Factorio Forums

I think that the smart devices should be delayed in the tech tree and that there should be some more basic logic devices as an intermediate technology.
There are also some situations where a simpler logic network would be much nicer to use then the smart network.

My idea:
- Simple logic wires , each one carries only an on or off state. Comes in many colors .Smart wires can be made much more expensive.
- Logic Inserters. Inserts when the signal is on, doesn't when it is off. Needs basically no configuration.
- Counting chest: Similar interface to the requester chest. Gives an on signal to the attached cables if the condition is met.
- Logic box : You connect several wires an then inside you switch some of them as output and set the correct logic functions.
- Counter : Connects to the smart network ( and the logistics network), gives an on signal to the connected logic cables if a condition is met.
- Wire strand : connects ALL wires between two poles.
- Wireless logic transmitter/receiver. Uses a logic cable as input/output. You can select a wireless channel. Uses lots of power.

Also. It would be nice if smart wires became one item. You could pick up your wires and use the rotate command to change color, instead of cluttering your inventory with all the colors.

There recently have been several cases where I would have preferred this stuff over the normal smart network:
If you have a lot of inserter with the same condition. If you use a counting box and logic cables, you could change the condition in a single place. And you don't need to go through the whole configuration every time you add an inserter.
Centralized control for your factory. If you have some Counters at a central location you could change condition for your storage inserters right there, without traversing all your factory to find the correct inserter.

I like you idea of switching colors by rotating, cool!

to the rest of your post: You should have a look at this

https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... ?f=6&t=980

https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... 6865#p6865 (you don't need to read all, just from "nebulous")

This is interesting too
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... 6248#p6240

Basically this means, that instead of having more and more items with different functions it is much better to have less items but you can plug one or more modules in it, which has very different functionality. E. g. Basic logic and complex logic. If you put no module into an inserter (any inserter!) and plug it into a cable, it will work only if any signal in the cable is transferred. There was also the suggestion to have a controller-device (your counter) which can create really complex logic for many chests/inserters (instead of programming every inserter you program the controller once).

The idea of having a multi-wire, which can transmit many "channels". A channel is basically a red or green wire and transmits - like in midi standard - a big number of key-value-pairs (= number of coal in a chest). The logic wire you suggest is just a very special case of it. A wireless device, that sends a channel into the air (I don't think it should need much power, but has a limited range), and some others.

I didn't completly understand the wire strand. This sounds interesting.

Hm. I think both ideas have their use.

ssilk wrote:I like you idea of switching colors by rotating, cool!

to the rest of your post: You should have a look at this

https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... ?f=6&t=980

https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... 6865#p6865 (you don't need to read all, just from "nebulous")

This is interesting too
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... 6248#p6240

Basically this means, that instead of having more and more items with different functions it is much better to have less items but you can plug one or more modules in it, which has very different functionality. E. g. Basic logic and complex logic. If you put no module into an inserter (any inserter!) and plug it into a cable, it will work only if any signal in the cable is transferred. There was also the suggestion to have a controller-device (your counter) which can create really complex logic for many chests/inserters (instead of programming every inserter you program the controller once).

The idea of having a multi-wire, which can transmit many "channels". A channel is basically a red or green wire and transmits - like in midi standard - a big number of key-value-pairs (= number of coal in a chest). The logic wire you suggest is just a very special case of it. A wireless device, that sends a channel into the air (I don't think it should need much power, but has a limited range), and some others.

I didn't completly understand the wire strand. This sounds interesting.

Hm. I think both ideas have their use.

Multi-wire and Wire-Strand are the same thing. I imagine it more like an old parallel cable.

I agree that we should have one configurable item instead of many items for the logic. That is what the logic box is. Inserting modules sound uselessly complicated to me. The number of maximal logic gates in a box should depend on research only.

Modules have the advantage of enabling special functionality.
A module which enables an inserter to handle two items. Currently it must be researched and is valid for every inserter. Or a module which can speed down an inserter. A module which enables an assembler to produce two item-steps!
There are endless ideas, which can be implemented with modules. The inserters/assemblies etc. are only distinct by the number of module-slots and must be researched differently (by "testing" the item you want to improve, the test destroys the item)

A way how a logic signal could be analyzed once and the result /then/ distributed to smart inserters would be nice, agreed.