cargo bots - replacement for or addition to logistic bots

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sarcolopter
Long Handed Inserter
Long Handed Inserter
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Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2015 5:08 pm
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cargo bots - replacement for or addition to logistic bots

Post by sarcolopter »

was reading some forum threads caused by that bots vs belts friday facts recently, reminded me of this mod idea I had a while back. following is a quick and dirty outline of the idea just so I could get something posted before I forget again. as I have free time, I will polish this into a real post, using questions people ask to decide what to focus on first.

this could be designed either as a replacement for logistic bots, or to be used alongside. basic idea: bots carry more and you don’t have to worry about them flying to the moon to recharge, you have control of paths, but they don’t interact with chests. instead, inserters interact with them, and you have to build structures anywhere you want them to land, so they use more space.

anything in [brackets] is either numerical and requires playtesting, or is an optional feature I haven’t decided on

entities

cargo bot
still no collision
one inventory slot, filterable [can be upgraded]; a bot carries a stack of any one item
left click a bot to open its inventory and set filter
uses electricity directly from cable, no downtime
power usage is just the number of bots in motion multiplied by a constant, no need to track individual power storage or usage
during shortages, bot speed reduced proportionally to satisfaction
follows routes set by player only
docks at docking stations
when docked, inserters may interact with it

underground cable, 1x1
normally display 20% alpha, 60% with cable in hand or blueprint, maybe make configurable in display settings
pulls electricity from network
a powered cable passes power to all adjacent cables
passes through other underground entities, just like belts and pipes pass through each other
powers docking stations and bots
does not power any other entities (it’s a consumer, can’t replace power poles)

docking station, 2x2
can be powered by cables or the regular electric network
functions as the waypoint for routes
[large docking station: four bots (or more?) dock at once]
[dock arrays: multiple adjacent stations allow an inserter placed anywhere along perimeter to interact with any bot in the array: scalable throughput, but costs space and is less flexible unless filter inserters / splitters used]
possible circuit interactions: number of bots present, pulse when bot docks and / or leaves, read bot contents, enable / disable

interface

routes
opposite of train routes: a route is defined between two or more docking stations
left click a station to bring up route interface
any number of bots can be assigned to a route
a station can be a member of any number of routes
if a bot is destroyed or removed, you don’t lose your routes
if a route is deleted - manually, or when a station is destroyed or removed - all bots assigned to that route hover in place
idle bots have a small drain, a percentage of normal, like other machines
for a given route, each station clicked is assigned a number sequentially
click drag from one to another to swap numbers
right click to remove a station from route
bots visit stations in order, lowest first, returning to low after highest visited
undocking conditions are also set at the station, not the bot
like trains, possible conditions include full, empty, item count, inactivity, time passed, circuit signal
pathfinding: either right angles only, or direct, but only where all tiles crossed have cables underneath

bots
GUI with sortable columns
left clicking a column toggles asc or desc
shift left click hides / unhides a column (hidden column names are collapsed into a dropdown menu out of the way)
columns can be re-ordered by dragging
bots are sorted by column order, left to right
default order:
is idle, slot filter, cargo, bot ID, name, health
is idle: does bot have a route assigned: green check = has route; red exclamation = no route; yellow exclamation = has route, but there’s a problem, eg: no cable path to station, or cables with no power; yellow lightning: bot has no power (probably cable network lost power)
slot filter: what filter inventory slot is set to; null symbol for no filter
cargo: displays item count, and a symbol to indicate if full (if it’s empty count is zero, and if count is positive but full symbol not displayed you know it’s partial)
bot ID: either the game’s internal ID, or just a number incrementing for each bot deployed; might be useful
name: bots can be freely renamed by the player
health: current HP. if it took damage in the last [5] seconds, display a flashing red symbol

when bots are idle, display icon in lower part of screen; toggle off in options

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