Looking for a Mod(s) to Optimize Inventories/Pipes in a Specific Way

[vitharr]

I've been trying to search for it, but I don't think I know the lingo enough to be looking correctly. I've read that large inventories are bad on UPS because of the methods inserters use to find empty spaces to put items. I've also seen 'compression' chests that densifies items down into one slot, but only one type of item, and I'm hoping/looking for a mod that does both in a way.

The idea would be to have an empty Steel chest for example only have 1 slot, an empty slot, waiting for an item. Lets say an inserter puts a batch of copper wire in that slot. Now, the Steel chest should have 2 slots, 1 for the copper wire, 1 for the free 'insert' slot. If only copper wire ever goes into that chest until full, it should only have 1 slot, of a maximum amount of copper wire, and no 'insert' slot, as it is now full. Alternatively, a Steel chest with 47 different item types in it would look much the same to a current chest, with a large grid of various items to pick from, and only one more available space for the 'insert' slot

For pipes, I'm trying to find a mod that would allow 'welding' between pipe entities themselves, creating an unchangeable, static, single 'pipe' out of a selection of various welded pipes, reducing the entire selection down to the single 100 volume entity of 1 pipe. I'm not too worried about the 'balance' of throughput over distance, only concerned with the UPS gains of reducing the entities, and freezing the pipe from connecting dynamically to other pipes. Fluid Must Flow comes close to this idea with their merged entity Ducts, but specifically looking for a more dynamic way to draw a pipe network, lock it in place, and reduce the entity count. Space Exploration's pipes are similar in the regard of a single 'pipe' entity spanning different distances, but rigid

Apologies if that doesn't make sense or doesn't exist, I'll keep looking, but wanted to put the challenge out there in the world if it hasn't been done yet. Hoping it's something the game allows to do

[FuryoftheStars]

I've been trying to search for it, but I don't think I know the lingo enough to be looking correctly. I've read that large inventories are bad on UPS because of the methods inserters use to find empty spaces to put items. I've also seen 'compression' chests that densifies items down into one slot, but only one type of item, and I'm hoping/looking for a mod that does both in a way.

The idea would be to have an empty Steel chest for example only have 1 slot, an empty slot, waiting for an item. Lets say an inserter puts a batch of copper wire in that slot. Now, the Steel chest should have 2 slots, 1 for the copper wire, 1 for the free 'insert' slot. If only copper wire ever goes into that chest until full, it should only have 1 slot, of a maximum amount of copper wire, and no 'insert' slot, as it is now full. Alternatively, a Steel chest with 47 different item types in it would look much the same to a current chest, with a large grid of various items to pick from, and only one more available space for the 'insert' slot

I'm not 100% sure that what you're looking for here is possible. The number of inventory slots, as far as I know, is defined in the prototype stage and cannot be changed at run-time. I'm also unsure if you can have an inventory that both compresses and is multi-slotted, though I haven't looked into it. I image the "compression" mechanic of those mods abuse the method that artillery wagons do to allow more than 1 shell in its single slot despite shells having a stack size of 1.

I know the discussion of performance from large inventories has come up a few times, but I think the consensus from the devs is that they generally already have it as optimized as can be done, or at least as much as they're willing to do.

For pipes, I'm trying to find a mod that would allow 'welding' between pipe entities themselves, creating an unchangeable, static, single 'pipe' out of a selection of various welded pipes, reducing the entire selection down to the single 100 volume entity of 1 pipe. I'm not too worried about the 'balance' of throughput over distance, only concerned with the UPS gains of reducing the entities, and freezing the pipe from connecting dynamically to other pipes. Fluid Must Flow comes close to this idea with their merged entity Ducts, but specifically looking for a more dynamic way to draw a pipe network, lock it in place, and reduce the entity count. Space Exploration's pipes are similar in the regard of a single 'pipe' entity spanning different distances, but rigid

Likewise here, the fluid box sizes and connection points cannot be changed at run-time as far as I know. It would require defining all of the different shapes and sizes in advance and then either allowing you to place them directly, or automatically swapping them out on the back end as you go, but could only go so far as what was already defined. There is a mod that adds larger pipe segments (both in width and in length), though I don't recall the name of it offhand.

[mmmPI]

Apologies if that doesn't make sense or doesn't exist, I'll keep looking, but wanted to put the challenge out there in the world if it hasn't been done yet. Hoping it's something the game allows to do

For the storage chest, i have no idea about the impact on performance or the internals, but i know this mod https://mods.factorio.com/mod/deep-storage-unit. It's not acting like a chest with finite number of slot so depending on the use case, i thought it may allow saving UPS by avoiding warehouses, or offering an alternative to large array of chests that may be worth it past a certain amount, or maybe the idea used could be inspiring.

For the pipes the static version for nauvis of the long pipes same as space exploration is called https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Manifolds

[FuryoftheStars]

There is a mod that adds larger pipe segments (both in width and in length), though I don't recall the name of it offhand.

Here's the one I was thinking of: https://mods.factorio.com/mod/FluidMustFlow

Based on mmmPi's post above, I'm unsure then what was meant with SE's pipes. *shrug*

[mmmPI]

Based on mmmPi's post above, I'm unsure then what was meant with SE's pipes. *shrug*

I thought i linked the one you were refering to I must have not properly read what you wrote inside the parenthesis.

[FuryoftheStars]

Based on mmmPi's post above, I'm unsure then what was meant with SE's pipes. *shrug*

I thought i linked the one you were refering to I must have not properly read what you wrote inside the parenthesis.

Oh, ok! I haven't played SE, so I don't know what's in it and thus based on your comment, I don't know if I interpreted the OP's request/comparison correctly, now.

[mmmPI]

Oh, ok! I haven't played SE, so I don't know what's in it and thus based on your comment, I don't know if I interpreted the OP's request/comparison correctly, now.

OP knows about Fluid Must Flow as it was mentionned in the original post, you may have missed it ^^.
In space exploration , when you are in space there are space pipes, which are like those from manifold mod.

Now it's puzzling because the description of the functionning of an hypothetical mod you did, to me, is closer to those space pipe or manifold than Fluid Must Flow. I would have not realized fluid must flow was working like manifold on the internal. It's only now that it clicks.

[vitharr]

at run-time

Ah, thank you, that indeed answers my questions regarding possible or not

https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Manifolds

I had not seen this before, thank you! I'll be taking a look at it

FluidMustFlow does something interesting with its internal buffers in the ducts that may be because it's its own entity by way of linking them, but I'll have to play with the mod's mechanics more to understand if it's doing what I imagine it does or if they've done a different trick. The only other mod I've seen that does something similar to the inventory idea I was considering was https://mods.factorio.com/mod/First_One_Is_Free but I imagine that's using the background slot addition to the player from science rather than changing the inventory baseline

So far, I believe Fury understood the question I was asking for, the 'overwriting' of several pipe entities as one cohesive, single entity, but as they have indicated, that seems to be run time based, which is unfortunate, but very nice info to have