Drones keep getting stuck in infinite recharge loop

[Imatron]

Ive constructed what is supposed to be a self maintaining perimeter wall around my very large base, but the drones keep trying to shortcut outside the range of the network. They then run out of power and fly back very slowly where they came from to recharge, and then try to take the same shortcut again. Is there a way to lock them into flying only within range of the network? They all get stuck in one spot and leave me running out for a half an hour trip to do a five second repair kit fix and drop a couple new laser turrets.

Trying to cover every corner they decide to shortcut on is proving annoying and expensive in production and power expansion. Trying to segregate each line of wall into it's own network is also not working because it involves manually running out to each corner and making a network supply bridge, and dumping in 500+ drones manually.

...Im also having trouble with my remote construction Spidertrons not dropping off excess wood, rock, (and even modules and etc that I dont even understand HOW or WHERE they picked up all the way out there). They are in range of a storage box but refuse to drop off the materials despite being programmed to dump those things. This leaves all their construction bots bogged down and swarming around them instead of maintaining the wall when all 1K plus drones find a new corner to get stuck in.

[astroshak]

Break that network up into smaller, discrete networks.

Bots fly directly to where they want to go. Concave networks are not a good idea, because they will fly outside the covered area, and if the trip is long enough, have the exact issue you are describing.

Reposition your ports so that your networks are convex instead. This way they never need to leave the area and are always near a port. This will probably require you to break up the network into several smaller networks, as I suggested initially.

One other thing to remember about bot networks, is that the game does not assign the nearest bot the job, it just assigns it to any bot. So the larger the bot network, the more likely that the one bot on the far side of the network will be assigned the job calling for it to traverse the entire network before getting to the job site. A smaller network, while not preventing the worst possible bot from being chosen, at least makes it such that that worst possible bot is not all that bad a pick, because it is not too far away anyway.

[Imatron]

Break that network up into smaller, discrete networks.

I appreciate the reply, but as I said in my original post:

"Trying to segregate each line of wall into it's own network is also not working because it involves manually running out to each corner and making a network supply bridge, and dumping in 500+ drones manually."

Ill see if I can get away with just hitting a few critical points, but it's not optimal. they dont seem to need very far to fly before running out of power though...Seems strange that the devs didn't incorporate a mode for only flying in range of the build zone, but I guess they have their reasons. Too much taxing on the processor or something probably?

I designed this wall with biter expansion in mind, and have it guarding the perimeter outside of my pollution range. That way I don't have to deal with massive waves of biters hitting a base section, just the small expansion parties. Just a couple turrets every so many tiles are enough to hold them back so I can defend a large stretch without needing to expand my power production as much.

If I have to run out manually though, I might just be better off running a long conveyor line to feed artillery cannons protected by lasers, and just have one cannon per natural chokepoint. Would be harder to design for remote expansion though.

[Khagan]

Ive constructed what is supposed to be a self maintaining perimeter wall around my very large base ... Trying to segregate each line of wall into it's own network is also not working because it involves manually running out to each corner and making a network supply bridge, and dumping in 500+ drones manually.

How large is 'very large'? Because 500 repair bots for one stretch of wall is very, very large. I divide my wall up into sectors of about 200 cells, each of which is a separate logistic network, and assign 10 construction bots per sector for repair jobs.

[mmmPI]

I designed this wall with biter expansion in mind, and have it guarding the perimeter outside of my pollution range. That way I don't have to deal with massive waves of biters hitting a base section, just the small expansion parties. Just a couple turrets every so many tiles are enough to hold them back so I can defend a large stretch without needing to expand my power production as much.

If I have to run out manually though, I might just be better off running a long conveyor line to feed artillery cannons protected by lasers, and just have one cannon per natural chokepoint. Would be harder to design for remote expansion though.

Your first post and this makes me think you could use trains to supply your defense perimeter.

It seems unlikely that you can cover the whole inside with roboport since the walls must be pretty far away to encompass the area needed to absorb your pollution.

In theory, if it look like a giant square , instead you could make it 4 different segment, each of them fed by a train/station. Then bots only have to work in a linear network which is all covered by roboport. Or use such unloading station near chokepoints.

It is a bit of investment, but on the long run it makes it easier to travel to your border to expand , and it saves on recharge energy from the bots if they do shorter travel, which can reduce your pollution. The biters will evolve based on time and not only pollution so in the end you will have big biters coming at your defences anyway.

[astroshak]

While building logistic network supply bridges is one option, the better one has been mentioned by someone else : supply trains. Put the supply station in the middle of the area it serves, and only enable the station when supplies run low. You can use the same station name for each logistics network, and just have one train ready to go to resupply them as needed.

[wobbycarly]

...Im also having trouble with my remote construction Spidertrons not dropping off excess wood, rock, (and even modules and etc that I dont even understand HOW or WHERE they picked up all the way out there). They are in range of a storage box but refuse to drop off the materials despite being programmed to dump those things. This leaves all their construction bots bogged down and swarming around them instead of maintaining the wall when all 1K plus drones find a new corner to get stuck in.

You need the Spidey inside a network with logistics bots - and storage - available to empty the trash. The construction bots inside the Spidey will only build from the items inside the luggage compartment and won't dump out the unwanted goods.