Hello I've forked your mod and fixed some bugs
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/lob

stuff i changed

1. there's a snapping logic when you place throwers
   it always throws to the furthest entity that it can reach

2. it doesn't bug out with bob's inserters
   "fixed" is a strong word here
   i just disable the inserter if the pickup point is on a diffrent axis than the dropoff point

3. items dont overflow on the ground anymore
   the inserter goes inactive when the dropoff_target is full

4. some ups improvements

5. other stuff idk

6. I also added this
   https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/ilanew/peta_approves/

🍴Fork gang aooh!🍴

That's awesome man, it's cool to see my concept reimagined by someone with some actual programming expertise.

1. Is the drop position not just targeted? I'll have to try your lobber to understand what you mean by this.
2. Fix or not, I've always been a fan of the saying "if it's stupid and it works, then it's not stupid" 😆
3. I know the item pileup is something some people don't like about my mod. I've always wanted to make some fix for it but the bounce pads make it so complicated that I could never figure it out, so thats a great change
4. 👌
5. 👌👌👌👌👌
6. 👌🐟🚮👀😮🐠💯🌊🐡 Spidertron overlords forgive us our sins we have rescued your fish pilot brethren from space exile and returned them to the promised land GOTY 10/10 "it was okay" -IGN

for number 3, I looked into adding the bounce pads into the fork but you're right that it makes the overflow logic really complicated

my solution was to just tell people to throw into a box and then continue the chain with another thrower. it pretty much has the same functionality as the bounce pad but also 9001% less meme

also, there are plans to make a combat inserter that locks on to enemies to throw 💥 grenades, 💥 rockets, and 🐢 shells. this is a 🔫🔫🔫 war and I am going to win

Hell yeah, do it ya melon madman 👌👌👌

Hello again.

I've looked at your new overflow protection logic. It seems like you prevent the inserter from moving if it cannot insert into the target inventory. The problem with this is that the basic inserter already does this logic by default, which is why throwers had overflow protection into machines.

The only solution to this problem is actually to insert the items when the thrower releases its payload instead of when the item projectile actually lands on the ground. Otherwise, you have no idea what will happen to the target inventory while the item is in the air.

It's a bit of a sneaky workaround, but it's not really noticeable for the player.

I've already implemented this system in my fork.

Yeah it's very unfinished. It helps a bit for transport belts but machines and chests it doesn't do much. Eventually my idea is to give each thrower a list and when it throws something that item gets added to the list and when it lands and gets used, it's removed from the list. Then before it throws the item in hand, it checks if it can_insert() the item/qty in hand plus the item/qty of those same items on the "in flight" list. idk what ups impact that will have but it sounds like it would work

This logic will break if you have multiple throwers into the same entity

Yeah it won't be perfect but that's what your version is here for 😎. Personally I think the item spilling is kinda funny and I'm good with trying to preventing infinite pile up at the very least

makes since 🤑 💰 💸 to me 😎 👅👅👅