Factorio Forums

Underground Pipes should have their reach distance increased by 1 tile.

At the moment, an odd number is chosen, a distance of [ 9 ] tiles.

To the best of my knowledge this number does not align with anything else in the game, there is no reason to have chosen an odd number over an even number - it does not add for any increased interesting puzzle mechanics, it is simply annoying.

With the introduction of turbo belts, it has come to my attention that you cannot neatly weave turbo belts and pipes whilst the distance is set at [ 9 ].

This also prevents underground pipes from cleaning clearing two sets of lanes from a main bus, as well as neatly clearing three railway lines.

My suggestion: increase distance by 1 to [ 10 ].

It just fits into the rest of the game better, and makes for a better playing experience.

Reddit Post: https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comme ... ave_their/

+1

On top of better functionality and aesthetics, one could argue that it's more consistent with the recipe, which requires 10 pipes (the 5 iron plates could be the start and end of the underground pipe). Not that recipes always need to make sense, but it's just nicer.

Sounds harsh, but that is the type of change where AI excels. Claude wrote a mod that supports this in literally three minutes.

Get it from https://mods.factorio.com/mod/extended- ... ound-pipes. I tested it (it works) but I did not even look at the code.

(If you don't like AI, don't download it. It is a free country.)

I think I can do it in less than 3 minutes. Joke aside, I would never add such mod, it would make all my blueprint I design potentially not work on vanilla.

I have no strong opinion about this up.

It would be funny if the recipe did match the underground length, but the argument that it would make all the buildings match up exactly is not great. This would lead future people to always build to grid, making posted designs even more samey than they are. If everything was 3x3 it would also make stuff fit together nicer... and people would optimize away alternative designs.