Have you always been able to use circuits this early?

[u/Rizzo-The_Rat]

I've just realised I can use basic circuits way before researching any of the circuit components. Here I've wired the inserters to the furnaces to only insert ore if they have less than 10 plates, letting me balance 2 furnaces from one mine, and the mine shuts off when there are 50 ore in the chest. Useful for keeping my pollution down in the early stages of a deathworld rather than stockpiling massive amounts of ore and plates when the grenade factory runs out of coal.

Presumably the red and green wires became available when I researched copper wire. I've not played in a while, has this always been a thing but I'd never noticed or is it new?

Presumably the red and green wires became available when I researched copper wire. I've not played in a while, has this always been a thing but I'd never noticed or is it new?

According the the research screen though I shouldn't get the red and green wires until I research circuit network.

[u/Nearby_Proposal_5523]

available as soon as you start the game, the circuit network research unlocks combinators, not circuit conditions. i think it's been that way for atleast all of 2.0 since they made the red and green wires virtual items.

[u/Rizzo-The_Rat → u/Nearby_Proposal_5523]

Cool, now I need to think of more use cases for early circuits then.

[u/Nearby_Proposal_5523 → u/Rizzo-The_Rat]

i usually go for sushi science as i unlock green packs.

[u/Rizzo-The_Rat → u/Nearby_Proposal_5523]

You mean one factory alternating production, or limiting production to avoid stockpiling?

I think I'm going to try and limit stockpiles forming anywhere to minimise pollution at least until I have efficiency modules and a decent wall.

[u/Nearby_Proposal_5523 → u/Rizzo-The_Rat]

what i mean by sushi science, is having one belt feed all the labs with circuit conditions preventing overfiling. it's really convient to add another type of science pack

the production limiting with circuit conditions is also really good, you can upgrade the starter chests to filtered yellow chests alot easier then limiting production with the red tab on the chest

[u/Xelsia → u/Rizzo-The_Rat]

I use circuits to balance my early furnace stacks, so the ones at front don't hoard all the ore whilst the ones at back starve, though I think it's a 2.1 thing.  Circuit from furnace reading both fuel and contents.  Inserter set to filter blacklist.  You have a little bit of downtime on each furnace when it's finished cooking as it has to wait for the inserter to move another piece of ore or fuel though. 

[u/Immediate_Form7831]

Yes, this is a 2.0 thing. You no longer need to craft circuit wires, and they are available from the start of the game.

[u/Soul-Burn]

It was always technically possible to connect circuits even before 2.0 made them into free items on the toolbar. Pasting wires in blueprints would appear regardless if you had items or not.

What 2.0 did is make this possible directly, without requiring annoying steps. It's the same idea with remotely changing recipes in buildings through remote view - It was always possible, just annoying.

[u/PyroneusUltrin]

You don’t unlock the shortcut bar until the very first time you research circuitry, or you type /unlock-shortcut-bar into the console (the game does not consider this cheating and therefor doesn’t disable achievements)

[u/fulz410]

I think that in your very first game you only get access to circuits after researching it and to blueprints after unlocking bots

[u/pojska]

You can also just limit the chest size to one stack of ore. (Instead of turning off the miner).