Each different quality of cargo pod requires a different cargo bay. This doesn't follow how quality works in Factorio, where all quality levels are handled by the same container. For instance, all qualities of bullet magazine can be consumed by a normal quality turret, and all qualities of rocket fuel can be consumed by a normal quality train. Also, since each IPL cargo bay can be built at each quality level, that means there's 25 different IPL cargo bays. C'mon.

I'd rather play on hard mode, but having to build at least one of each IPL cargo bay on each platform is a bit silly.

I suggest either that the mod:

• allow all qualities of cargo pod to be launched from one type of IPL cargo bay, or the vanilla cargo bay; OR
• add settings to disable individual parts of hard mode, if this system is a work-around because of API limitations.

I embrace qualities of cargo pod, but 25 different types of cargo bay, not at all.

Hello,
Thanks for the feedback.

How do you calculate that there are 25 different cargo bays ? There is exactly 1 IPL Cargo bay you can craft, and it can have quality.
Have you tried the hard mode ?

Do you need to use one bay of each type ?

This system exists for 2 reason :
1) An API limitation.
2) You may want to control which quality of cargo pods you spend.
3) Normal bays and pods already are well enough to make most transfers.

I always appreciate feedback, but I will not act on it if you don't try the hard mode in question.

Fair enough.

My feedback was based on this https://imgur.com/a/myfi7io where there's actually six IPL cargo pods, and seven IPL cargo bays. I assumed (reasonably, I think) they were all separate craftable recipes, like every other craftable item in Factoriopedia, and each type could have its own quality level, distinct from the quality of pod it could launch. That would lead to 25 different types.

Good that that's not the case, so I'll revise my feedback, which I think is fair, even without having played Hard Mode yet: * There should only be one recipe each for IPL Cargo Pod and IPL Cargo Bay visible in Factoriopedia.

I'll actually play Hard Mode before giving any more feedback ;)

Hello,
You are right, they should probably be hidden. If that confused you, that will confuse other people.
The accessibility and understandability of the mechanics of the mod is important.

I have an couple of open feature request to be able to use a single bay for all that, but in the meantime, that is the only solution that doesn't look like taping broken things together.
There is also currently no way to scale the cargo pod inventory wit quality. Which is why there are multiple cargo pods (one for each quality).

Regards

Got it.

So, to be clear, if I produce IPL Cargo Pods using quality modules (rather than un-moduled with quality ingredients) I'll need to have at least one of each quality of IPL Cargo Bay to be able to launch every pod produced?

The cargo pods you produce will be items using the base quality system. There is only one cargo pod item that can have any quality.
When the game launches pods, it will detect the quality IPL hatches you have built on this platform, and try to find pod items of the same quality.
It will then consume the pods and do the scripting magic to make them launch. The pod entities and the pod items are two different things. The pod entities only exist for the purpose of the script, and shown in factoriopedia so that the player can know how the inventory bonus scales.