Why does the factorio guy have to collide with machinery?

[Mauslag PIngman]

Why can't the Factorio guy run through assemblers, light poles, trees and stuff like that the way he can run through inserters? When you are working in a crowded factory setting he's always getting hung up on stuff. Does it really add something to the game that you have to take your eye off the machine you're trying to place to go find him (I'm always losing sight of him) and get him out of trouble? I see where it would give the biters a better chance at getting him so it builds that suspense.

Question 2 - I've placed assemblers and inserters. Sometimes I'll put two inserters taking parts out of an assembler because one part is going to another assembler but the first assembler is making parts faster than the second assembler uses them so the second assembler puts the part on a belt to take it somewhere else. Sometimes the one inserter gets all the parts and the second machine never gets fed even though it needs parts. Why wasn't the game programmed so that if there were two inserters taking parts out of an assembler, the inserters would take turns or even better, the inserter feeding another machine gets the part if the second assembler needs the part.

Assemblers aren't part of the circuit network so I don't think there would be a way to control which inserter gets the part if I were to try to use the circuit network.

The rules for the way things work aren't obvious or intuitive so I find it hard to design layout without knowing the rules of the way these things behave. If I knew the rules I would have a better chance of coming up with successful designs. If things were more intuitive and easier to work with I wouldn't have to copy other designs. The way things are people are easily frustrated by unpredicted things and then they think, I see, I'm supposed to do this the proper way which is the way some other person figured it out.

[Ranakastrasz]

Well, the squeakthrough mod reduces the collision of everything but walls and gates such that you can fit between said buildings, barely. Technically, you can't walk through inserters either, because they have a tiny collision box as well, which shifts you a bit to the side. Its small enough that you get shifted tho instead of getting stuck.

[Mauslag PIngman]

Collision box makes sense when you're looking at the guy but I'm working some inches away from the guy where my hand is and the guy is tiny. Its easy to lose him. Why do I always have to worry about him getting stuck up against something? It takes my eye and mind off what I'm trying to do.

[Mehve]

For the second point, a good (and easy) approach is to put all the assembler's output into a container/buffer before it's loaded into the second assembler. Then just use an inserter set to only remove the extra while the container's contents are above a certain number.

[ssilk]

You need to care about the character, cause the character is the physical representation of the player in the game-world.

You can play the sandbox-scenario (or use a cheat) to change to good-mode. There are also mods, that increase the reach of the character.

[Deadly-Bagel]

Collision box makes sense when you're looking at the guy but I'm working some inches away from the guy where my hand is and the guy is tiny. Its easy to lose him. Why do I always have to worry about him getting stuck up against something? It takes my eye and mind off what I'm trying to do.

This becomes second nature after a while. He's always in the exact centre of the screen so once you get a handle on where that is you wander about with ease.

[OdinYggd]

In real life inserters usually operate inside walled off spaces so that people cannot get too close- the arm could easily crush them or rip them apart.

Not only does a real life factory have mechanical hazards to consider, there is also heat, sharp edges, and chemical hazards that may require additional no-entry areas for safeguarding.

In terms of walkthrough ability, quite simply a lot of factories it cannot be done at all without turning them off first. You're almost certain to be injured trying.

And even in places that are designed to have workers present, accidents can happen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgxQeCcm2dg

That glowing ribbon? Its actually hot rolled steel, glowing hot and coming out of the rollers.

This is a steel cobble, a surprisingly commonplace incident where a piece of steel being worked in a rolling mill fails to pass through the rollers and is instead ejected, glowing hot and at speeds approaching 100 MPH in some mills. You don't want to be anywhere near this machinery while it is operating, stay in the designated walkways/crew pits and pay attention to your surroundings.

[Quax]

You may want ot use this mod:

https://mods.factorio.com/mods/Superche ... %20Through

One might consider it as a cheat, for me it's just one step closer to reality. Because why would my Factorio man be unable to crawl under / climb over pipes for example.

[Koub]

Collision box makes sense when you're looking at the guy but I'm working some inches away from the guy where my hand is and the guy is tiny. Its easy to lose him. Why do I always have to worry about him getting stuck up against something? It takes my eye and mind off what I'm trying to do.

This becomes second nature after a while. He's always in the exact centre of the screen so once you get a handle on where that is you wander about with ease.

The problem is that the exact center of the screen is statistically the place where you naturally want to do most things, especially with very limited reach, so even after hundreds hours of gameplay, I still have that beep saying "your building something on top of your head". I'd love if the game engine natively allowed the character to evolve, without being stuck with collision problems, and the building on top of myself, the way blueprints do it (but from the start, the time I have building robots available is already mid-end game for me).

[HurkWurk]

they really intend for you to use mods. just load some. the basic game is just that.