Automatic outpost construction
Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2018 2:23 pm
by vanatteveldt
Constructing outposts is a pretty boring job after the first couple. For this reason I tend to play with large infrequent ore patches, so most patches are >10M resources. This means that you need quite a lot of miners, belts/bots, etc to setup the whole field.
For this reason I use a (semi-)automatic strategy consisting of two parts:
1) I use FARL (or rail blueprints) to build a rail line to the outpost, and then stamp down a 'starter' blueprint consisting of the outpost station, including a supply train stop, a roboport, and a radar. This stop always has the same name, so as soon as it is built a free supply train will move to the new outpost. I get back in my train and drive back or drive on to the next outpost.
2) I use standard blueprints to stamp down mines. Belts move the ore close to the station and unload to provider chests. Bots do the "last mile" to the train station, which avoids the need for balancing and non-straight belts while needing a limited amount of bots compared to bots-only mining.
Pictures / explanation:
Blueprint book below. Note I use LHD trains but it should be easy to adapt for RHD.
For this reason I use a (semi-)automatic strategy consisting of two parts:
1) I use FARL (or rail blueprints) to build a rail line to the outpost, and then stamp down a 'starter' blueprint consisting of the outpost station, including a supply train stop, a roboport, and a radar. This stop always has the same name, so as soon as it is built a free supply train will move to the new outpost. I get back in my train and drive back or drive on to the next outpost.
2) I use standard blueprints to stamp down mines. Belts move the ore close to the station and unload to provider chests. Bots do the "last mile" to the train station, which avoids the need for balancing and non-straight belts while needing a limited amount of bots compared to bots-only mining.
Pictures / explanation:
Outpost starter
This is built using my personal roboport. It contains a lot of optional items that can also be included in the supplies train and built later such as the filter inserters, stack inserters, requester chests etc. If you play with biters, you would of course also include military stuff in here such as turrets and repair packs. I add my personal 200 construction bots manually and then head home, you could of course also bring these in by train if you normally build more than one outpost at a time.
Both supply and loading stations have shared names and are enabled/disabled as needed. Loading station is enabled if the chests contain >5k resources, see below for supply station logic.
This is built using my personal roboport. It contains a lot of optional items that can also be included in the supplies train and built later such as the filter inserters, stack inserters, requester chests etc. If you play with biters, you would of course also include military stuff in here such as turrets and repair packs. I add my personal 200 construction bots manually and then head home, you could of course also bring these in by train if you normally build more than one outpost at a time.
Both supply and loading stations have shared names and are enabled/disabled as needed. Loading station is enabled if the chests contain >5k resources, see below for supply station logic.
Supply station logic
The constant combinator has a list of desired items, e.g. 50 blue belts, 50 logibots etc.
All chests are wired on a green wire, multiplied by -1, and added to the list of desired items. So, if there is a shortage of any item it will have a positive count (since desired > actual). Note that I use the chests contents rather than the logistic networks content to avoid getting a false signal if e.g. there is a negative amount of ore available (which would be multiplied by -1 and then cause a positive number). This is transmitted to the train stop which is set to enable if anything > 0.
It is also sent to the invidual filter inserters, which are set to enable if their filtered item > 0, so no unneeded supplies are unloaded. This could also be achieved with disabling the other stacks in the chest, but this gives a bit more fine grained control.
Finally, the logistic bot chest is set to insert into the roboport if number of logistic bots in the network < 1000. Not sure if this amount is exactly right, but it seems to work quite well.
The constant combinator has a list of desired items, e.g. 50 blue belts, 50 logibots etc.
All chests are wired on a green wire, multiplied by -1, and added to the list of desired items. So, if there is a shortage of any item it will have a positive count (since desired > actual). Note that I use the chests contents rather than the logistic networks content to avoid getting a false signal if e.g. there is a negative amount of ore available (which would be multiplied by -1 and then cause a positive number). This is transmitted to the train stop which is set to enable if anything > 0.
It is also sent to the invidual filter inserters, which are set to enable if their filtered item > 0, so no unneeded supplies are unloaded. This could also be achieved with disabling the other stacks in the chest, but this gives a bit more fine grained control.
Finally, the logistic bot chest is set to insert into the roboport if number of logistic bots in the network < 1000. Not sure if this amount is exactly right, but it seems to work quite well.
train setup
In this design all outposts loading stations are named "<resource> mine" and trains just go from mine (wait until full) to smelter or warehouse (wait until empty) and pick one that is enabled. This is not 100% efficient of course, as the outpost can be emptied by another train between going there and arriving in which case it will repath to another outpost - but as outpost rail lines are normally not congested this is solved by just adding another train.
Make sure to have waiting bays both before and after the smelter/warehouse as otherwise it will stall if there are no enabled outposts, even if full trains are waiting in the bay [or just make sure there are always enough outposts - probably a good idea anyway
]. If you do add waiting bays after the smelter/warehouse, they need to have a station in the waiting bay so you can have them path out of the smelter/warehouse, and even then they will just path back to the smelter/warehouse unless you have a circuit condition to detect whether at least one outpost is open. Or just make sure there are always enough outpost .
The supply train simply goes from supply loading [5 seconds inactivity] to supply drop [5 seconds inactivity]. If there are no outposts in need of supplies it will wait in the supply loading station which is fine. I use a single wagon with reserved slots for the needed items, and dedicated inserters for each item to supply/remove. If you need more than 12 item types you can add another wagon.
Note that I use a dummy item rather than disabling slots (red X) since this makes it easier to add an item while the station is parked at the stop - if you disable the slots and you want to add another item slot, you need to first enable all slots before you can disable the rest again, which results in items placed in these slots. You can also simply change slot allocations while it is not loading of course, it doesn't really matter...
Make sure to have waiting bays both before and after the smelter/warehouse as otherwise it will stall if there are no enabled outposts, even if full trains are waiting in the bay [or just make sure there are always enough outposts - probably a good idea anyway
]. If you do add waiting bays after the smelter/warehouse, they need to have a station in the waiting bay so you can have them path out of the smelter/warehouse, and even then they will just path back to the smelter/warehouse unless you have a circuit condition to detect whether at least one outpost is open. Or just make sure there are always enough outpost . The supply train simply goes from supply loading [5 seconds inactivity] to supply drop [5 seconds inactivity]. If there are no outposts in need of supplies it will wait in the supply loading station which is fine. I use a single wagon with reserved slots for the needed items, and dedicated inserters for each item to supply/remove. If you need more than 12 item types you can add another wagon.
Note that I use a dummy item rather than disabling slots (red X) since this makes it easier to add an item while the station is parked at the stop - if you disable the slots and you want to add another item slot, you need to first enable all slots before you can disable the rest again, which results in items placed in these slots. You can also simply change slot allocations while it is not loading of course, it doesn't really matter...
mines and loading
I also use this pattern for other blueprinted base types such as ore2module and ore2science and it works the same way: build starter station manually, set supply train stop name, and blueprint the whole plant and let it be built by the construction bots and supply train without your intervention. Of course, allocate trains and rename train stops as needed.The second phase of construction is done without my avatar present. I use three blueprints: (1) a row of mines outputting onto a blue belt (I use the 'extreme mining' pattern to maximize resources/s, you could replace by a standard double row of miners), (2) a endpoint with a long blue belt loading into 4 provider chests, and (3) a big pole plus roboport to extend the construction network if needed.
This shows two rows of miners completed: (except for 4 stack inserters - the supply train is on its way)
Note: the 'useless' blue belt N of the underground exit is there because the second blueprint just has a long blue belt which I 'force' over the output of the miner row so it just catches the output somewhere even if the miner row starts a bit higher.
The point of the design is to just stamp rows of miners and loading chests, adding roboports if needed for the construction area. You don't need to be there or wait until it is done, the supply train will provide supplies while it is under construction and it will get built at some stage, and the train station is only active if ore is waiting. Of course, this is not the most efficient in terms of computer time and it can be a better idea to first build a limited amount of miners just to get the outpost going, and then add more later as needed, but my main concern is player time, not factory/computer time.
Here is a more or less completed outpost on a large copper deposit containing 1K miners:
(Note that this is a slightly older version which has the roboports between the chests rather than between the input belts, which is less efficient for the logibots).
This of course loses efficiency for the belts further away since the bots have to move further, but I don't really see a way of fixing this without requiring manual belt laying, which I refuse.
This shows two rows of miners completed: (except for 4 stack inserters - the supply train is on its way
)Note: the 'useless' blue belt N of the underground exit is there because the second blueprint just has a long blue belt which I 'force' over the output of the miner row so it just catches the output somewhere even if the miner row starts a bit higher.
The point of the design is to just stamp rows of miners and loading chests, adding roboports if needed for the construction area. You don't need to be there or wait until it is done, the supply train will provide supplies while it is under construction and it will get built at some stage, and the train station is only active if ore is waiting. Of course, this is not the most efficient in terms of computer time and it can be a better idea to first build a limited amount of miners just to get the outpost going, and then add more later as needed, but my main concern is player time, not factory/computer time.
Here is a more or less completed outpost on a large copper deposit containing 1K miners:
(Note that this is a slightly older version which has the roboports between the chests rather than between the input belts, which is less efficient for the logibots).
This of course loses efficiency for the belts further away since the bots have to move further, but I don't really see a way of fixing this without requiring manual belt laying, which I refuse
.Blueprint book below. Note I use LHD trains but it should be easy to adapt for RHD.
blueprint book
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