Those posts and reactions to them motivated this little write up of my perspective.
IMPORTANT: everything in this post relates ONLY to logistic bots!
For convenience I will call logistic bots just "bots", but that should not be generalized to other types of robots!
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I agree with the FFFs that [logistic] bots can be overused for short distance travel, but on the over hand IMO even if Factorio didn't have bots, they would have to be added in some form anyways for very objective reasons.
My arguing points:
- there is one usage scenario for bots that is fundamental to Factorio
- this scenario could be improved (by my suggestion)
- other problematic scenarios could be debuffed (by the same suggestion)
The useful scenario: what bots should be used for
In short it could be described as "delivering small numbers of items from point to point with little or no infrastructure"When you need a low-throughput production of some rare item which in turn uses a bunch of rare items from all ends of you factory - this is when belts suck and bots shine.
The bot's ability to fly over buildings make them an ideal instrument for those cases in the late game.
More over, there isn't much alternative to it: ether you have dedicated lines for items (a.k.a belts), or you put all in one pile and transport this pile around just to take some items from it (a.k.a wagons).
What you really want is something that:
- simple to operate and extend
- unites different items into one universal system
- balances production and demand automatically
- requires minimal infrastructure
- can be build around an existing factory without clattering it too much
Belts are not suitable for it because they fail 2, 4, 5, and trains are not suitable because they fail 1, 4, 5
My suggestion: the cable roads
I propose adding routes (a.k.a. cables) to the [logistic] bots.That would work almost as it does now, but instead of flying by the optimal route from A to B, a bot will have to follow some specific lines, similar to train rails.
The difference with trains is that
(a) the system will balance itself
(b) the cables will take little or no space in the factory
(c) the throughput will be minimal (less than that of a belt)
I envision those cables on some kind of poles (like electric poles), so that they could jump over rows of buildings.
Just like in a real factory, it will be ideal to place those along the waking paths for people (characters).
Different kinds of request/provider chests are going to remain in the system - they will serve as endpoints to the cables.
How cable roads affect game play
You will notice that for transporting small amounts of items cable roads are almost identical to bots.But for transporting big amounts of materials cable roads are totally useless: since cable trolleys drive on cables one after another, the system will start to jam if too many trolleys are active.
One could build more parallel cable roads, but that is harder than building underground belts, and the junctions would still be clattered.
All in all, replacing [logistic] bots with cable roads would preserve the spirit of experimenting even in big factories, while maintaining the status quo of belts as the fastest short-range transportation system.
What do you guys think?
Would you like to play this version of Factorio?
