Factorio Forums

I know burner inserters start with energy on purpose, but Electric powered inserters do not.

So, the question becomes... Should fluid-powered inserters start with energy?
To answer this question, you basically have to ask if they're more like Burner inserters, or Electric inserters.
Due to the fact that you have to plumb them up to a fuel source, I'd argue that they're closer to Electric inserters (where you have to wire up the electric grid) than they are to Burner inserters, and therefore should NOT start with energy.
Since they do start with energy, but the reasoning above suggests they shouldn't, I am considering this a bug (Also, on the same day that I released a mod that added a steam powered inserter, people have already pointed this issue out to me as a bug)

The best solution to this issue would be to introduce a new tag that specifies the energy an inserter should start with, rather than being determined by the game engine.


I also admit that this is low priority, I'd barely class it as a bug myself, perhaps more of an interface request. (Feel free to move the topic to that sub-forum if you wish)
For testing, get yourself a copy of boblibrary and boblogistics.
You should be able to build the steam-powered inserter at the cost of a burner inserter, and a pipe.
The fact that it starts with energy in this case is obvious, because it requires 765 degree steam to operate at full power, 165 degree steam would only give it 20% speed. so upon placing the inserter connected to the steam output of your boilers, it runs with a burst of full speed for a few seconds while it uses the starting energy, then suddenly slowing down when it starts using steam.

Yes I think it should be only for burner energy source, as that is the one that needs to pick up fuel

Agreed.

Changing it simply so that fluid energy source inserters don't start with energy would be okay with me.

Adding a tag letting a modder choose would be better, but, that's more of an interface request than a bug fix.

I think it would be an improvement if they didn't start with energy, but I don't feel strongly about it. The starting energy they get is quite large so they do run for quite a while (depending on how you have set them up I guess). I supposed a dedicated grifter could stand over one mining it and undoing it to get a perpetual inserter but that seems like rather a sad use of their time.

Thanks for the report. It's now fixed for the next release.