Miniloader (Redux)

The all-popular Miniloader has not seen a release for Factorio 2.x and while there are a number of spiritual successors, they all lack something.

Loader Modernized is a fine solution, but it can not pick up items from an adjacent belt. Entities also can not be moved.
Migrating the 1.1 Miniloader mod to 2.0 would have been possible, but the code is gnarly and especially the wire handling has changed a bit. It also uses an intermediate container which is no longer needed. Basically, migrating would have been a full rewrite.
Loader Redux was never migrated to 2.0 (which would have been trivial) and suffers from the same problems as Loader Modernized. Also the entities are 1x2.

And there are a more mods, which are basically reskinning the existing 1x1 or 1x2 loaders. None of them covered what I needed.

The genius of the 1x1 Miniloader module is that it checks all the boxes. Hence Miniloader Redux.

Features

1x1 compact size.
Picks up from adjacent belts.
Can be moved with Even Pickier Dollies
Supports migrating games from the "old" Miniloaders to Miniloader (Redux) with a startup setting.
Rotates better than the old miniloader (flips through belt directions and orientation).
Shows up as a single entity in the Power Display and Blueprints. The old Miniloaders showed up as multiple (usually two).
Supports Fast replacement, Blueprinting, Copy\&Paste, Cloning.
Supports a simple "chute" loader that is available early in the game (configurable).

There are three available tiers in the base game ("Vanilla", Fast and Express) and five when playing Space Age (additionally Turbo and Stack). I made a conscious decision to not support any additional tiers or enable stacking in the base game. The mod tries to follow the "spirit" of the game and there are other options (such as Loader Modernized) that work fine if this is not wanted.

I am open to support additional tiers from other mods (such as Bob's mods). As I don't play those myself, I have not added them but doing so is pretty straightforward (look at scripts/templates.lua).

Config options

Loader Snapping (Runtime, per Map)

Similar to other mods, Loaders can automatically "snap" to entities that are either placed around them or when they are placed next to entities. The snapping algorithm differs from other loaders, though. It only takes entities at the "loader" end into account and tries to be smart (the old Miniloader notoriously "flipped" around if it was placed with the non-loader side next to a belt).

Default value is "on".

Enable Chute miniloader (Startup)

Enables a simple, "gravity driven" Miniloader that is very slow (1/4 speed of a "Vanilla" Miniloader but still much faster than e.g. a "Vanilla" Inserter). It is available as soon as "Logistics" has been researched and 100 iron gear wheels have been crafted.

The chute loader is very helpful in the base game but may be considered OP compared to regular inserters.

Default value is "off".

Migrate Factorio 1.1 Miniloaders (Startup)

This option needs to be enabled before opening a 1.1 saved game in Factorio 2.0. It is not necessary to have the old Miniloader module installed (which is not 2.0 compatible). When opening the game, all existing Miniloaders will be migrated to Miniloader (Redux) and all blueprints in the game library that reference the old miniloaders will be automatically updated as well (The player library can not be updated as it is read-only to mods).

Miniloader, Filter Miniloader -> Miniloader
Fast Miniloader, Fast Filter Miniloader -> Fast Miniloader
Express Miniloader, Express Filter Miniloader -> Express Miniloader

Note that this will not migrate any custom tier loaders (as of now).

Default value is "off".

Debugging Mode (Runtime, per Map)

Show pickup, dropoff positions for the internal inserters and the area scanned when placing loaders or other entities when loader snapping is enabled. Useful for troubleshooting / but reporting but should not be needed otherwise.

Default value is "off".

Planned features

Better UI. Currently this opens the inserter UI and copies the settings around in the background.
Support the loader specific "filter per lane" feature.

Known issues

Similar to the old Miniloader module, Blueprints do not show the "correct" orientation of the loader due to limitations of the game.

Credits

Therax for the original miniloader.
Arch666Angel — for the original graphics; taken from the miniloader mod