TL;DR
Enable some way to "compress" or "encapsulate" multiple signals into one... with the ability to "extract" them again later.What?
Add the ability to take multiple signals, such as a list of ingredients, and compress them into one signal --> but specifically one that can allow us to extract these signals again at a later time/operation.Why?
Currently, to enumerate the ingredients of a recipe, a player must have the building that makes that recipe be able to receive a signal for the result of the recipe AND transmit the ingredients.Ok, fair enough, but what if I want to enumerate the ingredients for each ingredient or at different quality levels? How do I "capture" one while requesting another? If it's the levels of quality, this is simple, you send the results through a Selector Combinator with "Quality transfer" "desired quality" and "Each" as the 'target signal'... and you do this for each quality you want (up to five times)...
But how to enumerate the sub-ingredients? I've tried using an S-R (or R-S) Latch, but it catches ALL signals. I've tried this many different ways and many different times.
So. Instead if we could take a set of signals and encapsulate them into "one" signal (similar to the "each" or "anything" or "everything" signal); then transmit that, to be broken down into its components again later, we wouldn't have this issue.
And that isn't the only use case. Any time a person needs to transmit anything, everything, or each... or any set of signals, without interfering with other signals on the same circuit, they either have to create a "MASSIVE" external circuit or simply "not" do it. Needless to say, trying to catch an "each" in a latch is extremely difficult.
Of note:
This will reduce complexity. I do not ask that it be provided freely. As with my last suggestion (in which I forgot to mention this key point) I am perfectly happy for this to be locked behind a technology. That isn't a problem.What may be a problem is people claiming that *because* this reduces complexity it *shouldn't* be added, *period*. To which I respond: Unlill Wube takes away logistics (bots) outright, this is a non-argument. Heck, Korvax Enrichment simplified things for players by providing a source of otherwise rare U235.
Final thoughts: Use case? Sure: Space Platforms.
Need I say more? Yes? Ok: Space Platforms are expensive to produce and ship into space so the room to build things in space is at a premium until you are fairly efficient and technologically sufficient. Until then the ability to tell one machine to produce anything you need depending on what you have available, and to do this with as few combinators as possible, is EXTREMELY important.
Need I say more?