Factorio Forums

Harkonnen604 wrote:Wow I didn't know that. thanks are there other similar limitations anywhere in the game where non-smart inserter does not fill the stack completely?

Absolutely! They do this with assembling machines: they only buffer two recipes worth of materials, and only allow the machine to produce two recipe outputs before they wait for it to get unloaded. They buffer 5 coal and 2 ore into a furnace, or 10 iron plates when making steel. One non-smart inserter can handle the job of putting ore and coal into a furnace using a belt with ore on one side and coal on the other. A burner inserter will buffer 2 coal into itself. Anything which is fueled by a solid fuel component will be buffered by 5 units of fuel by an inserter.

Oh I know that fact about assemblies and furnaces, just didn't think of it in this context and didn't expect that behavior from turrets. As for fuel - not anything... trains get all 3 slots filled to 50. cars and tanks probably as well.

Harkonnen604 wrote:As for fuel - not anything... trains get all 3 slots filled to 50. cars and tanks probably as well.

Yes, vehicles get fully fueled up. It makes sense, because they may not have an inserter around to fuel them up for a while. But buildings only get buffered to 5 fuel because they don't move away from the inserter.

Harkonnen604 wrote:

thereaverofdarkness wrote:You have to try it before you say it won't work. Inserters only put ten magazines in a turret before they stop.

Wow I didn't know that. thanks are there other similar limitations anywhere in the game where non-smart inserter does not fill the stack completely?

All over the place, actually. Even smart inserters adhere to it. An inserter will never, unless putting into a chest or other container, put more items than reasonably necessary into the target. For factories, the usual amount is twice what is needed by the factory's recipe. Fuel is typically kept at 5 units. Ammo, as mentioned before, at 10.

Sean Mirrsen wrote:Fuel is typically kept at 5 units. Ammo, as mentioned before, at 10.

I had an idea after reading your post, so I went to test it.


Apparently an inserter will put full fuel and ammo into a vehicle, but then it will also keep loading fuel or ammo into cargo after the ammo/fuel slots are full, until it no longer has any ammo or fuel to load.