DEV please read: Desperate need to control the conveyor belt rate/flow need

[Mojiato]

Have you ever tried to make a optimum bus belt? Does it happen to you to have incredible amount of headed just to adjust the amount of IO on your belt? Yap that’s a real struggle because there is no flow/rate control mechanism!
Similar to the flow gauge you introduce for pipes, there should be a mechanise to adjust or limit item/second for a belt. This is necessary as any build based on a bus system is almost impossible to optimise without this. You recommend to use the performance control to adjust the output of factories for this aim, but it is practically useless as:
- Some factories are far away so for any change on the IO of the bus you need to visit all the production cites and adjust.
- Why doing that if you could adjust each belt speed separately and feed the over flow to the sink?!
I suggest you think of something exactly like the pipe gauge for conveyors where you can limit the output of the belt to a certain rate.
It can be a cube with one input and one output, or it can either be added to the adjustments of the computerised splutter.
Please look into it!

[Mojiato]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von ardiel:

What I would do in Factorio some times is put a kink in the belt. I'm assuming it would work here because it is just math. Same speed but longer travel distance = longer time to arrive in total. Longer kink is a longer delay.

The better solution in Factorio is to use robots for some resources. they actually deliver when it is needed which means they are intrinsically optimum in a bus function, also you may limit the speed/capacity of an arm that take stuff from the conveyor. NON EXIST in satisfactory, nor any similar functionality to do the job.

[jhughes]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Mojionix:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Capt. Q. Schwartz:

You are frustrated because you have an imbalanced bus, and think the only solution requires dev assistance...?

What else am I missing?

to mention one, saturating the machine is the exact opposite of what is needed to be done, saturated machine means extra not necessary parts on the BUS! (BUS 101),
the solution to completely fill and also completely use the bus is to control the input, not saturating. By the way, dont understand why the valve one is fine but the same feature on conveyor belts is suddenly bad bad baaad!

Dude,
Saturating a bus means at the splitter, it passes through.

If you want a feedback loop .. put one on the end cycling back .. but you don't need it. If you put faster than needed belts on a leg .. if the machine fills up, the belt just waits.

There are programable splitters later in the game.

But, you can very easily create the exact amount of items per minute that you need before you even get them.

Example .. you need 10 items/min and you have a device producing 30 .. use a splitter and get 10 on each belt.

if you need two legs of 25 and 5 items / min .. use a 3 way splitter .. then take one of the outputs (of ten) and split it again. combine the 10, 10, 5 in a merger .. you now have a 25 belt and a 5 belt.

[shoopy]

When a split path is fully saturated it begins to take only what it actually uses per second and sends the rest on, doesn't it?

[Capt. W. Schwartz]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von ardiel:

When a split path is fully saturated it begins to take only what it actually uses per second and sends the rest on, doesn't it?

yup.

[jhughes]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von ardiel:

When a split path is fully saturated it begins to take only what it actually uses per second and sends the rest on, doesn't it?

Yes, exactly. And if you do the proper math, you can tap off before or after the saturated item. It could not be more easy.

[Noobs On Ice]

idk you can make a bus with the tools given to you pretty easy, smart splitters are great for overflow or balancing. if u get more then your max belt speed on one make another stack of belts.

[Mojiato]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von jhughes:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von ardiel:

When a split path is fully saturated it begins to take only what it actually uses per second and sends the rest on, doesn't it?

Yes, exactly. And if you do the proper math, you can tap off before or after the saturated item. It could not be more easy.

yah, thank you for the info, but already obvious. additionally please reed what I wrote as a description of the problem.
Consider this, you have multiple production sites, you make a central BUS in your main base to fabricate high tire stuff. You want to optimised the BUS so there would be no residual therefore in addition to not to use a feedback loop, use the least number of nessesary lines for your BUS. SO:
The way you approch it will beimpossible to do so except as you mentioned to change the efficiency of muchine and adjust production to the exact consumption. NOW:
-either for each change in your fabrication based you need to travel to all production sites and arrange the production exactly based on the new setup, OR:
- have this feature same as the valve flow control so: before injection each product line to your main bus you will use the flow/ rate controler and behind that use a splitter with a overflow to the sink. this way:
-you can use THE BUS AT ITS OPTIMUM CAPACITY, meaning no need to a feed back, no need to adjust production performance of machines each time you make a change in your fabrication + lotf flexiblity and extrapoints from the sink.
make sense to you?
additionally, why are you guys so against something nice that not only other similar games has, but totaly make sens as the Valve has it too!

[Mojiato]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Noobs On Ice:

idk you can make a bus with the tools given to you pretty easy, smart splitters are great for overflow or balancing. if u get more then your max belt speed on one make another stack of belts.

see my reply toJ HUgh

[shoopy]

Belt speed won't change the rate of item production unless the belt is saturated and slower than production.

[Mojiato]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von ardiel:

Belt speed won't change the rate of item production unless the belt is saturated and slower than production.

common guys! I undrestand that!, can you please read what I said?! + I mentioned in the primary discription too that it can be a control on output of a smart splitter.
to make it supper simple!, consider you have one container of all resources in your base, and you have some factories, now you want to bring these resources from your stockpile to the factories using MINIMUM number of conveyor line! To optimise this you need a mechanisem to exactly control the rates of input of each resource to your main BUS conveyor(S). Thats what Im talking about.

[DaBa]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Mojionix:

Additionally, why are you guys so against something nice that not only other similar games has, but totaly make sens as the Valve has it too!

You have it all wrong OP.

We're not against anything nice. We're just confused as to why you would even need it. And I'm afraid the multiple paragraphs of explanations did not help your case at all. What you've been describing so far is a complete non-issue that is not in a "desperate" need of addressing.

As I said, you're a one of those 3 proverbial people who play the game in a really weird and specific way and, instead of recognizing that something doesn't work and that it probably means the game wants you to do it differently, you instead continue to make more and more self inflicted wounds and conclude that the game needs to adapt to you, not the other way around. If you can't see why this makes no sense, then I'm afraid nothing you read here will change your mind.

[Mojo]

Faster belt speed later on really wouldnt help other than making the parts seem to make it to the machine "quicker". For instance you have a 60 part per min belt then increase the latter part of the belt to a 240 part per min belt, guess how many parts are still going down the 240 line, 60.
They just zip down the distance faster, but you will only still get 60 per min to the machine.

So I dont get the part where you said putting in a faster belt would help, granted I didnt read every single post so there may have been more to it.

[Maehlice]

I think I understand the intent, as it relates to using a bus.

If a set of factories at the end of a belt needs 16 widgets, 86 baubles, & 112 trinkets per minute, a single Mk.3 belt could service those factories. If exact throughputs could be set more easily, one could simply put those items on a belt for transport and then allow a smart splitter to divvy out the goods on the other end.

That is the simplest solution, because it's the most direct solution. A manifold would certainly work but is, by comparison, overkill.

[The Big Brzezinski]

I've never used a bus, but I've made extensive use of balancers. They can grow to be gigantic and create a lot of headroom to fill. It's not unreasonable to want a Balancing Splitter to simplify things. It just needs to distribute its input according to set percentages.

[RubberDucky]

If you put a small 60 belt section in front of a higher speed. It will do 60 at that speed. Otherwise gonna have to go with a split/merge combination to get close to the exact amount, or you could under/over clock constructors to meet that speed.