every factorio player needs to learn how to use reset latches

[Z0MBE]

Here's a post on them, they solve so many problems and I don't want to spoil it, you have to learn it for yourself to understand ...

https://wiki.factorio.com/Tutorial:Combinator_tutorial#Set/Reset_latching_switch

Imo this is advanced factorio tech and all players should eventually learn about this

[brian_va]

ive built bases running about 10k spm and never needed anything more complex than a wire from the pump to the tank to regulate oil cracking or anything else.

i'll meet you halfway though, and agree they are useful if you want the function they provide

[Fel]

They are definitely useful in the right cases but I would offer a counter-argument:
Most of the time when you start needing mid/advanced circuit network you are over-engineering things that could be solved by something a lot more simple.

Of course there is fun in over-engineering when you do it because you want to, just like there is fun in watching drones cross all your factory to pickup items and many other things like purposedly keeping a nest alive within your pollution cloud as a "zoo".

[Chesmu]

I'm still handcrafting inserters.

[shadain597]

I'm with the others on this: vanilla really doesn't have much in the way of uses for fancy circuits--certainly not while going for the basic "win" condition of launching a rocket. Mostly, SR latches keep things from rapidly switching on/off, which is nice, but functionally doesn't change much. Like pumps controlling oil cracking; watching the pump have a seizure isn't my idea of a good time, but we don't have to worry about wear & tear on said pump like we would IRL, so it still gets the job done.

Originally posted by Chesmu:

I'm still handcrafting inserters.

It's a bad habit that I still haven't broken completely. Basically, I hate designing my own (pre-logistics) mall; making it as compact as possible is ideal, but I'm bad at tangling the variety of assemblers, inserters, and belts into a space-efficient design. And I've yet to find prints for it that I like. Of course, I also mostly play with overhauls that make vanilla malls useless anyways. . .

[Khagan]

Originally posted by (っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ Maax ♥:

Here's a post on them, they solve so many problems

You have a Factorio problem and you think "I know, I'll use combinators." Now you have two problems.

[Vyndicu]

The most complicated logic circuit I have done in Vanilla Factorio is to check two inserters and see if something is on the convey belt in front of them, then grab both input intermediate using a single decider.

I have not used a reset latch logic yet in a vanilla Factorio run-through.


I agree with others here that 'needs' to learn reset latch is too strong a word.

That said, this may change with Space Age Expansion. Only time will tell.

[malogoss]

I'm trying to think, do I have any SR latch in my current map? I don't think I do.

But for the learning value alone, I think everyone should build at least a dozen of them from scratch at some point, used in different contexts. It's a memory cell, that gets activated by something, gets reset by something else, and all those concepts and the interactions between them are very useful to build other things that are not SR latches.

At my train loading stations, I really appreciate the system I have that sends an alarm if nothing has been coming in for a while. And that sends to my global circuit network how many trains worth of cargo the station is holding, without me adjusting anything or telling it what product it is loading, be it LDS, green chips, copper plates or whatever else.

I can say that building totally unneeded latches, silly blinking lights and annoying speakers helped me a lot. It's impossible to get creative with the tools you have if you don't know how those tools work. Or if you don't even know those tools exist to begin with. So I'd encourage anyone to build such a latch. Whether it is very useful or not useful at all doesn't matter, you're still learning something.

[knighttemplar1960]

They are fun toys but not "needed". The only thing I have ever "needed" them for is turning back up power on when my accumulator charge reaches 10% (and off again when its over 90%). Most of my megabases now I just over produce nuclear power instead. Once I get a few infinite flame thrower damage and artillery range researches done my laser turrets rarely fire.

Mostly what I use combinators for is setting dynamic train limits and train requests for low demand items. Most every thing else just needs a wire or 2 here or there and I have my Kovarex enrichment set up wired with a power switch to turn it off when I have a 2 train surplus of U-235 so that it doesn't back up and choke off my U-238 (or use all the U-238 up and starve my nuclear fuel cells production).

I've played with pop up gates, dynamic rail switching (occasionally turning off a rail signal to force a farther away train to make a trip it ordinarily wouldn't), audible and visual warnings with lights and horns, clocks to make timers, etc. but most of those things are novelty items just for fun.

If you build your factory with built in fail safes you don't need warning lights or horns. Every thing else is climbing the mountain because its there.

[Hedning]

I dare you to type 5 use cases where I can't find a simpler solution that doesn't involve them.

Though I agree with the topic title, and would expand it even further. Everyone should learn about basic circuitry in secondary school.

[brian_va]

Originally posted by Hedning:

Everyone should learn about basic circuitry in secondary school.

I'd add at least a basic programming class, not necessarily to learn to code but for the problem solving skills you will have to learn.

[Hedning]

Originally posted by brian_va:

Originally posted by Hedning:

Everyone should learn about basic circuitry in secondary school.

I'd add at least a basic programming class, not necessarily to learn to code but for the problem solving skills you will have to learn.

We already have that.

[brian_va]

Which country

[Hedning]

Sweden

[brian_va]

Makes sense. Meanwhile, parts of the US are dropping reading, writing and math requirements to graduate high school

[shadain597]

Originally posted by brian_va:

Makes sense. Meanwhile, parts of the US are dropping reading, writing and math requirements to graduate high school

My high school's "critical thinking" class was entirely SAT* prep. Like, "here's a practice book, when everyone's done we'll go over the answers. Not explaining them, just basically grading them so that you all know what was right and what was wrong." Why? Why?!? Americans desperately need practical skills taught to them in school. Real critical thinking and so-called common sense would be far more useful than Shakespeare or Calculus for teenagers who may not even go to college.

*For our international forum users, SAT is a type of test, and SAT scores are one of the big deciding factors used in college/university admissions in the USA. So prepping students for the test isn't really a bad thing, it's just that the course was poorly named. Oh, and we took that course 2-3 years before taking the SAT, because taking it right before the test would make too much sense.