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Space Timer

Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2026 5:48 pm
by majik1213
TL;DR: Add custom time variable to Selector Combinator's "Time" mode of operation and let us define a constant for the number of ticks it represents.

What? Add custom time variable to Selector Combinator's "Time" mode of operation and let us define a constant for the number of ticks it represents. This timer variable would be consistent amongst any ship that uses a selector combinator.

Why? Allows coordination of space miners to deliver resources based on a universal timer since there is no day/night cycle in space. (Day ticks and day lengths don't work in space.) In this way, this new feature acts as a custom "Day tick" variable that is shared amongst any space platform using this selector combinator's mode of operation. Simple example: three space miners for iron ore are flying back and forth between two planets, all of them have this selector combinator timer sending input into space platform hub. Ship 1 circuit condition to depart a planet during the first 1/3 of a "day tick" in space, which we define. Ship 2 uses next 1/3, and ship 3 uses final 1/3. Now, the three ships are leaving planets back and forth in thirds based on a universal timer and resources are delivered to the planet in a more continuous fashion.

Re: Space Timer

Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2026 7:47 pm
by Alfonse215
Doesn't the selector combinator feature a global timer, one that's the same across all selector combinators? You can just take the modulus of that by the number of ticks you want to count, and anytime it hits 0, that number of ticks has elapsed.

Re: Space Timer

Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2026 8:05 pm
by majik1213
Alfonse215 wrote: Sun Aug 23, 2026 7:47 pm Doesn't the selector combinator feature a global timer, one that's the same across all selector combinators? You can just take the modulus of that by the number of ticks you want to count, and anytime it hits 0, that number of ticks has elapsed.
Ah, I guess that works. Definitely more reliable than simply setting up a timer with constant combinator and decider combinator since you would need to build them simultaneously on each ship to synchronize them. Would be nice if you could extract modulus max as a variable for dividing into thirds instead of manually setting it each time so you can adjust more efficiently. I did modulus 25,200 to set the clock to a day on Nauvis, which is 7 minutes. Then set the three ships to a circuit of T<8,4000, 8400<=T<=16800, T>16800