Trying to make a farming system in Factorio

[PootTroid]

Hello folks, I never used the forums despite having an account here but I need some help.

I am making this mod that has plants and farming in it. The plants act as ores and have already been implemented shown in the attachments.
I have also made a basic farming machine that is similar to the miners as well that can only mine these plants shown in the attachments.

But what to know if these things are possible in terms of modding Factorio.

1. Is it possible for the grid placement to be larger. E.g. all buildings and such snap to a 1x1 grid when placing them down. I want to know if you can have buildings snap to or follow a new grid like a 3x3?
2. I also want my farming machine to combine into other farming machines where it only goes through one output but combines all the resources collected. This would only work if the farming machines are together.
3. Lastly I want to know if I can have the farm sprites merge with each other. Multiple sprites can be made for it but how would this be implemented?

These are the questions I have so far and more questions would appear depending on the traffic on this post or the possibility of implementing these things.

[Osmo]

1. Yes https://lua-api.factorio.com/latest/pro ... _grid_size
It says supported values are 1 and 2, but i think other values also work.
2. No. It could technically be scripted, but would be pretty annoying, you'd have to do something like make each miner output into a hidden linked chest, and place an output linked chest + an (un)loader somewhere (maybe let the player decide where to place it).
3. No, the game doesn't support this apart from space platform hubs and bays, and even then only the edges have stuff overlaid on top, and it seems like you want something more than that. Again can technically be scripted with LuaRendering.

[PootTroid]

That makes sense so far. For reason 2. I could just have it go through some linked chest that acts as a building or storage and have inserters take the resources out instead of outputting automatically. As for reason 3. I will attempt to see if I can get something working even if it's barely combining the sprites. If not I'll change how the farm looks.

[Stringweasel]

2. I also want my farming machine to combine into other farming machines where it only goes through one output but combines all the resources collected. This would only work if the farming machines are together.

I would also look into proxy containers. Its a container that can point to any inventory, like the input or output of an agri tower.

https://lua-api.factorio.com/latest/pro ... otype.html