Factorio Forums

TL;DR

Make the Space Platform Hub gain additional inventory slots from Quality instead of only increasing its HP.

What?

I suggest that the Space Platform Hub should scale its inventory capacity with Quality. Currently, higher-quality hubs only provide more hit points, which does not feel like a meaningful upgrade.

Why?

Adding extra inventory slots per Quality level would make higher-quality hubs more useful and give players another reason to invest in Quality production.

More inventory capacity would improve late-game platform design without making the game overpowered. It would allow smaller and more compact builds while making Quality upgrades feel more rewarding than just having extra durability.

+1
In my opnion space platform hubs could even use cargo bays as input material and make the connection even more obvious.
They are essentially the same thing, at least a space platform hub IS a cargo bay with additional bells and whistles.

I believe that the number of slots in a Platform Hub was deliberately chosen to ensure that the Hub’s entire Inventory will fit in the dialog box without scrolling - 59 slots is 6 rows of 10 columns (plus one empty space for the red X used to “block” slots). Applying Quality’s 1.3 multiplication factor would yield 77 / 94 / 112 / 148 slots. I certainly would not mind more Inventory slots for compact builds, but I also have never had an actual gameplay problem with just adding more Cargo Bays if necessary.

Platform Hubs cannot be upgraded during normal Gameplay. The only way to get a Quality hub is to destroy & re-create a Platform using a Quality Starter Pack. You can use Editor Mode to quick-replace the Hub while in the Editor Controller mode (not Remote View), but that is not normal gameplay. So most players are probably unaware that you can even get the Hitpoint benefit; and would be unable or confused on how to take advantage of the Quality Bonus on their existing platforms.

Reviewing the API documentation for the SpacePlatformHubPrototype and CargoBayPrototype does not reveal anything Quality-related except for the quality_indicator properties (used for drawing the symbols), indicating that this is an engine-level limitation, and cannot be easily changed in a Mod. I believe the best way to get this feature (in a mod initially) would thus be to request that quality_affects_inventory_size propert is added to the SpacePlatformHubPrototype /CargoBayPrototype as a Modding Interface Request.

Good Luck!