[0.12.6] [kovarex] Burner Inserter Issues

[bobingabout]

I had a look on the forum, couldn't see anything related to burner inserters in the main bug reporting area, nor the solved for next release subforum

The issue:
Place a chest. Place a burner inserter feeding from that chest. Feed a Ammo Gun Turret

Place fuel in box (Tried coal and fuel blocks) place ammo in box.

Inserter will feed ammo into the turret untill it runs out of power.

it completely ignores the fuel.

[sillyfly]

The burner inserter only ever took fuel for itself if it was moving fuel in the first place.
Since the turrets don't use fuel, it never picks it up.

[bobingabout]

This is still a valid situation, and a scenario that should be fixed.
Needs fuel? Fuel available? GRAB! It shouldn't matter if it would normally pick up fuel or not, if it needs it, it should grab some.

I did test this box situation myself, and encountered the problem, but I didn't set up the scenario where it was needed, a friend did, then reported it to me.
My guess is that it was a later game developement where the box would be a requester chest, feeding a wall of base defences, gun turrets, meaning there's no power in the area, hence using burner inserters instead of electric powered.

[Klonan]

This is still a valid situation, and a scenario that should be fixed.
Needs fuel? Fuel available? GRAB! It shouldn't matter if it would normally pick up fuel or not, if it needs it, it should grab some.

I did test this box situation myself, and encountered the problem, but I didn't set up the scenario where it was needed, a friend did, then reported it to me.
My guess is that it was a later game developement where the box would be a requester chest, feeding a wall of base defences, gun turrets, meaning there's no power in the area, hence using burner inserters instead of electric powered.

I wrote a mod a few days ago which fixes this issue:

https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... 92&t=14634

It doesn't physically 'grab' the coal/wood/fuel but with the script it is fueled (if fuel is available)

[sillyfly]

What I meant by my comment is, I think this is the intended behavior, so this is not actually a bug. Maybe a feature request?
But that's just how I understand it

[codewarrior]

No, I'm pretty sure that placing another burner inserter to insert fuel into the burner inserter that's inserting ammo is the intended gameplay experience.

[kosievdmerwe]

A solution I've suggested previously is to have the burner inserter only move items until it has a very small amount of fuel left. Then it goes into refueling mode (maybe indicated by a yellow triangle?), where it will only pick up fuel for itself otherwise it will wait. Once it has either picked up fuel or been refueled it will start picking up non-fuel items again.

[Kewlhotrod]

wow interesting, didn't know this.

[bobingabout]

I think it should stick with current refueling behaviour, in that if there is no fuel item in it's slot, it should put one in there. However, that should be it's priority action, so it should do this with the first available peice of fuel, from a belt, or box, if it would otherwise pick it up or not.

[kovarex]

Well, yes it is not a bug. There is no mechanism currently, that would alert the inserter that the fuel is running out, so it should seek fuel when picking items.