Factorio Forums

What?

Make quality increase circuit wire reach distance for all entities, not just power poles.

Also make quality increase wire reach distance for certain special cases like power switch (I can't think of any other cases?) 133821

Why?

I have often found myself wishing for longer circuit wires in my builds, and others have made different requests for similar reasons like 105150

It would make things more consistent, as circuit wire reach distance is already increased with quality for power poles but only power poles.

It would give a quality effect for entities that currently don't really have one, like combinators and rail signals. Rail signals in particular would benefit as there often aren't many entities nearby to serve as a bridge for the circuit wire so you have to place a new entity specifically for that purpose. I have a rail design which needs to wire some rail signals together but has this exact problem.

Edit:
I found lots of posts like 123229 and 133840 and several others which I won't link basically all asking that substations be able to form direct circuit connections to all entities they power. My suggestion would help their issue while still following the mechanic that the max wire distance is determined by the minimum of the two entities' max wire distances. Following my suggestion the entity the substation is connecting to would have to be near the same rarity for the connection to reach the far locations.

I think it's a great idea overall. As another example where this might be helpful - on the space platforms. Since we don't have power poles here, we must rely on other objects to place circuit wire on top of them, like constant combinator. Having a way to connect two logic objects together with no unnecessary stuff in-between would bring more clarity to the overall design.

Aldekotan wrote: Sun Jun 14, 2026 12:51 pmon the space platforms. Since we don't have power poles here, we must rely on other objects to place circuit wire on top of them, like constant combinator.

Power poles do not have a Surface Condition requirement for building; they can be placed on a Space Platform just fine. They do not have any use for transferring Electricity due to the “global electric network”, but this does not impede their usage for Signal wires in any way.

Good Luck!

Made a similar suggestion 133840.
When first suggesting 133821 about Power Switch Quality increasing connection range it seemed like a one off, but after testing every Entity with wire range showed the same issue was widespread and not just the Power Switch.

Quality should not be the first change. Increase base connection ranges for Entities first, then Quality can be added to grant range bonuses. Additionally Entities should list a default connection range in the Factoriopedia and show how Quality modifies wire range.

Any Power Pole should be able to connect to any Entity within its range regardless of the Entity's Quality. Entity to Entity connections can use each Entity’s default range with Quality adding extra reach, but a Quality Power Pole’s extended range should not be blocked/nerfed because the target Entity has lower Quality.
The Quality Power Pole should at all times be able to connect to Entity's of any Quality as long as it's within range.

HoodieZach wrote: Tue Jun 16, 2026 11:22 pm Any Power Pole should be able to connect to any Entity within its range regardless of the Entity's Quality. Entity to Entity connections can use each Entity’s default range with Quality adding extra reach, but a Quality Power Pole’s extended range should not be blocked/nerfed because the target Entity has lower Quality.

The current mechanic in the game is that the distance you can run a wire between two entities is the lower of the two entities wire reach distances. See the behavior of a small power pole with a large power pole or substation for example. The type of entity and whether its a power pole or not doesn't matter. Whether you're trying to run a copper power wire or a red/green circuit wire also generally doesn't matter.

It sounds like you want to change this mechanic while I just want quality to affect the wire reach of all entities equally.