Bot long range routing issues (endless loops)

[liqo]

I don't like having construction bots in my primary logistic network, so I utilize them only in my separate secondary network along the defense perimeter. Therefore you can imagine my separate networks like two concentric circles with somewhat different radius. The problem is that bots plot their routes as the shortest straight line. This means when a bot is tasked with fetching something from the opposite side of the outer circumference, it follows this shortest path up to a point when it's low on batteries and tries to recharge at nearest roboport, which is often the one it departed from - the bot is now effectively stuck in endless loop. I've read in an other post that this is considered as "user fault" but I insist it's a bug because of the following points. Firstly, expected behavior of the bot from my standpoint is for the bot to rather follow the roboports in it's network (aka never try to fly longer range than it's batteries allow) or utilize roboports in the inner network along its straight line path. Secondly redeeming the issue as a player once it arises in the game is not an easy task, catching those stuck bots manually is futile as they are replaced with other bots from the network to do their task. There is no "recall" button to withdraw bots of one or other type from the network (afaik). Only option you have left is to cancel all of the logistic and/or construction orders (again for which is there no button afaik), which make it painstaking manual process (magnified by the size of the network) and this game doesn't need any more micromanaging than is already required. And then to try to rebuild with a design that tries to nullify this issue, but you cannot be sure about it, because even then some construction bots in the network may become stuck in the endless loop again (depending on construction orders, where are they parked and their count in the network). Which leads me to third point why I consider it a bug - it doesn't allow to play the game the way I want to - no working concentric separate networks .

EDIT 1: When I thought about it, it came to me that occurrence of this issue is not intuitive, because as a newbie you see roboport's range, but it doesn't tell you that bots are perfectly capable of yolo flight out of that range in it's shortest straight line directive.

EDIT 2: The bots also don't always use closest chest available, for some reason a bot starting at the point A tries to deliver it's cargo to storage chest near the point B even when there is one closer to point A.

infographics

Factorio routes.png (22.54 KiB) Viewed 1870 times

[Rseding91]

Thanks for the report however like many of the other reports about this: this isn't a bug. This is intended behavior - robots go directly towards their task at all times.