Hi, I would dearly love to have the option of building thin belts that is a only a single item wide.
also would love to build a platform structure or scaffold to bring belts over the top of other belts like bridges.
thank you.
Mod Request, Thin Belts & Belt Scaffolds.
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omega_haxors
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Re: Mod Request, Thin Belts & Belt Scaffolds.
I don't understand the belt question fully. Do you want a belt that takes up half a square, or rather a belt that can go two directions on the same square? Either way, belts have to obey the tiles so that gives limited freedom for mods.
The second suggestion is actually pretty interesting and would allow for more compact belt designs. I'm a little concerned about the noise issue though. What happens if 20 of these are in a single area over top normal belts? You wouldn't be able to see anything, and things would get very confusing very fast.
The idea has potential for water-bridges though, since underwater belts aren't very viable over long distances. Although honestly i'm willing to go for any water-bridge solution at this point and Landfill fits the bill pretty good.
The second suggestion is actually pretty interesting and would allow for more compact belt designs. I'm a little concerned about the noise issue though. What happens if 20 of these are in a single area over top normal belts? You wouldn't be able to see anything, and things would get very confusing very fast.
The idea has potential for water-bridges though, since underwater belts aren't very viable over long distances. Although honestly i'm willing to go for any water-bridge solution at this point and Landfill fits the bill pretty good.
Re: Mod Request, Thin Belts & Belt Scaffolds.
Thin Belts: not sure how to explain it better. a belt half as wide that can not carry 2 items side by side. Only one item wide.
Currently I want this because I cant figure out how to separate items on a mixed belt for example a belt that carry's both coal and iron ore.
perhaps a more useful request would be a something like a large assembly machine perhaps 3x3 tile box that 3 belts would be inputs and there would be a possible 9 output belts (3 belts on a side) all this thing would do is sort items coming in to it , all coal goes on this belt, all copper plates go on that belt ect.
Of course tier one would only have 1 input and 2 out puts, tier two 2 inputs and 4 outputs, and so on.
Currently I want this because I cant figure out how to separate items on a mixed belt for example a belt that carry's both coal and iron ore.
perhaps a more useful request would be a something like a large assembly machine perhaps 3x3 tile box that 3 belts would be inputs and there would be a possible 9 output belts (3 belts on a side) all this thing would do is sort items coming in to it , all coal goes on this belt, all copper plates go on that belt ect.
Of course tier one would only have 1 input and 2 out puts, tier two 2 inputs and 4 outputs, and so on.
Re: Mod Request, Thin Belts & Belt Scaffolds.
The only real way to seperate 2 things from one belt is afaik setting up a couple of smart inserters and sort that wat you want out or that what you don't want into a chest.
Most times im going the first route, sorting that wat i need elswhere onto another belt.
Most times im going the first route, sorting that wat i need elswhere onto another belt.
Re: Mod Request, Thin Belts & Belt Scaffolds.
You can use this trick:Takezu wrote:The only real way to seperate 2 things from one belt is afaik setting up a couple of smart inserters and sort that wat you want out or that what you don't want into a chest.
Most times im going the first route, sorting that wat i need elswhere onto another belt.
https://forums.factorio.com/wiki/inde ... t-swap.png
My mods: Red Alert Harvesters - Clean Pipes - Filtered Splitters
Re: Mod Request, Thin Belts & Belt Scaffolds.
Oh thank you very much thats nifty and handy.
And it eliminates the speedlimiting by the smarts.
Only real drawback is the space requierment but thats plannable.
And it eliminates the speedlimiting by the smarts.
Only real drawback is the space requierment but thats plannable.
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omega_haxors
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Re: Mod Request, Thin Belts & Belt Scaffolds.
This is actually a really good idea. If I ever figure out how to do modding, I will have to try and make this a reality.666JTK666 wrote:perhaps a more useful request would be a something like a large assembly machine perhaps 3x3 tile box that 3 belts would be inputs and there would be a possible 9 output belts (3 belts on a side) all this thing would do is sort items coming in to it , all coal goes on this belt, all copper plates go on that belt ect.
Of course tier one would only have 1 input and 2 out puts, tier two 2 inputs and 4 outputs, and so on.
Because of the double-nature of the belts, each side of the belt would be considered a slot and then you can use internal belts inside the device to redirect to the output slots. it would sort of be like an integrated sorter.
Here's sort of an idea I have for the design...
Click here for picture
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Lost Ninja
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Re: Mod Request, Thin Belts & Belt Scaffolds.
It's also possible to manually place items down so that they hang over the edge of a belt (and don't move) so that they bung up that side of the belt... only issue is it's very trial & error and also if you pick the items up by mistake it can mess up further down the line.
I thought to try and mod and object that sits in an adjacent tile and physically hangs over half a belt causing that side to stop moving. Then got side tracked into learning Blender and making sprite sheets...
I thought to try and mod and object that sits in an adjacent tile and physically hangs over half a belt causing that side to stop moving. Then got side tracked into learning Blender and making sprite sheets...
Re: Mod Request, Thin Belts & Belt Scaffolds.
This would be cool. I especially like the idea of belt-stacking (belts running over belts running over belts) since I like that underground belts allow crossing pipes, but wish they were more flexible like normal belts and showed the items actually being transported.
Unfortunately, from what I've learned over the past few days, prototype definitions (basically, what differentiates a belt from an enemy from the player, etc. and controls what each of them do) are somewhat inflexible. There's only so much you can do with what they give you without having to resort to brute-force (doing it through scripts). It is possible to do what you're describing through manual scripting, but it wouldn't be nearly as elegant as stuff from the base game. First of all, there is no easy way to have a belt run on top of another. I can reproduce the functionality, but it would only really act like an underground belt that works on its own layer. If it were to look like items were moving on a belt over top one another, I would have to manually animate and move both the items and the belts individually step-by-step through scripts which would cause a lot of problems.
One-lane belts have the opposite problem. It's simple enough to narrow the sprite of a belt to half-width. To actually have items actually move down that belt, I would have to turn off the belt's normal functionality (which I'm not even sure is possible and them still be a belt and still animate) and manually move the items down the lane frame-by-frame. Again, not ideal.
So, TLDR version, yes it is possible, but at this time afaik it would not be easy, nor would it work as perfectly as you might like, and it would probably take a lot of cpu resources to do so. Maybe suggest the idea to the devs or perhaps if a few changes were made to make prototype definitions more flexible or to add new api's, what you're asking for might be a bit more feasible.
As for your desire for a sorting machine, that isn't too hard. It's possible to have an entity that sorts items in two or three belts, one on each face other than the input side. You could select what items to sort where, and tell it how to handle more than 3 different items. If it receives more than 3 types of items, it can place more than one on a single belt and then from there you can just add another sorter to that line which would separate them further. After I finish my first mod, this would probably be high on my list, so maybe that will help. What I'm making now could also help, since it will combine items into a single "stacked" item that can more easily be sorted by your standard smart inserter setup.
Unfortunately, from what I've learned over the past few days, prototype definitions (basically, what differentiates a belt from an enemy from the player, etc. and controls what each of them do) are somewhat inflexible. There's only so much you can do with what they give you without having to resort to brute-force (doing it through scripts). It is possible to do what you're describing through manual scripting, but it wouldn't be nearly as elegant as stuff from the base game. First of all, there is no easy way to have a belt run on top of another. I can reproduce the functionality, but it would only really act like an underground belt that works on its own layer. If it were to look like items were moving on a belt over top one another, I would have to manually animate and move both the items and the belts individually step-by-step through scripts which would cause a lot of problems.
One-lane belts have the opposite problem. It's simple enough to narrow the sprite of a belt to half-width. To actually have items actually move down that belt, I would have to turn off the belt's normal functionality (which I'm not even sure is possible and them still be a belt and still animate) and manually move the items down the lane frame-by-frame. Again, not ideal.
So, TLDR version, yes it is possible, but at this time afaik it would not be easy, nor would it work as perfectly as you might like, and it would probably take a lot of cpu resources to do so. Maybe suggest the idea to the devs or perhaps if a few changes were made to make prototype definitions more flexible or to add new api's, what you're asking for might be a bit more feasible.
As for your desire for a sorting machine, that isn't too hard. It's possible to have an entity that sorts items in two or three belts, one on each face other than the input side. You could select what items to sort where, and tell it how to handle more than 3 different items. If it receives more than 3 types of items, it can place more than one on a single belt and then from there you can just add another sorter to that line which would separate them further. After I finish my first mod, this would probably be high on my list, so maybe that will help. What I'm making now could also help, since it will combine items into a single "stacked" item that can more easily be sorted by your standard smart inserter setup.