Factorio Forums

TL;DR

Read research labs and set research based on circuit logic

What?

I would love the feature of being able to set research (mainly the infinite research categories) based on circuit logic, that way we can set it to utilize available science based on availability, to implement this I think it would be necessary also to make research labs circuit readable.

Why?

I think this could greatly improve the gameplay experience because it allows players a way to further optimize research and science production in a way that has depth. It also makes it so that players can fully utilize science resources, especially agricultural science, for example say you have 2 big researches you are working on, one with agricultural science and one without, instead of wasting hours and hours of agricultural science production while you research (say over night) you can now toggle back and forth based on availability without player intervention increasing efficiency and research up time! This game is all about efficiency, optimization and automation, win/win/win! Plus who knows how else this could be utilized.

Cool idea. However, I am not sure how setting researches would work. If it can be done at a lab (the only way I can think you would do it) trying to set multiple researches at once (via multiple labs) could lead to not intuitively predictable behavior. In addition, how would you specify what the research is? An additional icon for each research would be clunky and I can't think of another method that is intuitive.

Probably it should be better done in another way:

Add a tech to improve research
Level 1 - ability to auto select new tech to research with empty queue (none/cheapest/fastest/random) for those who do not want to select
Level 2 - Laboratories research first possible tech in the queue (at least one lab has all bottles needed)
Level 3 - each Laboratory research first tech in queue it has all bottles for (several tech simultaneously)

So no need to use combinators and invent ways to designate tech. Just select it in queue or even not.

Indeed this would be good to have.

Just simple way of setting up what to research through constant combinator would help a lot. I have server running regardless if someone is connected. One mining productivity research level to complete takes around 4 min now and I can queue 7 ? So I need to connect every 30 min to set new research queue.

Next use case would be when you are researching research productivity. You want to do it only when prometheum science packs > required science pack to complete the level.

I know there are mods that can do this, but I like vanilla only and just because mod can do it, doesn't mean base game shouldn't have it right ?

EDIT: This brings another topic to attention. Whats the problem with researching more than one thing at the same time ? If lab have access to science packs needed for specific research, why not ?

That or automated queing like some of the mods do.

Also regarding the mutiple at the same time: Way post game, it takes so long for one to level up that you will wait ages for all of them. That said. I would love an automation where, select infinite research, level it up until level X. The reason why X is because at some point, any damage type can one shot anyone (like alterily vs demolisher), or bot speed is "instant" already, or Ores on belt... no... train that get directly feeded by miners's wagon get's instantly full. Ideea is that even if they are called infinite, we never truely need to go all the way. And automating it would be amazing.

Green Cat wrote: Thu Jul 31, 2025 12:37 pmI would love an automation where, select infinite research, level it up until level X.

... and send a message to my whatsupp account when level X research is completed.

I made an older proposal here: viewtopic.php?t=129148

tl:dr: "set recipe" option for biolabs for setting research, selector combinator functionality to determine current research levels and possible researches with given collection of science packs.