Another Loader-like solution maybe?

[wexyourass]

Maybe I got the idea of loaders wrong, but for me the main thing they help with is to fill both sides of belt with contents of chest/train, because with inserters compact solutions for big item buffers and ore storages r becoming a one big mess that needs alot of tweaking and additons of belts from sides to get nice both sided belt as output. Im big fan of symmetry so loaders help with this.

I think original stack inserters are good enough with loading from belt to chest/train and there is no much need in loader in this case.

How about just add another stack inserter type like "wide stack inserter" that will operate double or same amount of items that stack inserter can (double will be more logical IMO). The main thing is it will fill both sides of belt like loader do, but It will not be so fast as loader will be, because original stack inserters need to be upgraded in research tree while loaders have their max potential on every of 3 belt tiers. You just need to make better tier an boom - you have max potential you can get for this belt level. ye this little bit op.

(added) Also forgot to mention that Loaders are not electricity-related that also makes them op compared to original methods of loading/unloading that r requre power to work. So lets think you want a big buffer for storing your ore. With loaders you can make the solution as massive as you wish without thinking how to power this to make this all work and dont interrupt your belts and spacing almost right from the start of game (ofc if you have resources to make this). With inserters you need to think about how to power your buffer solution and as best option you wish to have not less than a substations access.
Comparing this two methods allow you too see that loaders need almost no effort to have great result while inserters keeps you at thinking how you need to make your progress and makes it gradually (what is more preffered for this type of game).

So with this new inserter idea question about overpowering going away cos you need to make your way through research tree alot starting from little and to have a big potential as a result, whole idea will stay same, and tech tree do not need rework in this case.

Sorry if this looks like duplicate thread, but i didnt saw something very similar to this when searching the forum. Also gotta say thanks for the awesome game to devs. Im engeneer in my real life. So playing Factorio is very entertaining and helpful with keeping brains in shape

[ssilk]

The story with the loader is, that the implementation was halted half-ways due to community intervention here. There are a tons of thread from the time last spring, where this was presented in the FFFs. ( https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-128 ---> viewtopic.php?f=38&t=20847 and other discussions in the board from that time )

My current opinion about the loader is: It should be made ready. Currently it's just half implemented, unbalanced, raw. But the community uses it astonishing often and there are a lot of mods, that re-enable them in one or other way.

So we can say: There are some ideas of how to use the loader and how to distict the usage from that of an inserter. There are lots of gameplay-material, some cool ideas about the graphics of the loader, some mods, some ideas of how to use it "right" including this suggestion. All that needs to be done is to collect those ideas and sort them in a way, that can be scored depending to the previously said things. And then finish implementation.

So, please not another inserter - there are already too much (IMHO). The loader should work completely different but targets exactly, what you suggest here.

[steinio]

The story with the loader is, that the implementation was halted half-ways due to community intervention here. There are a tons of thread from the time last spring, where this was presented in the FFFs. ( https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-128 ---> viewtopic.php?f=38&t=20847 and other discussions in the board from that time )

My current opinion about the loader is: It should be made ready. Currently it's just half implemented, unbalanced, raw. But the community uses it astonishing often and there are a lot of mods, that re-enable them in one or other way.

So we can say: There are some ideas of how to use the loader and how to distict the usage from that of an inserter. There are lots of gameplay-material, some cool ideas about the graphics of the loader, some mods, some ideas of how to use it "right" including this suggestion. All that needs to be done is to collect those ideas and sort them in a way, that can be scored depending to the previously said things. And then finish implementation.

So, please not another inserter - there are already too much (IMHO). The loader should work completely different but targets exactly, what you suggest here.

Yeah please just enable it in vanilla.
We are all getting used to it now

[aober93]

Is the current near limitless option not enough for you?

[ssilk]

aober93: please make clear, whom you wanted to answer.

[XDbored]

Maybe I got the idea of loaders wrong, but for me the main thing they help with is to fill both sides of belt with contents of chest/train, because with inserters compact solutions for big item buffers and ore storages r becoming a one big mess that needs alot of tweaking and additons of belts from sides to get nice both sided belt as output. Im big fan of symmetry so loaders help with this.

I think original stack inserters are good enough with loading from belt to chest/train and there is no much need in loader in this case.

How about just add another stack inserter type like "wide stack inserter" that will operate double or same amount of items that stack inserter can (double will be more logical IMO). The main thing is it will fill both sides of belt like loader do, but It will not be so fast as loader will be, because original stack inserters need to be upgraded in research tree while loaders have their max potential on every of 3 belt tiers. You just need to make better tier an boom - you have max potential you can get for this belt level. ye this little bit op.

(added) Also forgot to mention that Loaders are not electricity-related that also makes them op compared to original methods of loading/unloading that r requre power to work. So lets think you want a big buffer for storing your ore. With loaders you can make the solution as massive as you wish without thinking how to power this to make this all work and dont interrupt your belts and spacing almost right from the start of game (ofc if you have resources to make this). With inserters you need to think about how to power your buffer solution and as best option you wish to have not less than a substations access.
Comparing this two methods allow you too see that loaders need almost no effort to have great result while inserters keeps you at thinking how you need to make your progress and makes it gradually (what is more preffered for this type of game).

So with this new inserter idea question about overpowering going away cos you need to make your way through research tree alot starting from little and to have a big potential as a result, whole idea will stay same, and tech tree do not need rework in this case.

Sorry if this looks like duplicate thread, but i didnt saw something very similar to this when searching the forum. Also gotta say thanks for the awesome game to devs. Im engeneer in my real life. So playing Factorio is very entertaining and helpful with keeping brains in shape

this is almost exactly what i was going to suggest as one of the ways i would like the belts vs bots problem to be fixed

[m44v]

This was already argued when loaders were proposed, in the end stack inserters got introduced instead, they serve the same purpose without trivializing belts. Besides the issue with bots and belts has more to do with the limit of belt's capacity than with how you fill them.