Merger and Priority Merger
The game seems to be missing a way to merge Items other than to just input them to an existing belt.
I propose that the following be created:
- a Merger that can take 2 input and have one output
- a Priority Merger that can take 2 input and have one output. It would be optimal if side that is to be the priority input of the merge could be chosen.
The use case for this is often encountered when having to supplement belts with items, but not wanting a ½ and ½ split.
Comments: 7
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13 Apr
Thomas Giles (tapgiles)Highlighted comment
Ah, it's a back-prop thing. I don't actively use that much myself, but others do. -
13 Apr
Thomas Giles (tapgiles)It sounds from your post like a "merger" is exactly the same as just putting one belt into another?
How would the priority merger know when to bring in something from the secondary input? -
13 Apr
themightygugiThe idea with a priority merger is that it will Always prioritize items from the "Priority" side, and then the items sort of just stack up on the other input, but the second that there is a gab in the flow from the priority side, it will be backfilled from the "non priority" side, to ensure you have as fully saturated output belt as possible.
This is useful in the case where you have some overflow from other production lines that can be supplemented into the priority line, if there are gabs in the flow. I use it all the time in satisfactory.
It is especially useful, when you don't have the option to have perfect ratios and dont want to do large belt balancers for the exact math. -
13 Apr
Thomas Giles (tapgiles)I'm curious how much difference that would make vs just letting the 1/2 and 1/2 belt-into-belt do its thing. My guess is it will come out the same. And balancing has the advantage of both sides can work as much as possible.
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13 Apr
themightygugiIts just not the case :)
I can name another example that might make it clearer.
Imagine you have a production line that will backfill, if items are not use further ahead in the line. So in this case, it is important to use the materials from this line first always. But if you have excess from somewhere else you can backfill the line with a priority merger, but ensure that it uses all its items first to ensure that it does not back up because of too many items being merged into the line.
This is how it is done in satisfactory, but the principal is the same - decide what gets merge priority: https://satisfactory.wiki.gg/wiki/Priority_Merger -
16 Apr
Aahz KarrdeThere's also considerations for this even when there's no stamping to be done. I was trying to merge 4x 90 productions into 3x 120 belts and had to play around with priority splitters and merging in the right spot and location to get all the 120s to flow properly.
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22 Apr
etwasanderes2Merging is jst putting belts together, but I'd get a lot of use out of a priority merger!