically be extra inventory, the size of which shouldn't be changed for game balance purposes.

[5thHorseman]

If they're still in the trash slots, you can just drag them back into your inventory, I do believe? Admittedly I do forget whether turning off logistics means it won't autotrash items either, which may be of relevance...

It won't. I do it all the time for quick handcraft jobs. Bots will still pick up stuff in your trash slots, but you won't automatically put things in your trash slots until you turn personal logistics back on. It's nice too as while you're hand crafting you can move stuff to your trash slots manually and bots will take them.

And I agree it'd be tantamount to free inventory. The only thing I could see them adding would be to allow you to use them only if you had the open slots in your actual inventory, but I expect that'd be a coding nightmare and I wouldn't want to be in charge of it's QA.

[Zarylo]

It's not that I want more inventory space per se, though I admit that the maximum you can get in vanilla is a bit lacking, especially since blueprints and marking tools also take up inv space, those could deserve an inventory of their own or something.

What bothers me is the sillyness of needing a working logistic network including logistic drones to move items back from the trash to fulfill request demands.
It would be also nice if construction drones from your personal roboport would take materials first from the trash too, just because of the above.


Plus you already can use the trash slots as extra inventory by just disabling the logistic supply.
So I'm not really counting that as a valid reason to varrant any 'balancing' : /

It's kind of like complaining that throwing an apple into the trash bin prevents one from eating it.
There are multiple things that need addressing here, let's start with the easy one:

1. Blueprints DO have a dedicated inventory of their own: it is called the blueprint library and they can be dragged from the library onto your hotbar such that not a single BP or BPbook is required to take any space in your inventory, at any given time during play. Learn to use it properly and you'll have 10-20 free slots instantly.
Your BP marking tools can go into the blueprint library as well (they can also be stored in books). I think it was added with 1.0.

2. You do not need a single logistic robot to make use of your trash slots. You can simply dump your trash into a dedicated trash chest with two clicks.
Depending on what your personal idea of what trash (and trash handling) is, you can either set up a train to collect your trash and drive to a sorting station, or you can shoot at the chest and you will never see the items again.
You can also just leave them there and add a new chest whenever one gets full... until you got your logistical challenge sorted.

3. The trash slots are there to immediately free up space for you so you can continue working with your non-trash items. Merely marking them as trash would force you to wait until it is collected, the trash is like a buffer for your trash handling system (whether you use bots or not isn't even relevant)
of course you can temporarily abuse your trash as extended inventory, even though it isn't practical. This impracticality is why it isn't part of your inventory.

4. Whether you choose to use your trash slots or not, you have to figure out a way to solve your logistic (trash) problems, it's part of the game. If you don't like logistic challenges: use logistic bots. That's what they are there for. If you think logistic bots are silly (like me) you will find there are endless amounts of alternative solutions not involving them.
To me bots have niche applications, having them handling trash seems like a waste I think.

[Zarylo]

The only thing I could see them adding would be to allow you to use them only if you had the open slots in your actual inventory, but I expect that'd be a coding nightmare and I wouldn't want to be in charge of it's QA.

Coding it should be pretty easy. I imagine it would be a one liner to find out if the trash fits into the inventory.
The issue is most likely the QA yes. Players who are unaware that their trash fits into their inventory would be confused the instant it no longer does.
To me trash is just sorting my inventory: stuff I need, and stuff I don't need right now.

[foamy]

And I agree it'd be tantamount to free inventory. The only thing I could see them adding would be to allow you to use them only if you had the open slots in your actual inventory, but I expect that'd be a coding nightmare and I wouldn't want to be in charge of it's QA.

Trash slots already work pretty close to that, particularly if you're outside lognet range and so can manually park stuff in it without bots coming to collect it.