Linked chest wire interface

[everything-narrative]

TL;DR

The linked chest cheat item does not support wire connections — it should work the same
as other chests.

What ?

Linked chests are a cheat item that allows separate chests to have the same inventory, using a 32 bit ID. It can be created in Editor mode.

Currently, wires cannot connect to linked chests, and so the content of the chest(s) cannot be read.

This is NOT a proposal that it should be possible to set the ID of a linked chest using wire. Just that it work the same as all (well, most) other
chests.

Why ?

Unless there exists a specific engine limitation, this should be a very minor change, and it would allow modders and scenario
creators to exploit this new interesting entity prototype to its fullest..

[PFQNiet]

Although, setting linked chest ID by circuit signal would be interesting...

[everything-narrative]

Although, setting linked chest ID by circuit signal would be interesting...

But not the point of this suggestion.

[Impatient]

+10

[Rseding91]

What's the use-case for reading what's in the chest? Since the contents are shared globally across all chests with that ID I don't see much point in reading the contents with wires.

[Impatient]

This is one usecase:
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/SchallAut ... b762e32ad7

The creation of nonsquare shaped "chests" which can be connected to the circuit network.

[curiosity]

Since the contents are shared globally across all chests with that ID I don't see much point in reading the contents with wires.

This doesn't follow. It doesn't matter if contents are shared or not and between how many chests when you can't get them into a circuit network.

edit: And the point is automation. You can sort of hack it with other entities by logging inserter actions to a memory cell, but other entities can only be in one place at a time, unlike linked chests. So you can't know the contents to act on them automatically.

[-DeadlyKitten]

+1

Why allow connection to circuit network?

exactly the same reasons as normal chests link to the circuit network
automation

I found this issue when trying to make inserters keep 1 stack of each of a couple different item in the linked chest

another 2nd example would to increase effective storage of the linked chest
if iron > 1000 then pull iron from the linked chest into disconnected storage.
if iron < 500 put iron back into the linked chest

neither of these can be done without knowledge of what is in the chest

Edit: picture of 2nd example
does not work because chest contents cannot be read

Screenshot 2021-10-15 111544.png (206.03 KiB) Viewed 4826 times

[mrvn]

+1

[-DeadlyKitten]

What's the use-case for reading what's in the chest? Since the contents are shared globally across all chests with that ID I don't see much point in reading the contents with wires.

we have given several answers now about why this is useful, can you please either implement it or respond?

[TwentyEighty]

+1 this would be very helpful.

[Rseding91]

Ok, I added circuit wire support for the next release.