Factorio Forums

I don't remember how I got on this but I noticed inconsistent behavior with cables and logic wires:
> a power pole can have up to 5 connections
>if you want to handwire a power pole you "lose" 5 cables and you have to use cables which you don't get back.
>when you deconstruct the power pole and place it again you get your 5 free/included wires back untill you want to handwire it again.

>when creating logic connections you have to craft green/red cables
>when you build something with a blueprint the cables are free
>also the cables are lost when you deconstruct something

if I remember correctly you can build logic cables with blueprints even if you did not even research it yet.

How could this be solved?

We need a wire tool, compareable with the artillery remote. It is not consumable.
In my mind every power pole comes with 5 cables, with a certain length determiting the possible connection length.
Also all entities that can be controlled come with logic wires which you can take and plug in in where ever it is needed.

You could include the wire tools in the gui of the blueprint.

I know, the current state is not a game breaker but this inconsistency bugs me a little.
Maybe we can find a better solution.

Here is my idea:
-Power pole crafting should not take wires.
-Building a power pole, automatically places up to two wires connected to the newly placed pole. The wires are taken from your inventory.
-Removing a wire moves it back into your inventory.
-Removing a pole removes all wires connected to that pole, also returning them to your inventory.

No wires lost nor generated, but the problem of being unable to regain them after they are placed is solved.

As far as I know, construction bots somehow create wires (green, red and copper) out of thin air. I think that's a "bonus" to being automated, but it would easily become a method of item duplication.

Imo theres no compare to handmade vs bots. If bots do it for free or you gotta carry a handful of wires doesnt really matter. The handjob still remains inferior.

And i havent really cared, except that i am waiting hard for bot research until i am building rails. Much cause the rail blueprints are pretty advanced vs handmade, and i have my rail blueprints with logic wires.

The behaviour is known, check Rseding's post here:

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=29014

Rseding91 wrote: That's by design. We didn't feel it was worth it to implement a ton of logic just for wires.