"Quality" feature, explanation.

[Euphytose]

Hey,

I am 15 hours in my current save, and I haven't tried using "quality" yet.

Could someone explain in very easy terms how to make use of it?

I have it researched and I noticed that when selecting a recipe it asks for quality now, but what does that mean?

Basically, how does it all function?

Thanks in advance.

[schnappkatze]

This blog post from the developer explains it very well: https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-375

[Fel]

You start by researching and making some quality modules and installing them in machines that are not in the middle of your factory (important because items with quality are not used as ingredients in machines making the items without having selected the same quality).
The machine will now have a chance to produce items with quality, which increases some of the stats of the item.

You can set machines to use ingredients of a specific quality to make items of that quality as well, but getting them is unreliable early on so usually you focus on making end-of-line things, like machines, weapons or armors, all things you can directly use and get the benefit of the stats.

Later on, you unlock a recycler that allows you to break down items into some of its ingredients, recycling something with a quality will give you some ingredients with that quality, which you can then use to craft again at that quality, possibly with quality modules to have a chance of a higher quality product.
This loop eventually allows you to churn out items of the highest quality.

It is a somewhat lengthy process that will need a constant stream of basic ingredients as well, so you are basically turning a large amount of items into fewer but higher quality ones.

Finished products can get some pretty big boosts from having a high quality but machines with quality also pretty much break existing ratios and most blueprints since they produce faster than their normal conterpart.
Better machines are great for those that don't necessarily want to use the same layouts they have been using until now, since you get more production out of fewer machines for example.
For power armors, it means more slots for the equipments, which is as potent as you might think.
The ingame factoriopedia has more informations on what is affected by quality if you want more specific details.

[Euphytose]

Originally posted by Fel:

You start by researching and making some quality modules and installing them in machines that are not in the middle of your factory (important because items with quality are not used as ingredients in machines making the items without having selected the same quality).
The machine will now have a chance to produce items with quality, which increases some of the stats of the item.

You can set machines to use ingredients of a specific quality to make items of that quality as well, but getting them is unreliable early on so usually you focus on making end-of-line things, like machines, weapons or armors, all things you can directly use and get the benefit of the stats.

Later on, you unlock a recycler that allows you to break down items into some of its ingredients, recycling something with a quality will give you some ingredients with that quality, which you can then use to craft again at that quality, possibly with quality modules to have a chance of a higher quality product.
This loop eventually allows you to churn out items of the highest quality.

It is a somewhat lengthy process that will need a constant stream of basic ingredients as well, so you are basically turning a large amount of items into fewer but higher quality ones.

Finished products can get some pretty big boosts from having a high quality but machines with quality also pretty much break existing ratios and most blueprints since they produce faster than their normal conterpart.
Better machines are great for those that don't necessarily want to use the same layouts they have been using until now, since you get more production out of fewer machines for example.
For power armors, it means more slots for the equipments, which is as potent as you might think.
The ingame factoriopedia has more informations on what is affected by quality if you want more specific details.

I'm reading the blog post, but thanks a ton for your reply, that's quite helpful. Have an award!

Edit: Alright so apparently the legendary quality is only on the last planet.

So it will indeed take some time before I reach that.

Edit 2: Damn man it looks like to make full use of it, it will require quite a bit of planning. I'm very likely to mess up at the start lol.

But having a legendary armour with more equipment slots looks very nice!

[Chris!!]

In short, quality comes in 4 higher tiers aside from base tier that you're accustomed to. Higher quality products are better than normal products in different ways, which can be seen by hovering over the blue diamond in the stats when checking recipes.

You can get intermediate ingredients like iron gears or circuits in higher qualities, which--if you gather enough of them, determines the minimum quality of the product you're making (rare quality ingredients give rare quality products or higher), but you can also try getting high quality machines from normal quality ingredients (get uncommon quality machine gun from normal quality ingredients.

I haven't personally reached very far, but I would probably wait until you get the recycler or make chests to keep uncommon or higher quality products separate before you start integrating it to your factory.

[Euphytose]

Originally posted by Chris!!:

In short, quality comes in 4 higher tiers aside from base tier that you're accustomed to. Higher quality products are better than normal products in different ways, which can be seen by hovering over the blue diamond in the stats when checking recipes.

You can get intermediate ingredients like iron gears or circuits in higher qualities, which--if you gather enough of them, determines the minimum quality of the product you're making (rare quality ingredients give rare quality products or higher), but you can also try getting high quality machines from normal quality ingredients (get uncommon quality machine gun from normal quality ingredients.

I haven't personally reached very far, but I would probably wait until you get the recycler or make chests to keep uncommon or higher quality products separate before you start integrating it to your factory.

Roger that, thanks for your reply!

[Ishimuro]

Is there ANY option to allow higher tier ingredients for lower tier recipes? I kinda want to waste some "high" tier coal without messing up ALL setups XD

[CQWER]

so to be clear: if there happens to be a level 3 item in my factory, for example an iron plate, while only level 1 ingredients are requested, the machines can't use the level 3 item and get blocked because nothing usable is on the belt nearby? even if it is the "right" item, just in a higher level?

[la_nague]

Originally posted by CQWER:

so to be clear: if there happens to be a level 3 item in my factory, for example an iron plate, while only level 1 ingredients are requested, the machines can't use the level 3 item and get blocked because nothing usable is on the belt nearby? even if it is the "right" item, just in a higher level?

yes that iron might as well be a piece of wood.

If you use quality modules in the middle of the factory, you have to filter things out.
Its not that easy to make use of it.


I tried setting my miners with quality modules and then filter out all the upgraded ore and smelt it down. this way i made some quality pieces by hand, like quality turbines.
But im going to other planets now so i dont want to worry about quality ore buffer overflowing and disabling my entire factory, so for now i removed quality from the miners again.

I think late game there will be other ways to use qualty, for example just constantly crafting the thing you want to have high quality in an assembler with all quality modules and then constantly recycle the result until you have the quality result you want.

My approach with quality miners would be another way, you would have to set up basically a parallel factory for everything and only use quality resources. But you would not waste any resource.

The most complicated way would probably be a heavily programmed factory that has buffer chests everywhere and sets its recipes itself depending on whats in the chests, that would require a lot of circuit work for every single assembly line.

[Ishimuro]

just allowing to set <> /= for ingredients would be lovely
i dont care if a item did run wild XD

[Urist]

What a great mechanic. my entire factory has turned to a garbage yard and nothing is made anymore.

[Nico]

Originally posted by Urist:

What a great mechanic. my entire factory has turned to a garbage yard and nothing is made anymore.

It's your own fault if you put them into machines making intermediate products without even trying to do anything with the high quality items and letting them go to machines that only aks for normal quality items.

[Fletch]

For someone with ~50 hours and haven't left Nauvis yet (deep into quality) -- I might suggest ignoring Quality on a first playthrough :)

For all intents and purposes: Quality lets you "build smaller" (get equivalent amount of throughput from a smaller area). That's basically what Quality does for you.

If you skip quality, then you just build more of the "normal" stuff: more solar panels, more accumulators, more mining drills, etc. Basically just like how you play the original base game.

Quality, essentially, lets you build less buildings to get equivalent throughput you get from more buildings. Space Platforms are space limited (or so I've heard, haven't built one yet) -- so higher quality buildings on your Space Platforms will come in handy there because you don't have the space to build those extra buildings.

Anyhow, it is fun to play with Quality too: there are the interesting logistical challenges to avoid this:

my entire factory has turned to a garbage yard and nothing is made anymore.

You gotta plan things out wherever there may be a "quality" item in the pipeline. Lots of filter splitters to shunt those higher quality items out somewhere else when buildings down the pipeline require "normal" quality.

EDIT: typos