Node based pathing for bots

[TheClaw]

So I know some discussion has been going on about bots and networks. however I think for the large networks I tend to create another feature could be added, maybe in combination with overlapping networks II, that would make life better for players that use robots to lay down large pieces of infrastructure.

I tend to make one big network for my whole base, mainly because when I am building my railroad infrastructure I use bots. however bots always try to fly a straight line to there destination (see discussion about the bots), one of the problems is offcourse that they panic and when they are out of power they basicly crawl back to the closest roboport however the problem I want to adress here is the fact that they tend to leave the "safe zones". bots fly over enemies and their bases without a care in the world and when building your railroad network with bots its quite frustrating to have them fly over bases that have spawned in the gaps between my fortified corridors. Because of this you need to build stuff within these areas to prevent bases from spawning and you have to destroy every base you encounter after "a few" hours of playing it will look like this:

base temp.jpg (501.33 KiB) Viewed 2814 times

At first when the bots would fly from the production segments 1&2 to "the wall" they would fly over the empty space next to "B_SemiProductsPickup" however alien bases kept spawning there crippling my construction bot numbers. To deal with this I literally filled the area, I did not need the power I am producing there its just plain filling. Another example are the "staging ports" that you can see scattered over the enclosed areas, they charge the drones but basically are not essential to the functioning of the base nor needed for expansion of the base. There are more examples I can give but I think you get the jest.

The suggestion I would like to make is to make optional node base flight for the robots possible, where the robot ports function as nodes. This would mean that they would fly from roboport to roboport (over the yellow dotted lines that are already shown when you select the ports) and when they reach the roboport that covers the area where the task is to be completed they will go to the task. This will decrease their efficiency inside the base but keep them safe outside of it, since they would be flying over my well defended railroad corridors.

I am no programmer so I am not sure if you can have two different pathing methods within the same network but I can imagine that is not possible. i have three options for that, not sure if they are feasable:
- Use the overlapping roboport networks (see link above) and enable players to select what kind of pathfinding they want for each network
- Enable players to change/select the default robot pathing, so OR node based flight OR the current situation for all networks
- Enable players to change/select the robot pathing per network and prevent different kind of networks to connect, so basicly overlapping networks without interaction.

Any thoughts/improvements ?

[ssilk]

Please can you upload the picture to the forums, cause it might takes several months, until this topic might be visited by a developer and then this picture is perhaps deleted (I know several examples, where that happened). This would make the loading also much faster. You might also consider to reduce the size before uploading.

I also linked it with viewtopic.php?f=80&t=18093 Roboport/Logistic Network/Robot enhancements

And BTW: This looks quite cool. I recommend to post your base in "Show your Creations" (with save).

[TheClaw]

Thanks for the tip and for including the link into the other topic. I uploaded it as an attachment to make sure the devs will be able to see it


I might add it to the show creation section, however I think it might not be the best base around.

[ssilk]

Thanks for the tip and for including the link into the other topic. I uploaded it as an attachment to make sure the devs will be able to see it

Much better.

I might add it to the show creation section, however I think it might not be the best base around.

It doesn't matter.

[Calion]

Where are we on this? This is how I presumed it worked; since you have to have a continuous network in order for bots to go from point A to point B, I figured that bots only traveled within the network. But that is not the case. Is there a mod that addresses this?

[mmmPI]

Any thoughts/improvements ?

My thoughts is that currently robots are not doing pathfinding, contrary to biters or train for example. And in many of the linked discussion the main drawback of making the bots smarter, is that it takes computer time, for potentially every single bot. As such, optionnal, opt-in things are probably safer suggestion. But even then, it may look as a potential cause of slowdown if that logic was to be made more intricate.

For now they just go from point A to point B sometimes then to C in straight lines. Which cause all sorts of havoc . There are gameplay ways to avoid those such as making separated network ( one big square and several separated rectangular arms with inserters or belts or trains transfering things in and out can do , or local depots for train carrying rails power pole and other infrastructure), There are also mods that adds new ways of handling the recharge points, the construction or logistic area, some stronger robots, or some alternative logistic solutions like this one https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Long_Rang ... ery_Drones where there is no need for network anymore.

I don't know if there is a specific mod to prevent bots from ever leaving their network. I think this would require additionnal calculation, sort of scanning the possibilities to reach a point B from a point A with a set of conditions, that require some micro second to update, potentially for tens of thousands of robots.

There are ways have some flying logistic entities with more possibilities to control their individual behavior, using for example : https://mods.factorio.com/mod/SpidertronPatrols combined with https://mods.factorio.com/mod/lex-aircraft, this would allow to give order to a flying cargo ship to follow waypoints, similar to the dotted lines between robotport, a mix between trains and drones. This makes sure those do not venture in hostile territories. And create interesting challenges . One can also use https://mods.factorio.com/mod/aai-programmable-vehicles which requires use of combinators to set up the schedules, it's more complicated to automate things, but for manual control it's very straightforward.

The difference i see is the scale of things, it's easier to ramp up the number or robots than trains, so you are less likely to reach a critical number of things that would start slowing down the game noticeably. This is what the suggestion made me thought, robots are maybe not the best entity to give some additionnal logic, because their simpleness is part of their strengh, but in vanilla factorio there is no other flying entity that could be the target for such elaborate logic. I thought of mods that i've enjoyed using that i felt were adressing the same problem mentionned although not as the suggestion describe, but somewhat close in my eyes given i believe the robots won't be made smarter for performance reason.