Factorio Forums

So I'm trying out what happens when there are more inserters pointing out than objects, and I'm not sure I understand what I see. I tried the following setup to see if they just take turns taking things out:




And the first item i put in always got taken out through the 4th from top left, until I put something else in. Then everything started cycling through the 1st from top left, even after emptying everything and starting over. In short, I have no idea what is going on or if it's even deterministic (which it should be, right?)



Furthermore, what happens when a factory that needs some item has several inserters which can supply it? Which one does? Do they take turns? Does anybody already know???

I think the order in which you place them plays a role here. Not a tested theory, just something I indirectly think I noticed.

I've also noticed when inserters take items from assemblers, the last working inserter takes priority.

Eg you have a gears assembler outputting to a belt assembler and a science pack 1 assembler. Let's say it outputs to the SP1 assembler first, the first SP1 starts being built and the next two gears are inserted as buffer. Then that assembler says "I'm full for now" and the inserter stops working, so the next gear it input to the belt assembler. Belts of course build as quickly as gears so the SP1 assembler is ignored until belt production backs up and the belt assembler stops working.

This sort of becomes a problem when you set up a "passive compact" inserter production, ie you have one Fast Inserter assembler to provide to you as well as assemblers for Long Handled, Filtered, and Stack inserters. Rather than rotating the supply it just sticks to one until that is full, then moves on to the next. Circuit network can be used to mitigate this.