Furnaces/inserters stuck with this setup

[ffMathy]

I have a bug to report. I haven't found anything similar online. Maybe it's just me, and maybe everything is working fine. I can't tell. The behavior I am experiencing is sure weird.

I have this configuration:



Now, these furnaces get their input from the left (either iron plates, stone, iron or copper), and get coal from the right side. They also put their output out on the right side (steel plates, iron plates, copper plates or stone bricks).

The issue I am facing is that some of these furnaces stop working after a while, and are left in a conflicted state. When I then open these furnaces, they look like this:



They clearly have fuel, they clearly have an input resource, but won't produce any output. It's not because the resulting transport belt is congested. If I shift-click the input resource of the furnace to take it back into my inventory, the inserters suddenly start working again, and insert stuff into the furnace... For a while. During this period, the furnaces also work just fine and put their output on the belt as they should.

If I insert MORE of the conflicted resource into the furnace than there already is, the furnaces also start working again... For a while. Again, this time, furnaces also work as expected and put their resources on the output belt.

[FishSandwich]

It looks like the furnace needs more iron plates(because it's 5 iron plates to make 1 steel), but the red input inserter has picked up stone which won't go into the furnace, and so it gets stuck. You can see the red input inserter sitting there with stone in its hand.

[lpw]

It requires 5 Iron to produce one steel, so if you have 1-4 iron loaded it can't produce anything. The problem is, that the inserter isn't smart enough to keep loading iron but tries to load something else (which doesn't fit) so it get's stuck loading for example copper ore and stone for your top furnace but the furnace can't except them because it requires more iron.

[ffMathy]

Interesting. I still think the inserters should be smarter. Is that going to be implemented in the future?

[FishSandwich]

I think kovarex is trying to stabilise 0.11 so he might not be willing to change inserter behaviour until work starts on 0.12

[Nemoricus]

It's a little odd that inserters do this for furnaces, when for any other structure they're quite smart about what they'll insert. But then, furnaces do have the unique behavior of being agnostic about their inputs and outputs. They just smelt whatever's placed in them and output whatever the results of that is.

I'm not sure that this is something that needs to be fixed, though, since accounting for the objects' behavior is part of the challenge. Don't give them mixed inputs and they'll keep working happily.

If the devs do decide to fix it, though, there's a fairly simple solution. Have them check to see if there's an item in the input slot. If there is, only grab items of an identical resource to what's already present. If not, grab the first smeltable item.

[DerivePi]

Interesting. I still think the inserters should be smarter. Is that going to be implemented in the future?

They are already smart enough to only pick items off of belts that the assemblers are requesting. It doesn't make sense that, in this case, the furnace is only requesting iron plate (ie doesn't want stone) and then the inserter goes and picks up a stone.

I've seen this happen with some Dytech assemblers, and with loading into reserved slots on a train wagon. In each case, their are multiple items from the source (belt or box) and the inserter gets stuck holding an item that can no longer be received by wagon, assembler or, in this case, furnace.

[kovarex]

Thanks for the report, this problem had quite trivial solution, so it is fixed for 0.11.14

[sillyfly]

Thanks for the report, this problem had quite trivial solution, so it is fixed for 0.11.14

Will that solution be "Furnaces only request things they can currently smelt" sort of thing?

[kovarex]

Thanks for the report, this problem had quite trivial solution, so it is fixed for 0.11.14

Will that solution be "Furnaces only request things they can currently smelt" sort of thing?

Yes, when the furnace is already smelting (using some recipe), it will only accept the item if it matches the recipe in use.

[Nemoricus]

How does it decide what recipe to use? What's in the input slot? What's in the output slot? Both? Naturally, it uses the input slot, but does it consider the output slot at all?

[kovarex]

The furnace decides the recipe to use by the input slot naturally.

[zulrang]

This is still an issue, at least in 0.12.26

I have a bunch of furnaces with belts containing copper ore and stone. The inserters are picking up the copper ore with one stone in the furnace and getting stuck.

[Koub]

You should sort your ores before getting to the furnace

[fstx]

Hi. I just got factorio and it is awesome. I also have this issue. I am using 0.2.16 (Build 17762, linux64). My inserters are getting stuck, they are trying to put some ore when furnace have some iron plate in it.

Thanks for this amazing game!

[triffid_hunter]

I ran into this in 0.14.21 as soon as I got far enough to start making steel.

Seems like the inserters don't realise they can't put stone/ore in when there's a partial stack of steel plate, and thus everything jams.

Workaround is to separate steel production from stone/ore smelting.

[Tax]

Hello,
this bug is still reproducible.

Version: 0.15.40 (build 30950, linux 64, alpha)
Environment: Linux, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (4.4.0-101-generic)

Please fix it again. This bug is annoying.

Thanks,
Tax

[Loewchen]

Hello,
this bug is still reproducible.

Version: 0.15.40 (build 30950, linux 64, alpha)
Environment: Linux, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (4.4.0-101-generic)

Can not reproduce, I assume you misunderstood the actual issue. This report is too old, make a new report if you still think there is a bug, read the Announcement topics first.