Factorio Forums

The main idea of the game is that everything should be automate able - that was already the argument to remove alien science.
However you can not automatically destroy cliffs yet, which is impractical for late-game bases.
Since they are Entities already anyways, i recommend them being able to be marked for deconstruction. Then bots could carry over explosives to destroy them automatically.

Construction bots can already drop land mines on biters so it kinda makes sense. I prefer to deconstruct with the artillery cannon though. Can I do that?

Artillery cannon being able to destroy cliffs sounds nice.... Maybe be able to load it with cliff explosives, and add an automatic range slider that lets you range down. Then, set it up to target cliffs automatically when loaded with cliff explosives. From there, it is on the player to use that properly, but it allows automation.

@bobucles & @Venrob

I think you kinda miss the point i make here, it's not about alternative ways of removing cliffs, but about a way to automate it. Doing this with a cannon you have to either control it manually or automate destroying all cliffs in rage. Imgagine you are building a train track, or solar field, you naturally mark the area where you want to build for deconstruction first. This is where my point jumps in - works great with personal roboports as well.

Valid point. The deconstruction planner should probably mark nests for explosive removal as well.

nice idea

I like the idea of creating cliff explosive shells for artillery.

I also like the idea of using a tool like deconstruction planner for cliff / biter nest removal. I think this would be a great fuctionality to be added to manual artillery target pointer so that you would not just make a target point but did select a rectangular area with nests/cliffs which will mark them for destruction and artillery canons would fulfill the requests just like logistic robots do based on the ammo they are loaded with.

Edit:
I also like the idea of using construction bots for demolition purposes. Slots in roboport cargo bay previously used for repair packs could also be used for cliff explosives (or not, using just storage chests to return unused charges)