Stacked Hand Crafting

[FunMaker]

Simple Suggestion: In the early game it is often necessary to craft multiple items of the same type by hand (Sometimes this happens in the mid game too). Some items need items that are them self crafted:
- Belt
- Burner Mining Drill
- Burner Inserter
- Steam Engine

Simple Example:
I have 300 iron plates in my inventory and queue up 100 belts for crafting

Expectation:
- iron gear wheel
- belt
- iron gear wheel
- belt
- iron gear wheel
- belt
- iron gear wheel
- belt
...

What happens:
- 100x iron gear wheel
- 100x belt

I have to wait ~1 minute for the first belt to be completed and in this time i have to stand around and wait...
If the production would be queued like my expectation i could be starting building belts right away.

The primary problem would be: canceling the queued items would be harder because they would not be stacked in the ui. But that would be better than waiting so long.

[ssilk]

So if you want to do that why don't you craft just iron-gear, belt, iron-gear, belt...?

What I mean

Well, I can now explain many about the crafting queue. But just a "simple" question: What should happen if you craft circuits?

And there is a rule: You need take ALL NEEDED ingredients before crafting, cause that is an important feature.

[MalcolmCooks]

So if you want to do that why don't you craft just iron-gear, belt, iron-gear, belt...?

because when you want to craft 300 belts you would have to click 300 times
or to craft in groups of 5, click 60 times
instead of just being able to click once

that being said, I think the difficulty and time you have to spend waiting to hand-craft large numbers of items is something that pushes you towards automation, which is a good thing because you learn basic setups. I try to set up factories for everything I'm going to need a lot as soon as possible, starting with assembly machines. The same basic setup can be adapted for many different items because usually the machines in the early game are some combination of iron plates, gears, and circuits. I generally use a variant of this design:



Which is suitable for nearly everything. I limit the output chest to one stack, and then stock the source chest with iron and copper plates in the correct ratio. it usually produces things significantly slower than the top speed of the blue assembly machine, but it is always faster than handcrafting, and it means when I need some of that item, it's already made for me.

[FunMaker]

I am okay with the automation argument. I think it is okay to make a decision: automate it or wait for it to complete by hand. But the "complete by hand" feels a little bit choppy if at first all sub-components of all end-products are made and then all end products. Maybe make it a option to change the behaviour.

[MalcolmCooks]

well you can change the behaviour by changing how you add items to the queue. 5 at a time usually works well for when you want to make a lot of things and place them immediately.

[ssilk]

Hm. After thinking my opinion: This kind of crafting should be done by a mod.