[0.18.40] logistic robots: starvation of resources (enough supply)

[bll]

In this scenario, I was producing enough copper plates, though not a huge excess.
I added some new factories that requested copper plates.
Even though the supply of copper plates was available (there were 3 provider chests, probably with about
10-20 available in each), no copper plates would be delivered.

I would dump the copper I had in inventory directly into the assemblers. I would get a stream of robots
delivering copper plates to me, and I would be back up to 200 plates soon. The three assembler plants,
requesting a total of 300 copper plates would not get any.

It seems that the player inventory has a huge priority over ordinary requests, but there should be deliveries
to the requestors.

[posila]

Can you post a save game showing this issue, please?

[bll]

Unfortunately, I no longer have a saved game showing this.
It has eventually resolved itself.

I don't know how long it takes a new requestor to become visible to the entire network.
But it seems to take longer than expected for the robots to get assigned to deliver to the new requestor.

[bll]

I have attached a save file.

In this particular case, there are five copper plate passive boxes with plenty of copper plates.
I just dumped my personal inventory copper into the two assemblers.
The robots started streaming copper plates into my inventory.
But the nearby assemblers are not receiving much copper.

There are robots available to fill my inventory (or do they get reassigned because the player inventory has very high priority?).
So why haven't these robots filled up the assembler's requester box before I got there?

logisticsrobot-starvation-a.zip

(8.09 MiB) Downloaded 69 times

[bll]

Same game, later on.
The game says I have 21k of iron plates available to the logistic robot network.
But the radar assembler, gear assemblers, and electric furnaces producing steel do not receive any iron plates.

One interesting thing I noticed is that the robots were not taking the iron plates from (some of) the passive boxes.
I put a ->passive->logistic-storage setup in place, and the robots would take the iron plates from the storage box,
but not the passive box.

logisticrobot-starvation-b.zip

(8.19 MiB) Downloaded 66 times

[Rseding91]

Same game, later on.
The game says I have 21k of iron plates available to the logistic robot network.
But the radar assembler, gear assemblers, and electric furnaces producing steel do not receive any iron plates.

One interesting thing I noticed is that the robots were not taking the iron plates from (some of) the passive boxes.
I put a ->passive->logistic-storage setup in place, and the robots would take the iron plates from the storage box,
but not the passive box.

logisticrobot-starvation-b.zip

You need more logistic robots and more roboports to let them charge. All of them are doing other things; that's why no iron is being delivered to those requester chests.

[bll]

The algorithm is broken if particular destinations are ignored.
Production should continue, very slowly, even if there were only a very small supply of robots.

As it is, using a logistic robot network depends on:
- a sufficient supply of roboports
- a sufficient supply of materials.
- a sufficent supply of robots.

Any time any one of these conditions fail, the starvation of a particular set of requestors occurs,
breaking down all production, not slowing it.

[Rseding91]

The algorithm is broken if particular destinations are ignored.
Production should continue, very slowly, even if there were only a very small supply of robots.

As it is, using a logistic robot network depends on:
- a sufficient supply of roboports
- a sufficient supply of materials.
- a sufficent supply of robots.

Any time any one of these conditions fail, the starvation of a particular set of requestors occurs,
breaking down all production, not slowing it.

Yes, that's how the game works. It's part of the puzzle and up to you to solve. If you don't like it; you can choose to not use robots, or any other option. But that's how it works.