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Upgrade planner

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Revision as of 15:40, 7 March 2019 by TheBloke (talk | contribs) (Move ghost demo image back to gallery now it's been resized such it can fit in the gallery and animate.)
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Infobox:TheBloke/Upgrade planner

The upgrade planner is a tool for the mass updating of entities to alternative items of the same size and type. It can be used on both placed structures and ghost structures. It can also to modify the contents of a blueprint. While most commonly used to upgrade entities to their higher tier equivalents - for example to replace transport belts with fast transport belts or inserters with fast inserters - the upgrade planner is able to affect a wide range of items including belts, underground belts, splitters, inserters, chests, power poles, rail signals, modules, furnaces and more.

Using an upgrade planner in the game world is similar to the operation of a deconstruction planner and a blueprint, in that the player selects a rectangular area in which the upgrade planner will function and this results in orders being queued for construction robots. Upgrade planners can be used blank, without a filter, to automatically apply a limited set of common upgrades. Alternatively they can be configured to apply specific updates and when so edited are able to apply a wider range of updates than in their blank, unfiltered state. This can include downgrading higher tier, later-game items to lower tier equivalents.

Basic operation

Getting an upgrade planner

A blank planner can be obtained by:

  • Clicking the green upgrade planner icon on the shortcut bar (available once construction robotics has been researched in at least one game.)
  • Opening the blueprint library and clicking New Upgrade planner.

Either of these methods will result in a blank upgrade planner appearing in the hand. It can be used immediately or placed in the inventory. It must be placed in the inventory before a filter can be applied and before it can be pinned to a quickbar slot.

Using the planner in the game world

With a planner held in the hand the player can hold Left mouse button while dragging it over existing structures to mark them for upgrade. A tooltip appears indicating which items will be changed and what to.

Once Left mouse button is released yellow circles will appear over any existing structures that are now queued for update. These update operations will be performed by construction robots.

Upgrade planners can also affect ghost items. Any ghosts eligible for update will immediately update to the new item.

Cancelling upgrade operations

Pending upgrade operations can be cancelled by holding Shift while dragging any upgrade planner over the affected area.

Using the planner to update a blueprint

Upgrade planners can also be used to change the contents of a blueprint. This allows the player to keep using the same blueprints as they research progressively better items. As upgrade planners can also downgrade items this also provides a way for a player to adjust late-game blueprints to make them suitable for use earlier in their future games.

  • The blueprint to be updated must reside in an inventory. It is not currently possible to use an upgrade planner in the blueprint library.
  • With a planner held in the hand, the edit window for a blueprint should be opened by clicking Right mouse button on it.
  • The upgrade planner can be applied by clicking Left mouse button on the grey upgrade planner slot, visible in the top right corner of the blueprint.
  • The entities in the blueprint will immediately update according to the filters in the planner. If an unfiltered planner is used an automatic set of common upgrades is applied, as described in the next section.
  • The update is immediate and cannot be undone, except by applying another upgrade planner with filters set to revert the updates.


UpgradePlanner-BlueprintExample.gif

Upgrade planner filters

An example of downgrading. This could be helpful to make a blueprint usable from the beginning of a game.

When an upgrade planner is first picked up it is blank and unfiltered. It can optionally be edited to provide a list of item filters which control which items will be updated and to what.

Using a blank upgrade planner (unfiltered)

When a blank upgrade planner is used it operates on a specific list of items considered automatically upgradable to the next highest tier. The list of item types that can be affected by a blank planner are as follows:

  • Belts
  • Undergrounds
  • Splitters
  • Inserters
  • Assembling machines
  • Furnaces

Items of the above types will be upgraded to the next highest tier where one exists. For example a transport belt will change to a fast transport belt; a fast splitter will change to an express splitter; an assembling machine 2 will change to an assembling machine 3. A full list of items that a blank upgrade planner will affect is available in Items eligible for upgrade.

Filtering an upgrade planner

The edit window for the planner can be accessed by clicking Right mouse button on an upgrade planner. The planner must be in an inventory in order for it to be editable. If a quickbar link is made to a planner in the inventory, this link can also be used to edit the filter with Right mouse button.

The filter window

The filter window consists of 24 item slot pairs:

UpgradePlanner-Blank.png

In each pair, the item to be updated goes in the left slot and the item it will be changed to goes in the right slot.

Editing the filters

A filter is applied by clicking Left mouse button on the left-hand slot of any slot pair. This brings up the Select upgrade window. This window is similar to the item selection window, but is limited to displaying items eligible to be used in an upgrade planner. Filters can be removed by clicking Right mouse button on the slot.

When the item selected has only one possible upgrade the right slot will be filled in automatically. For example if a stone furnace is selected in the left slot a steel furnace will immediately appear in the right slot, as this is the only valid update.

Items eligible for update

The upgrade planner can operate on the items listed below. A planner can swap any item in a given category to any other item in the same category. For example a transport belt can be changed to a fast or express transport belt and also to any kind of underground, but not to a splitter or a chest.

The Blank upgrade planner column indicates entities which will be automatically upgraded when a blank (unfiltered) upgrade planner is used. These items will upgrade to the entity immediately after them in the table.

Category Item Blank upgrade planner
Belts and undergrounds Transport belt Yes
Belts and undergrounds Fast transport belt Yes
Belts and undergrounds Express transport belt No
Belts and undergrounds Underground belt Yes
Belts and undergrounds Fast underground belt Yes
Belts and undergrounds Express underground belt No
Splitters Splitter Yes
Splitters Fast splitter Yes
Splitters Express splitter No
Inserters Burner inserter No
Inserters Inserter Yes
Inserters Fast inserter Yes
Inserters Stack inserter No
Inserters Filter inserter No
Inserters Stack filter inserter No
Pipes Pipe No
Pipes Underground pipe No
Chests Wooden chest No
Chests Iron chest No
Chests Steel chest No
Chests Active provider chest No
Chests Passive provider chest No
Chests Storage chest No
Chests Buffer chest No
Chests Requester chest No
Power poles Small electric pole No
Power poles Medium electric pole No
Rail signals Rail signal No
Rail signals Rail chain signal No
Steam Engine/Turbine Steam engine No
Steam Engine/Turbine Steam turbine No
Furnaces Stone furnace Yes
Furnaces Steel furnace No
Assembling machines Assembling machine 1 Yes
Assembling machines Assembling machine 2 Yes
Assembling machines Assembling machine 3 No
Modules Speed module No
Modules Speed module 2 No
Modules Speed module 3 No
Modules Productivity module No
Modules Productivity module 2 No
Modules Productivity module 3 No
Modules Efficiency module No
Modules Efficiency module 2 No
Modules Efficiency module 3 No
Wall/Gate Wall No
Wall/Gate Gate No

Modded items can also appear on this list. The list expands to automatically include any modded entities compatible with the above categories.

History

See also