[MOD 0.16] Miniloader

[eradicator]

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a way to hide the inserter arrows [...]

I requested the "hide-alt-info" flag (api doc) quite some time ago to do just that :p.

[Therax]

I requested the "hide-alt-info" flag (api doc) quite some time ago to do just that :p.

hide-alt-info also hides filter icon display.

[eradicator]

I requested the "hide-alt-info" flag (api doc) quite some time ago to do just that :p.

hide-alt-info also hides filter icon display. :)

Why do you always have to complain about minor details :P.
Edit: Hm...trying to think of an entity that inheritly displays icons without arrows, but no success so far. If you're already "manually" applying filters to the loader component you could abuse a chest or constant combinator to show the icons.

[Therax]

If you're already "manually" applying filters to the loader component you could abuse a chest or constant combinator to show the icons.

I'd considered the chest idea, but having another entity on the tile that's a valid inserter target (has an inventory) doesn't work too wel. I actually never considered a constant Combinators, but it sounds like a great idea. I'll have to try it out.

[eradicator]

If you're already "manually" applying filters to the loader component you could abuse a chest or constant combinator to show the icons.

I'd considered the chest idea, but having another entity on the tile that's a valid inserter target (has an inventory) doesn't work too wel. I actually never considered a constant Combinators, but it sounds like a great idea. I'll have to try it out.

Even a chest shouldn't be a target if it has no collision box at all.

[Therax]

Even a chest shouldn't be a target if it has no collision box at all.

Sadly, that's not how inserter logic works:

no collision chest.png (54.92 KiB) Viewed 4212 times

I'd also forgotten, constant combinators don't show their output as icons in info mode.

[Therax]

Ahhh, now I see what you mean. The arrows cover a good bit of the filter icons. Mhhh, that's nasty. If they were juuuust a bit smaller, but I fully understand that this is out of your hands.

Who says it's out of my hands?
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/arrowtweaker

[eradicator]

Even a chest shouldn't be a target if it has no collision box at all.

Sadly, that's not how inserter logic works:

Eehrm...wasn't there some weird difference between "no collision" and {0,0,0,0}? Maybe i'm imagining that. With 0.17 you could simply overwrite the pickup/drop target, but you'd have to attempt to detect every inserter placed which is somewhere between insane and impossible on the difficulty scale. (Or make it an indescructible hostile chest :P)

I'd also forgotten, constant combinators don't show their output as icons in info mode. :?

(Probably defaults to off...)

what.png (42.85 KiB) Viewed 4196 times

showalt.png (5.22 KiB) Viewed 4196 times

[Cadde]

But the combinators and inserters have their overlays defined in their prototypes don't they?
Or maybe i am confusing them with the decider combinators "texture" change depending on their mode?

Either way, can't you just add the same overlay sprite that exists on inserters/combinators?

[Therax]

But the combinators and inserters have their overlays defined in their prototypes don't they?
Or maybe i am confusing them with the decider combinators "texture" change depending on their mode?

Pretty sure you're confused with combinators. Inserters don't have a prototype reference to any sort of overlay.

[Therax]

Eehrm...wasn't there some weird difference between "no collision" and {0,0,0,0}? Maybe i'm imagining that. With 0.17 you could simply overwrite the pickup/drop target, but you'd have to attempt to detect every inserter placed which is somewhere between insane and impossible on the difficulty scale. (Or make it an indescructible hostile chest )

This prototype was made by setting collision_box to nil in the Lua. I think by the time it hits the C++ it's just four 0's.

Has the feature of setting pickup/drop target been confirmed for 0.17? I still see it as a requests here, and it hasn't made it into the changelog.

Messing about with forces would be possible, but not ideal.

[eradicator]

I thought i'd seen pickup/drop target confirmed...somewhere. At least Rsed hasn't instantly declined it, so i'm keeping my hopes up. It's not a usable option for this case though as a mod can set an inserters target vectors anywhere they like and there's no way for you to detect that. So constant combinator looks like the best option (or you get your request implemented :p).

[Cadde]

But the combinators and inserters have their overlays defined in their prototypes don't they?
Or maybe i am confusing them with the decider combinators "texture" change depending on their mode?

Pretty sure you're confused with combinators. Inserters don't have a prototype reference to any sort of overlay.

But filter inserters have a sprite showing their filter. That's why i assume but i haven't bothered to check.

[Therax]

But filter inserters have a sprite showing their filter. That's why i assume but i haven't bothered to check.

Yes, and it's an innate part of the alt-info for a filter-inserter, in the same way that a chest has an innate sprite showing its contents as part of its alt-info. It's not possible (as far as I know) to create a freestanding version of such a sprite, and the arrows and the filter display come together as a unit where filter inserters are concerned.

I think the Arrow Tweaker mod discussed above is a reasonable interim solution to reduce how obtrusive the inserter arrows are. The downside is that it affects all inserters, not just those associated with miniloaders.

[Medium9]

Ahhh, now I see what you mean. The arrows cover a good bit of the filter icons. Mhhh, that's nasty. If they were juuuust a bit smaller, but I fully understand that this is out of your hands.

Who says it's out of my hands?
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/arrowtweaker

You're a mad man! I like it

[npuldon]

Got this error in my server log yesterday. Then my server crashed. Any ideas?

[October 21, 2018 9:03 PM] 153360.127 Info AppManagerStates.cpp:1639: Saving finished
[October 21, 2018 9:13 PM] 153960.131 Info AppManager.cpp:260: Saving to _autosave5 (blocking).
[October 21, 2018 9:13 PM] 153961.445 Info AppManagerStates.cpp:1639: Saving finished
[October 21, 2018 9:19 PM] __miniloader__/lualib/util.lua:65: invalid direction passed to rotate_box"
[October 21, 2018 9:19 PM] 154280.509 Error ServerMultiplayerManager.cpp:96: MultiplayerManager failed: "Error while running event miniloader::on_built_entity (ID 6)
[October 21, 2018 9:19 PM] 154280.509 Info ServerMultiplayerManager.cpp:699: mapTick(11179145) changing state from(InGame) to(Failed)
[October 21, 2018 9:19 PM] 154280.509 Error MainLoop.cpp:1035: Exception at tick 11179145: Error while running event miniloader::on_built_entity (ID 6)
[October 21, 2018 9:19 PM] __miniloader__/lualib/util.lua:65: invalid direction passed to rotate_box
[October 21, 2018 9:19 PM] 154280.515 Info GlobalContext.cpp:696: Waiting for child processes to exit:
[October 21, 2018 9:19 PM] 154280.927 Info ServerMultiplayerManager.cpp:142: Quitting multiplayer connection.
[October 21, 2018 9:19 PM] 154280.927 Info ServerMultiplayerManager.cpp:699: mapTick(4294967295) changing state from(Failed) to(Closed)
[October 21, 2018 9:19 PM] 154280.928 Info HttpSharedState.cpp:54: Downloading https://multiplayer.factorio.com/remove-game/3439146
[October 21, 2018 9:19 PM] 154281.208 Info HttpSharedState.cpp:145: Status code: 200
[October 21, 2018 9:19 PM] 154281.208 Info UDPSocket.cpp:206: Closing socket
[October 21, 2018 9:19 PM] 154281.208 Info UDPSocket.cpp:236: Socket closed
[October 21, 2018 9:19 PM] 154281.208 Info UDPSocket.cpp:206: Closing socket
[October 21, 2018 9:19 PM] 154281.281 Info UDPSocket.cpp:206: Closing socket
[October 21, 2018 9:19 PM] 154281.281 Info UDPSocket.cpp:236: Socket closed
[October 21, 2018 9:19 PM] 154281.281 Goodbye

[Therax]

Got this error in my server log yesterday. Then my server crashed. Any ideas?

[October 21, 2018 9:19 PM] __miniloader__/lualib/util.lua:65: invalid direction passed to rotate_box"

At first glance it looks like there's a bug with loader snapping when a miniloader is adjacent to a diagonal rail track. For now you have a couple of options:
1) Leave at least one tile between miniloaders and diagonal tracks.
2) Turn off loader snapping in the mod options.
3) Wait for me to find enough spare time to fix the problem.

[Optera]

Speaking of snapping, is there a reason for miniloaders not snapping according to bot placed belts?

[Therax]

Speaking of snapping, is there a reason for miniloaders not snapping according to bot placed belts?

The general principle was to trust people's blueprints and not modify them. Particularly so with snapping since it can be order sensitive and bots build ghosts in unpredictable order. Miniloaders also support some pretty strange use cases (single-belt rebalancing and the old priority splitter setup) which don't necessarily have them aligning with belts in the normal way, so I do snapping only for by-hand placement, and not when robots are filling in blueprints.

[Medium9]

A thing I think I have noticed since the last graphical overhaul is, that the loaders seem to be a little bit biased towards one lane of a belt when loading stuff into machines. At least there is where I noticed it. This in itself isn't too much of an issue, but some bits of my latestest large build required a little bit of adjustment.
It's mostly a visual thing, and I'd rather not use lane-balancers for UPS reasons (and because they won't fit in my current mega-build anymore without basically redoing everything).

If there is a cheap (in terms of work and UPS impact) way to address this, I'd be a tiny bit happier than I already am with this mod