Placing a ghost over a deleted item of the same kind should simply "undelete" it.

[mward]

TL;DR

Placing a ghost over a deleted item of the same kind should simply "undelete" it.

What ?

Placing a ghost over an identical item which is marked for deletion should simply remove the mark, not cause the item to be removed and then replaces.

Why ?

Suppose you want to replace a build with a new and improved blueprint which is mostly the same but has a few small changes.

Shift-clicking the blueprint will remove rocks, trees and cliffs, but not any existing items which will be preserved instead of replaced.

So you have to delete the existing build and paste over the new version.

Even though most of the build is unchanged, the bots will tear down everything, carry it all away into storage, then immediately bring it all back again and rebuild it. This can take a long time with a large blueprint (eg: I want to move my solar array one solar panel to the left...)

Note: If you place a ghost then mark it for deletion, it just disappears as if you had never placed it. The bots don't bring the object, put it down and then immediately pick it up again! So, conversely, if you mark something for deletion and then place a ghost over it, it should simply be unmarked and left.

[sparr]

When I use the new Cut tool and then paste a few tiles away, often many of the original belts could be left in place and save a bunch of bot effort. It would be nice if they figured this out themselves. I'll probably write a mod for this, but it seems worth suggesting for the base game too.

[adam_bise]

There was a similar suggestion that said, entity ghosts placed over same entities that are marked for deconstruction should just unmark them for deconstruction.

Would be nice +1

[ickputzdirwech]

TL;DR

When placing a ghost over the exact same copy which is marked for deconstruction, the deconstruction should be cancelled.

What ?

I am aware that this has been already suggested at least twice (viewtopic.php?f=6&t=69872 and viewtopic.php?f=6&t=68552) but I want to revive this idea and would like some more feedback.

As said above the idea is that placing a ghost (by hand or via blueprint) should cancel the deconstruction of the same entity (or possibly tile) instead of placing an actual ghost if the ghost is placed in the same place and orientation.

There would be some tricky cases however:

• Placing a ghost-belt over a belt with items on it

• Placing a ghost-pipe over a pipe with fluid inside

• Placing a ghost-chest over a chest with items/filters inside

• Placing a ghost-machine over one that has a (different) recipe set

• Placing a ghost-machine over a machine that has items in it

• Placing a ghost over an entity with (different) circuit connections

What should happen in these cases? Should the deconstruction only be cancelled if the entities are empty, have the same state and no circuit connections?

Why ?

I am pretty sure all of you have experienced this before: You have build an amazing setup, but for perfect optimisation and/or symmetry you have to move it just a few tiles over. Most of what you have build could just stay where it is, but for simplicity you just blueprint, deconstruct and then construct everything again.

Especially in mid game, when your robots are not that fast yet, this would save a lot of time. Please leave your thoughts below ;)

[Koub]

I am aware that this has been already suggested at least twice

Thanks for the search, I didn't remember the first one when the second suggestion was posted . Now I can merge these threads so that the discussion is in the same place.
[Koub] Merging previous topics with same suggestion

[BHakluyt]

Yeah this is a good idea. It works like that with rails now I see. Really awesome. Placing lights over deconstructed lights is still a nightmare sometimes and paving tiles is just a nightmare.

[bobthescv]

This would make my copy paste life much easier. +1 on this suggestion!

[FuryoftheStars]

Makes sense. +1

[Darinth]

Has issues in certain cases, but those are brought up already by ickputzdirwech. An entity deconstruction could only safely be cancelled if the ghost being placed is in the exact same state as the entity marked for deconstruction, otherwise it can result in things like items being on belts that they're not supposed to be.