Friday Facts #92 - Personal roboport

[JamesOFarrell]

Nice work as always. Looks like this fixes most of the issues that I never bothered to address in pocketbots

That is why the energy values in armor modules were multiplied by a big factor.

Can we have a not so portable fusion generator then?

[Takezu]

Nice work as always. Looks like this fixes most of the issues with that I never bothered to address in pocketbots

That is why the energy values in armor modules were multiplied by a big factor.

Can we have a not so portable fusion generator then?

Thats a thing that i've always wondering about. Having a Nuclearfusionreactor for the backpocket, but no equivalent for the factory.

Well pocket robots will be nice, bluprinting the best parts of the railnetwork and building it without dragging Powerpoles and Roboports around out in the open, will be a real help.

[Gandalf]

I have a question about the priority thing. According to the FFF when you build something using blueprints your own bots will always take precedence over “local” bots, and they will only take items from your inventory.
So unless you are requesting all the items that you are using in your various blueprints via the character logistic slots stuff will inevitable disappear from your inventory. Meanwhile it will also fill up with random junk while deconstructing (especially wood).
I'm not sure why you gave the personal robots priority, to me it seems like it'd be much more convenient if “local” bots took care of most of the work. Is there a reason for this I'm not seeing?
Also did you maybe change the character logistic slots (more + “removal” slots) ?

[DasMonzta]

Too Fast.
I think that removing trees and building stuff instantly is a little bit too fast. Maybe it is better, if a robot needs one second to "collect" a tree. (Maybe the working speed can also be a skill that has to be upgraded. But probably the general moving speed is enough. Still, for the optics, it just doesn't feel right that the robot collect a tree instantly.)

[ssilk]

I have a question about the priority thing. According to the FFF when you build something using blueprints your own bots will always take precedence over “local” bots, and they will only take items from your inventory.
So unless you are requesting all the items that you are using in your various blueprints via the character logistic slots stuff will inevitable disappear from your inventory. Meanwhile it will also fill up with random junk while deconstructing (especially wood).
I'm not sure why you gave the personal robots priority, to me it seems like it'd be much more convenient if “local” bots took care of most of the work. Is there a reason for this I'm not seeing?
Also did you maybe change the character logistic slots (more + “removal” slots) ?

I saw this discussion coming, when I read about it. I see similar problems (*) and I'm sure, it will become the most requested feature the next time: ""How can I change this priority?" or "How can I turn the port temporary off?"

(*) This issue of "what to do with the deconstructed stuff?" can be targeted in 0.12: the character has then stacks/slots (?) that don't work like requester, but work as active provider. So the bots take the items from the character. You an put the "waste" into that slots.

[AMV]

How much space personal roboport occupies?
 

My modular armor was *already* full. Full of sweet juicy goodness from all the modules. And I must have this, so what to sacrifice?

You can just create another armor with another module set for another purpose.

[Original]

In one place it says the robots will stay attached to the player no matter what and in other it says if you place robots in air and hop on to train without letting them land you should be aware. Aware of what? The robots will be attached to player even if he/ she hops on to the train and leaves.

Aware of it will stay attached to you and aware of robot limit per roboport ... If robots have to travel large distance to you they will discharge and move very slowly, so you may end up with robots far away that are eating away from your robot limit.

Finally we will be able to clear out a land from filthy infestation of trees without having to place roboports and power lines.

In one place it says the robots will stay attached to the player no matter what and in other it says if you place robots in air and hop on to train without letting them land you should be aware. Aware of what? The robots will be attached to player even if he/ she hops on to the train and leaves.

I believe so, while they are making their way back to you those slots will still be taken up by those bots slowly crawling their way beck to you to recharge and get back into your inventory.

Thank you posila and ratchetfreak. It makes sense now.

[posila]

Reasoning behind personal roboport taking priority over static network is that your robots will be able to finish the task faster than robots that need to travel across the network. However, currently it tries to assign jobs to as many robots as it can. Let's say, you place blueprint with 100 entities in it, your robot limit is 10 and your static network has at least 100 construction robots. Then the game will launch 10 robots from the personal roboport and 90 from normal roboports.

Currently it occupies 2x2 (same as energy shield), but that can change in the future (as everything else )

[Graybeard]

Will .12 come to experimental updates ? If so, any guessed date?

[tonberrytoby]

I have been waiting for this. Finally a good way to automatically construct mining or gun stations.

But with the power armour filling up with goodies like this it makes the time shortly before you unlock the hight end power armour parts even more annoying...

How about a modular tank that can be upgraded with power armour parts.
And a charging cable, that recharges your armour quickly from your stationary electricity network.
They could be at a lower tech level then the final power armour and the fusion reactor.

[lancar]

When it comes to automatically constructing remote mining bases, I mostly think along the lines of using the car as a mobile Roboport instead, along with it also acting as a Storage Chest.
It would give me an actual reason to use it, or maybe a different vehicle would be more suitable for this task?

It certainly wouldn't be as jarring as the shrinking robots on that gif. Roboports are huge beasts, requiring lots of power and space to build. To be able to fit all that into your backpack is... weird. Very useful, I admit, but still weird.

(and yes I know, we can fit entire bases in our pockets already with the beyond generously bloated inventory. I like to think of that as a necessary sacrifice for the core gameplay)

[SHiRKiT]

I have a question about the priority thing. According to the FFF when you build something using blueprints your own bots will always take precedence over “local” bots, and they will only take items from your inventory.
So unless you are requesting all the items that you are using in your various blueprints via the character logistic slots stuff will inevitable disappear from your inventory. Meanwhile it will also fill up with random junk while deconstructing (especially wood).
I'm not sure why you gave the personal robots priority, to me it seems like it'd be much more convenient if “local” bots took care of most of the work. Is there a reason for this I'm not seeing?
Also did you maybe change the character logistic slots (more + “removal” slots) ?

I'm also worried for this. I don't think personal robots should work at all while you are in range of a construction network, unless you REALLY want this to happen, for some reason that I can't understand as well. I thought of this while deconstructing my base, I don't want to get the junk in my inventory, and, as an example, I, personally, destroy my base really often, so I'd imagine the deconstruction orders that I issue near me will fill my inventory with junk. (read "junk" as stuff I did not want or requested).

[Peter34]

I had been sort of hoping that this whole "Personal RoboPort" thing would be available from gamestart as a way to clear trees without manual labour, but then again I can see why it's instead posited as a mid game thing.

That still leaves the problem of manual labour of tree-clearing, in a game whose central principle is to avoid manual labour.

[Takezu]

Your complete early game is more or less manual labor. See it this way, you must earn the things for your automation by yourself, and tree chopping is also included, as is first mining for furnaces/burnerdrills to get away from it. Seems logical, nobody falls with a sh.. ton of Ressources in his backpocket out of the sky and can build a fully automated factory right away. The way to that belongs also to it.

Edit: That would be more somewhat for suggetions, if it's not already there, and it dosen't removes the manual labor completly, but somthing like a chainsaw that would renove the trees incredible quick as an early game toll would be nice to have.

[SomeDuder]

Agreed. Full automation from the beginning of the game by robots takes away the amazing feeling of accomplishment when you finally DO get that automated coal mining and power supply running, especially for new players. For experienced players it a hassle, of course, but they already have an advantage in knowing what they want and how to get there.

[Klonan]

I had been sort of hoping that this whole "Personal RoboPort" thing would be available from gamestart as a way to clear trees without manual labour, but then again I can see why it's instead posited as a mid game thing.

Don't worry you will be able to play this sort've thing, I know myself im gonna setup a scenario start with the personal roboport and other stuff.

[infinitehubgear]

I really want a pet robot dog, honestly.

Something like this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW_g5YULkwI

[Peter34]

Your complete early game is more or less manual labor..

No it isn't.

[Takezu]

Yes it is ... one burner mining drill and one furnace are not automated you'd need at least two drills, one for ore one for fuel.
Running around picking up and placing the drill down, is as manual as hacking the stone and iron with a pickaxe for a second one.
As transfering items or refueling by hand is. And even if you'd have two drills from start, coal and iron are seldom close enough together to build an automatic iron smelting right from the start. the best to archive is semi automatic smelting, which is more or less manual, due to at least fuel or ore insertion per hand in the early stages. eight ironplates aren'T enough to make it fully automatic.

[Peter34]

Yes it is ... one burner mining drill and one furnace are not automated you'd need at least two drills, one for ore one for fuel.
Running around picking up and placing the drill down, is as manual as hacking the stone and iron with a pickaxe for a second one.

I disagree.

I found the early game super tedious, and for many months I'd start new games by using console commands to "gift" myself serious amounts of Iron Plate and Copper Plate (and some Medium Power Poles), so I could skip the Burner Mining Drill phase and go straight to Steam Power and wouldn't have to gather anything manually at all.

Now, instead, I shift the one Burner Mining Drill that I start with around, meaning that I do zero mining. I do not mine even one unit of Coal, Iron Ore, Copper Ore or Stone. I do cut down Trees, although only 1 or 2 to start with since I need 1 Wood to kickstart the Burner Mining Drill on Coal, and a Wood Chest to gather the auto-mined Coal into (I do need more Wood for Electric Poles, though).

After I have some Coal, I move the Burner Mining Drill to an Iron Ore patch and set it up along with the Stone Furnace you get from gamestart. After I have some Iron Plates, I move the Burner Minig Drill to Stone. And from then on I can make more Burner Mining Drills and Furnaces, and set up a self-feeding 2-Burner on Coal (later upgraded to a 4-Burner one), and set more Burner/Furnaces up on Iron Ore, and then also set one up on Copper Ore.

It works very well, and since the pollution is minimal it doesn't cause the aliens to evolve earlier or faster than if playing the usual way. It does take some time, but that's just a question of leaning back from the computer for a few minutes, or going to a different window to check email while the various Burners burn, or going to the kitchen to make a sandwich or grab some fruit.

The amount of manual labour is reduced to an extreme degree, relative to the usual playstyle.