Factorio Forums

TL;DR

Change the priority of the modules that are inserted into machines when shift clicking

What ?

Right now when I have 3 of the uncommon quality 2 modules in the EM plant which give a 2.6% quality bonus and I want to fill out the remaining open slots with normal quality 3 modules which give a 2.5% quality bonus, after shift clicking the quality 3 modules they also replace the 3 modules already placed in the EM plant. Same goes other way around, if the modules in there are quality 3 you can't shuft click the quality 2 uncommon modules to replace them. So what would be preferred instead of just checkin the level or just the rarity of the modules to check the bonus that the module gives you and replace them only if the bonus is actually higher.

Why ?

to make inserting modules guarantee you'll always shift click in the better modules and not accidentally lower the bonus and also prevents the need to manually take out modules one by one if you're dropping in the module level but raising the quality to get a small % boost

what:
when i press z (drop item) and slide over machines with modules in my hand it replaces lower tier modules if the machine is already full of modules, this is great QOL except for a tiny detail, it should replace if the bonus is bigger instead of if the tier is higher.

why:
some higher modules of a higher quality have a bigger bonus than a lower quality of a higher tier module, in this case i was putting quality modules in my recyclers on fulgora and noticed that my normal quality tier 3 modules (+2.5%) were replacing my uncommon tier 2 modules (+2.6%) even though it has a lower bonus, i think the +2.6% should replace the +2.5% instead.

1. ctrl-click on a building with module that gives a better outcome should be automatically accepted
for example: building has Quality 3 Normal (2.5%), ctrl-click on it with Quality 2 Legendary (5%) should replace the modules

2. force replace modules to whatever you are holding
for example ctrl-shift-click holding a module will replace whatever modules are already set there, even if worse

I agree with this. Currently I can't just control-click quality modules into a machine, because that might replace a better quality module with a worse one. Basically it looks like higher levels replace lower levels...

Q2 replaces Q1
Q3 replaces Q2 or Q1

...without regard for whether that actually results in a higher quality level afterwards.

I haven't tried it, but I suspect the same issue is true for speed/productivity/efficiency modules as well, where e.g. control-clicking a normal Q2 speed module (+30%) would replace a legendary Q1 speed module (+50%).

It would be more straightforward in all these cases if control-click would only replace modules where the bonus was actually higher (and not the same or lower).

+1 on this, I've noticed it for a while now and it always bugs me. Especially because I like to Ctrl+click a blank spot in my inventory to fill a machine's input slots, but if I have any higher tier modules they get swapped even if they're worse because of quality. In my opinion, the expected result is that any action like this should favor the better module based on stats, not tier. And in the rare case of a tie, the lower tier module should be accepted. For example, take speed modules. Leg tier 1 has the same speed bonus (50%) as normal tier 3. I would expect the tier 1's to be preferred because they offer 20% less energy consumption and only -1% quality instead of -2.5%