Factorio Forums

Assemblers should be circuit network (and ideally logistics network) connectable. Options would likely include (but not be limited to, there are probably lots of good ideas for this): enable/disable, read recipe crafting time and requirements, read selected recipe.
Enable/disable would treat the assembler as if it were unpowered: progress would halt for the current craft, items can not be inserted to the assembler.
Read recipe crafting time and requirements would output to a selected variable (like read robot statistics does on a roboport) the crafting time for the current recipe, and the number of each item needed for one craft as that item variable.
Read selected recipe would just output to the circuit network a count of whatever the crafted output would be (2 belts / 10 concrete / etc.).

In this fashion, you could REALLY utilize the requestor chest's "set requests" feature directly. I suspect significantly complex circuit networks could be designed with ease that would only require the player to set the recipe on the assembler to configure all the logistic network settings necessary automatically.

And honestly, the assemblers are the backbone of the factory: without them nothing gets done! We should be able to get more information from them than we can from a wooden box! (Seriously. The Wooden chest is circuit network connectable. Go try it out!)

There could also be a feature to SET the recipe for the assembler via circuit network. Whatever component that is craftable via that assembler (# of slots restrictions) that has the highest value on the circuit network would be selected as the crafting recipe. The automatic change should probably have a cooldown.

Yes plizz add this my dearest devs

NegativeTwelfth wrote:There could also be a feature to SET the recipe for the assembler via circuit network.

Ooh I want this.

It would be so cool to have a fully programmable factory.
I know it's already possible to make a fully programmable factory, but this would make it so much easier.
In particular this would be great for outposts: deliver the raw materials and configure what should be produced onsite.

NegativeTwelfth wrote:There could also be a feature to SET the recipe for the assembler via circuit network. Whatever component that is craftable via that assembler (# of slots restrictions) that has the highest value on the circuit network would be selected as the crafting recipe. The automatic change should probably have a cooldown.

Yessss I would love this feature! Although this is a bit complicated. What to do with ingridients when the recipe is changed? In manual mode they go to the player's inventory, what to do with them in automatic mode? Should they be output along with the products so there should be some way to sort them out later? This could be a real drawback from having the automated all-in-one crafting station.

no drawbacks when you just put in with respect to what should come out.
Obviously this feature is not for the regular user which usually doesnt care about count accuracy