Factorio Forums

Hi there

The below post is a lot more relevant these days with quality spiders and exoskeletons.. I have not had any cases recently with way point orbiting specifically but there is noticeably a target position overshoot issue even after just 2-3 legendary exoskeletons.

viewtopic.php?p=563539&hilit=waypoint+orbit#p563539

The request is basically a way to make the spidertron finish at its targeted destination or at least sticky to the ground.

Spider logic just "moves this way until distance to target is <= some value" - there's no overshoot logic anywhere so I don't see how this would ever be implemented.

HI Rseding91

My understanding based on Boskid's previous explanation in the post is that there are two hard coded modifiers for spidertron movement (force and dampening). Whilst overshooting the destination is not by design it is by consequence of the these factors.

For people such as myself and Xorimuth, if you need a spider to move to and stand on a certain position, that consequence means another movement action is necessary because the spider has unfortunately overshot it's autopilot destination.

Oh, I think I see that there's a bit of a misunderstanding. As I see it, rseding thinks that this is a request for a way to make spidertrons overshoot, reading the title as "[Enable] spidertron destination overshoot". This would probably be better phrased as a bug report "If a spidertron has too much speed from exoskeletons, it will overshoot its destination"

I understand the request, there’s simply no logic to do what’s being asked since it’s not by design but an inherit part of how they move.

Its functionality asking for the spider vehicle logic to be rewritten for a modding feature - which I don’t see happening.

Thanks for your well placed clarification DoubleThought - that is right

By no means am I requesting a rewrite of the existing functionality - I completely understand there is very little drive for you or Wube in general to do so, Rseding. When I made this thread, I attempted not to imprint any train of thought I had to how this might be achieved and instead focus on what is desired to be achieved.

I do not know the ramifications of changing the force and dampening values to less (or more), but I assume these are relatively easy to expose to the modding API? is that somewhere closer to a solution? would this make the spidertron stop faster? how weird would it look?

Possibly, I can try it and see. I’ll try to get back to this later today.

Rseding91 wrote: Thu May 01, 2025 9:39 am Its functionality asking for the spider vehicle logic to be rewritten for a modding feature - which I don’t see happening.

While not part of the request, it doesn't even need a rewrite. Just limiting the spidertron's speed depending on distance to destination waypoint will likely solve the problem. And vanilla (well, with Quality) is affected by this, according to the OP, you can't excuse it with the usual "it's only in mods".

curiosity wrote: Thu May 01, 2025 1:28 pm While not part of the request, it doesn't even need a rewrite. Just limiting the spidertron's speed depending on distance to destination waypoint will likely solve the problem. And vanilla (well, with Quality) is affected by this, according to the OP, you can't excuse it with the usual "it's only in mods".

This is functionally re-writing the spider movement logic. There is no one central "speed" value to modify since the entire movement system is based off some base speed, as well as leg positions and stretch force of all the legs and where they want to move the spider body relative to them.

Trying to do some slowed speed as it reaches a position just begs for more bug reports around spider movement and them possibly getting stuck.

Rseding91 wrote: Thu May 01, 2025 2:22 pm There is no one central "speed" value to modify since the entire movement system is based off some base speed...

That seems self-contradictory.

I think the reason that the “Base Speed” cannot be changed dynamically is that the Feet positioning depends upon it, as well as the Extension/Stretching speed of the Feet themselves. If the Spider tries to “slow down” as it gets close to the destination then the Feet’s pathfinding will change - and the Spider would no longer be able to cross a large Gap that it can make at full speed. Adding another “Turning Speed” variable to the mix is also a recipe for new math bugs. Spiders are inherently an inexactly positioned thing - they move their Feet out of the way, or belts move the feet, which moves the body, which can move all the Feet, etc…


From a “game physics feel” perspective, changing the Pathing of spiders to remove Momentum by default is a terrible idea; doing it just for Mods seems like a waste of effort and invites more bugs. I like the effect of a Spider with too many Exoskeletons rapidly “skidding to a stop”, both manually driven and when using Mods which add Spider Waypoints (as in the Title Post). I would be first in line to file a Bug Report if such change was made!