Factorio Forums

I know that the belts and inserters and everything have been their colors forEVER and are unlikely to change, but it's a little confusing to me.
*Burner inserters are not typically used in progression so are not included, but could be designated gray or black to differentiate them from stack inserters. Additionally, long variants are not discussed because there is only one base-game long variant.

This is really weird for consistency's sake. It seems like color consistency was attempted. Yellow and gray are usually lower, red is usually middle, and blue or green are usually higher. (except green circuits)

I think it'd be a lot more intuitive if every tier # corresponded to a color. Everything tier 1 was yellow or whatever. I don't care what the color is, much less that they're all consistently ordered.

PS Modules also throw a wrench in this, but their tier dots are sufficiently intuitive, so I'm not bothered by them.

It’s not going to be changed, most likely. The developers like that color variety adds to the visual variety even in endgame bases.

I would consider your list not complete, as it's missing:
chests - brown/yellow, dark grey, light grey;
logistic chests - purple, red, yellow, green, blue;
mining drills - grey, grey/yellow, grey/red;
furnaces - I'd consider electric furnace teal/turquoise, + red/orange foundry;
circuits - quantum processor (purple?);
all the science packs;
cannon shells have two dimensions of improvements (grey->red, grey->green);
biters/worms - yellow, red, blue, green;
pentapods - green, yellow, red.

Quality colour scheme follows a complete different source - RPG rarity.

I would definitely include grey burner inserters and red long-handed inserter. Also former purple filter inserter.

Also stack inserters are not strictly better than bulk inserters. Similarly for furnaces, ammo, circuits, logistic chests, science packs.

Put all together, there is no chance of unifying it.