Blocking a lane on a belt

[rzhw3h]

My idea is simple enough, stop line of a belt at some point to allow more uses for belts without complicated spaghetti
for example:
'i' = iron, 'c' = copper

|i|c|
|i|c|
|i|-| <-- block
|i| |
|i| |

so i can add an assembling machine to take the copper and output at the block or the next belt and so on, it would allow compacting a lot but i dont know how much does it impact the API, i would make a mod but dont know if it would be even possible with current API im still a noob
it would be better if you could make blocker like place it on belt to block items up to it

im sorry for my english

[cvkurt]

For blocking a single lane, see https://wiki.factorio.com/Belt_transpor ... de_of_belt....

For a mod, see the belt sorter https://mods.factorio.com/mod/beltSorter

In 0.16, you can also use the filter capability of a splitter to only allow iron through.

[Tekky]

Yes, this feature already exists, but, in its current implementation, it is an unintuitive ugly hack. This has already been discussed in the following thread:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=48047 Underground belt lane splitting, anyone else hate it?

[golfmiketango]

I'm not sure but I believe the underground belt trick counts as side-loading and therefore can't support full throughput.

Could definitely be wrong (plus obviously the usual work-arounds apply).

[mp0011]

Underground belt lane splitting, anyone else hate it?

Actually, I like it very much.

What I do not like, are the new splitters, because they make many brilliant designs obsolete and trivialize some challenges. As logistic bots does.
Now I just see no point of using most of ballancers or stack filter inserters to sort ores on belt from mixed ore patches...
Factorio should NOT be simple "connect the dots but with with belt" game, it should have some "puzzles" to solve in clever way... And underground belt blocking is one of this "puzzles".

When I discovered it on my own in my old factory (then spend few days rebuilding half of it because of that discovery), that was a moment I loved this game...

[Zavian]

Underground belt lane splitting, anyone else hate it?

Actually, I like it very much.

What I do not like, are the new splitters, because they make many brilliant designs obsolete and trivialize some challenges. As logistic bots does.
Now I just see no point of using most of ballancers or stack filter inserters to sort ores on belt from mixed ore patches...
Factorio should NOT be simple "connect the dots but with with belt" game, it should have some "puzzles" to solve in clever way... And underground belt blocking is one of this "puzzles".

When I discovered it on my own in my old factory (then spend few days rebuilding half of it because of that discovery), that was a moment I loved this game...

I tend to agree.

[impetus maximus]

I'm not sure but I believe the underground belt trick counts as side-loading and therefore can't support full throughput.

Could definitely be wrong (plus obviously the usual work-arounds apply).

side loading on an empty belt still works fine. including undergrounds.

empty_side_load_throughput.png (17.54 KiB) Viewed 8650 times

[Jap2.0]

Underground belt lane splitting, anyone else hate it?

Actually, I like it very much.

What I do not like, are the new splitters, because they make many brilliant designs obsolete and trivialize some challenges. As logistic bots does.
Now I just see no point of using most of ballancers or stack filter inserters to sort ores on belt from mixed ore patches...
Factorio should NOT be simple "connect the dots but with with belt" game, it should have some "puzzles" to solve in clever way... And underground belt blocking is one of this "puzzles".

When I discovered it on my own in my old factory (then spend few days rebuilding half of it because of that discovery), that was a moment I loved this game...

I tend to agree.

Same.

I'm not sure but I believe the underground belt trick counts as side-loading and therefore can't support full throughput.

Could definitely be wrong (plus obviously the usual work-arounds apply).

If I understand what you're trying to say correctly, sideloading not supporting full throughput is a bug that is currently being worked on.

[golfmiketango]

Same.

I'm not sure but I believe the underground belt trick counts as side-loading and therefore can't support full throughput.

Could definitely be wrong (plus obviously the usual work-arounds apply).

If I understand what you're trying to say correctly, sideloading not supporting full throughput is a bug that is currently being worked on.

I know what you mean but I'm not sure I'd put it that way -- it's certainly not a bug, at least not in the strict way that word is used by the developers. There were some according-to-Wube bugs early in the 0.16 cycle to do with side loading but AFAIK they are all fixed. Also, my understanding was that they are experimenting with alternatives but no decision to change anything had been reached.... or did I miss something?

[golfmiketango]

I'm not sure but I believe the underground belt trick counts as side-loading and therefore can't support full throughput.

Could definitely be wrong (plus obviously the usual work-arounds apply).

side loading on an empty belt still works fine. including undergrounds.

empty_side_load_throughput.png

Actually I've noticed this in other side loading arrangements. It think maybe it occurs when a single lane of a belt is output onto an empty lane of a target belt?.... for all I know it is a deliberate thing specifically designed to make this work. Anyhow, it seems you are right Impetus.

[5thHorseman]

Side loading a compressed lane onto an empty belt retains compression.

[Tekky]

Underground belt lane splitting, anyone else hate it?

Actually, I like it very much.

You quoted me out of context. What you quoted was the name of the thread that I was referring to, in which all of this has already been discussed.

As I have already stated in that other thread, I consider it an important feature that it is possible to split the individual belt lanes. However, the current implementation is ugly and unintuitive. In my opinion, this important feature should be integrated into the game in some other way, using a different entity (for example a programmable splitter).

[Mekronid]

I'm not usually the guy who says this sort of thing, because I like progress and change. But... I don't think we need this?

I've run into the "one lane" situation quite a few times because of the way I lay out my assemblers, but I've not yet run into a situation where I'd need to tear stuff up and start over.

This suggestion as a quality of life thing, OK, but on the whole it doesn't seem very important. Maybe as suggested above - keep it simple by putting it on a splitter.

If it was implemented, I would like to see a belt device that shoves all the belt's contents into a single lane. Actual factories have these all the time because they're very useful for sorting a jumble of contents into an orderly row. I could use them on my microchip and furnace outputs to help keep the lanes balanced. Of course I've solved that issue with some clever use of underground belts and balancers, so I'm not sure whether I'd use my own suggestion either.

You quoted me out of context.

Write your URL like this (without spaces) [url = http://www.factorio.com/]FACTORIO!![/url]

It looks like so: FACTORIO!!

[Atlas]

+1 on the belt blocks

[McDuff]

Underground belt lane splitting, anyone else hate it?

Actually, I like it very much.

What I do not like, are the new splitters, because they make many brilliant designs obsolete and trivialize some challenges. As logistic bots does.
Now I just see no point of using most of ballancers or stack filter inserters to sort ores on belt from mixed ore patches...
Factorio should NOT be simple "connect the dots but with with belt" game, it should have some "puzzles" to solve in clever way... And underground belt blocking is one of this "puzzles".

When I discovered it on my own in my old factory (then spend few days rebuilding half of it because of that discovery), that was a moment I loved this game...

See, I don't see the underground belt thing as a "puzzle" at all. It's a quirk of the game mechanics that you either stumble on accidentally or learn about when googling to see if anyone else has figured out how to do it. With most of these things you figure out a design then blueprint it, pretty much doing everything the same way. I've taken to using mods for some things because it really doesn't make any difference to my gameplay if I plop down a gizmo that does what I want or if I plop down a blueprint that does what I want. The "puzzles" are still there in the gameplay.

As far as "there's no point," it's interesting, because I normally use the circuit-based balancers on my main bus and so I was super pleased when the new functionality came in. Makes priority-splitting a lane take 4 tile lengths rather than about 8 and means you can see what's going on at a glance. However, I'm trying out a design at the moment where I've gone back to the 4x4 balancer and filter inserters, because it's actually better for what I want to do. Even if the splitters had lane-select and circuit-programmable filters I wouldn't use them in this design because they're not right for it. They would be a huge help in others though. Same with loaders etc. Sometimes they're a help, and I use a mod that adds them because of that, but they can't and don't replace inserters because they do fundamentally different things.

I think people are a bit attached to it because they're used to this quirk of the game, but I prefer to look at new functionality not as stopping you from doing something as much as enabling you to do more things.