[0.10.2][kovarex] Logistic chests priority problem

[Demonpriest]

On my map i was working with only requester and passive provoder chests, but after researching bot stack bonus i ran into the problem with the bots providing more than the chest can hold/has requested and then standing idle with the leftovers in their inventory. For basic resources that are used often this is not a problem, because it will get requested again soon enough, but for things that you dont need that often that results in a couple of bots being occupied.

Now with the 0.10.2 update the storage chest increased in priority and should be the first to be emptied to fullfill orders from requester chests, and i thought yeah, built one or to storage chests and they drop it and and pick it up from there first, but that didnt work, at least not for chests placed in a save made from 0.10.1. Now i replaced every chest and for a while it worked, but it seems saving -> closing the game -> restarting -> loading puts the priorities in a mess, as my storage chests get filled with stuff again while the bots take out first from the passive provider chests. After a while i observed them taking it out first from ONE of the storage chests again, but i dont know the cause for that.

Seems like a random shift in priorities, or some circumstances made it happen (full chest, certain amount of items in storage?) but i cant figure it out.

[hybird607]

Hi DemonPriest,

I ran into the same issue! I find my logistic robots typically standing over a request chest with additional resources but not dropping them off. If I build a storage chest, it slowly gets filled with odd and ends until it's full as well.

On the plus side, my character is no longer being over-loaded with inventory.

[Turtle]

I don't know why, but the logistics chests systems seems overly-complicated, and at least to me, unnecessarily. I never use passive provider chests, just storage chests and smart inserters to limit the amount to hold. Like for iron gears that stack in 100's, I set the limit to 4k. This leaves 8 open slots. When bots need to return stuff, they'll have room.

This is what I understand:

Active Provider Chest - Temporary holding storage to be emptied into storage as soon as possible.
Requester Chest - Request items.
Storage Chest - Stores items - tries to fill chest with the same items if space allows.
Passive Provider Chest - What exactly is the point of these?

I've read the wiki, and it still doesn't provide info as to why you would want to use a Passive Provider Chest over a Storage Chest.

Edit:
Sometimes the bots will mix items in a chest even though there are empty chests... so it would be great if we could set filters to chests!

[kovarex]

Hello, this is what I have changed to overcome this issue:

Changed the logistic robot supply strategy.

• For player, robots take just enough items to fulfill exactly the requested amount, so the player doesn't get more than he asked for.
• For requester chests, robots take always as much as they can carry and leave it in the chest, so it can get a bit more than requested.

So the concept of robot taking all he can and then returning the surplus to storage chest was completely removed (unless there isn't space in the inventory, in that case, it will still return the rest).

The algorithm works this way:

• There is some request, robot is assigned to it, it reserves pickup and deliver for maximum amount of items it can carry and get on the way for the item.
• If more items are requested in the meantime to the same target, and one robot can still carry it (it isn't more than reserved to deliver at this time), no more robots are assigned to this task.
• Once it reaches the source chest, it acts differently for exact/non exact requester (exact is player non-exact is requester chest), for non-exact it just takes all it can and transports it. For exact, it just calculate the remaining count needed and transport it.

When there is some chest that requires a lot of transport, the robots will still not carry it one-by-one, as the time to get to the source chest should be enough for the request to accumulate more wanted items to avoid big count of robots carrying one item at a time.

I hope this is the good solution. The advantage is, that if we wanted, we could make option in the request chest, whether it should be exact or not.

[arl85]

Passive Provider Chest - What exactly is the point of these?

only use I see is "load me and if nobody is asking for my content, I'll fill up and you have to stop using resources to produce items you want to put inside me"
But yes, I cannot see any immediate difference over storage

[Lee_newsum]

Passive Provider Chest - What exactly is the point of these?

only use I see is "load me and if nobody is asking for my content, I'll fill up and you have to stop using resources to produce items you want to put inside me"
But yes, I cannot see any immediate difference over storage

storage Chest: Logistic robot can/will full up with nethink i.e. overflow/ALL Active Provider chest. Storage size (Stacks) 48 so you can have 48 different items in one chest
Passive Provider Chest: what you/Inserter put in there is all that is going to be in there.

[jakobeng1303]

but it would be cool if robots first try to use the materials in the storage chests and when these are finished they begin taking items from passive provider chests

[pf_moore]

so it would be great if we could set filters to chests!

That would indeed be good. On a related note, do items sitting in requester chests count to the limit on items in the logistic network? I think they shouldn't, as they are not available for use elsewhere, but I don't know how to check that.

Paul

[JamesOFarrell]

do items sitting in requester chests count to the limit on items in the logistic network?

While i have not tested this it seem just from playing that they don't.

[kovarex]

but it would be cool if robots first try to use the materials in the storage chests and when these are finished they begin taking items from passive provider chests

It works like that for some time already.

[Ca_Putt]

Passive Provider chests are pretty usefull when you don't set up a large centralized storage.
They are sort of a simpler solution for overproduction than smart inserters. not as precise true but perfectly suitable for a smaller base. With PP chests you always know where you'd quickly get a stack of Batteries. when you don't have that many storage chests you'd get stuff mixed up in those chests, that does not happen with PPs. Also it's less prone to messing up the Smart inserters, and thus coming home from an Alien-raid to see that all your circuts, Iron plates etc have been processed to Smart inserters :DD

They are redundant in a well-organized Factory with sufficient storage facilities but they do have their uses.

[Turtle]

Passive Provider chests are pretty usefull when you don't set up a large centralized storage.

I find that to be the other way around. Maybe it's my playstyle, I dunno. I put storage chests at the end of belts so that I can keep some stuff in storage for easy access. I limit it by smart inserters. So if I use passive provider chests instead, bots would take items to fulfill requests and have nowhere to put left overs or start cluttering random storage chests I keep here and there.

But there shouldn't be any left overs now in 0.10.3, so maybe I will use passive provider chests from now on.

[jakobeng1303]

but it would be cool if robots first try to use the materials in the storage chests and when these are finished they begin taking items from passive provider chests

It works like that for some time already.

At least in my save stuff in my storage chests doesn't get emptied

[Martc]

Try to replace passive provider chest with storage chest and than back to passive provider chest. This will fix priorities. In 0.10.2 it was only temporary solution (it mess up after save/load), but I think in 0.10.3 its permanent solution.