Improve Adjustable Inserters

[EldVarg]

Bob's Adjustable Inserters" mod
Love the mod but here are a few things that could improve it even mode.

Basic:
* Be able to close the popup window with close hotkey/ESC.
* Be able to move position of the popup window - and remembering last position. It's usually in the way.
* The pickup/drop arrow symbol is cut off on left side.
* Show "Back" instead of "Close" to fit other popup windows in the game.

Balance:
* Don't allow any distance 3 and distance 2 full diagonal on basic inserter.
* Don't allow distance full diagonal 3 on any other inserter.

Advanced:
* Have offset on pickup position too - making it only pickup from chosen side.
* Be able to set multiple pickup positions and drop positions - choosen randomly or in a sequence.
* Be able to set sets of pickups and drops with a number/color for each setup.
* Appropriate extra research for new features.


I made an example here. It should use transparent window like the old one of course. Left side if for pickups, right for drops. Included offset in each tile. Useing 4 colors - I even used colors that colorblind easier can see - to differentiate a sequence.
Blue - Pickup things from west tile left side of belt and every other time (or tries to) on south tile any side and put them down on southeast tile.
Red - Pickup things from west tile right side and put them on two different locations, if you can do both, do it every other time, else where it can.

[bobingabout]

* Be able to close the popup window with close hotkey/ESC.

Due to the way all mod GUIs are completely separated from the way integrated base game GUIs operate, this is impossible (Although registering the E key to close the window might be possible, it would require a second keybind specific to mod GUIs, for each mod that uses it. And ESC would require the same thing, but I'm fairly sure it wouldn't work well, because it would either block the standard ESC functionallity, or be blocked by it.) This is actually the sort of feature that has been requested by me personally in the modding interfaces requests sub-forum, to allow modded GUIs to function more like base game windows... like your crafting screen.

* Be able to move position of the popup window - and remembering last position. It's usually in the way.

Again, due to the way mod GUIs operate, completely separated from base game GUI operation... the facility to do this isn't possible in the game... That I know of anyway.

* The pickup/drop arrow symbol is cut off on left side.

I know it isn't perfect, it is a known game bug for 0.13+. I don't know why it hasn't been fixed, but basically, the graphics are being cropped, scalled up to fill the space, then cropped again. I've tried a few tricks to fix this, but it didn't work.

* Show "Back" instead of "Close" to fit other popup windows in the game.

Okay, this one is possible. Though, I'm fairly sure this one uses a base game locale entry to name the button.

* Don't allow any distance 3 and distance 2 full diagonal on basic inserter.
* Don't allow distance full diagonal 3 on any other inserter.

Although the global disallow of a specific position is possible... the way the GUI is programmed to be compatible with ALL inserters added by ALL mods... I sacrifice the ability to specify special case scenarios for specific inserters. Adding in specific exclusions MIGHT be possible, but is a fair bit of work, because the way the code is designed doesn't allow for it. In short, you're asking for a total rewrite for this.

* Have offset on pickup position too - making it only pickup from chosen side.

Inserters do not work that way. it MIGHT be possible to have an offset from the tile, but it would likely pick up from two different belts where the edges are close together... IF the game allows for it, it has very specific ranges of where you're allowed to specify pickup and drop locations within a tile, and trying to move the pickup out of this zone would likely result in the game throwing a game ending error.

* Be able to set multiple pickup positions and drop positions - choosen randomly or in a sequence.

Inserters do not work that way, you are limited by what the game allows you to do, in this case, a single pick up position, and a single drop position, within a very narrow area of a tile. In theory it MIGHT be possible to allow inserts to have more than one pick up location, but this would have to be done by a very processor heavy lag inducing on_tick script, that iterates through all inserters with this setup(in other words, more inserters, more lag), because to do it, it would have to constantly change the pickup location from one to another. IF the game even has provisions to let this work, because changing the position while the hand is moving causes the motion to reset, I don't think there's a hook to check if the hand is currently moving to pick something up or not, only if it is holding something. Lets go with not possible.

* Be able to set sets of pickups and drops with a number/color for each setup.

You mean saving the position setup to a button to use it later, like a blueprint for inserter positions? Although possible... I probably won't do it.

I made an example here. It should use transparent window like the old one of course. Left side if for pickups, right for drops. Included offset in each tile. Useing 4 colors - I even used colors that colorblind easier can see - to differentiate a sequence.
Blue - Pickup things from west tile left side of belt and every other time (or tries to) on south tile any side and put them down on southeast tile.
Red - Pickup things from west tile right side and put them on two different locations, if you can do both, do it every other time, else where it can.

Since every position within a tile would have to be it's own button... the setup I chose (where there's a 3x3 for the position on the right) was the most efficient method of drawing the grid, especially considering you can only viably have a single pickup and single drop position.


In summery... you have some very interesting ideas and suggestions there... but nearly everything is impossible in the game as it stands, and that which isn't is either a lot of work for a very small gain (Even if it makes sense, like specifically overriding the possibilities for standard inserters... and if you limit that, why not burner too? that's the part that makes it inconsistent, what if another mod adds a low tech inserter that would otherwise be given all the options, because it isn't on the low-tech list?) or just more work than I'm willing to spend doing... especially while I'm on a modding hiatus(Basically, bug fixes and minor tweaks only for a while).


I hope I didn't crush you with this response.

[EldVarg]

Thank you for the thorough explanation. Sad that Factorio modding is so limited. Didn't know

Maybe you at least could "move" (as always open it in another place) the position of the window to not be in the middle where you usually need to see.

Would have been cool with a "smart" (robot-arm) inserter doing job more like in the real world.

[bobingabout]

Maybe you at least could "move" (as always open it in another place) the position of the window to not be in the middle where you usually need to see.

You can't even really do that, you're limited to only 3 options. Top, Left, and Center.

Top is basically a bar of buttons that mods add to the top of the screen
Left is where some mods open windows (My new version of the insertes menu as part of Logistics opens there)
Center is supposed to be for things like Dialogue boxes, but is typically used for full GUIs, like mine.

[EldVarg]

Well then - add option to add space between the pickup and drop tile area, that will just be semi transparent, so you can see the background through (about the same space as one of them - grid 5x5).

[Strubbel]

Can't you specify the inserter configuration window as a moveable window?

The standard inventory windows is moveable by simply dragging it with the mouse. Since it has the same look as the configuration window (same occupacy, color etc.), I wonder if the configuration windows is simply defineable as a draggable window...?!

[bobingabout]

Can't you specify the inserter configuration window as a moveable window?

The standard inventory windows is moveable by simply dragging it with the mouse. Since it has the same look as the configuration window (same occupacy, color etc.), I wonder if the configuration windows is simply defineable as a draggable window...?!

As I already pointed out. Not really. The Moddable GUI has too many limited options.