Factorio Forums

Often I want to balance items across a large logistics network. Create local caches of items for faster delivery for example. Problem is that when I place a storage chest somewhere on one side the destruction robots will fill it from way across the other side, crossing enemy territory and get shot down in the process and so on. There is also no way to keep a local provider chest filled with goods using a request chest next to it as logistic robots will pick up items from the provider chest to fill the request chest that you need use to fill the provider chest in an endless circle.

So what I would like to have is a generic logistic chests that can do the following:

1) 2 sets of filters to configure the chest
2) switch to make the first filter a storage or request. If storage then destruction robots will place the items up to the filter amount into the chest. If request chest then also logistic robots will place them items up to the filter amount in the chest.
3) switch to make the second filter an active or passive provider. If more than the filter amount is present the extra items are shared actively or passively.
4) for each filter the color of wire that sets it (or none) can be selected
5) the signals to switch active/passive for filter 1 and 2 can be selected (or none)
6) icons showing the filter of the chest (up to 4 as usual) with little colored bars at the bottom showing where between filter 1 and filter 2 the current amount lies.

To prevent loops if the item count for the second filter is lower than for the first then only construction bots will use the item if between the two values. If above both values then normal rules apply. This allows even more flexibility.

Example: Producing inserters requires electronic circuits which are produced locally. Normally more electronic circuits a produced than needed for (eventually) science packs. But when a blueprint is placed the inserter demand sky rockets and not enough cards are available. Also there should always be a small stash for the player to pick up. So between the producer and consumer a logistic chest is placed with:

Filter 1: electronic circuits: 200 (request mode)
Filter 2: electronic circuits: 400 (passive provider)

The chest will request electronic circuits from elsewhere when it falls below 200 and provides them if it gets above 400. Between that just local production and demand is used. The inserter taking from the chest can be limited to electronic circuits > 100 to preserve a stash for the user if the logistic networks can't fill requests fast enough to always leave some in the chest.

Added to viewtopic.php?f=80&t=15326 Roboport/Logistic Network/Robot enhancements

This is similar to the cache type chest I've been asking for on a regular basis.

The current structure for chests doesn't allow supply and provide in the same chest without the bots 'shorting out' like they do if your autotrash is set lower than your request.

Of course the real fix for that might be to add a rule to the bot pathfinding so that they can't deliver to the same place they sourced from. The desired 'cache box' behavior would be possible then because the box would request from other boxes and then provide to other requests.

I really recommend studying the article-link I posted before continuing discussion, cause there are many other ideas that needs to be know before discussing this.

OdinYggd wrote:This is similar to the cache type chest I've been asking for on a regular basis.

The current structure for chests doesn't allow supply and provide in the same chest without the bots 'shorting out' like they do if your autotrash is set lower than your request.

Of course the real fix for that might be to add a rule to the bot pathfinding so that they can't deliver to the same place they sourced from. The desired 'cache box' behavior would be possible then because the box would request from other boxes and then provide to other requests.

That then just means the bot circle between 2 chests constantly. Same thing, just slower.

ssilk wrote:I really recommend studying the article-link I posted before continuing discussion, cause there are many other ideas that needs to be know before discussing this.

The linked article seem to be all about filtering the chest contents. That is not what I'm talking about.

I'm talking only about the filters that interact with the logistics network to request items and about adding a similar filter to provide excess items. The point isn't to limit what can be put into a chest but to limit the interaction with the logistics and construction robots. Maybe filter is the wrong word here. That thing in the GUI where you select how many items to request in a request chest.