Logistic Networks!

[Tyr4el]

Hey everyone. My friend and I are going to start a new game together and we think we want to first get a logistics network going. But I have a few questions:

1. How does the logistic network work? How do you set it up?
2. Is the purpose to serve as a sort of...aerial railroad?
3. What types of things can a logistic network do?
4. What are some good setups?

Thanks!

[Natha]

1. There are provider (passive and active), requester and storage chests. In requester chests you can request items, that are stored in provider or storage chests, and logistic robots bring them to the requester chest. Provider chests "provide" the containing items to the logistic network, so that logistic robots pick them up to bring them to requester chests (or construction robots to build things).

2. Yes, but you dont need any fuel or belts. Trains are good to bring items over a long distance. Belts for short distances. Logistic robots are good to bring items over medium distances (except you need a lot of items, because robots can only held max. 5 items at the same time.
3. Build things, repair things and bring items from provider to requester chests.
4. You need to choose yourself

[quinor]

You place roboports and make their yellow squares touch and put some robots in them, then build a couple of storage chests in range of yellow zone. That's all the setup.

Then there are construction and logistic robots. Construction robots take items from special chests (usually storage chests) and build them according to blueprints you place. Just automated construction. You can also deconstruct stuff (and trees) with these robots using deconstruction planners. Stuff from deconstruction is put into storage chests.
For logistic robots it's more complicated: you've got four types of chests - active and passive provider, requester and storage. Stuff is taken from provider chests or storage chests by robots and put in requester chests according to their requests. Stuff from active provider chests is taken immediately to storage chests so they are always empty.
Last thing is personal logistic slots. Player can order in them specific amount of items to be delivered instead of taking them by hand from specific chest.

[Tyr4el]

1. There are provider (passive and active), requester and storage chests. In requester chests you can request items, that are stored in provider or storage chests, and logistic robots bring them to the requester chest. Provider chests "provide" the containing items to the logistic network, so that logistic robots pick them up to bring them to requester chests (or construction robots to build things).

2. Yes, but you dont need any fuel or belts. Trains are good to bring items over a long distance. Belts for short distances. Logistic robots are good to bring items over medium distances (except you need a lot of items, because robots can only held max. 5 items at the same time.

What's the difference between active and passive chests?

Also, only 5 items? That isn't a lot. How would that possibly help? A train can carry stacks! Might just be better to lay the rails and set up a train network instead.

[quinor]

Bots can reach anywhere though only small quantities. And you've got tons of bots. Thousand of them isn't anything weird. Trains are better when moving big quantities of goods over bigger distances.

[Tyr4el]

Bots can reach anywhere though only small quantities. And you've got tons of bots. Thousand of them isn't anything weird. Trains are better when moving big quantities of goods over bigger distances.

Ah okay that makes sense lol. Are the bots tough to build a lot of?

[quinor]

Only hard obtainable product they need are batteries, you need 2 of them for each robot. Assembling engines may be also a little tricky (requires lubricant) but that's all and it isn't that bad with proper setup.

[Tyr4el]

I'm still new so it may be hard and I doubt we'll get there in the amount of time we have this week but it's good info to know. Maybe we will though. We'll just have to see!

But what's the difference between the active and passive?

[Koub]

You should really get a look at the logistic network on the wiki you know ?

https://forums.factorio.com/wiki/inde ... ic_network
https://forums.factorio.com/wiki/inde ... ork/Chests

You could also give a try to this page : https://forums.factorio.com/wiki/inde ... ic_network

I would be very surprised if most the questions you have don't find an answer in these pages (and I'm pretty sure also that there are far more answers to questions you didn't even get to ask ).

[ssilk]

There are also some video tutorials. For example here: https://forums.factorio.com/forum/sea ... ots&t=5316

[Nightcaste]

I'm still new so it may be hard and I doubt we'll get there in the amount of time we have this week but it's good info to know. Maybe we will though. We'll just have to see!

But what's the difference between the active and passive?

Since no one has actually answered this directly:

Passive chests tell the network "I have this stuff here if you want it." They will hold it until a request is made

Active chests tell the network "Get this stuff out of here, now." They will summon bots to come take the stuff out of the chest.

[aRatNamedSammy]

i still didnt use storage chest (yellow one's) cause bots always bring anything from providers in it.. and do a lot of mess around chest.. i still waiting for a wiser way of use of yellow ones ( i use em only outside my main base logistic, like to deconstruct an outpost, or cleaning out a forest, things like that, ...but in my base, never

[Koub]

They are useful if you want to create an all around storage area. You fill it with whatever you want to store. I'm not thinking of things you want to keep a stack of. I'm thinking of things you want a few hundreds of thousands, like maybe ore, plates, steel, coal, ...
Of course, if you're more like an OCD guy that wants his iron and his copper stored in different areas, that won't work

[orzelek]

i still didnt use storage chest (yellow one's) cause bots always bring anything from providers in it.. and do a lot of mess around chest.. i still waiting for a wiser way of use of yellow ones ( i use em only outside my main base logistic, like to deconstruct an outpost, or cleaning out a forest, things like that, ...but in my base, never

My guess is you have only active provider chests which will make bots do that.
If you use passive providers you can have as many storages as you want without problems. And then select with active providers which goods you want to have in storage - for example for ease of access.

[aRatNamedSammy]

whatever you say, i dont use the yellow one.. i use provider and requester a lot (purple and blue) and red often for different purpose..all fine, until i dare to use a yellow, then i see anything from everywhere in the base beeing moved in that yellow one by bots... if i dont want 2000 gates (as exemple, only 2 stack of 50, if i put a yellow one, bots will take these and bring to the storage chests, then the provider is empty, so the assemble continue stupidly to build more gates, and more , and more.... dont ask me to not use provider on that kind of stuff, cause im using logistic to get stuff i need when im building, my base is always so big, just to walk around to get my stuff take so much time, its easier to call bots

[Peter34]

You place roboports and make their yellow squares touch and put some robots in them, then build a couple of storage chests in range of yellow zone. That's all the setup.

Instead of worrying about the yellow squares touching, I just worry about the yellow dotted lines connecting to other Roboports. It's much easier that way!

[Peter34]

Bots can reach anywhere though only small quantities. And you've got tons of bots. Thousand of them isn't anything weird. Trains are better when moving big quantities of goods over bigger distances.

Ah okay that makes sense lol. Are the bots tough to build a lot of?

Yes.

Or no.

Kinda.

The touch part is making the Flying Robot Frame. You need a bunch of ingredients for that, and it takes a long time to make them.

Once you have the Frame, it just takes 1 second or 0.5 seconds or something, plus an Electronic Circuit or an Advanced Circuit, to turn the Frame into a Construction Bot for building or a Logistics Bot for moving stuff around.

As others have said, Bots can't move mass quantities of items, but they're super, super flexible.

Think of Bots as the flexible but tiny-volume items movement system, Trains on Rails as the inflexible but huge-volume items movement system, and Transport Belts as the middle ground.

Note also that Construction Bots can build stuff for you, when you place Blueprints, and even more importantly they can use Repair Packs, that you give to them, to repair any building (or Turret or other item - even the Car!) that gets damaged within the effect radius of a Roboport. They can also replace things that get destroyed, e.g. of the aliens destroy 2 of your Laser Turrets, and there are replacement Turrrets in the right kinds of Chests and within range of the RoboPort network, the destroyed Laser Turrets will get replaced.

[Peter34]

I'm still new so it may be hard and I doubt we'll get there in the amount of time we have this week but it's good info to know. Maybe we will though. We'll just have to see!

But what's the difference between the active and passive?

I had trouble with that at first. But I think I've wrapped my head around it now.

Logistics Bots will take stuff from a Passive Provider Chest if it is needed elsewhere.

But they will strive to completely empty an Active Provider Chest even if the stuff in it isn't needed elsewhere. I imagine they'll ask around to see if anybody wants the stuff, and if nobody does (not even Requester Chests) then they'll find a Storage Chest to dump it in.

[Peter34]

They are useful if you want to create an all around storage area. You fill it with whatever you want to store. I'm not thinking of things you want to keep a stack of. I'm thinking of things you want a few hundreds of thousands, like maybe ore, plates, steel, coal, ...
Of course, if you're more like an OCD guy that wants his iron and his copper stored in different areas, that won't work

I've started experimenting with my Roboport Blueprints, including a couple of Storage Chests and maybe even an Active Provider Chest in them, so that every time I set up a new Roboport, there'll also be 2-3 Storage Chests for the bots to use and a Chest for me to dump stuff in that I want to get rid of.

I haven't played enough yet to know whether it's a good idea, though. So far the problem with the idea is that it kinda requires automated production of those Chests in order to work well, which I'm not very inclined to do until later in the game.

[Peter34]

whatever you say, i dont use the yellow one.. i use provider and requester a lot (purple and blue) and red often for different purpose..all fine, until i dare to use a yellow, then i see anything from everywhere in the base beeing moved in that yellow one by bots... if i dont want 2000 gates (as exemple, only 2 stack of 50, if i put a yellow one, bots will take these and bring to the storage chests, then the provider is empty, so the assemble continue stupidly to build more gates, and more , and more.... dont ask me to not use provider on that kind of stuff, cause im using logistic to get stuff i need when im building, my base is always so big, just to walk around to get my stuff take so much time, its easier to call bots

That sounds very strange. It's not my impression that the game is meant to work that way.