Add [ANY] quality to train [ITEM COUNT] filters!

[FoolishBalloon]

TL;DR:
Add a toggle for the train schedule waiting condition [ITEM COUNT] to be able to select [ANY] item quality, instead of having to specify each quality by itself.

When making train schedules, setting a train waiting condition to Full Cargo Inventory no longer works well when using quality modules in mines, as there often are stacks of different qualities that don't mix well in the cargo loaders, thus resulting in trains not getting 100% fully loaded. "So just use [INACTIVITY] condition instead" you might say - but the issue with this, especially on Fulgora is that the small but rich scrap islands often don't have enough space to accomodate enough accumulators to power the mines fully through the day. Thus the [INACTIVITY] prompt may trigger due to a power outage instead of inserters not working due to the target being full.

So there is the wait condition [ITEM COUNT] - where I'm currently specifying that the train should have at least 5500 normal scrap before checking for inactivity. Works fairly well, but why can't we set it to check for scrap of [ANY] quality?

11-02-2024, 00-02-31.png (303.49 KiB) Viewed 1687 times

[animexamera]

TL;DR

Allow trains to have departing conditions that allow for it to be loaded with multiple qualities.

What?

Currently for the item count train condition you can only select either or quality:

factorio_p9u7XiowlG.png (13.13 KiB) Viewed 1645 times

For inserters you can select that any quality is fine:

factorio_RwqXpqdSku.png (218.41 KiB) Viewed 1645 times

I want to have a train carrying multiple qualities of ore/plates/other items, in order for it to depart the train should be full, a proper condition would be total amount of all qualities combined > 3.604 for a stack size of 100, this would account for the worst case distribution of 4 1 item stacks of different rarities with the other stacks being maxed out. E. g. 34 stacks of common iron plates, 2 stacks of uncommon iron plates, 1 uncommon, rare, epic and legendary item each.

Why?

When I first encountered this problem I thought it was an oversight, because it just makes so much more sense than creating 5 separate trains for each quality. If this is not implemented imo, there is no point in putting quality modules into outpost ore miners, because it's too much of a hassle to transport them back. As an interim solution one can set the train to depart after inactivity, albeit this is a less elegant solution.

[Koub]

[Koub] Merged two threads with the same suggestion.

[dpc]

FWIW. I started quality mining on Fulgora and realized this issue, and my solution is to add separate interrupt which checks if item count of uncommon scrap > 0 OR rare scrap > 0 OR ... and if so the target station is the normal "unload :scrap:" station. It's just one extra interrupt with 4 ORed rules, so fast to create, though it would be more annoying to make if was to be applied more generally, as it would require separate rule for every quality-mined resource.

What would be great to add or make the existing cargo item wildcard be able to drop the quality qualifier, so that :wildcard: matching quality item results in common quality target station.

[Dogmai]

The easiest way to do this is to add a wait condition [0.5 seconds of inactivity] to the loading side, and [Empty Cargo] to the unloading side.

That way you can mix quality ores with absolute minimum down time.

You can also unload from the far side of the tracks using filter inverters for each quality except normal, then from the near side of the tracks for normal.

That way the rarer ores are unloaded first, this works even with Stack Inserters.