Factorio Forums

Constructing a new production line using bots feels great. However, if a factory is running already, it is much slower to deconstruct it, due to:
1) Items on the belt and grounds
2) Items in building inventories
3) Items in chests
Making deconstruction tedious punishes mistakes, hence players spend a long time trying to make sure design is correct before turning it on. Trying things out and iterating would be much more fun in the design process.

I would suggest the following changes:
1) construction bots can pick up a belt segment with all items on it at once (overriding bot capacity constraints)
2) construction bots can pick up a building with all of its inventory at once (overriding bot capacity constraints)

Note that deconstruction changes doesn't help an experienced player using well tested mature blueprints, but is going to increase fun for the player first time trying to make something, which in my opinion is much more important.

This is only a problem early in bot production/speed research, when you probably should focus on expanding rather than optimizing. Also, I have a habit of rotating/removing the input material belts before deconstructing a module, so the assemblers can work through whatever is left on the belts to reduce the work for the bots.