"Auto request missing construction materials" feels way too slow/wasteful to use

[nyctef]

This is related to viewtopic.php?t=117278, but a different specific suggestion so I assumed a separate thread would be appropriate


The general problem is that the "auto request construction" materials requests a full stack of each item, regardless of how many items are actually required for construction. So eg if I plan out a space platform that has four underground pipes and two long-handed inserters, the system will waste two whole rockets sending full loads of each of those items.

The end result is that a platform which might have taken 4-5 launches to build instead takes more like 15, which can easily wipe out a ton of resources unless you have a particularly powerful base.

It's also a problem when building platforms from other planets - even if you have enough resources to easily deliver all the rockets, the platform might end up destroyed by asteroids before the important construction completes.

Overall this feature would feel much more viable if it could deliver just the items required, grouped into fewer rocket launches. I'm not necessarily asking for a perfectly optimal packing (since that's a hard problem) but something a bit better would go a long way.

I'm really enjoying the expansion apart from this though - it's been excellent so far! Better get back to the factory...