[2.1.8] Inserter and drilling miner output side is shown as "center"

[Filcius]

It seems that the left-right side of inserter output is only shown when a conveyor is built. I don't consider it to be a critical bug, but something that may be improved to display the state of the inserter.


No belt. Which side will be used? Left or right?

06-26-2026, 08-31-01.png (99.11 KiB) Viewed 224 times

Belt building in progress. I still don't know which side will be used. Should we know in advance which side will be used?

06-26-2026, 08-31-53.png (105.2 KiB) Viewed 224 times

Surprise! It's the left side. I may have flipped it earlier.

06-26-2026, 08-32-17.png (144.77 KiB) Viewed 224 times

I would prefer the orientation of the inserter no to be hidden, to be more transparent, even in cases it does not make sense. I suggest that the arrow for such entities should never be in the middle to display it flipping status.

The drilling miner also have the same behavior and could be also improved.

Before being built:

06-26-2026, 08-33-03.png (264.27 KiB) Viewed 224 times

Only after being built you know if the right or left lane is used.

06-26-2026, 08-33-31.png (227.95 KiB) Viewed 224 times

06-26-2026, 08-33-39.png (217.34 KiB) Viewed 224 times

[Filcius]

It has been pointed out that if the arrow was on the left or right before a conveyor belt is built, it have to be snapped back in the center in some scenarios.

Like in this case, if the arrow was left or right, could a player think that the scrap is put on the start or the end of the conveyor?

06-26-2026, 08-37-50.png (238.98 KiB) Viewed 217 times

[Filcius]

It may be harder than I thought. The inserter does not seems to be configured to output on its left or right line, but on the right or left conveyor's lane. So, the inserter seems to have 2 states "default side of the belt" and "not-default side", instead of my initial assumption which was "output on the inserter right side"/"output on the inserter left side"

If you put a belt going away from the inserter, the default is to put it on the right side of the inserter. But if the the belt is going toward the inserter, the output is put on the left side of the inserter by default. I tested it in 2.0.77 and 2.1.8, and the behavior is the same.

06-26-2026, 09-11-03.png (898.6 KiB) Viewed 195 times

It also means that if you change the direction of the belt, witouth touching the inserter, the arrow is changed like this.

06-26-2026, 09-18-32.png (39.61 KiB) Viewed 195 times

06-26-2026, 09-21-27.png (42.09 KiB) Viewed 192 times

It is the exact same behavior as in 2.0.77, but if we want to control if the inserter output on its right side or left side, it seems a little bit weird that its output side changes when we change the belt direction.