Hi dear mod creating genius

I'd love to give the following suggestion: please include the possibility to include this in the circuit network, just like normal inserters. The reason why, is I want to build a constant combinator which outputs a signal of certain items, and then I'd be able to set the filters of the loader based on this signal, just like a normal filter inserter.

Please think about it, I'd love to hear back from you.

Cheers

SteveMacgyver

I will have to investigate if this is possible. No guarantees.

The fact that you are willing to investigate is more than enough guarantee for me, keep up the good work, mod is an amazing asset!

So it turns out this is more complicated than I'm comfortable trying to figure out. You can't add circuit conditions to items whose base item doesn't naturally have circuit conditions. The work around is to add a second entity (e.g. a lamp, or a comparator, as in the Logistic Train Network mod) and tie that in with scripting. Maybe in the future I'll play around with that, but not at the moment.

So while getting the loader hooked into a circuit network is possible, but complicated, I'm not sure if you can then set the filters. It's probably possible, but I'm not knowledgeable enough with Factorio or Lua itself to do this at this time.

Ah that's a shame. I somehow expected that the loader was a kind of filter inserter, since it supports litterally the same type of action from a players point of view. Could you elaborate what type of base item is then used for the loaders? I'm curious for the answer. Thanks for looking into this!

In the loader case, the base item is the loader. It's an item native to the game (but in this mod reskinned). It has filtering, but it doesn't have circuit connectivity. I'd need to add an entity and hide it in the model somewhere, but more likely it would need to be clickable so you could connect a circuit to it. Then through scripting magic (not my strong suit) make a way for that circuit connection to alter the filter behavior of the loader. Since the loader has 5 filter slots by default, I don't know if filters set by circuit would be restricted to only 5, or more than 5. I'm thinking about how filters work with requester chests, for example, when set by circuit conditions.

I never knew the loader was actually in the basegame... Today I learned!
The filter inserter programming I am talking about does indeed have the same 5 slots, and the constant combinator can indeed output more than 5. The filters set by combinator do however listen to the first 5 (IIRC) and the rest is a signal, but not used.

Am I correct to assume that for this functionality we might be better off talking to the creator of the initial loader itself?
We might get a lot further if we talk to the official programmer, this way there is no need to include a hidden entity in the model and by doing so the code is kept clean.

I am getting more and more interested in the workability of this.
Might even include bob and angel for the stuff in their mod packs to do the same.

Will keep in touch!

Cheers
SteveMacgyver

You may have some luck talking to the Factorio devs about it. They seem to be responsive to player feedback. The loader itself though is a deprecated item (they consider it overpowered, so though it's in the game it's not enabled).