Underground belts and pipes should be placed tile by tile instead of being one max length

[96_snake]

TL;DR

Underground belts and pipes should be placed tile by tile instead of being one max length

What ?

Instead of underground belts being a fixed length, like 0 to 4 for yellow and 0 to 8 for blue, they should be placed one by one. Therefore if you only need to jump under one belt you would need 3 of these new undergrounds, one to go down, one under, one to come up and going under 4 belts costs 6 undergrounds. Naturally each underground needs to be cheaper and for example 6 yellow undergrounds should cost the same or a little more resources than the 2 yellow underground you currently need. New undergrounds will stack to 200 and have no limit to underground length. Same for pipes.

Why ?

Often underground belts don't need the full length. If you're using blue belts but only need to go under 4 belts, you'd "waste" resources using a blue vs a yellow underground. To use it properly you need to max length each underground and that means when upgrading yellow to red to blue, you'd need to reconfigure the belts each time. With different belts having different underground lengths, you sometimes need a higher level belt to make an underground connection even though you don't need the higher throughout and leads to reconfiguring as you unlock better belts. Without a max underground length you can design an end game factory from the beginning instead of waiting to unlock blue belts to design your end game factory. For pipes most of this doesn't apply but will still save resources on shorter underground lengths.

[d_o_n_t_understand]

Without a max underground length you can design an end game factory from the beginning instead of waiting to unlock blue belts to design your end game factory.

I mean... that's the whole point of different max-lengths. You unlock new things, redesign, adapt, discover. That's the thing not only with belts, but also with furnaces for example.

I get it that if you played hundred games, it may become frustrating to go over the whole research tree to unlock everything, but when you discover the game it's just a better way. If that annoys you, I'd suggest you just use s mod or console

[FuryoftheStars]

I agree and support the idea of the resource costs, but this...

have no limit to underground length. Same for pipes.

...just simply removes part of the puzzle and challenge from the game.

[96_snake]

I agree and support the idea of the resource costs, but this...

have no limit to underground length. Same for pipes.

...just simply removes part of the puzzle and challenge from the game.

In my experience this doesn't really add much of a challenge, you just need more room. If you need to jump a large distance you just need to leave two spots for the underground every so often. This just ends up in your assembly line being a little longer or taller than if that wasn't the case

[FuryoftheStars]

I agree and support the idea of the resource costs, but this...

have no limit to underground length. Same for pipes.

...just simply removes part of the puzzle and challenge from the game.

In my experience this doesn't really add much of a challenge, you just need more room. If you need to jump a large distance you just need to leave two spots for the underground every so often. This just ends up in your assembly line being a little longer or taller than if that wasn't the case

Well, I'd say we've had different experiences, then.

[Serenity]

If you need to jump a large distance you just need to leave two spots for the underground every so often.

And those two spots are then unavailable for other things. Like inserters. It's an issue in beaconed builds mostly.

[Vulkandrache]

I mean... that's the whole point of different max-lengths.

And also the reason why im using mods to make them the same distance.
Having to redesign stuff later on is a no from me.

[Illiander42]

If you need to jump a large distance you just need to leave two spots for the underground every so often.

And those two spots are then unavailable for other things. Like inserters. It's an issue in beaconed builds mostly.

And beaconed buils are the only place in factorio where you actually have space constraints.

So good, I'm glad we have things causing challenges there.