Upgrade planner

The upgrade planner is a tool for mass updating entities to alternative items of the same size and type. It can be used on both placed structures and ghosts. It can also 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 fast inserters with stack inserters - the upgrade planner is able to change a wide range of items including transport belts, underground belts, splitters, inserters, assembling machines, chests, power poles, rail signals, modules, furnaces and more.

Using an upgrade planner in the game world is similar to the operation of the deconstruction planner and blueprint, in that the player drags 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 (unfiltered) to automatically apply a limited set of common upgrades. Alternatively they can be configured (filtered) to make specific replacements. 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.

This 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 a planner in the game world

With a planner held in the hand the player can click-drag it (Left mouse button is held down while moving the mouse) over existing structures to mark them for upgrade. A tooltip appears indicating which items will be changed and to what.

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 ghost eligible for update will immediately change to the new item.

• 

  Dragging an upgrade planner.

• 

  The tooltip shows which upgrades will occur.

• 

  Yellow circles indicate pending update operations.

• 

  Ghost entities update immediately.

Cancelling updates

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

Updating blueprints

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 further provides a way for a player to adjust late-game blueprints to make them suitable for re-use in subsequent 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 in the top right corner of the blueprint.
• The entities in the blueprint will immediately update according to the filters in the planner. If a blank 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 change back the affected entities.

Upgrade planner filters

A new upgrade planner is blank, meaning it lacks any configuration and will operate on a pre-defined set of upgrade rules. The planner can optionally be edited to provide a custom list of update rules that control which items will be updated and what to.

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
• Underground belts
• Splitters
• Inserters
• Assembling machines
• Furnaces

Items of the above types will be upgraded to the next highest tier where one exists. A complete list of the items eligible for upgrade by a blank planner is found in Valid items.

Filtering an upgrade planner

The planner must be in an inventory in order for it to be editable. The filter window can be accessed by clicking Right mouse button on an upgrade planner, either in the inventory or on a quickbar link.

The filter window

The filter window consists of 24 item slot pairs.

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.

• 

  A blank planner.

• 

  A simple configuration example.

Editing the filters

A filter is applied by first clicking Left mouse button on the left-hand slot of any slot pair. This brings up the Select upgrade window. This is similar to the item selection window but is limited to displaying the items an upgrade planner is able to change.

The right-hand slot is then selected in the same way, choosing the target item. The select upgrade window for the right slot will only show items that are a valid update target for the item in the left slot.

When there is only one possible upgrade target the right slot will be filled in automatically.

Filters can be removed by clicking Right mouse button on the slot.

Valid items

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

The upgrade planner can operate on the items listed below. It 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 belt, but not to a splitter or a chest.

The Blank upgrade planner column indicates which entities will be automatically upgraded when a blank (unfiltered) upgrade planner is used. These items will upgrade to the entity following 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 be valid items for an upgrade planner. The filter selection window will expand to automatically include any modded entities compatible with the above categories.

History

• 0.17.0:
  • Introduced

See also

• Construction robot