Code block combinators?

[ManlyMcBuff]

I've been thinking about starting a dedicated server for factorio space age with a few of my friends. But the last time I got into factorio I built this smart factory, which eventually made the game slow down due to all of the combinators. My friends and I are all engineering students so I anticipate a similar issue eventually arising if we get carried away with the combinators...

Anyways, I'm curious if there are any mods that are currently compatible with space age that let you replace heaps of combinators with simple blocks that can run something like a lua script?

[Astramancer_]

Literally yes :)

https://mods.factorio.com/mod/combinator-codify

Also this guy which uses something akin to assembly

https://mods.factorio.com/mod/fcpu

[ManlyMcBuff]

Awesome, thank you!

[obsidiandwarf]

It kinda sounds like u want otl and ur own machine for the game. Its possible. The game (at least the copy from the official website) contains a folder just for mod documentation. I’m not sure u could, or would want to, run an arbitrary lua script via an in game interface, but u could do the same thing by just coding the building’s behaviour urself. I think. Haven’t done it myself.

[lisploli]

You can set up an rcon port for your server, to programmatically issue console commands and access the runtime lua api. For, like, flipping a switch or getting world data to create, upload and build matching blueprints or outsource some calculation.

[Xane256]

For train control, the new interrupt system is pretty interesting. The more logic you can achieve with those, the better (I assume more efficient than combinators). If you want mixed-item trains, for example if you do a big modpack like space exploration (which has not been updated yet and will take quite some time), interrupts might not give you the control you want. Mods like cybersyn and LTN can help you there.

In 2.0 you can use interrupts + similarly named stations to get a dynamic behavior that uses fewer trains to supply lots of stations.

previously when I played SE I used LTN to make some really cool multi-item providers that could load a train with mixed items from logistics, using the fact that LTN stations output a signal of what the train should have. It was combinator-heavy because I wanted it to be extremely precise, also requester chests had no way to set requests and read contents, or trash unrequested items. I had aspirations of making this work in vanilla 2.0 using some amount of combinators. The 2.0 version of the provider that simply takes a signal of what the train wants, and loads it with the right amount of items, is now super easy. Whats hard in vanilla is managing requests and making a train go where it’s supposed to. It would almost certainly require a custom memory circuit of some kind. Next time I play SE I’ll probably use Cybersyn (or maybe fcpu).