Sorter Mk.I

Sorter Mk.I is the basic tier of Sorters, the item-moving logistics building used to insert, remove, and filter items between Conveyor Belts and facilities. It is required for moving items into and out of almost every production building, and it can also move items directly between two buildings or output specific products from multi-output facilities.

A Sorter can be fitted with a filter so that it handles only one chosen item. This makes it possible to carry several different components on a single Conveyor Belt instead of dedicating separate belts to each one. Filtered Sorters are also useful for pulling a specific product from a building that produces more than one item, such as an Oil Refinery.

Sorter Mk.I follows the same core behavior as higher-tier Sorters, but the tiers trade speed for power in the same proportion. As a result, moving an item with Sorter Mk.I costs the same energy as moving that item with Sorter Mk.II or Mk.III; higher tiers mainly finish the transfer faster and therefore may draw slightly more power while idle. This means Sorters can be upgraded or downgraded freely without changing the total energy cost of a completed item transfer.

• A building-to-building connection always takes at least two grid squares.
• A building-to-belt connection is usually one grid square.
• Because of this, routing through a belt is not inherently more expensive than connecting buildings directly; the main difference is the number of Sorters involved and their idle power draw.
• A Sorter can cover a maximum distance of three tiles.
• Transport rate depends on distance: 1.5 items/s at 1 grid square, 0.75 items/s at 2 grid squares, and 0.5 items/s at 3 grid squares.

Sorter Mk.I is acceptable for many early logistics tasks, but it is not ideal for situations that need rapid, uninterrupted delivery. A practical safety rule is to use at least Sorter Mk.II when connecting to Thermal Power Stations, because Sorter Mk.I can slow enough that it may fail to keep up with fuel consumption during severe brownouts.