Two-directional Conveyer Belts

[daznet69]

Would it be possible to add an 2 way conveyer belt?

[ssilk]

Why? I ask as moderator, otherwise this isn't a useable suggestion.

[kovarex]

You mean that they would be 1/2 belts with opposite directions? If so I believe it is too specialised thing.

[FishSandwich]

It could be useful for example you could have iron plates in one side going away from your furnaces and iron ore on the other side going towards them.

So you essentially have one belt doing the job of two.

[Deathmage]

Or you could just have it so that ore is on the belt (side closest to the furnace) and have it taken out and put on the same belt, then taken off with smart inserters. New feature not needed.

[Drury]

You can use red inserters with extended range for this and just have two belts going in opposite directions next to each other.

[ssilk]

I don't see much hope, that this is implemented, because it already can be done yet without much afford. This doesn't bring anything new into the game.

[FishSandwich]

So using that mindframe I could ask what is the point of logistic bots? Apart from looking cool and making things neater. Because you can do the same job with belts.

[slay_mithos]

Logistic bots let you automate your factory in an entirely different fashion, not based on overflow like with the belts, but more on "build on demand" style.

They also enable the possibility of having items fed to specific places, in specific numbers, which you really can not do without them past 4 items types per chest (or using really complicated contraptions) using smart inserters.

The point is that the bots have a lot of uses, where a two way belt would only be useful for very specific uses, where deigning just a tiny bit differently could also net the same result (iron ore coming in the same direction that the plates exit), and factories tend to try to output as much as possible anyway, so using both sides for the items as frequently used as the plates is nearly a given.

Add to this two questions:
1/ How do you plan on making things input/output from/to "regular" belts afterwards?
If you need convoluted placements just to use the belts, it is complicating things even further for no reason.

2/ How would you make placing the belts not confusing?
With rotation to choose what side of the belt goes which way, I suppose, but that means having graphics completely different for those belts, with the "direction" arrows and all.


I am not totally against the idea, but it definitely needs a bit more thinking as for what it would bring for everyone, not just a few players.
If it's only to satisfy specific designs in your factories, then it is better suited for a mod, even though I am not sure if it's actually possible with the current belt definitions.

Extending this idea would also allow for belts with two different speeds, and other functionalities.
Pretty niche, but could find a public.

[FishSandwich]

I don't know what OP wants the two way belts for, I can think of a few reasons for using a belt that way. But it'd be in small, insignificant sections of the base where double belts would work just fine, so yes probably better suited for a mod when possible.

The problem I have with this thread is everyone is shooting down the idea because "it can be done already another way". That is literally against what Factorio is about, imagine playing the game and being.. I don't know.. 20 hours in and still using burner drills and stone furnaces. Why? Because you didn't bother upgrading, why would you when the job is being done already. That's the point I was making about the logistic bots, why bother when belts get the job done? The game is all about constantly changing designs and upgrading when new technology comes out.

1/ How do you plan on making things input/output from/to "regular" belts afterwards?
If you need convoluted placements just to use the belts, it is complicating things even further for no reason.

I don't think so, something like this would work quite easily in my opinion. And it would save space and resources.

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Imagine Iron Plates going right then up, while iron ore is going up onto the bottom half of the belt and then left. That's just one design I can think of off the top of my head.

[slay_mithos]

I think it's not so much "you can do it an other way already", and more of a "what does it add that would improve the game?".

I mean, the OP didn't even bother trying to expand on his ideas as for why it would be a great addition, what lead him to this idea, cases where it would really help a lot, or even coming back to his thread to defend and explain his idea...

[ssilk]

The problem I have with this thread is everyone is shooting down the idea because "it can be done already another way". That is literally against what Factorio is about, imagine playing the game and being.. I don't know.. 20 hours in and still using burner drills and stone furnaces. Why? Because you didn't bother upgrading, why would you when the job is being done already. That's the point I was making about the logistic bots, why bother when belts get the job done? The game is all about constantly changing designs and upgrading when new technology comes out.

Hm. Thats not the point. Your example-ascii-construction could already be done, exactly the same function, but it needs two tiles instead of one. So what? There is normally enough space in Factorio. You just need to use it.
And the other point is, that the devs said now more than three times, that they don't want to implement new splitters or other things, which reimplements an already existing function. I count this to that list.

[FishSandwich]

And the other point is, that the devs said now more than three times, that they don't want to implement new splitters or other things, which reimplements an already existing function. I count this to that list.

Now that explanation I can accept.

[Sedado77]

I like the idea, but agree that IMO it doesn't add much to the game :S
It would be nice for version 0.12 maybe, not now.

[Neotix]

Sometimes I'm using that setup if i want to use one side for materials and other for products.

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Right side is for materials which are stopped by ground belt
Left side is for products which are going through ground belt.

[ssilk]

It came just in my sense, that this is eventually not known: https://forums.factorio.com/wiki/inde ... anes_trick

[slay_mithos]

Indeed, I didn't know about this trick, thanks.

[Zimposity]

Hi there I'm pretty new but I had this idea and I thought it might be worth posting. I'm sorry if someone else has already had an idea similar to this I looked at the suggestions a little and it didn't seem like anyone had. I'm also sorry if this idea is already in the game, I don't think it is but I haven't played it in full and so don't no for certain.

Edit: Had an idea about a Combiner here but someone informed me Splitters do the same job.

Second idea, the Two-directional Conveyor Belt (also not best name but fits). This leads on from my previous idea from having two things on one belt but this would basically be a normal conveyor belt except either side of the belt would be going in opposite directions. This would basically just mean you could cram even more items into a smaller space and facilitate automation even more! I'm not sure exactly how these conveyors would connect to others but maybe there could be a way of selecting which direction each side of the conveyor goes. I could see conveyors getting much more complicated with items going every which way but hey! the more complicated, the more fun and challenging.

So yeah those are my ideas.

Tell me what you think in the comments if you feel like it.

[Garm]

1st idea: Splitter already does that - simply place 2 lines at the end and 1 line as exit and it will combine them

2nd idea: i think it would not be easy to develop unfortunately. Why not just use two separate belts antiparallel to each other?

[Zimposity]

1st Idea: Oh yeah I never thought if trying that... I thought that due to it being called a 'Splitter' it would only split but obviously not.

2nd Idea: It's true you could use two belts next to each other I just thought it might be a nice way to get more efficiency from conveyors. You might have two belts going in opposite directions to each other but don't have enough room for both of them, you could place them on the same conveyor.

EDIT: Maybe they should change the name of Splitters then to something else... maybe splitter/combiner? sorter?