[1.1.12] Filter inserter does not respect 'set stacksize from circuit network'

[Xunie]

Factorio: v1.1.12

Summary: When filter inserters have both 'override stack size' enabled AND the circuit connection 'Set stack size from circuit network' toggled on. This greys out the 'override stack size' checkbox & slider and yet the inserter still prefers to listen to the the manual stacksize override instead of the circuit network.

Steps to reproduce:
Open any save, paste blueprint, build it.
Insert a few stacks of iron plates into the left steel chest.
Observe the inserter only inserting 2 items instead of the requested 3!

Code: Select all

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[boskid]

Not a bug.

You did not select any Control Signal in the Inserter's control gui. In that stat manual override is grayed out but there is nothing that changes the inserter's stack size.

[Xunie]

Oh damn. You're right. Not a bug I guess. But don't close this bug report just yet!

Maybe the stack size should be equivalent to the circuit input respective to each signal? This would be a very elegant 'solution' and would allow the player to set a per-item stack size rather than a 'one size fits all'.

I'm running into a problem where I need to remove N items from a chest but leave K items in there. I'm forced to override the stack-size to 1 and disable the inserter when the level reaches down to K. Because a stack-size>1 means the inserter might be too greedy and remove too many from the item-level-controlled chest? I'll have to disable the stack-size bonus and force stack-size=1. This is slows down the throughput. By having each circuit-input filter have a separate stack size, I get to exactly control the item levels in one chest while also being able to use my stack bonus!

What follows is a blueprint where a single buffer chest is kept with the exact item level you request using the constant combinator. (I have to do this because buffer chests cannot have exact item level controls like the player/spidertron inventory has (where you can set a 'max' count). This is a separate feature request, just trying to explain what I'm trying to do and why...

Note: the blueprint ain't perfect because the logistic bots are a little generous in their deliveries so there will inevitably be some 'pass-through' to the active provider chest.

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[Xunie]

I suggest the following feature improvements up for debate:

• enable a slight hue change to yellow on the background of the signal selector widget as a visual warning for 'unset' values.

The whole reason this bug report exists in the first is because I forgot to specify the stack size signal. There's probably more people than just me who this happens to.
The proposed warning shouldn't change the position of any widgets as that's highly annoying. I'm still not sure if this is a good idea or will just add visual noise. Discuss?

However, I think the following suggestion regarding filter inserters has more merit:

• allow the setting of a 'master' stack size signal (which is the current standard behavior)
• allow using each item's signal as a respective stack size for that item (boolean toggle)
• When both setting are enabled and both the master and the item-specific signals are present, there needs to be a policy on how to deal with that. (See the 'policy note')

The above 3 points don't break any inserter behavior AND lets users set per-item stack sizes.

Policy note
Maybe a user-settable policy of "use biggest signal of the two" or "use smallest signal of the two" or "always use master if non-zero" as a default? I don't know.

At this point, I wonder if this makes filter inserters too complex? I don't know. Throwing this up for debate here...