Mechanical Arm Processing

[lonevox]

Arms should be made to not only be used for transport, but for processing too. When holding an arm, sneak-right-clicking in the air will toggle the arms mode between "transport mode" (the normal mode) and "processing mode". This is shown in a message at the bottom of the screen. In processing mode, you can target depots or belts that the arm will process items on. These depots can only be in the 1 block area around the base of the arm. After placing the arm, you'll see that the tooltip will read "No End Effector". You'll need to place an end effector on the arm by right-clicking the arm with an end effector. If there is already an end effector on an arm, it will swap the end effectors, placing the old one in your inventory. End effectors can also be inserted into the arm from the top side by hoppers or chutes, and if there is an existing end effector it will be ejected out the bottom of the arm. With an end effector, the arm can now process on the targeted depots if any of the depots have an item that the end effector can be used on.

This change allows for arms to be used in sequenced assemblies.

Mockup of an arm with an end effector in a sequenced assembly:

[Johngi5]

With the fix of GreateBeyondTheHorizon/Greate#20 we won't need to target depots for sequenced assembly any more (not that that would've worked in the first place because items on depots stay there until manually moved to another conveyor belt).

Also, if we're implementing this as a new recipe type, could it also be used for standalone recipes? Like how you can just use a mechanical press by itself to turn ingots into machine casings?

[lonevox]

Yeah it can be used for standalone recipes if its its own recipe type. I think it also needs to be a recipe type in order to work in sequenced assembly anyway. But this is for sure better as it can be used in other processes.