2 way belt

[D Ravenheart]

Title says it all,

With the space age DLC, alot of new mechanics has been introduced.
I dont know if there is a mod that could make it possible, but it would be neat if the vanilla game would have 2 way belts.

A 2 way belt is a belt where 1 side would go to 1 direction, and the other half the opposite.
Clicking the belt would allow you to set a direction for one half, the other half would automatically go the other way.

This would allow for more compact factories where you can have inputs from 2 sides of a bus or simply be able to supply 2 types of materials from 2 directions where a full belt would not be required.

Just putting it out there and curious what my fellow factorians think :)

[jagholin]

So you lose half the throughput of belts for this? I dunno, doesn't sound appealing

Also if you want compact stuff you can do it with bots. Req chest in, provider chest out

Also you can have 2 belts in one line by braiding 2 different tiers of underground belts, if you want to conserve space.

[[Linux] Sissy Kandi]

oh, that would be a nightmare... you'd have to sort both sides of the belt with twice or thrice spliters and recycle back into the right direction.... I kinda like that, tho I'm a masochist lolz

[TyCobb]

It'd be nice for my dumbass that always forgets how to properly layout a mall when I start this game and I want just quickly reroute some of the new items to an existing space where I am coming in from the opposite side of the bus. But other than the very start, I don't know where that would necessarily be used. Maybe I'll finally get to launching the rocket this go around and find out.

[Shiva]

The other issue with this idea is that you'd have to create 2 different 'belts' for this.

Reason being that 'turning' the belt would have 0 effect on the direction of the 2 sides. Left would always go down and right would always go up (or top going left and bottom going right, whichever explanation works)

This means you'd need 2 separate models which just adds clutter.

this also means you'd need undergrounds and splitters that work the same way. I have NO idea how you'd get a splitter to work with this in a reasonable fashion.

I think everyone else said it best:

Bots are the solution to compact builds.

[Fletch]

Can't split a belt like that, but nothing stopping you from running a parallel belt in the opposite direction (I do this a lot to reverse feed my "bus" from the middle or opposite end -- and always doing this with my science labs). The main bus cares not what direction things are flowing.

[Shiva]

I do however want to say keep up that kind of thinking! Thats what makes Factorio a great game. The modding community loves neat ideas to niche problems, so definitely keep up with the suggestions. =]

[[Linux] Sissy Kandi]

Originally posted by Shiva:

The other issue with this idea is that you'd have to create 2 different 'belts' for this.

Reason being that 'turning' the belt would have 0 effect on the direction of the 2 sides. Left would always go down and right would always go up (or top going left and bottom going right, whichever explanation works)

This means you'd need 2 separate models which just adds clutter.

this also means you'd need undergrounds and splitters that work the same way. I have NO idea how you'd get a splitter to work with this in a reasonable fashion.

I think everyone else said it best:

Bots are the solution to compact builds.

You would split and push to one side through filtering, rather right or wrong direction, and then *split* and push to the other side, aka the direction you want it to go. It would in fact be way more clutter and spaghetti like lane balance-rs and the such.

Edit...
My P key dosen't work good on my board

[knighttemplar1960]

You can all ready do something similar by weaving 2 different types of undergroundbelt.

[brian_va]

Originally posted by jagholin:

So you lose half the throughput of belts for this? I dunno, doesn't sound appealing

Also if you want compact stuff you can do it with bots. Req chest in, provider chest out

Also you can have 2 belts in one line by braiding 2 different tiers of underground belts, if you want to conserve space.

With the belt stacking you wouldn't really be losing all that much, it would still be greater than vanilla using both sides.

Situationally I could see a use case

[[Linux] Sissy Kandi]

It would make builds more interesting like Sushi belts do.
sure not efficient, but more fun and creative, and something to play with

Edit:
It would make a good mod, just like the one that pushes belt items off the end of a belt.

[Fletch]

Originally posted by Linux Sissy Kandi:

...just like the one that pushes belt items off the end of a belt.

that is deliciously evil, lol

[[Linux] Sissy Kandi]

Originally posted by Fletch:

Originally posted by Linux Sissy Kandi:

...just like the one that pushes belt items off the end of a belt.

that is deliciously evil, lol

lolz makes you make a pull instead of push bus lolz

[TeKett]

Originally posted by jagholin:

So you lose half the throughput of belts for this? I dunno, doesn't sound appealing

Also if you want compact stuff you can do it with bots. Req chest in, provider chest out

Also you can have 2 belts in one line by braiding 2 different tiers of underground belts, if you want to conserve space.

You are saying this like the original belts will go way with this addition. They wont.

[astrosha]

I actually could see some uses for this idea. Send a half a belt of some material up a line of machines, and have the other half of the belt coming back with the product. Send a full belt of green circuits, and half a belt of red circuits, up a line of machines making blues. Have the other half of the reds belt coming back with the blues on it.

Outside of some things like that though, I would generally want both sides of the belt going the same direction. And, on a bus, ALL the belts would be unidirectional - no split belts allowed at all.

[Aaron]

forget about that, we need circuit reversable belts