[0.17.66] Construction Robot Cargo Size - Only carry one item when building

[Tyras]

So, I have recently started use of construction robots en masse, and I have discovered something that confuses me. With the cargo capacity upgrades, the game says that my constructions robots have a cargo size of 4; so why don't my construction robots carry more than one item at a time while building? When they are emptying a chest or belt prior to removal, they carry multiple items; but whenever they are placing or removing objects, each robot only carries one item at a time. I don't know if this is a bug, a quirk in the determination logic behind the tasking of the robots, or a purposeful choice.

So Devs, is it a bug or not a bug? For that is the question...

The setup is as follows:

-Sandbox Mode, All Research Unlocked, Cheat Mode Enabled.
-Solar Array, for power purposes.
-Two large power poles, within range of each other but disconnected.
-Steel chest with stack of copper cable, to connect power poles.
-Roboport with 50 construction robots, unpowered.
-Passive provider chest with 200 walls.
-Two storage chests.
-200 wall ghost entities, within range of the roboport.

Steps to recreate:

-Take copper cable from chest and connect the large power poles.
-Each robot has a cargo size of 4, so: 50 robots x 4 cargo each = 200 walls.
-Watch as each robot takes multiple trips to the chest and only carries one wall at a time.
-After all robots have recharged, use the deconstruction planner to select and order deconstruction of all 200 walls at once.
-Watch as, once again, each robot takes multiple trips to the chest and only carries one wall at a time.
-After all robots have recharged, again, use the deconstruction planner to select and order deconstruction of the storage chest with the walls in it.
-Be astounded at the speed at which the robots transfer all items from one chest to the other with only one trip.

If it turns out that this isn't a bug, that's fine. It just seemed that since each robot can carry four walls when emptying a chest, they should be able to carry four walls when building or removing said walls.

Thanks for all you do!

[Klonan]

So Devs, is it a bug or not a bug? For that is the question...

It is not a bug

The logic for carrying multiple items to build, or deconstructing multiple entities, is complex,
We have not implemented any such system yet.

[mrvn]

It would be nice though it they could carry multiples of an item. At least for tiles. Placing landfill or roads with bots would be greatly improved.

Compare bots placing landfill one tile at a time with the player placing a circle with radius 15 with a single click. I would even go so far in saying bots should be able to carry something like 100 identical tiles. They should then place them individually though, looks better.

[Tyras]

It is not a bug...
... We have not implemented any such system yet.

Well, I'm kinda sad that it's not a bug that can be fixed, but that "yet" at the end has me hopeful.

Thanks for the quick feedback! I look forward to the next release.

[billbo99]

I guess "Rseding" never followed though with his comment in "Cliff explosives with construction bots"
https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-267

After making this system it has made me think if I could apply some variant of it to robots building things, so a robot could theoretically grab 3 inserters and build all 3 quickly in series. It's an interesting thought for another time...