Feature request: Allow one-time orders from logistic network

[gHoST INFERNO]

Hi,

I have a small feature request, something that I think would be very helpful later in the game:
It would be neat if I could place a "one-time order" for some resources from the logistic network instead of having to temporarily add it to my slots of "standing orders". For example, if I could shift click on a resource in the crafting UI and it would ask me for the quantity, or something like that. To extend this further, if the same would work for blueprints, that would be even more awesome - i.e., if I could simply request everything necessary to build a particular blueprint N times. And then finally, somewhat orthogonal, if I could direct the delivery of such a one-time order towards e.g. the trunk of a car or train (as bigger blueprints might be huge), that would be pretty sweet

Anyways, I'm sure there are higher priority issues than this that the devs have to deal with, but just wanted to throw out the idea

Thanks for a really fun (and time-consuming) game!

[Gali]

I'd like that too !

One time order : needed
one time order based on blue prints : great
one time order directed to external container : could work by using the "based on blue prints" on a requester chest.

[Slayn25]

In addition to the current logistics slots system I suggest the ability to order items from your logistics network "one time only".

Example: From build menu,
ctrl+shift left click once on the roboport icon (1 roboport will be brought to you)
ctrl+shift right click twice on the radar icon (10 radars will be brought to you)

[daniel34]

Added to Additions to the Character Logistic Slots [Frequently Suggested / Link Collections]

I've seen the one-time-delivery suggestion a few times, but I like the idea of requesting the items directly from the crafting menu (in addition to the current item dialog which gets a one-time-only checkbox). Although I think they should still show up in the logistics view of the inventory but have a differently colored background to be able to distinguish them from permanent requests.
The number should also go down on delivery to accurately show the remaining delivery amount.

[Harkonnen604]

Case - you order 50 engines to craft 2 locomotives. Bots bring it. You make locos. Then bots bring more engines. You drop request and send engines to logistic trash slots. But they don't go back to passive provider chest where factory works (limited only with red slots in that chest). So you request them back and manually run and drop engines to the crate, so that electric engines and bots production is not stopped.

Proposal - shift-clicking in character logistic slots marks that slot with bluish background and the slot is automatically cleared once request is fulfilled.

[Koub]

[Koub] Topics merged. This is a frequent request btw.

[Meems33]

TL;DR

I would like to be able to request one-time items from the logistics network I am physically located in by simply ctrl-left/right clicking on a recipe.

What ?

I am lazy and would like to request one time items or complete recipes for items by utilizing my logistics network instead of obtain the resources myself or going through the UI to setup logistic requests slots.

"Low Hanging Fruit" Version
This is a less complicated form of the suggestion that does not open a can of worms and should be easier to implement.

Functionality:

• When in the crafting UI hold ctrl to show items (and how many) that are obtainable from local network(s). "Local network(s)" are any network that the player is able to participate in from roboports or personal roboports based on their location. This version does not attempt to determine what is craftable based on the network and the local players inventory. For this see the "extended" version of this suggestion.
• When ctrl left click is used request 1 item from the logistics network
• When ctrl right click is used request 5 items from the logistics network
• Character logistics slots 1 must be researched before this is available

Extended Version
This version would require more thought and potentially bigger changes to the game code to implement.
Functionality:

• When in the crafting UI hold ctrl to show recipes that are craftable after taking the local network into account
• When ctrl left click is used request 1 item from the logistics network or attempt to craft it taking into account the players inventory and what is in the network.
• When ctrl right click is used request 5 items from the logistics network or attempt to craft it taking into account the players inventory and what is in the network.

Recipes would be resolved in the following order:

• If the item exists in the logistics network request it
• If the item can be directly crafted from items in the players inventory craft it
• Otherwise recursively perform the above two steps for all crafting dependencies

Notes:

• Requests / Crafting steps are calculated once upon the click event
• Items would be immediately be reserved by the network and not available to any other requests to prevent situations where items would no longer exist once robots finally get around to getting them
• If crafting / requests are cancelled then reservations on items are removed
• When crafting the crafting queue should include steps indicating that items are being retrieved from the network
• Since pulling existing items from the network takes precedence over crafting them locally the player may end up waiting for resources that could of trivially been crafted
• More thought would have to be put in to what happens if a player leaves the network while attempting to craft. Cancel the recipe? Blink? Flash?

Why ?

I want a quick and easy way to pull one-time items from my logistics network without having to go through the inconvenience of setting up character logistics slots for something I only want once.

[rcp27]

I’ve been thinking about logistics requests. At the moment we can say “make sure I always have 200 red belt” or similar. Sometimes I want something now, but just once. Perhaps I need pumpjacks for a new oilfield or nuclear power components. I’d like to be able to say “bring me 50 pump jacks”, but once I get them, the request goes away, so when I get back from building the oil setup, I don’t keep getting more. Ideally this could be extended to blueprints, so I could have a one-off request for “bring me all the items in this blueprint”.

[Koub]

[Koub] Merged into older topic with same suggestion.

[Chao]

+1 for this.

[frenchiveruti]

Hey, I really like your idea!
I say that logistics level 1 for this functionality on the basic network (which is the one I personally like, because is less convoluted) should be on level 2.
This would make placing new extensions to the factory more convenient as you have the ability to request the items you need for example 10 furnaces, instead of 100 and then having to dump the rest.

[Chao]

I really want one time logistics requests, but I wouldn't want it tied to the crafting UI. Most of the time I'm planning to go out to build something specific in another outpost that I don't want often enough to include on my standard taxi train. eg a set of level 3 modules, or maybe a large supply of landfill.

[falk]

TL;DR

The new logistic GUI needs a "quick buy" button or hotkey that requests a stack of the item, but no resupply afterwards.



The new logistic GUI seems to be a huge improvement over the existing one, but it seems to have one big flaw: doing quick requests takes too long.

What do i mean by quick requests? Imagine you are going to expand your railroad, so you need to request a stack of rail signals, rail chain signals and some rails.

In the current system, you have to set up requests for all of these, wait for the bots to bring the items and then undo the requests. If you do not remove the requests, they will be constantly re-supplying you with those items. And you do not want to be constantly running around with 1000 rails and 200 rail signals on your inventory everywhere you go.

So what we need is a "quick buy" button or hotkey. Pressing this button or hotkey would order bots to bring you a stack of those items, but would not ask for re-supply afterwards.
This way, in the previous example, if you want some rails, instead of going through a lot of GUI buttons to configure your logistic request for rails and rail signals, you just shift-click on their icons on your logistic GUI once for every stack you need and its done. No need to configure it all every single time and for every single item you need.

[conn11]

Especially rails show the shortcomings of this proposition. One stack of them is pretty useless. In construction drone range you could always ghost buid with no need to consider the characters inventory, outside the range 100 rails would get you exactly how far?
Maybe more feasible for signals and other non bulk items, but then again it really depends on what you are building. Considering different behaiviour on request for varring items isn't desirebale (or tedious repetive clicking for requesting multiple stack), the new possibility of setting a lower and upperlimit in one dialogue field seems prefferable.
This kind of suggestion should be evaluated, once we all had the chance to evaluate the new character GUI in game.

[Koub]

[Koub] Merged into the "one time logistic request" thread.

[falk]

We need to count clicks and mouse movement to evaluate this.

In the current GUI, if you want to request 500 rails:

A) Rails is already in your logistic requests:
1 - Search for the rail icon on your logistic tab
2 - Click on it.
3 - Click and drag the left slider to 500 or click on the text field box AND type 500
4 - Click OK
5 - Wait for bots to deliver items. Look for the rail icon again.
6 - Click and drag the left slider to 0 or click on the text field box AND type 0.
7 - Click OK

B) Rails not in your logistic requests:
1 - Look for an empty request slot and click on it.
2 - Click on the filter
3/4 - Look for the rails. 2 clicks may be needed if you need to switch tabs on that menu.
5 - Use slider or click on click on the box and type in 500
6 - Click OK
7 - wait for bots to deliver items. Look for the rail icon an right click to remove the request.

With a "one time logistic request" using shift click to buy one stack, assuming you already have a rail request filter on your logistic tab set up ( automatic requests could be set to 0)

1 - Look for the rail icon on your logistic tab.
2~6 - Shift click it 5 times for 5 stack requests.

If we look at it this way, even a 5x stack request requires less clicking and much less mouse moving and looking for things than the previous system. Plus it does not require waiting for the delivery to remove the request.

And even for slightly larger stacks, i would very much prefer to do a no brainer multiple clicking than having to move the mouse around and click all over the place to make the request with less clicks.

[Blooker20]

Bump: +1

[PyroFire]

+1 ctrl+R

[SupplyDepoo]

Question: what happens if you want to make a one-time order for something which you already have a logistic request and/or autotrash slot configured? E.g. if you normally have "magazines: 1k", could you even make a one-time order then (e.g. for 2k mags), and if so, how would it know when to start auto-trashing magazines?

To resolve this ambiguity, I can only think of three things:

• Automatically modify the permanent logistic slots for such requests.
• Ignore such requests.
• Wait until the item count in the inventory falls within the normal range again by the player's own actions, then keep it in the normal range.

None of these seem like robust solutions.

[prdfndr]

+1 for the idea.
If I was choosing the mechanics of interaction with the autotrash slots, I would chose pushing the boundary of autotrash up. It would be quite annoying to order something from the network to build and then discover that you don't have it. More annoying than having your autotrash boundary go up.