Factorio Forums

It is very nice to be able to have some things input through one wire and output through the other now with 2.1 on the experimental branch; but, the more accustomed I get to working with this, the more trouble I encounter with its limitations: if two things are grouped into either input or output box, then I cannot segregate their signals; if I could:
-I could tell an inserter what to pick up on one wire and to read the contents of its destination for a separate condition on the other wire
-I could send the same lab or assembler's contents and requirements to a combinator on separate wires to be compared, for an easy output of which sciences or ingredients are missing
-The /-s-k-y-/ shatered planet is the limit: look at what is grouped together and imagine the possibilities if it could be separated!

Almalexia wrote: Sat Oct 03, 2026 5:38 pm -I could tell an inserter what to pick up on one wire and to read the contents of its destination for a separate condition on the other wire

I think what you mean by this is that you want to set the filter on one wire, and set the enable/disable condition from a different wire.

For inserters, there is no practical difference between them getting no filtered items at all and being disabled. So just read the chest and shut off all filters based on its contents. And if that's not good enough, you have plenty of virtual signals you can use to disable it. You might need an extra combinator to switch the signal, but it's ultimately very doable.

Almalexia wrote: Sat Oct 03, 2026 5:38 pm-I could send the same lab or assembler's contents and requirements to a combinator on separate wires to be compared, for an easy output of which sciences or ingredients are missing

Honestly, I'd rather there just be an option to output the missing ingredients (ie: single craft - contents). Or have a toggle to negate the contents or ingredients, so you can create that yourself by checking both boxes.

That seems much more likely to happen than implementing the ability to have each output/input routed to a specific wire color. The current 2.1 system seems to be as far as WUBE wants to go down this road.