This is an outstanding mod idea in my opinion; however, the only problem I see is roboport equipment not pulling from main inventory. Is there any way to get resolve this issue? I understand why it doesn't work, as the spidertron engineer is acting like a vehicle instead of the character. But was wondering if some magic could be used to resolve this issue.

Thanks again for a wonderful mod!

Hello, thanks for the comment. You are right, it would be very convenient to be able to do that. I'll add it to my list to prioritise looking at to see if it is possible, but I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't (I am very new to modding though!).

The other alternative would be to allow the player to have armor with an equipment grid as well (which I think can be limited to accept only power, batteries and personal roboports). This would somewhat break the immersion though, so I'd rather avoid it. I'll consider adding it as an option if I can work out how it should be allowed to function.

How about something similar to the mod, i,Robot ? Not sure how one would remove the armor and replace it with your research upgrades which I think is a wonderful way to handle the addition of upgrades.

Thanks for linking that mod. Unfortunately I don't think that there's anything that I can use from there, as it takes a completely different approach to me. That mod just redoes the graphics for all things character-related, whereas I just try to use the existing spidertron entity (with all of its weird and wonderful features) and try to pretend that the player character does not exist inside of it :) I think that it would be quite hard to pretend that the spidertron does not exist instead.

That said, I have had a few thoughts about approaching it a different way and avoiding the spidertron GUI entirely by managing a hybrid-entity between the player (which manages all the controls and GUI but is invisible) and the spidertron which would be visibly moving around. Even if that is possible, I don't think that I would be willing to try it any time soon, it would be a complete redesign and rewrite.

I'll continue to investigate hacky ways of better integrating the 2 inline with what I am currently doing :)

equipment grid attached to character as well as a different grid for the spidertron? Place only defense stuff in the spidertron, and only construction stuff in the player grid?

Transfer power between the two? Solar panels only in vehicle grid?

That sounds like a good plan. If the character inventory could be used for roboport equipment this mod would be perfect in my eyes. I really like everything else about it including only being able to repair yourself with robots.

I want to use this on my next play through and I am waiting to see if something can be done to resolve this one thing before I start.

I will consider allowing the character to have a piece of armor that only allows a few roboports + batteries + solar/fusion power as a temporary measure.

However, as https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/i9n9ub/spidertron_needs_a_logistics_tab/ states, it seems that 1.1 will allow spidertron to have its own logistics, so at that point I think that I will increase the spidertron's inventory size and decrease the player's and basically allow the spidertron's inventory to be the 'main' one (though that would make handcrafting a bit more hassle. I suppose that it could switch over from player to spidertron inventory when the first equipment grid is unlocked, at which point handcrafting should be less used anyway).

That sounds like a great plan. I very much look forward to these changes. Thanks again for an awesome mod.

this feature now possible with 1.1 and on the backlog or still dead in the water?

Hello, I’ve had some thoughts, but there still isn’t a perfect solution. I may try to make something in the next few weeks, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up too much. Hopefully the new Shift+E to open spidertron inventory has helped, and you can enable compatibility mode if you just want to be able to use personal roboports from your player armour.

Just an update on this. I'm not currently working on it, and even if I eventually do, it won't be for several months. Anyone is welcome to give it a try and submit a pull request, which I can then review and merge as necessary.