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Channels and Routes
A route is a name shared by two or more endpoints. A channel groups routes.
Endpoints on the same channel and the same route are connected. Nothing else wires them together: no cables, no line of sight, no distance limit.
Every endpoint starts on Default, which needs no hub and no power. If you never build a hub, you never need to think about channels at all: give a pair the same route name and they are connected.
Press E on an endpoint, choose or create a route, and apply. The picker searches as you type, which is what makes a large network usable.
Route names are scoped to their channel, so overflow on Default and overflow on a hub channel are different routes. Pick names that say what the cargo is or where it goes. plates-to-sink beats route 4 when you come back in a month.
The network supports up to 256 routes.
Changing an endpoint's route is a two-step job, deliberately:
- Disable the endpoint. It stops accepting and sending.
- Empty the local buffer. Item endpoints let you take the buffered items into your inventory. Fluid endpoints have a flush that discards the buffer, which asks for confirmation.
- Pick the new channel and route, and re-enable.
The buffer step matters. Cargo sitting in a buffer belongs to the route it arrived on; moving an endpoint without draining it would deliver the old route's cargo to the new one.
A fluid route carries one fluid type at a time. The route adopts a type from the first fluid sent and keeps it until the route is emptied.
To change what a fluid route carries, every endpoint on it must be disabled and empty, and connected pipes must be empty or already contain the new fluid. The endpoint window shows a reset action once those conditions hold, and tells you which one is not met when they do not.
With a hub you can rename a route in place, so every endpoint on it follows, and pause a route to stop traffic without visiting each building. Without a hub, renaming means reassigning each endpoint individually.
- No filtering. An output receives whatever the inputs on its route send.
- No storage. Buffers smooth belt timing; they are not a warehouse.
- No priority. Multiple outputs share what is available rather than ordering themselves.