blueprint created insters grab wrong item**5.12

[sethiusdraven]

game started 5.10
probably a duplicate, but just in case
When placing blueprinted setup with inserters, they occasionally get placed before assembly machine and the belt next to them holding, in my case, copper/iron bars, the inserter will grab the first one it thinks it wants(probably from the far side of the belt). Then the assembly machine will be placed which may not use the item the inserter has "in hand" and the inserter then has nowhere to put it and just holds it above the assembly machine until manually fixed.

I did attempt a search for this bug topic before writing this up, and apologize if this has already been addressed.
Sethius

[Loewchen]

This sounds as if it works exactly how it is supposed to.

[orzelek]

This sounds as if it works exactly how it is supposed to.

I'm not sure if it's how it's supposed to but for sure it's not what user would expect.
If you build long line of assembling machines around existing belt there is a big chance that you'll need to go around and mine some of the inserters and rebuild them to make them work. Mainly happens when using neighbouring machnies for different recipes but supplying stuff on one belt.

Inserter will grab anything since it seems that presence of a ghost is counted as ground for pick up purposes but after the pick up it will keep this item in hand. So when ghost is actually built it ends up with item that doesn't fit into the machine and ends up stuck.
It could be potentially fixable by blocking inserter from picking up things if it has a ghost at drop point.

[kovarex]

We are aware of this, but we don't see a good workaround so we decided to keep it like this.

[steinio]

We are aware of this, but we don't see a good workaround so we decided to keep it like this.

Maybe something like "all items in this blueprint are inactive until all items in this blueprint are placed"?

This would also mean transport belts stop until the blueprint manager reports finished but so what.
It could also fix some issues if combinators are not placed in the correct order.

Greetings, steinio.

[kosievdmerwe]

We are aware of this, but we don't see a good workaround so we decided to keep it like this.

I can think of 3 solutions (in order from easy to hard):

1) Don't allow inserters to pick anything up if their destination is a ghost building (as orzelek suggested)
2) Block everything from functioning until everything in blueprints (as steino suggested)
3) Allow construction robots to pick up the inserter's bad hand contents and in essence reset them.

Personally, I'm quite fond of option (1) as it doesn't require a lot of trickery to achieve and it solves the problem for when you place a single blueprint.

I don't quite like option (2) as it is a more aggressive form of (1), with no benefit that I can see. Do the order belts get placed matter for T junctions in blue prints?

Option (3) is really tricky as now construction bots need to know what a building can accept, but it allows you to place tileable blueprints with inserters on the edges.

[sethiusdraven]

a forth option may be to have construct robots placing assembly machines before inserters.
however, just now having the foreknowledge of this will be of benefit. Always learn something new : )

[daniel34]

+1 for the option that orzelek suggested, having the inserter not insert if the target is a ghost entity on the same force.

[kovarex]

We are aware of this, but we don't see a good workaround so we decided to keep it like this.

I can think of 3 solutions (in order from easy to hard):

1) Don't allow inserters to pick anything up if their destination is a ghost building (as orzelek suggested)

We don't see a good workarounds, but your players proved once again to see a simple solution we didn't see. Thanks for the idea, it is simple and it solves not only this problem, but also the problem with assembling machine being destroyed and reconstructed.
We will do it this way.