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I've been thinking: something that I find myself wanting a lot is a "downgrade" planner, that is exactly the reverse of an upgrade planner. The main usecase is that I have a belt balancer blueprint book, but all of the blueprints are with express belts. In the early game (where I am using belts the most often), I don't have express belts. I end up configuring an upgrade planner to downgrade the belts, but then I have to keep track of it and it's a pain.

Shift+selecting with an upgrade planner doesn't currently seem to do anything, so I propose that when you do shift+select, it reverses the upgrades and becomes a downgrade planner instead. That way, if you wish to downgrade something, you don't need to create an upgrade planner specifically for it - you can just hit Alt+U, hold shift, and downgrade away!

Appart from uses outside Imported bp-book in early game, there wouldn‘t be much applications. Your proposed shift-click is inconsistent to the regular Blue- and redprints, so a special downgrade planner would be required.
Besides correct me if I‘m wrong, can‘t you already define the upgrade planner to exchange related enteties no matter their tier level?

Raiguard wrote: ↑Thu Dec 05, 2019 6:17 am The main usecase is that I have a belt balancer blueprint book, but all of the blueprints are with express belts. In the early game (where I am using belts the most often), I don't have express belts.

Would downgrading the belts even be useful in your usecase? Express belts are not only much faster than normal transport belts -- underground express belts also cover a bigger distance, so you could well end up with downgraded balancers that won't work. (I don't want to argue against a downgrade planner per se, I just believe the example you've chosen isn't exactly the best.)

Raiguard wrote: ↑Thu Dec 05, 2019 6:17 am Shift+selecting with an upgrade planner doesn't currently seem to do anything, so I propose that when you do shift+select, it reverses the upgrades and becomes a downgrade planner instead. That way, if you wish to downgrade something, you don't need to create an upgrade planner specifically for it - you can just hit Alt+U, hold shift, and downgrade away!

Shift selecting cancels upgrade plans

What if your planner is like this:
Transport belt -> Express transport belt
Fast transport belt -> Express transport belt

What would reverse upgrading do in this situation?

There is no problem here, downgrading is already trivially easy by making a separate upgrade planner

I run into this issue sometimes with blueprints. I just tested it, and turns out you can use an upgrade planner on blueprints, so you can make a specific 'downgrade' planner, use a normal blueprint, shift-click to ghost-place everything, and then use the down-grade planner on the ghosts to alter them. It would probably be worth creating one for blue to red, and blue to yellow. Also works for production buildings like assemblers and furnaces.

Klonan wrote: ↑Thu Dec 05, 2019 8:06 am Shift selecting cancels upgrade plans

Ack, how could I forget that? Sorry for the needless request then, I'll just deal with the slight inconvenience.

This can be moved to "won't implement".

Right click selecting with an upgrade planner downgrades, called "reverse select" in the controls. Moving from Won't implement to Implemented.