TL;DR
Support direct Insertion of blue chips, LDS, and rocket fuel into rocket silos and make this optional via a checkbox on the silo UI.What?
Current state, all items in the game can be direct inserted into rocket and launched with the exception of the ingredients for rocket components themselves.I propose a checkbox on the rocket interface labeled "Ship Rocket Inserted Rocket Part Ingredients" or something similar.
When this box is checked and a silo would normally reject insertion of additional chips/lds/fuel, any additionally inserted would go to shipping inventory. The box should be unchecked by default.
I'm totally fine with any other approach that allows players to optionally direct insert these items into rocket inventory.
Why?
The current state limitation feels like a workaround that limits game play options. While it could be argued that since this only applies to 3 items in the game it's not a big deal, I assert that it conflicts with specific intended styles of play.For example, the existence of the Logistics Network Embargo achievement means the devs purposefully incentivize a more challenging alternative playstlyle. Combine this with the fact that Aquilo lacks nearly all the ingredients needed to build rocket parts, and your only option becomes to ship in the parts for the parts, which is needlessly convoluted and adds work for the sake of work and not the value of the challenge. Once the player completes the achievement and is ready to move on, they either need to abandon the strategy they used to get there, or face an increasingly more difficult challenge.
This also increases the logistics challenge as LDS and blue chips both take up far less inventory than the parts required to make them, meaning the player must either produce them directly in orbit (which requires convoluted methods of getting sulfuric acid and plastic on platforms) or build platforms with 10-20x the storage capacity allocated for getting things back off Aquilo.
Note - the above logistics issue becomes a problem even before the player gets the achievement (assuming they want to be able to get themselves or anything else back off the planet they landed on without starting from scratch and building a silo and rockets from scratch).
As the achievement challenges the player to take a less sophisticated path, it seems counterintuitive that they should also have to deal with increased logistical complexities. This limitation is also disproportionately challenging and thus unfairly balanced against users playing Space Age as in the base game, none of this is an issue for unlocking the achievement. While it's reasonable that the challenge should take things to the next step in Space Age, that next step shouldn't become 10x harder than all other next steps in the DLC.
I believe the achievement predates the DLC, and I don't believe the additional complexities were an intended feature, and are instead the compromise of a workaround. The devs may not have considered how blacklisting these 3 items impacted this specific achievement. To this end, I suggest an alternative workaround.
PS - I did consider what it would be like without the checkbox if direct insertion automatically switched to filling inventory after crafting was complete and I think that would harm more standard play styles. If this was the case, players who direct insert with the intended behavior of crafting rockets would now need circuits (which are explicitly described as an optional mechanic in game) to still be able to use inventory at all. It would also require a retrofit to all existing rocket setups, which is not very fair.
PSS - I did read through frequent suggestions to see if this had already been proposed. I'm kind of surprised I didn't find it, though it's entirely possible I didn't look hard enough.
: you can use belts and inserter to send an empty rocket to space just fine.