[0.18.40] logistic robots: starvation of requestors (low supply)

[bll]

When there is not enough of a particular resources for all requestors, some requestors will get starved out.

For example, at one point I was not producing quite enough copper wire. I watched the logistic robots
deliver copper wire to one set of requestors over and over. Other requestors never got any copper wire.
Maybe one on very rare occasions, but this scenario would not change for over an hour. The copper wire
would consistently be dellivered to some requestors, but not to others.

My expectation is that if a resources is in short supply, the resource would be delivered to every requestor.
A round robin scheme could be used, or a priority queue.

[posila]

Hello, thanks for the report.
If player wishes to distribute resources proportionaly, it's a problem for them to solve, and logistic system is not intended to solve it on its own for them.

[bll]

Unfortunately there are no tools to solve this issue.
I cannot set the requestor boxes to only receive 1 or 5 items.

[bll]

I and I am thinking you are misunderstanding the issue.

The proportions are not an issue, but the fact that some requestor boxes never get any supplies at all.
And in the meantime, I can see supplies streaming by to other requestor boxes.

These supplies should be going to all requestors in an equitable fashion.

[mmmPI]

The proportions are not an issue, but the fact that some requestor boxes never get any supplies at all.
And in the meantime, I can see supplies streaming by to other requestor boxes.

These supplies should be going to all requestors in an equitable fashion.

The robots are choosing the closest requester chest first. In case of low supply, and as long as the closest requester chest is still requesting item, they won't bother supplying those that are further away. (on rare occasion it can happen when the closest chest for a few second has its request completed then some robots will look further but will resume feeding the closest chest as soon as it request material again).

I didn't know what the name round-robin scheduling was used to describe , but my guess is that it's not implemented because the aim was to make bot-logic as basic as possible for performance optimization when you have dozens of thousands of chest or robots.

You can mitigate the effect by differents means, using buffer chests in more central location, making separate logistic network , requesting less item in the chests that are prioritized, having better production/consumption ratios, and probably other way that i am not aware of.

maybe using circuits network to control inserters that empty the prioritized chest you could achieve something that would look similar to a round-robin schedule, by restricting some inserters activity it would allow for material to pile up on their associated chest, allowing robots to feed other further away chests untill a certain threshold is reached that would activate the previously restricted inserters. i am not sure it would be practical though