Change recipe from map view?

[HedronFairy]

I'm sure this has been suggested before, but it would be nice to be able to give/change an assembling machine (etc.)'s recipe from the map view somehow. I understand the idea of "it's too overpowered, what's the point of having a player at that point" but it feels like the point of things like the Spidertron and the way the robotports work is to, in a way, automate the construction of the factory itself. At least that's what it seems like to me, but if you're building an outpost with assembling machines in it, it seems odd that, at least in the late game when you're building entire outposts remotely, you need to drive yourself over there to set the recipes manually. I know you can just use blueprints to get around this, but doing so just to set recipes on assembling machines is awkward at best.

This is a very minor complaint, but I'm curious as to the reasoning behind not making a feature like this at least unlockable.

Big fan, thanks for reading!

[Koub]

Usually, people don't blueprint "just assembling machines" for their outposts, they blueprint the whole production facility, including recipes. Then, it's just a matter of Click, plonk, and the bots take care of everything. If the recipes are set in the blueprint, then you won't have to set them after the assembling machines are built.

[netmand]

Although I am a proponent of this idea, it may be misused as a hack to gain the leftover items you get when changing recipes... unless they are programmed to drop on the ground around the machine perhaps?

[ThePublicPluber]

@HedronFairy , extremely well put it is totally not overpowered and would be extremely convenient. I am running into this issue myself, factorio still takes a hell of a long time to set up with all the different places you have to build and secure. I loved playing through the thus far and have just gotten to the point where I am taring down the spaghetti factory and building from scratch using bots... let me set these stupid recipes after.. is it that much data to keep with blueprints? at least let me edit it inside the blueprint!

To get around this you must place the item on the ground, set the recipe then create that as a blueprint... tip