[0.16.50] Bot Prioritisation

[LazyDev]

The glitch occurs when you create a very large deconstruction command, and then use very large blueprints on top of the deconstructs, before the bots have a chance of removing the entities. This causes the bots to hang on top of the square that they want to place the entity, and with little bots, your bots can slow down and even stall upon a large construction.

To replicate:
Have 50 construction bots in the players inventory;
Finish a large construction;
Deconstruct that large construction;
Once marked for construction, place a giant blue print on top of the deconstruct area.

You'll notice alot of the bots will hang as they wait for the deconstruct to complete.

I'm not good at describing things, so I hope this is clear enough.

[Loewchen]

That sounds fine, they wait for the deconstruction to complete and will construct once they can. Or am I misunderstanding?

[cbhj1]

sounds like they all end up constructing and nothing being cleared away to make way.

[LazyDev]

sounds like they all end up constructing and nothing being cleared away to make way.

Pretty much. It's annoying and causes very long delays on large constructs. Especially, if you've made a mistake or updated a blueprint.

[Loewchen]

Can not reproduce, no construction jobs are given to available robots until the area is cleared. Post a vanilla save of the latest version with instructions on how to create the behaviour please.

[LazyDev]

I'm not sure what causes this, but it occurs when construction robots sit on top of an object to be constructed, but it is blocked by a deconstruct. It's just like, standing on the spot where a building is to be built. That animation the robot does.

[eradicator]

That's pretty trivial to reproduce:

1. Load this game (replay enabled):

   _botblocktest1.zip

   (945.74 KiB) Downloaded 69 times

2. Put the bots into the roboport.
3. Watch how many of the bots hover over a construction site until they give up and return to base.

Has been there since ages. When a bot is assigned a construction job there is no check if the construction site is unobstructed. So it's pure luck if the construction site will be cleared or not by the time the bot arrives. It might be required to have a job queue larger than the magic 600.

obstructed.jpg (447.17 KiB) Viewed 2685 times

[LazyDev]

That is exactly what the problem is. I wasn't able to get a screenshot, but yours shows the problem.

[Loewchen]

That is exactly what the problem is.

This one then: viewtopic.php?f=58&t=46742

[eradicator]

That is exactly what the problem is.

This one then: viewtopic.php?f=58&t=46742

As far as i can tell that topic is about when the deconstruction order is removed. However in this case the deconstruction order is not removed. I.e. the other thread describes an impossible situation that can never be constructed. While this one can be constructed, and will be constructed eventually. The constructing bots just waste a lot of time inbetween waiting for the deconstructing bots to arrive. This thread is purely a problem of task order.

Look at the pictures, on mine there's the red "deconstruction" X marker, on the other thread that's not there.