Would It be possible, that the inserter can throw items directly into machines? So I can make a base ONLY using these. They are hilarious!
Also some ratios would be nice, I noticed they throw many items at once, there is no fitting ratio to make compressed belts.

Edit: With the new sound update, it would be super cool if you could add some bounce sound!

I once had it where items would fall into assembly machines but it didn't look very good visually cause the items just disappeared against the machines completely closed surface, so I took it out. I've been trying to think of some alternate throwing-related form of crafting but haven't come up with anything yet. Maybe I'll just have a module you can put in assemblers that allow them to accept flying items. If you have any ideas I take requests :)

You can adjust the throwers' hand stack size to throw different quantities of items. I'm not sure how a thrower could ever supply a fully compressed belt since the thrower only throws at regular intervals while belts are always moving. Do you mean having the thrower move on average 15/30/45 items per second?

Edit: Yes I checked and saw its throwing like the handsize.

I just got an idea about the machine handling. How about you create a new loader, which has the open chest on the input side. So the inserter can throw into it, and it will put it into the machine than. But the throw-loader does not have an inventory, the inserter will stop when the machine is full (same with a full chest)

Also could you add directed bouncepads, same as the player bounce pad with the arrow, so it can fly in a 90° angle

Different tiers of fly distance equal to yellow, red and blue belt would be also interesting.

And the automation science as recap requirement isn't very fitting, no item requires science packs. Maybe Gears or copper cable would be better?

A bounce sounds would also be very cool!

Maybe I get more idea, after further playing. In best case I would love to be able to make a run without any belt and normal inserter.

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Edit: Maybe you could adjust the speed of the inserters a little bit to work better with belts. What I noticed:
- Fast Inserter (Hand Size 2): fills half a yellow belt
- Stack Inserter (Hand Size 4): fills 1 yellow belt
- Stack Inserter (Hand Size 8); fills 2 yellow belt
- Stack Inserter (Hand Size 12 (max)): fills 3 full yellow belts → But spills if directly put on a blue belt (3 yellow splitter a blue works great)
- Normal Inserter (hand Size 3 (max)): fills half a yellow belt + 1 item every 5 on the other side
- Long-handed inserter puts less items in the belt, than a normal inserter

So the fast & stack inserter has great values already!: 2 fast inserter hand size 2 are 1 yellow belt. So depending on the hand size, 1 stack inserter can fill 1 yellow, 2 yellow or 3 yellow.

Problems are the normal and the long handed inserter.
- I would suggest making the normal inserter a little bit slower, so it puts half the amount of items as a speed inserter
- The long handed need to be slower, but less slower than the normal, so its gives same amount of items as a normal inserter (just farther away)

I can give you a creative test world, where I tested it, I just don't know how to give you.

Fun Fact: A chain of fast inserters is fast than a chain long handed inserter

Since my mod is so jank, the item transport rate will never really be a convenient ratio. For example, the speed at which throwers transport depends on how fast they rotate. Let's say if inserters picking up items is at 0 degrees and placing them is at 180 degrees, then code wise I have them throw the item once their hand passes the 90 degree point. Now add that Factorio is played in isometric point of view, that means the same thrower actually move more items when they're pointed up, less when pointing left/right, and even less pointing down just cause the arm has to move more. That said though, I will adjust the regular and long handed inserter to be as close to what you described as possible.

I originally didn't let Player Launchers chain jumps because I thought in multiplayer people could set up chains in such a way that baits their friends into suiciding by routing them into a lake, but I'm thinking maybe a resaerch to unlock a toggle (like alt-mode and belt immunity) to let you chain launchers could work.

Rather than different thrower range tiers, I would like to have higher tiers of transport systems like a shooting items from cannons or strapping them to fireworks. The danker the meme the danker the dream👀👀👀👀

I didn't meant to chain the player launcher. The player launcher can direct you right? This also for the item bouncer!

Well actually, the item throwing is quite consistent! But yeah you are right, depending on the rotation there are very slight differences. You can test with a fast / stack inserter with Hand size 2.

When throwing to right or top, there is a little bit more than half a belt, but down and right there is a saturated half lane.
idk how its done in code, maybe I could also look into adjusting the timings for the inserter. (Need to check first how to setup the coding though)

After having thought about things for a bit, you could perhaps:

• increase the size of the buffer in the catapult to cover an entire swing
• disable the catapult until its energy buffer is full
• poll the catapults to check for the hand holding something
  • put that catapult on a queue n (based on its rotation_speed) ticks in the future (because you know it is operating on full power, and don't have to account for a slow swing speed)
  • when the catapult reaches the head of the queue, get it to throw what it was carrying.

Edit: Also, I think this looks awesome. possibly impractical, but definitely awesome. =)

@Spook2U I see you mean like a directed bounce pad. Right now the bounce pads only have 1 orientation but I could maybe add a different bounce pad that does support rotation and directing the bounces in a specific direction.

@mrudat waiting for full power before moving the arm is a good idea, I'll try it out since I already cycle check all the throwers every 2 ticks anyway

Nice! And I hope this "fixes" the different behavior when rotated.
If not, mrudat also mentioned in discord that you could use different prototypes for each direction, so they throw items at the same rate, you could check on_player_rotated or something to swap the prototype.

Looking forward on what to come!

You mean on the Factorio discord?
I'll probably just use the same key for launch as Interact or something to swap modes.

yeah the factorio discord in the mod making section