Mining Robots

[Mad Inventor]

Mining Robots

Summary –
Add a type of flying robots that mine resource patches and return the resources to storage.
Add a “mining planner” item that the player uses to designate resources for mining by the robots in the same way as the deconstruction planner.
The mining planner can have a filter set to only select a specific type of resource.

Advantages -
An option for mining resource tiles that are inaccessible, inconvenient, too small, or have mixed resource types. In each of these cases, mining drills are impossible/difficult to use.
Improves the late game by opening up new resources with a new technology.
Balanced as an alternative to mining drills by the technology, recipe, and power requirements of robots.

Notes -
Mining robots would require roboport coverage and recharging in the same way as logistics bots. They would also benefit from the same upgrades to robot speed and cargo capacity.
The robots would mine until reaching their cargo limit, then return the resources to storage locations in exactly the same order as logistic robots would.
No stacking – one robot can mine each resource tile at a time – to keep the output proportional to the size of the resource patch, and prevent swarms of robots from mining out patches in minutes.
No mining of tiles that have a building on them – this is mostly to create a decision between drills and robots, rather than using both on the same resources.
Mined tiles would need to be inside the smaller roboport coverage area (the logistics network), so mining operations would require nearby ports as well as storage for the resources.

Related Suggestion -
The deconstruction planner could implement a similar filter function that makes it ignore specific types of buildings in the area designated for deconstruction.

[PyroFire]

I don't like it.

Mostly because this can be achieved with existing mechanics; just output a drill into an active provider chests and use logistics bots.

Drills running too slow? Add some level 3 speed modules.

[Arch666Angel]

viewtopic.php?f=63&t=18278

[ProphetofEden]

i love the idea of mining bots but id rather ditch the idea of all the robots fly its an industrial drilling machine should be tank sized with a depot to transport from the field that itd mine from then drop off in the depot while recharging

[ssilk]

I think this is a good idea, cause sometimes you have small resource fields, where the afford to place miners is to high compared to the outcome. Or you have resource fields on very small islands, where you cannot place a miner.

And that with the MoMods Miners are new to me. Thanks for the link, need to look more into the big mods.

[MeduSalem]

As long as there are no infinite resources (ore patches working like oil patches or so) in the game which would render the outpost deconstruction obsolete, I am for Mining robots as a late game alternative for mining as long as it is balanced well.

[Arch666Angel]

As long as there are no infinite resources (ore patches working like oil patches or so) in the game which would render the outpost deconstruction obsolete, I am for Mining robots as a late game alternative for mining as long as it is balanced well.

Like said elsewhere, infinite resources are already done by mods, but I considers this more of a users style of play choice, maybe I'm wrong. If you want to try get RSO and my Angels Ores

[MeduSalem]

Like said elsewhere, infinite resources are already done by mods, but I considers this more of a users style of play choice, maybe I'm wrong. If you want to try get RSO and my Angels Ores

Well I usually don't play with mods... and the mods exist mostly because something in Vanilla is lacking and that's a reason for me to have that in Vanilla.

In my opinion the devs should consider changing the resources into Infinite Resources because the proposed ideas in the FFF (more resources the further away - which is by the way something I find unrealistic for the sake of probability reasons, Dirty Ore - which is a nice gameplay concept but only multiplies the resource patch with fixed amount <x>, etc) will only delay the problem to a later point in the game after which you still have to tear down outposts again and many people hate doing that (including myself).

With Mining robots the problem could be alleviated to some extend. No mining equipment to construct/deconstruct etc.

But also that will have ultimatively a limit of usefulness because the further you expand the bigger the framerate issues, so eventually you are forced to stop expanding because the computer can't take it anymore. That's when you run out of resources and you are done for.

With infinite resource patches people could at least keep going, even if it is at a very slow throughput rate.

But if the patches would be changed to infinite with decreasing yield for said advantages then we wouldn't need any Mining Robots (which also take time to implement and model).

[Arch666Angel]

You should really try some of the infinite resource mods to get a feel for them. I have played with endless resources mod which turns all ore patches into infinite deposits and that makes it feel a bit to infinite/endless, because you have everything in abundance. That's why I did my take on it with the help of orzelek (RSO) which is a mesh up of regular and infinite resources.

What I want to point out is that there is a fine line for these infinite ores for being a real addition and a game breaker in the sense of the feeling of the base game.

[MeduSalem]

You should really try some of the infinite resource mods to get a feel for them.

Well I will get into mods eventually, but most likely when the devs decide to leave Factorio be and shift their development time to new projects. I somehow dislike using mods during development stages of the game because of how everything is constantly breaking due to updates, etc.

I have played with endless resources mod which turns all ore patches into infinite deposits and that makes it feel a bit to infinite/endless, because you have everything in abundance. That's why I did my take on it with the help of orzelek (RSO) which is a mesh up of regular and infinite resources.

What I want to point out is that there is a fine line for these infinite ores for being a real addition and a game breaker in the sense of the feeling of the base game.

But true, if the decreasing yield and lower limit isn't balanced well then it might completely outweigh the need for expansion because you have so much of everything even with the lowest throughput rates that it doesn't matter.

That said It's do able, we can see that with Oil Patches even in Vanilla and not only with mods. The Oil patches in Vanilla are quite well balanced in my opinion. I already need 150+ OIl Wells to power my Powerplant... And if you don't chose to have Oil deposits all over the place during map generation it doesn't feel "too endless".

Of course the expansion/growth rate of your base/map is somewhat logarithmic. In the first hundred hours I expand the most, and then less and less. But that's also because I don't need the additional throughput anymore and can live with stuff coming in more slowly. Depending on your target base size and how fast you want to reach a certain research level there is always a natural stagnation in expansion.

With the upcoming endless researches people have a reason to expand further into the outlands but I can't help but feel that covering miles over miles with Trainnetwork, cleaning off the area from Biters and leaving even more scorched ground behind for the sake of endless research (which will have an exponential resource cost) is NOT very satisfying, because of how at some point all you are doing is expanding and expanding and expanding due to running out of resources continuously. It takes forever to get to the edges of the map then and that causes strange feelings inside of me.

That's why I rather set myself a limit on how far I want to expand out into the outlands because after a while looking at the vast emptiness in the middle of nowhere bores the hell out of me. Rather stick somewhere around my base at that point, but I can't do that because I would risk running out of ore/coal/stone and trapping myself in the base without enough resources to expand if I once more get the feeling to do so.

So in my opinion I should only have to expand if I want to have higher throughput rates.

[Arch666Angel]

What bothers me is that even if they change it somewhat, like having an infinite resource which you have to mine up differently it will come to the same thing as it is at the moment, repetition on mass. So the only thing they achieved is pushing back the limit/time when this happens a bit.

I have the same feeling about the endless research thingy, it sounds nice, but what goal do you have if there is no end? Where is the satisfaction in just completing another research in an endless line of it? The basic problem I think is the linear progression, like you yourself pointed out expansion is not linear at the start and early stages of the game and slows down considerably to the end, so where is the mismatch here? The game is missing some feature that can set goals a bit more dynamically for the player, so that what you can/want to achieve is matched with your ability to achieve it.

[MeduSalem]

What bothers me is that even if they change it somewhat, like having an infinite resource which you have to mine up differently it will come to the same thing as it is at the moment, repetition on mass. So the only thing they achieved is pushing back the limit/time when this happens a bit.

I have the same feeling about the endless research thingy, it sounds nice, but what goal do you have if there is no end? Where is the satisfaction in just completing another research in an endless line of it? The basic problem I think is the linear progression, like you yourself pointed out expansion is not linear at the start and early stages of the game and slows down considerably to the end, so where is the mismatch here? The game is missing some feature that can set goals a bit more dynamically for the player, so that what you can/want to achieve is matched with your ability to achieve it.

Yeah, I mean it's quite off topic already but, the missing "endgame" is really a problem affecting several parts of the game as progression continues.

What makes other games like Industry Giant or Transport Giant or OpenTTD stand out is that you build this huge network for transportation as well as the industry backend for one reason: To satisfy the demands of the evergrowing cities etc, until they hit the map/expansion limit and that's when the game is over and you leave it be. But this end is only forced on you after you have pretty much exploited every piece of resource and every piece of consumer on the entire map without any space being left to build on and there is really nothing anymore you could possibly do.

I know the initial intention of Factorio is survival and it is a nice concept for the early to mid game. But the Survival theme gets only so far. After I put down my first few lines of Laser Turrets I am basically fearless and I am not fighting for survival anymore but rather against my own boredom by optimising layouts and fooling around with setups to exploit the game engine. I am not even rushing towards the end of research anymore because I know there is nothing waiting there. I spend more time on the forum and playing around with excel sheets to do calculations than actually playing the game.

And that's the shame about it... We build this huge factory we invest dozens of hours in and then all of a sudden it comes to a halt because there is no one who wants all your items. Infinite research doesn't change much about it because you improve for the sake of improving, but you are already way too overpowered for the environment after completing the current tech tree. So what this game needs more than anything else is goals.

I don't really need to go off world on space platforms but I would rather have people coming to the planet to build a colony or something and your factory providing the backend to drive the evergrowing settlement(s). You have to provide building materials for infrastructure, goods, food, etc and as more people come to the planet they give you tasks and goals to complete or whatever, even shipping stuff off-world. And the only real end is when your computer blows up due to being unable to deal with the amount of information. At least one can dream...


Back to topic...

The mining robots would definitely alleviate some of the tedious outpost building at the current stage of the game, more can't really be said about it.

[TheFreshestVeggies]

Joined into this thread, explained below... ßilk

Keeping it short and simple: Mining robots... Robots that can mine ore... Done...

Long version:
Robots that do not use normal roboports but have a sort of mining port which has one of these yellow outputs like a drill has but instead of constantly mining like the drills do the port sends out
bots that mine a player designated field. The bots drop the ore into the port and the ore is output to the yellow marker.
It would be great to have these in mid or lategame when you alredy researched the logistics and builder bots. To no longer have to replace the electric drills because the bots will stop mining as soon as the whole ore field is depleted and not the 5x5 area.


Sorry for any misspellings, i wrote this on an old mobile device and the keyboard isnt very responsive

[Arch666Angel]

There is a thread with the same name, on the same board, on the same page:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=21401

[TheFreshestVeggies]

Looks like im blind