Factorio Forums

TL;DR

Tier Scrolling for everything upgradable in the upgrade planner or with logical progression.

What?

Like for the quality scrolling with "Alt" i would suggest Tier Scrolling "Shift+Alt" or something like that for Machines with different levels.
For Example

• Assembling Machine 1 + 2 + 3
• Belt Tiers (Yellow + Red + Blue + Green)
• All Inserters
• Module Tiers in one category (Speed, Productivity, Efficiency and Quality separate)
• Small Electric Pole + Medium Electric Pole + Large Electric Pole + Substation
• Burning Mining Drill + Electric Mining Drill + Large Mining Drill
• Maybe something like chests including Logistic Chests
• Maybe Combinators in a order
• Pipes + Pump + Tank
• Train Stop + Rail Signals

Why?

This makes it easier to change items, which belong together without opening the inventory and search for a specific Item.
I think this improves the gameplay and makes it easier to build something. Escpecially the Inserter changing and Belt ties would help I think.

I love the new "increase quality" and "decrease quality" shortcuts, and I think it could be applied to upgrades / downgrades as well.

Alt + scroll changes the quality, so how about control + scroll to change the tier. This would apply the "default upgrade" upgrade planner to the current item you're holding, and scrolling down would do it in reverse.

This works great for *most* items. The only exception I can think of is belts, where my hotbar contains a belt, underground, and splitter, and changing from red to blue belts might get wierd if I think switched to an underground and got a red underground. Maybe there's room to do it in groups for belts or something, or maybe we just accept that it won't be perfect.

What items do you have in mind?
I imagine broad categories could be: chests, belt+undergrounds+splitters, inserters, electric poles, steam engine/turbine, mining drills, furnaces, assembling machines, modules, ammunition.
That covers 64 items out of about 288 items. I would not call it most items.