Requester chest that also works as provider chest

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quadrox
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Requester chest that also works as provider chest

Post by quadrox »

Sometimes items are produced in a central location, but are requested (typically by the player) in places that are farther away. In order to reduce waiting time for the items, it would be nice if the items could be stored in special chests in the outer part of the base.

AFAIK, there is currently no good way to achieve this. When using requester chests, the content of the chests is unavailable to logistic requests. When using pure storage chests, it takes a lot of micromanaging to persuade logistic robots to deliver to specific chests, and it does not work very well. No control.

The new chest type should work like this, to resolve conflicts:

1) The new chest will only receive items from provider chests (active/passive). It will not receive items from other chests of this type, otherwise you could get loops.
2) The new chest will provide items to any requester, but not for chests of it's own type.
3) The new chest will have priority to receive items compared to storage chests, but other requesters will have higher priority.

With these rules we can avoid loops, and it is always clear which chest should receive/provide items.

The biggest problem with this idea is to come up with a good name for this chest type...

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Tepalus
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Re: Requester chest that also works as provider chest

Post by Tepalus »

I had the same problem. If i want for example some belts, i order them. Then after using some, i want to give them back to a chest with a robot but i have no control of where it goes. If you have one place, where belts are made and you want all belts keep there, there is no chance at the moment to give them back there without having a loop... (for ex. you have a provider chest for belts and you have a requesterchest to take belts back. The problem is a infinite loop)


I think the main problem is not the name but to implement it in the game?

Nameideas:
- Inventory Chest
- Players Chest
- Provider and Requester Chest
- Tradechest
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sillyfly
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Re: Requester chest that also works as provider chest

Post by sillyfly »

Related thread, with lots of interesting points and discussions: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=8366

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Re: Requester chest that also works as provider chest

Post by EvanT »

The exact same concept: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=23088

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bobingabout
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Re: Requester chest that also works as provider chest

Post by bobingabout »

It basically sounds like you want a high priority (things are put in here first, and taken out of here first) Storage chest, with a filter to say what can be placed inside it.

Yes?
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Tepalus
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Re: Requester chest that also works as provider chest

Post by Tepalus »

I think he wants something like this:

ex.: An assembling machine produce belts. This belts are put in the new chest. If you now order belts, they will first be picked from those chests. After the use you have a little bit to much belts in the inventory. Now you can return the belts to the chest until it is full or the number you want is inside it.

This is to prevent this loop:

"Providerchest" provids belts, "Requesterchest" request belts. In theory robots now will take belts from you and put them in the requesterchest. On the other hand, you will get belts from the providerchest. But now there is a loop, where robots will take belts from the provider and put them in the requester. If you have a inserter between the chests and they are orderet as this: RC->PC, the inserter puts belts in the PC and robots will put back the belts to the RC. Result is a loop and you don't get any belts. If they are orderet as this: RC<-PC, you also won't get any belts because the provider is also all time empty
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Re: Requester chest that also works as provider chest

Post by Khaylain »

I almost made a new thread about this, but figured I'd try to add my thoughts to this one, as it might help flesh out or change the idea.


I've been thinking about some way to have a chest that can supply old/unused items to an assembler while the item is still being produced as an intermediate product for another item. An example of this would be the normal/yellow belts. When you're making red and blue belts you'll still need to make yellow belts to feed this production, and when you're upgrading your factory from yellow to either of these you'll get a lot of yellow belts. It would be great if there was a chest that could take any of a chosen item that's "in the air", AKA being transported by a logistics robot.
__________
|´´´´´´´´| <-- [ ] Passive requester chest for yellow belts
|´´´´´´´´| <-- [ ] Passive provider chest for yellow belts
|________|

This example shows some of what I would use for red belt production if we had the possibility to have passive requesters. There's a Passive provider chest that allows for making other things that require yellow belts somewhere else in the factory, while the Passive requester chest would not try taking all the belts from the provider. Only when the player comes into the network with yellow belts in his trash slots would the Passive requester be filled. Or if you're using the mod "Upgrade planner" the bots would take the now useless yellow belts to the passive requester before trying to take them to Storage chests.

Priority for putting items into chests:
1. Requester chest (actively requests an item)
2. Passive requester chest (requests items that need storage without actively requesting them from other chests)
3. Storage chests (takes in any item with nowhere else to go)

I guess if we'd have filters on Storage chests it could work the same as what I'm thinking of. Seeing as logistics robots should fill filtered chests before any other, while not actively taking items from a passive provider to them.

I'm thinking I've overlooked something, but I can't find out what. Anyone else see what I've missed?

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