Can't connect conveyor to smelter :-(

[Christofer em Brasil]

Can't connect conveyor to smelter

Note: I placed the building using the grid snap

Learning to play, a fair few minutes into the game now.

* I click on land outside of the smelter, then try to click inside the smelter (just appears red with red error message)
* Also tried starting conveyor from the smelter going outward, but that seems to be correct action for the Output (didn't work anyway)
* Tried connecting to other side, there was no difference
* Tried raising and lowering the conveyor, then reset to ground using 0

Nothing I tried worked.

Image
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2486763639

Cheers,
From a fellow Factorio fan

[pat]

That's not quite how you connect it. Run the conveyor belt alongside the smelter and then connect it to the smelter with a sorter (inserter). Like this:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2486764250

There are only a few things in the game where you can run a conveyor belt directly into it.

[Christofer em Brasil]

Thanks for your hep pat :-)

Feedback - To designers:
- this is not intuitive - because the first thing I learned was to draw conveyor directly out of a machine (so to me it was instinct to be able to go in to another)
- there was no help telling me how important it was to lay it out exactly this way
- even after spending a few minutes trying different things the game didn't do anything different, e.g. it could have popped up the guide with some big sign saying [IMPORTANT] you MUST do it this way :-(
- after researching logistics, I saw a guide, but don't recall seeing this important point

PS: "Sorter" I thought would sort stuff, that's why I didn't look at it - thinking I will only need that later. Like a spliter that can be configured to only move one item type.

[Piorn]

Ironic how you reference Factorio, where you only have inserters.

But yeah, most building connect to belts with Sorters. You can even connect two building with sorters this way, provided they have slots for it. (the White Squares)

[pat]

I can see the confusion where the very first manufacturing building you deal with is a miner, and the belt comes directly out of it.

[choddo]

Originally posted by HaddockA:

Originally posted by Christofer em Brasil:

From a fellow Factorio fan

...which pretty much works exactly the same way...

Originally posted by Christofer em Brasil:

Feedback - To designers:- this is not intuitive

Feedback - To designers: more than 99% do know how to get it working on their own.

As a fellow newbie, I did figure it out, but also wondered what the hell was going on. The difference between a facility that can connect directly to a conveyor and one that can't comes down to trying it - and if it's red, it can't. There should be a clue before that.

[Dirkels]

Originally posted by HaddockA:

Originally posted by choddo:

There should be a clue before that.

Very few developers moved a game into Early Access in such an excellent state like this game, whiners like you need to learn to appreciate that, instead of moaning about a minor issue that 99.9%(!) of the players have figured out on their own.

If you have nothing constructive to say there is always the option to say nothing instead of going of on a rant.

[Samael]

Isn't the tutorial guy tells you exactly how to do it? I don't remember.

[margalus]

Originally posted by Samael:

Isn't the tutorial guy tells you exactly how to do it? I don't remember.

Seems to me he had to. I had zero troubles with it and I am certainly not an elite player.

[SirGouki]

I don't see the problem. With over 300 hours in Factorio, I figured this out in less than 2 seconds, considering, like Factorio, the buildings show where they output. Unlike Factorio, however, there's no arrows - just a white cube. However, also unlike Factorio, buildings that output directly onto a belt, like miners, have a door where that cube is. Buildings that don't take belts directly have a little chute with a gate over them that kind resembles a power outlet (at least thats what they make me think of), those require sorters. I have no idea why this is a thing except maybe for direct feed systems, but fluid tanks have 2 sides where they can take either a belt or an sorter. They're also the only building that has both of these designs (a door way and a power outlet looking door for connecting a sorter), one over the other, on any side. Anyway, my main point was, while things are slightly different, this is pretty much the most like a spiritual successor to Factorio - you start out landing on a strange planet, you pillage the resources, turn the planet into a giant factory, and your main goal is to launch things into space purely to assert your dominance.

[Raven😂1407]

The next part is, no word about the priorities. If you take for example the fluid tanks. No word about they serve the lane clockwise first, counted from inbound lane. But this might be important, if you are low on liquid and hope it gets split to all lanes.

[Christofer em Brasil]

Originally posted by HaddockA:

Originally posted by choddo:

There should be a clue before that.

Very few developers moved a game into Early Access in such an excellent state like this game, whiners like you need to learn to appreciate that, instead of moaning about a minor issue that 99.9%(!) of the players have figured out on their own.

Agree. This game is very polished, it's great for early access.
The question was to help me and any others that may search for the answer.

[Christofer em Brasil]

Originally posted by SirGouki:

I don't see the problem. With over 300 hours in Factorio, I figured this out in less than 2 seconds, considering, like Factorio, the buildings show where they output....

The question was to help me and any others that may search for the answer.

Chutes - both machines have similar chutes, this confused me, thinking they were for conveyors. I would expect the assembly machines to have 3 holes for input, showing that it's different, but doesn't.

Anyway, the feedback is up there. It would help if the tutorial pops up with information highlighting that tool - as in a popup for just this tool. I think this slight thing would have made it easier for me.

[Fichom]

Originally posted by Christofer em Brasil:

Originally posted by SirGouki:

I don't see the problem. With over 300 hours in Factorio, I figured this out in less than 2 seconds, considering, like Factorio, the buildings show where they output....

The question was to help me and any others that may search for the answer.

Chutes - both machines have similar chutes, this confused me, thinking they were for conveyors. I would expect the assembly machines to have 3 holes for input, showing that it's different, but doesn't.

Anyway, the feedback is up there. It would help if the tutorial pops up with information highlighting that tool - as in a popup for just this tool. I think this slight thing would have made it easier for me.

But it already is there. Read the guidebook, section 'conveyor belt and sorter'. It pops up. It's quite clear, and it's 5 sentences - the first 5, that go over this exact thing. It's not that there is a 'tutorial missing', it's just that you skipped it. Why did you skip it? Idk, I know I did and then quickly glanced it over after 5 seconds of feeling dumb.

There's even an example video in that same guide you can watch if you find it hard to read all those many words.