I have a couple ideas to contribute to the item:
1. New research node: "Logistics 4" or something of the like.
- It seems these loaders will be pretty much instant transfer from belt to inventory, so they should either be in a tier of their own and expensive research, or expensive to make (i.e., Red/Blue Circuits + Express Transport Belt + Lubricant + Smart Inserters)... just a rough idea.
2. A more Factorio-like texture and animation.
- I kinda thought up the idea of making the loader looking like it was "dumping" the belt contents into a box. Prepare for terrible art that hopefully gets the idea across.
- loader concept.png (82.99 KiB) Viewed 1490 times
Again I don't know how hard it would be to do something like:
If Loader is pointing to box
Set box sprite = box_open
Again I'd hope the texture would be made to look gritty and techie looking like the rest of the art.
I also think this kind of tech can spawn its own smart/long, or even underground versions.
Well thanks for reading. Feel free to let me know if this is a viable idea or not. If it is go ahead and add to it or think about the pros/cons of an item with animations like this.
Edit: I guess I didn't think about it but their would either have to be a neutral loading/unloading kind of sprite, or possibly 2 different items i.e Loader and Unloader with separate sprites. Might make the "Dumping into box" look invalid.
