I believe inserter rotation logic was changed recently; in situations where I would expect inserters to all rotate the same way they now do a kind of strange, back-and-forth dance, sometimes criss-crossing.
I'm not sure if this really counts as a bug in the strictest sense, but I think it looks kind of silly and hadn't seen anyone else bring it up.
Re: [2.1.8] Inserters rotate oddly
Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2026 6:27 am
by Shabbers
Yoo I noticed this too. We now have spinny inserters when they do a circle, normal 180 rotations, and now this funky side to side thing.
Re: [2.1.8] Inserters rotate oddly
Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2026 6:33 am
by boskid
Not a bug.
Since inserter can do 180deg either way this does not break anything. This behavior was added as part of inserter symmetrification because i was getting reports that inserters throughput is different based on inserter orientation and belt direction when taking from belts. Part of the solution was that when inserter takes items from a belt and then drops into a container, inserter will return (drop-to-pickup) by the same side as it moved pickup-to-drop so it gets to new belt items quicker (or at least consistent). Because foundry does not require chasing items, inserter always takes items from the same spot which is exactly 180deg away from the drop target and so it can choose whatever direction it wants and it selects to continue rotating the same direction it was rotating when going back from last drop.
This behavior was added because of belts and i see no reasons to remove it from non-belts as its not breaking anything.