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[2.1.11] Inconsistent behavior when side-loading belts
Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2026 10:18 pm
by kimbernator
The contents of a belt side-loading onto another are taking priority when the "main" belt's previous segment is a curve.
The following gif shows two different behaviors with side-loading priority:
- factorio_side_belt.gif (13.3 MiB) Viewed 759 times
I would have expected both to work like the right instance, where side-loading contents are only brought on when there is empty space.
Re: [2.1.11] Inconsistent behavior when side-loading belts
Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2026 11:25 pm
by Loewchen
Re: [2.1.11] Inconsistent behavior when side-loading belts
Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2026 1:30 am
by kimbernator
I guess if it's a known thing that there's nothing to be done. I was surprised to see it after having an embarrassing number of hours in the game.
I removed one of the belts, then put it back, and the behavior righted itself... for about 10 seconds. Then it went back to what is shown in the gif. For what it's worth, rseding calls out that the belts were different speeds in that example, which is not the case in this one.
Re: [2.1.11] Inconsistent behavior when side-loading belts
Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2026 7:25 am
by ergzay
This should not be marked as not a bug. This is absolutely a bug. It's also something that changed recently as pre 2.0 this would literally never happen except in very strange edge cases.
Re: [2.1.11] Inconsistent behavior when side-loading belts
Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2026 7:32 am
by Rseding91
This is not a bug. The belt is split because there’s a drill loading onto it 4 tiles before that point. This also happens with inserters, and when adding control behaviors to belts. Anything that forces a split in the belt will let side loading add when there’s normally not space.
Re: [2.1.11] Inconsistent behavior when side-loading belts
Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2026 7:34 am
by ergzay
Rseding91 wrote: Tue Aug 11, 2026 7:32 am
This is not a bug. The belt is split because there’s a drill loading onto it 4 tiles before that point. This also happens with inserters, and when adding control behaviors to belts. Anything that forces a split in the belt will let side loading add when there’s normally not space.
The drill is not even moving in this image. How is that relevant?
Edit: Also reposting the reddit link to this thread where there is another case of this and almost everyone believes it to be a bug.
https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comme ... _wait_10s/
Re: [2.1.11] Inconsistent behavior when side-loading belts
Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2026 9:41 am
by Bilka
ergzay wrote: Tue Aug 11, 2026 7:34 am
The drill is not even moving in this image. How is that relevant?
Quoting from another thread because I am not good at wording it. Mining drills, like inserters, do an insertion on the transport line so have similar transport line splitting behaviour:
boskid wrote: Mon Apr 24, 2023 8:53 am
Similar things happen when inserters are interacting with belts or undergrounds at a position that is in the middle of a merged transport line: because insertions in the middle of a long transport line are expensive, when inserter interacts with a belt at a position that is more than 3 tiles away from the beginning of the transport line, the transport line is split in a way to make sure insertion point is at most 3 tiles away from the inserter (inserter = slow interaction = 3 tiles limit. Side loading is fast interaction that would force 2 tiles limit).
To see the transport line splits, use debug option "show-transport-lines", there are arrows where transport line ends.