What is the point of the rocket silo "Read Orbital Requests" circuit network option?
Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2024 3:42 pm
by MechBFP
For the life of me, I can't figure out how the "Read Orbital Requests" circuit network option has any benefit at all.
I figured I could use it to have bots bring all the items to a chest next to the rocket silo ahead of time, so they don't have to travel a mile every time the rocket is ready to ship a new item, but there doesn't appear to be any actual way to make that work given the particulars of how the bot logistic network works.
I can output the condition to a requester chest, and have all the items brought to that chest easily, but then nothing can be done to actually get those items into the rocket in an intelligent way.
The best solution I can think of is some sort of combinator logic that lets items get into the requester chest, then cancels out the signal to the requester chest even if the rocket is still requesting that item, so then I can then slowly move those items over to a storage chest using a bulk inserter (and the signal cancelling prevents bots from bringing more items to the requester chest), and then just pray that my bots are smart enough to collect those items from that storage chest instead of some other one across the map that might have similar items in it. And in the time it takes to move those items over to that storage chest, other bots will have already flown across the entire map to deliver some items to the rocket directly, so then i have a bunch of garbage sitting in that storage chest that is no longer needed.
It is really impractical, to say the least.
EDIT: Said buffer chest, but meant to say storage chest. Edited above to reflect that.
EDIT 2: My design for this is in one of my posts further down. Only issue it has is that it will cause bots to pickup extra items, which then go into storage chests. Not a huge deal since those items get picked up first anyway for any future requests for those items, so it won't flood the storage network too much.
Re: What is the point of the rocket silo "Read Orbital Requests" circuit network option?
Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2024 4:11 pm
by GrumpyJoe
Green Chests worked for me. Not sure if that is affected by items in yellow ones, as I use it on a planet with a much smaller logi network and I don't have much stored
Re: What is the point of the rocket silo "Read Orbital Requests" circuit network option?
Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2024 5:27 pm
by Hares
This feature helped me a lot on Fulgora where the space is extremely limited, so the starport was moved to a different island, requiring a train to move with rocket cargo contents, and the networking is done via radars.
Fulgora images
Fulgora: Main island
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Fulgora: Main island train load station
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Fulgora: Starport
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Fulgora: Starport logic
11-06-2024, 20-23-42.png (1.6 MiB) Viewed 1453 times
Also note the selector combinator used here -- it ensures I have enough items in the network to fill one rocket even if below that amount was requested (as space platforms request only full rockets of cargo even if only a single item is missing unless the specific option for specific item is set).
The other usage I see is to dynamically craft items without being required to pre-setup requests on the ground. I did so on Nuavis to automatically re-supply the space platforms. This even allows exchanging items between different platforms.
Nauvis images
Nauvis: Landing pad
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Nauvis: Starport
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Edit: Added blueprint of orbital requests processor.
Re: What is the point of the rocket silo "Read Orbital Requests" circuit network option?
Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2024 2:47 pm
by mako00
I assume it is for producing things on demand, and in general allows you to react to ships arriving in orbit.
E.g. if you want to ship fresh biter eggs, you only take them out of the spawner once the ship is in orbit.
Re: What is the point of the rocket silo "Read Orbital Requests" circuit network option?
Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2024 7:40 pm
by MechBFP
mako00 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 07, 2024 2:47 pm
I assume it is for producing things on demand, and in general allows you to react to ships arriving in orbit.
E.g. if you want to ship fresh biter eggs, you only take them out of the spawner once the ship is in orbit.
That is a good point. I haven’t got that far yet but ya I can definitely see the benefit there.
I am going to look into maybe what a buffer chest could accomplish for my goal. I think I might be able to make that work.
Edit: I can’t recall if the silo can be configured to request from buffer chests. If not I guess my first solution will work as long as I make sure the silo is outside of the logistics network.
Edit2: Nope can’t use a buffer chest but I think I have it figured out. The silo and a storage or provider chest will be in their own isolated logistic network. A requester chest close by will be in the main network. With a wire connected from the silo to this requester, all the items a space platform wants will initially get buffered to this requester chest. Using an inserter from this requester chest will move items directly over to the other logistic network chest. Circuit logic will then subtract any items from this chest from the signal the silo is sending so that the bots don’t bring extra items to the requester chest.
I have yet to try it, but in theory this should allow me to always buffer all platform request items right next to the silo.
Re: What is the point of the rocket silo "Read Orbital Requests" circuit network option?
Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2024 3:36 pm
by MechBFP
So after some further testing, my idea won't work because of how platforms send circuit network signals and how rockets only launch with full stacks (unless manually overridden).
So for example, if my platform has 25 belts on it already, and it sends a logistic request for 100 belts, then the circuit network sends a request for 75 belts down to the rocket via the "read orbital requests" since it already has 25/100 satisfaction.
As such my bots will only bring 75 belts to the chest, and the rocket will never launch because it can't get the full stack of 100 since the circuit network will never request 100. The only way around this is if you prevent your platform from ever having partial stacks. This is possible for items you are just shipping between planets but it is quite a problem for any construction materials you use on your platform.
EDIT: As per the helpful note below, I can use a selector combinator that can round up a signal to a full stack. As such my solution does work, mostly.
There is a short period of time between when the bots pick up items in the storage chest and deliver them to the rocket that the full stack gets requested again for a second or two, but I can likely resolve that with a latch design of some sort.
Re: What is the point of the rocket silo "Read Orbital Requests" circuit network option?
Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2024 4:12 pm
by Hares
MechBFP wrote: ↑Fri Nov 08, 2024 3:36 pm
So after some further testing, my idea won't work because of how platforms send circuit network signals and how rockets only launch with full stacks (unless manually overridden).
So for example, if my platform has 25 belts on it already, and it sends a logistic request for 100 belts, then the circuit network sends a request for 75 belts down to the rocket via the "read orbital requests" since it already has 25/100 satisfaction.
As such my bots will only bring 75 belts to the chest, and the rocket will never launch because it can't get the full stack of 100 since the circuit network will never request 100. The only way around this is if you prevent your platform from ever having partial stacks. This is possible for items you are just shipping between planets but it is quite a problem for any construction materials you use on your platform.
In my opinion this is a design oversight. There should be a checkbox that allows you to ignore partial stack satisfaction on a space platform for the circuit network signals.
See my blueprint above, it rounds requests up to a full rocket.
Re: What is the point of the rocket silo "Read Orbital Requests" circuit network option?
MechBFP wrote: ↑Fri Nov 08, 2024 3:36 pm
So after some further testing, my idea won't work because of how platforms send circuit network signals and how rockets only launch with full stacks (unless manually overridden).
So for example, if my platform has 25 belts on it already, and it sends a logistic request for 100 belts, then the circuit network sends a request for 75 belts down to the rocket via the "read orbital requests" since it already has 25/100 satisfaction.
As such my bots will only bring 75 belts to the chest, and the rocket will never launch because it can't get the full stack of 100 since the circuit network will never request 100. The only way around this is if you prevent your platform from ever having partial stacks. This is possible for items you are just shipping between planets but it is quite a problem for any construction materials you use on your platform.
In my opinion this is a design oversight. There should be a checkbox that allows you to ignore partial stack satisfaction on a space platform for the circuit network signals.
See my blueprint above, it rounds requests up to a full rocket.
Thanks, I am dumb for not looking at the new combinator. Old habits die hard I guess.
Edit: I have completed the setup. Using the "trash unrequested items" on the requester chest works good enough for keeping garbage out from requester chest in the few second it takes bots to transfer items from the chest on the silo side to the silo itself. Also setup some circuit logic using selector combinators and decider combinators so that the bots only bring the "rocket capacity" amount of each item if that value is less than a full stack. Otherwise it will bring 1 full stack of each item to prevent the chest from getting filled with too many items at once.
Here is the design for anyone curious:
Edit 2: I fixed the design as it was flawed and wouldn't deliver multiple stacks for items that have multiple stacks as the rocket capacity and multiple stacks were requested.
Now it delivers both amounts that are the rocket capacity but less than 1 stack, single stacks, multiple stacks, as well as detecting partial stacks (because of items already on the platform) and delivering full ones of those as well.