Copy recipe output to filter of storage chest (QoL: Copy recipe From Assembling Machine to additional entities)

[Koub]

But how would you set the filter ? One can't even filter chest slots.

[ickputzdirwech]

But how would you set the filter ? One can't even filter chest slots.

You don't need to filter individual slots. There is already the option to filter entire storage chests.

Would love to have the ability to copy from an Assembling Machine 1/2/3 and paste onto a Storage chest to set the filter quickly without having to click through menus. You can already do this from an Assembling Machine 1/2/3 to a Requester chest to set the requests to what the Assembling Machine 1/2/3 needs for 30 seconds worth of crafting, as outlined here: https://wiki.factorio.com/Requester_chest

Giving some of this quality of life capability to some of the other Logistic chests feels like a natural enhancement.

The filter would be the item the assembler produces I assume? If so, definitely:
+1

[Makeyourselfnerd]

The filter would be the item the assembler produces I assume? If so, definitely:
+1

Yep! Thanks for the +1!

[Koub]

But how would you set the filter ? One can't even filter chest slots.

You don't need to filter individual slots. There is already the option to filter entire storage chests.

Are you sure ? I'm almost certain one can't filter storage chest content (at least in vanilla), only set logistic chests as requester or provider for a set of items.

[ickputzdirwech]

But how would you set the filter ? One can't even filter chest slots.

You don't need to filter individual slots. There is already the option to filter entire storage chests.

Are you sure ? I'm almost certain one can't filter storage chest content (at least in vanilla), only set logistic chests as requester or provider for a set of items.

As sure as I now the earth is a globe. Some people would say this isn’t much, but it’s actually 100%. All joking aside: See https://wiki.factorio.com/Storage_chest

[Koub]

Oh I see you're speaking of logistic storage chest.
Sorry I misunderstood, I don't know why, I thought you were speaking of any chest.

Indeed, one can filter, but only one item, unless I'm wrong. And it's only for logistic robots : I'm not sure it will prevent an inserter from inserting whatever it wants. I'll have to give it a try when I get home to be sure.

[Makeyourselfnerd]

I was very specific in my language All the chests have unique names: https://wiki.factorio.com/Chests

And yes, the ask is for the filter you place on the Storage chest (yellow logistic chest) to only allow robots to place that item in the chest. I'm not asking for filtering of individual slots in a chest. It does not prevent inserters from inserting any item.

I like to have large "make everything" malls/hubs, as many people do, and I regularly use Storage chests next to each assembling machine with a circuit controlled inserter determining how much of that item to place into the Storage chest. This way the chest does not have to be limited to a number of stacks, leaving it open for other robots to drop off deconstructed items of that type to the "official" home of that item in my mall/hub instead of to some random trash chest who knows where.

In these malls/hubs I also often have for example an assembler making yellow belts place into a Storage chest like this and then another inserter is pulling from that chest to place yellow belts into an assembler making red belts. This allows deconstructed yellow belts to feed the construction of new red belts, instead of just piling up somewhere else never to be used again more than likely. Setting this filter there prevents other "trash" from clogging up all the spots.

My last mall/hub I was working on just yesterday had 77 assemblers in it, which means 77 Storage chests. It would save me (and everyone!) a lot of time if I could copy/paste this filter onto the storage chest from a nearby assembling machine!

[mrvn]

Didn't even know you could set a filter on storage chests. I have always used requester chests before the assemblers to get deconstructed items reused. Which means I can't have the output in provider chests but have to use buffer chests. Which means I can't use buffer chests anywhere else (since they can't draw from other buffer chests).

+1 for the copy/paste for assembler output item to storage chest filter.

[ssilk]

added to existing suggestions and changed topic to fit subject better - ssilk

Still main issue is that for recipes with multiple outputs this is not 100% clear what item to use.

[mrvn]

added to existing suggestions and changed topic to fit subject better - ssilk

Still main issue is that for recipes with multiple outputs this is not 100% clear what item to use.

Luckily the game has already solved that problem:

https://wiki.factorio.com/Prototype/Recipe#main_product

[Makeyourselfnerd]

Let's also not forget that even if main_product was not set for an item, nothing is actually broken. The chest just does not have the filter the player may have wanted, and they can easily fix it themselves. No inserter input has been stopped, it is only robot deliveries that would be affected. As many of us have said, this scenario is mostly used for recycling use cases. True production would use a requester chest so production elsewhere is immediately brought to the chest. Storage chest only gets a delivery if the item has been deconstructed elsewhere, and deconstruction requires player action and is not automated (at least not without some fairly specialized mods).

[Voske_123]

+1 Had the same idea but instead of posting it first searched , hope they implement it!

[Bonaducci]

This is fairly simple proposal. Currently you can use Shift+RMB to clone settings from the factory and then use Shift+LMB to set requests on buffer/requester chests to get ingredients in. It would be great if we could use the same mechanism to set storage chest filter to be the first matching product of the factory.

I find myself doing the same thing over and over again while setting up general "mall" factories in logistic network. I want multiple tiers of multiple products to be made there. Requester chest is easily configurable just by this Shift+LMB configuration. Storage chest (used to recapture returned/upgraded buildings and tools) does not have this option, every time I have to manually go in and set the filter. In my case all of those apply to factories producing one thing but to consider other possibilities, Shift+LMB on storage chest should set the filter to the first object that can be put in the chest. Eg. if the factory produces liquid and barrel, the filter should be set to barrel.

Using storage chests for that is not perfect solution but it's probably the easiest fairly working one. The problem to solve is the ability to return items back to the original producer to be possibly reused in another process that is made in a stream and does not use requesters for deliveries. Consider a factory producing multiple tiers of buildings one by one and previous building is required to produce higher tier building. The rational thing to do is a stream of factories but as we will upgrade or demolish older low tier buildings, they should get back into the loop to be reprocessed for higher tier. If you use requesters for each delivery, then logistic network will prioritize the ones in general storage but if you have a stream and don't want logistic robots to constantly move things between neighbouring chests if you can use inserter/belt, then it becomes a problem. Now you have to introduce two chests. One provider chest providing new items and one storage chest with filter with higher priority output so that returned items get back in the loop first. You can't use buffer/requester as it would request items from provider which is not what we want. By just using the storage chest without provider we are partially solving the issue but here's another one which would be good to address.
If the dedicated storage chest with filter for item X is full, excessive items may be moved to general storage chest. The problem is that now if the filtered chest is emptied, logistic bots will still want to put items to general storage as (afaik) they first look for chest with the item in, then for the chest with the filter. I have impression that it should be the opposite, bots should prefer using filtered chests as those are the ones that were explicitly set to hold the item. General storage should only be used as a backup if there is no space in dedicated storage with filter. At the same time, pickup priority should be higher from storage without the filter than from storage with the filter. This way the logistic network would be self stabilizing. Excess items will go into general storage but will be the first to be used and filtered storage will be the main one to put items back. Currently you have to perform periodic cleanup as when any excess was moved to generic storage, it tends to be prioritized over the filtered storage (which is more likely to have additional mechanism of utilizing items stored there).

[ssilk]

Joined with existing topic.

Additionally I recommend to use the suggestion template viewtopic.php?f=6&t=47316

[mrvn]

Some more thoughts on how this should behave (since it poped up in "Your Post" again):

copy assembler -> assembler: copies recipe
copy assembler -> requester chest: copies ingredients
copy assembler -> provider chest: copies main product (or first)
copy assembler -> storage chest: could be ingredients but more likely the user wants the product
copy assembler -> buffer chest: now here is a problem. Both ingredients and product make sense. Which to choose?

Maybe for buffer chests copy ingredients and if one needs the product one can place a dummy provider chest, copy assembler -> provider chest -> buffer chest and then remove the provider chest (or leave it somewhere central for the next copy action).


As a side thought: Say copy to any chest would copy ingredients. In the posted video the assembler outputs yellow belts into a chest that is used as input for red belts. What would happen if you copy from the red belt assembler to the storage chest? Wouldn't the storage chest end up with yellow belts too since that it the first ingredient? Aren't most cases where you want to copy a assemblers product into a chest filter so that the next assembler can use it as input? At least I always build the ugradable stuff in a chain like in the video.

[ssilk]

Good thoughts.

I add also some. I thought about having an extra key combination (e.g. shift control-limb) to paste the output item. But then i thought it would be not much more logical than yet and we have just a new key-combinator, that is used only in very rare cases. And then I thought: how rare is it, that you need this? I mean, we talk here about maybe a minute or two in total for all chests, that makes sense to be prepared like this, in a game that lasts hours. Ok, not a good argument for a speed-runner but we need to think about the average player. Which is eventually not even aware, that such a copy-function exists.

So for me mrvn’s handling above would be “good enough”. Any deeper thinking doesn’t make it essentially better.