Would it be acceptable to add a second, faster cargo drone?

This request is based on my effort to balance the cargo drone for Nullius, which has multiple levels of logistic bots and more speed and cargo upgrades for logistic bots. Since cargo drones have no upgrades, it is difficult to balance them so they are competitive with the early bots and with the final bots. With my balancing changes, a cargo drone has roughly the throughput of 30 level 2 bots or 6 level 4 bots. Another cargo drone would let me balance their capabilities more evenly.

So, this is a bad news/good news situation

Because the entire mod assumes that there's only a single type of Cargo drone adding another type is a lot of work. And I'm already not too inclined to add a faster drone since I don't use drones as a substitute for bots or trains, so it's not something I would use

However
I'm already considering adding another type of drone for utility purposes, and at that point I might as well de-hardcode it. If I end up doing that, then I don't see an issue in adding a faster drone as either an option or separate mod

Annoyingly, at the top of my head I can't think of a better solution to your use case. Because adding an option to make the current drones faster doesn't sound like it would help
And as far as I'm aware, there's no way to increase a vehicle's speed based on tech. Maybe it's possible to make a new fuel type that is only used by drones that can increase their speed? So start off with a fuel that doesn't give any speed bonus, but then you unlock better ones that gives like 200% top speed or more

I'll think it over some more while sleeping, see what my thoughts are tomorrow when fully rested

Alright, I've thought about it some more
Maybe it's because I'm too hung up on my first two ideas, but I can't think of anything better

Since I don't know when I'll get around to refactoring the code, does the fuel idea work for you?

I included the speed bonus of higher fuel technology when I compared the speeds. The cargo drones still have a useful niche, so this isn't urgent.

No, I meant adding new fuels that can only be used by cargo drones that increases their top speed and acceleration. This would allow for progression via tech
I just tried and it does work. In a quick test I found that 175% top speed seemed to work quite well, but I found that top speeds at around 200% made drones overshoot their targets and begin to orbit their targets

It's not something that I'll add to this mod, but this can easily be done in a separate mod

I've begun work on allowing for more types of drones, and I just have couple of questions for your use-case;

• It'll be possible for other mods to add new drone types, and seeing how you have some mods yourself do you wish to add the drone(s) yourself, or would you rather I upload a small mod that adds one? Code-wise, it's just adding the drone prototypes (entity, item, and recipe) and then registering the entity with this mod along with some extra values

• Do you need it for Factorio 2.0? Currently I'm not updating the 2.0 version of this mod on this portal and it is instead available on Github. But if you need it as a dependency I can upload it here

I appreciate it. I can make drone prototypes and call a registration function. Targeting Factorio 2.1 is fine. Another contributor is working on updating the mod to be compatible with 2.1.

Excellent, I'll carry on what I'm doing then

A limitation to keep in mind whilst planning new drones; all drones must have the same trunk size, so it won't be possible to have a drone type that can carry more items in a single go. This is due to how the task scheduling is currently implemented

I will include a minimum setup example on Github which adds a new drone. If you just intend to reuse the same graphics or just tint-shift it, it will include everything you need

I think I've completed the implementation. Will do some sanity checks in the coming days, but if you want give input before I release it you can find an example implementation on adding new drones and documenation on Github

Input is obviously welcome later, but catching early is always nice. And maybe you know something I don't

Support for new drones are released in 1.18.0. Tell me if changes are needed
The Factorio 2.1 version is on this portal. Factorio 2.0 version is available on Github

Now I just need to figure out a good way to get rid of old drones without hunting each and every single one down...