Space belts being vertically separated even though they're not actually separated feels weird.

[Darloth]

Does anyone else agree?

I sort of feel that I should be giving up the vertical separation in order to benefit from the larger speed of the space belt. I know it would make many designs a lot harder to make, but you could also make sorters or just not stack different shapes onto different layers of spacebelt.

[Maldito]

If you look closely, they're separated in the belt. The different layers occupy different lanes of the belt, inside the lane they're in

[ciel]

i feel like for better or worse the mechanic is necessary for the game's modular design gameplay - would the game be any more fun if each individual platform had to have dedicated "muxing" and "demuxing" stages? Space isn't at such a premium that a little 1x1 to stack/unstack your belt lines is pretty easy.

I've found that pulling from train unloading does a lot to smooth out these issues. stations can handle the stacking/de stacking needs for an individual factory, letting the player focus on packing the trains as efficiently as possible without it causing the same problem as always stacking your space belts.

[Darloth]

Originally posted by ciel:

i feel like for better or worse the mechanic is necessary for the game's modular design gameplay - would the game be any more fun if each individual platform had to have dedicated "muxing" and "demuxing" stages? Space is at such a premium that a little 1x1 to stack/unstack your belt lines is pretty easy.

I've found that pulling from train unloading does a lot to smooth out these issues. stations can handle the stacking/de stacking needs for an individual factory, letting the player focus on packing the trains as efficiently as possible without it causing the same problem as always stacking your space belts.

I've never found space to be at a premium in a general sense - I never run out of platforms.

It's a fun design challenge to optimize fitting things into as small a platform as possible, though, yes. Would it be -more- fun if I *always* had to sort things carefully? No... but even if the belts functioned (like it looks like they should) as some sort of unsorted giant monobelt, you'd never have to create belts that required sorting. You always have the option of running two belts instead, with the stuff separated across each belt.

Or, if you -wanted- additional space efficiency at the cost of having to unsort them at the other end, you could do that.

To be clear, I don't have a problem with it either way, it's merely that they present themselves, initially, as a gigantic monobelt with no lanes (even though yes, the shapes mysteriously DO stay in lane on the belt, somehow), and it feels to me like they're presenting less functionality visually than they actually have.

As you say, trains are probably a better way of transporting mixed shapes in separate wagons anyway, so I was wondering what people's opinions of having the space belts as simple as they look are, given that it would always be optional as to whether you risked mixing stuff on them or not.

[ciel]

Well... we did contractually agree to build efficiently at the start of the game. So it's 3 layer stacked belts anywhere they'll go, as far as I'm concerned. I'm sure we've got a lot to collectively figure out about squeezing maximum production out of everything. I've veered towards spaghetti while trying to weave too many parallel platforms. The interplay between "Is this a problem that should be addressed on the space scale, or with a new platform design" makes this game really juicy.

[Surge]

It is also incredibly frustrating how the different layers on a space belt are entirely separate such that the layer items enter on is also the layer they HAVE to exit on.

Coupled with the completely opaque nature of identifying what layer each item is on whilst on the space belt, and it is an exercise in insanity.

After four hours, this is the only complaint I have, and I REALLY hope it is addressed somehow in the future.

[Looking For Amy]

Originally posted by Surge:

It is also incredibly frustrating how the different layers on a space belt are entirely separate such that the layer items enter on is also the layer they HAVE to exit on.
[...]

This behaviour you don't like is absolutely required for many complex designs though.

What I often do is follow up the "exit" of a space belt with an elevator that raises or lowers (or branches!) the contents to the right levels. This is also how you can get things out if you made a mistake (other than pressing I to clear the belt completely of contents).

[Testikles]

The Devs wrote in another post that the design for the space pipes is not finite yet since they did not have the time to rework them. I could imagine that we see a visual rework for space belts as well at some point to better highlight the three layers. It's not a huge deal but it certainly looks weird. Also, it kind of makes things less obvious when planning out different levels in a longer chain of production and transport.

[tobspr Games]

Yeah FYI the visuals for space belts & pipes will be changed. Probably not with the next update but they are far from optimal right now

[Darloth]

I just want to say I really -like- the current monobelt gigantic treadmill/travelator look of the space belts. I have really no useful ideas or anything I actually like about how to visually represent three separate elevations.