Don't consume locked items in toolbar

[Xeanoa]

I would like that crafting would not use items I have in an reserved slot in the toolbar.
Same way it works with ammo currently. If I have piercing rounds in the ammo slot, and want to make drones, it crafts new rounds, and does not use the ones in the ammo slot.

It should work the same way with other items in reserved slots. E.g. if I have a stack of pipes in a reserved slot in the toolbar, and make underground pipes, it should only use those in the inventory, and if there are none, craft new ones, but leave the ones in the reserved slot alone, because they are reserved items.

The way it currently works you always have to craft new pipes after crafting underground pipes or other things, and there is no way to reserve them. You either have to make more pipes, stock some in a chest and retrieve them, or make new ones, which usually takes A LOT of unnessecary clicking. Pipes are used in many recipes, and anything that uses them also requires pipe connections, so unless you heavily overstock, you almost always end up having to craft pipes again after making other things with them. One stack is usually enough to connect everything, and just being able to reserve a stack would save you so much annoyance.

[ssilk]

Hm.
My first thought:
One of those players, that craft pipes themselves instead of making a pipe assembly and underground pipes etc... factorio is about automation, not crafting. Place assembly, put iron into input slot, place inserter and chests to make more. It takes not more than 30 seconds.

My second thought: another good example how important it would be to have some kind of tutorial, that shows how to play F.

[Xeanoa]

It takes much more time than quickly handcrafting something.

Automation of production of things like pipes makes no sense before setting up an logistics system. Chances are you spend more time running to pick up the pipes than it takes to make them.

[ssilk]

You are right, if you make only one, or ten, or 40. I'm right, if you make more than two stacks of pipes.

[Xeanoa]

Anyone sane is gonna dump a few hundred iron plates into an assembly machine if he plans a pipe-heavy contruction, such as setting up the first oil. But you might run out towards the end, or just need a handful in the first place, under which circumstances handcrafting is appropriate.

Regardless of how it's done, I'd like the ability to reserve a stack of an item that's both placeable and an ingredient to not be consumed for handcrafting without having to move them out of my inventory.

Or, alternatively, the following: Say I have 20 pipes in my inventory. Now I handcraft an underground pipe, it gets made instantly from those pipes, but the system then automatically queues up 10 pipes to replace the pipes used, as long as I have less than a certain amount. If I have 200 pipes in the inventory, it should use 10 of those, and not queue up new ones.

[Deadly-Bagel]

Yeah but now we're getting complicated and it would need to be configurable and blegh. IMO if you need more, craft them. Pipes is literally next to Pipe to Ground, right click it a few times and you're restocked.

Personally I dump a temporary pair of assemblers down next to my iron feed that produce Pipes and Pipes To Ground. Have pipes output to a chest, limit to say 4 stacks, second assembler picks up from this and drops into another chest limited to 2 stacks. Do this just before starting oil and they'll be ready by the time you need them. By the time you can use them all there will be more. I haven't needed to hand craft Pipe to Ground in ages.