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Alright, so here is a lazy attempt, but here it goes anyway ...

I'd be keen to add some processing machines for the latter part of the game. The idea is that for the price of research and power, you can by-pass the need for colonists to be actually involved in the processing of X to Z. These machines would be fed by dedicated hoppers (so that you can use conveyor belts to feed them ).

Specifically, I am thinking of 2-3 machines right now:
- a rock crusher: takes rock chunks, and turns them into sand tiles - i.e. it does the opposite of the fertilizer in turning ground into a desert. Really, I'm after a way of getting rid of rock chunks ... the desert creation part is for fun and balance ...
- an automated furnace: takes any 'organic' item (incl. corpses) material and burns it off. You'd need to supply wood as well.
- an automated smelter: takes anything 'metallic' (weapons, slag chunks) and turns it into usable metal pieces. You'd need to supply wood as well (and lots of it ...)

These would probably be ~3x3 in size with distinct designs. I am on the edge of coding it myself, but I now that I won't have time to maintain these through future alpha's, and I'd hate to see this mod go straight on the Wall of Forgotten Mods ...

So here's my shout out to anyone out there keen to collaborate and implement something along the lines above !

EDIT: come to think of it, the automated furnace should also be smart enough to strip colonists before burning them, so you can get the clothes out easily.

[If you answered ''Yes !'' to any of these questions, then A2B: conveyor belts & co. is the solution you need !]

A2B: conveyor belts & co. [v0.8.0]
Alpha 8 update & long range teleportation

Is your farm submerged by rotting produces ? Is your base cluttered by enemies' corpses ? Are your colonists repeatedly slacking off ?

If you answered ''Yes !'' to any of these questions, then A2B: conveyor belts & co. is the solution you need !
Our engineers have re-invented the wheel to create *the* 31st century solution to all your goods transport issues. No more endless back-and-forth trips carrying potatoes - let the A2B conveyor belts do it for you !

Features
Order today, and get the full A2B system at no extra charge, including:
- a reliable conveyor belt system that locks items to avoid accidents, but releases them in case of power cuts. No need to starve to death during eclipses !
- a universal curve. No more headaches choosing between left or right turns thanks to our exclusive software design !
- a universal 'Loader', because A2B conveyor belts are sturdy enough to carry anything from berries to rock chunks and rotten corpses !
- a smart 'Unloader' which neatly piles up your material and releases it for your lazy colonists to access - or directly refill your food hoppers with potatoes !
- a 'Splitter' unit, to make two belt lines out of one ...
- a 'Selector' unit. Why sort items by hand if it can be automated ? Thanks to the latest advances in molecular RFID technology, our 'Selector' unit gives YOU the power to sort things out. Equipped with dual inlets and outlets, the 'Selector' unit makes the craziest designs possible !
- a long-range 'Teleporter' and 'Receiver' unit, so that your colonists can cross belt lines, or if you want your belt line to jump a wall !

Wait no more, and enjoy the modularity of the A2B: conveyor belts & co. system today. Isn't it time to turn this rural farm into a money-making factory ?

Partnerships
Conveyor belts are fun and useful as a stand-alone tool, but their true potential is really revealed when they are connected to other 'machines'. And we at A2B are very well aware of that ! Hence, we are always on the lookout for new partnerships to ensure that our belt system can have the widest and most polyvalent applications !

Here are our current partners:
1) 'Vanilla' food hoppers: Yep, that's right, our A2B Unloaders can automatically refill your food hoppers - no more endless trip to the fields for your cooks !
2) Mining & Co. - Deepdriller Mark II by Rikiki: connect the A2B Loaders to this ultimate mining machine, and make sorting metal and chunks a breeze ! Mining & Co. was sadly discontinued at A8 ... http://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=5930.0
3) Electric Generator by bolti1703: connect the A2B unloaders to the generator's fuel tanks, and spare your colonists the trip from the distillery ! http://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=5709.0
4) TechTreeMinami by minami26: our A2B belt system is now integrated inside TTM. If you fancy big mod-packs, that's the way to go ! https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=3464.0
5) Mechanical Defense 2 by mipen: place an A2B loader next to the ore extractor to send the precious gems/material on their merry way ! https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=7380.0

Do you own a 'machine' that you wish would connect to our belt system ? Get in touch so we can make this happen. We are always looking for new friends !

(Note: we at A2B are strong believers in the famous interstellar motto "The greatest fun comes from the smallest mod", hence our unique partnership system. YOU choose what you need (nothing else, nothing more) and WE make sure it works fine together.) 

Notes
- this mod was originally created using Haplo's DarkMatter Generator example as a canvas, which was subsequently heavily frankensteined into the A2B mod. It has since been subject to a complete structural overhaul.
- I'm happy for anyone to use this as they wish, steal the source code borrow programming ideas, etc ... if you do so, references to this post and credits are welcome but I won't be mad if you don't
- feel free to report any bugs, and I'll do my best to fix them. Or even better, send me your fix directly
- have suggestions ? Send them my way ! But note that this is not going to be a massive mod. It will deal with transport systems only ! But if you have ideas of bell and whistles that could make the A2B mod (even more!) fun, share away ...
- I'm working hard on the look of things, but I'm always happy to get suggestions/contributions about this aspect as well !

Versions
0.6.0: Alpha 6 release.
0.6.1: fixed stupid XML bug - your belts will now connect to the power grid ...
0.6.2: Major code overhaul by asarium, no more error messages with rock and slag chunks (but they still don't behave), minor texture updates.
0.6.3: Major update. Added smooth motion for the items on the belt (thank asarium). Added 3 new belt items (splitter, Teleporter and receiver). Code moved to Github, including an image-based tutorial. Bug fixes (including rock chunks!).
0.6.4: Minor update. Rock and slag chunks are now haulable 'by default' when they come out of the belt system via an Unloader. Textures have been slightly modified for uniformity and XML properties of different belt elements re-balanced.
0.7.0: Alpha 7 release.
0.8.0: Alpha 8 release. Also, the teleporters can now beam objects to large distances at the cost of an increased power consumption (thank FredrikLH) !

Known bugs
The list of existing bugs/wished features can be found on Github: https://github.com/noone57/RW_A2B/issues Any and all contributions & suggestions towards solving and/or implementing any of the features listed there will be warmly welcomed by our engineers, and properly rewarded !

(Note: the reward for helping improve and expand the A2B mod will be strictly limited to the glory and fame possibly but not certainly resulting from being added to the exclusive list of contributors to the mod. Don't expect silver ...) 

Contributors
noone, asarium, FredrikLH

Download
All the code is on Github:
https://github.com/noone57/RW_A2B/releases/latest

The image-based tutorial as well:
https://github.com/noone57/RW_A2B/wiki

Screenshot

[A couple of features of the A2B mod:]

I've made some good progress on this first mod of mine, and I thought I would share it here. First, to see if this mod might be of interest to anyone, and second, in the hope that any good soul may have some hints regarding the last two (major) bugs I am facing ... 

This mod was inspired and motivated by the conveyor belts available in the Industrial Rim and BetterPower+ mods. I just love these. However, I was always annoyed but little things which I thought could be fine-tuned. The A2B mod is my answer to these fine-tuning issues.

A couple of features of the A2B mod:

- it is dedicated to the transport of goods (any goods) - and nothing else. I like simple mods that do one thing and one thing only. Don't expect any production/transformation tools in here.
- so far, it contains only a standard conveyor belt system. I have some ideas about long distance teleportation of goods which could represent a fancy alternative, but that's for later.
- the spirit of the mod was inspired by the Industrial Rim and BetterPower+ mods, but the algorithm is my own. I started with the DarkMatterGenerator example mod and tinkered with it until it worked. I borrowed stuff from different source codes I could find here and there (nothing secret, and I'll list them all eventually).
- for good or for bad, I did design all the conveyor belt parts myself ... there are some beautiful 'Vanilla-style' designs out there, and I really want my mod to look as decent as possible.

So, what does it do ?

Well, after some research, you unlock 5 conveyor belt parts. You have a standard belt 'loader' and 'unloader', a 'straight' belt, a 'curved' belt and a 'selector' belt. Aside of the basic behavior that you would expect from a conveyor belt (i.e. move stuff one step further), these pieces allow you to do a few fun things:

- the belt loader is like a hopper, only you can set it to accept anything you want.
- the belt curve is universal ! No more left turn or right turn: the universal belt turn detects where the material came from, and where to send it on its own (ahem, almost on its own...) !
- when powered up, the different belt elements emit a faint glow (from all the 'warning' lamps around...). Darkness be gone !
- when powered up, the belt automatically forbid items they carry (so your colonist don't get their fingers stuck in the rollers trying to grab potatoes...). When the power is off however, all items get set to "Unforbidden" - no more starving to death during a power outage with a belt loaded with "Forbidden" potatoes !
- the belt 'selector' let's you sort items at will ! No more duplicating belt lines : just carry both your guns and potatoes together, and sort them later on !
- with 2 intakes and 2 outakes, the belt 'selector' also let's you build complex sorting system, intersections, etc ... to turn your colony potato farm into a real potato factory !
- finally, the belt 'unloader' will automatically un-forbid objects before throwing them on the floor.

The last 2 bugs:

So, I am facing two large issues right now which prevent me from releasing anything just yet. First, my 'belt hoppers' are not recognized as 'storage zones'. They seem to work fine, but the colonist just don't see them ... I tried many things, looked closely at the NanoStorage mod source code and others, tried to reproduce such examples as closely as possible, but to no avail ...
Second, my 'Universal curves' don't quite work yet. They will, as soon as I figure out how to access some of their public variables from the outside. I guess I need something like a public function, but all my attempts failed so far ... [EDIT] All Fixed ! Belt curves are now truly universal, and smart enough to ship material in the good direction.
Beyond that, there'll be some minor fine tuning required, but it should be releasable ... and the colonists see the belt loaders !

I happy to share my source code with anyone interested, or willing to help me with it. I'm planning on making everything public anyway once it's ready (and if there's interest) - I could have never done anything if it wasn't for people making the source code available of their mods available. Thanks to them !





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Hi everyone,

Like many, I have "this brilliant modding idea that must come true". However, I'm on a Mac, and apparently, that might be somewhat of an issue to deal with dll's ...

The aim of this post is simple: is there anyone out there on Mac/Linux systems creating some dll magic for Rimworld ? If yes, then I have some operating-system-dependant questions for you, e.g. is 'Mono' the right way to go ?

I failed to find any tips/suggestions/questions dedicated to modding with these operating systems - so either no one is currently modding under Mac/Linux, or they've just figured it all out by themselves.

Either way, I'm very keen to find out !