Factorio Forums

A possibility to create a chests of variable length (1xN) when placed with dragging.

To do this a little change in placement mechanics is needed: the chest item should NOT be placed immediately at the point when the LMB pressed, but only upon release of it. This will add a possibility to set the size and orientation of the multichest by dragging. So clicking will mark the start point, and the release point - will mark the end. A single chest unit will be created. The amount of chests ("block items") consumed should be proportional to the length of the created multichest. The same is when it is collected - the amount of chest items is proportional to the length. Suggesting the maximum length limitation as 6 units (to match the length of cargo wagon). The volume of the multichest should be equivalent to the combined volumes of all chests it is made of.

Maybe a mod would do?

https://mods.factorio.com/mod/LB-Modular-Chests
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/WideChests

What would be the gameplay benefit above just placing single chest in a block. Convenience wise there is copy/past for filters and request (blueprints and the entity copy/cut paste) and the circuit network for addressing the whole chest block. Therefore I would see those tractable chest more of a possible annoyance than QoL improvement.

Oh yes, here is why. Train unloading is the main issue. I normally use 3, 6, 9 or 12 chests per unloading station, depending on how many red belts must be fed (3 chests with stack inserters fill the belt with no gaps). But in case the consumption of the belts is not equal, chests may have different depletion rate, so over time it happens that some of the chests from the unloading station get empty while the other are still full. To cope with this issue I must either build a balancer spagetti to merge&mix&unmerge all belts, or call in trains more often than needed to top up the depleted chest groups. So the merged chests of size 3 or 6 tiles wide would help a lot.

Modular Chests mod is damn close to what I am suggesting. However, there is small issues it has. It does not give control of which chests to merge (merging 6 chests in row), so it can not merge vanilla chests - new chest types introduced. What I am suggesting is to determine the chest length right upon placement, so to exclude the potential complications with contents and volume limitations of existing chests with merging mechanics alternative. I don't think it can be done via mod, since placing mechanics right now is hard-coded to occur upon click, with no dragging option.

Or use one arithmetic combinator and some wires so inserters only take from chest with aren't below the average.

https://mods.factorio.com/mod/WideChests as suggested @valneq ?

I strongly against the idea of merging of already-placed chests. It raises too many questions of complexion, believeability and special conditions like connectivity (in case of mod suggested), individual volume limitations, wire connections and items. Therefore I think that most reliable way to deal with wide chests is to determine their length right upon placement. So in fact we have 6 hidden length-variants for each kind of chest, but they just do not clutter the inventory as can not be choosen directly.

I may think of a similarity with placing rails, actually - with rail in hand one may click the end of existing rail and extend it with few clicks to an arbitrary length and direction. Applying some imagination one may think of a way how the same thing can be done with chests to extend the length of a single chest. But I still think that a straight drag-placing is the best solution.