[MOD 0.18] Robot Army. v0.4.4

[kyranzor]

Any plan for droids that run out of bullets?

If not, I might consider forking it.

You go any ideas for implementation?

[kiba]

Any plan for droids that run out of bullets?

If not, I might consider forking it.

You go any ideas for implementation?

Give all droids ammo inventory. Reload them through logistics bot.

Actually, I would go further and make all droids general purpose. They would all be modular through their internal inventory. When you make specialized units, all you're really doing is installing different modules.

Better versions would have more inventory space, faster walking speed, more armor.

[kyranzor]

Sorry to be blunt, but I don't think you understand how units/entities in Factorio work, in a modding perspective..

The entity type of the droids is a "Unit" which in the minds of the Factorio devs is simple a Biter with AI. The biters were their main focus in mind while designing these entities so they lack a huge amount of simple interfaces/properties. They cannot have inventories, or equipment slots, for example.

Some serious "hacks" or workarounds would need to be done to implement the concept for ammo for droids.

I had an idea to simulate it, by monitoring each squad for "combat action" and while in combat, reduce a simulated ammo counter which is unique to each squad. When the squad runs out of simulated ammo, they would then be commanded to automatically return to nearest droid assembler or guard station and they would be "simulated" to be resupplied with more ammo. They would then go back out to hunt.

That's what I'm thinking anyway.

[kiba]

Sorry to be blunt, but I don't think you understand how units/entities in Factorio work, in a modding perspective..

The entity type of the droids is a "Unit" which in the minds of the Factorio devs is simple a Biter with AI. The biters were their main focus in mind while designing these entities so they lack a huge amount of simple interfaces/properties. They cannot have inventories, or equipment slots, for example.

Some serious "hacks" or workarounds would need to be done to implement the concept for ammo for droids.

I had an idea to simulate it, by monitoring each squad for "combat action" and while in combat, reduce a simulated ammo counter which is unique to each squad. When the squad runs out of simulated ammo, they would then be commanded to automatically return to nearest droid assembler or guard station and they would be "simulated" to be resupplied with more ammo. They would then go back out to hunt.

That's what I'm thinking anyway.

I was actually thinking how to work around this.

I knew how entities work and how inflexible they are. I am a modder myself(See my MagneticFloor mod).

[kyranzor]

How can we/I implement an inventory system efficiently? Like, I could spawn an invisible chest and teleport it around with the squad (or just have it hide somewhere inconspicuous) and maintain that.. but you can have many hundreds of squads potentially so it might be a lot of CPU drain

[Nexela]

The only way I can think to do something like this reliably would be your first example. Each squad has an ammocount table

making droids requires x ammo of whatever type in addition to current items.

as droids squads are created squad-ammo-count is increased by X, as droids die squad-ammo-count is decreased by .5x, as stuff is killed (trees, biters) squad-ammo-count is reduced by .1x (or even less)

when a squad runs out of ammo -retreat- to the nearest rally-point or droid-spawner. If there is an ammo-chest (which is also a requester chest ) in range with their ammo type in it. x ammo is removed until squad-ammo-count is back to squad-alive-count x spawn-ammo-amount.

Also this should be an optional config

This would be the least resource heavy way of doing it.

[kyranzor]

The only way I can think to do something like this reliably would be your first example. Each squad has an ammocount table

making droids requires x ammo of whatever type in addition to current items.

as droids squads are created squad-ammo-count is increased by X, as droids die squad-ammo-count is decreased by .5x, as stuff is killed (trees, biters) squad-ammo-count is reduced by .1x (or even less)

when a squad runs out of ammo -retreat- to the nearest rally-point or droid-spawner. If there is an ammo-chest (which is also a requester chest ) in range with their ammo type in it. x ammo is removed until squad-ammo-count is back to squad-alive-count x spawn-ammo-amount.

Also this should be an optional config

This would be the least resource heavy way of doing it.

Yeah, I think that's the most reasonable way. I already had an "ammo count" parameter in my config files, unused though. I never implemented the limited ammo aspect of it. Honestly, having the squads path back to the base just to resupply causes more problems than it's worth to simulate ammo. The pathfinding and getting a squad from A to B successfully is terribly fragile.

[ray4ever]

I´m not sure if ammo would be a good requirement for your robot army. I don't think that it would add much gameplay wise and would just managing your army harder. I think the ammo problem is taken care of the fact that your army is regularly destroyed. So I like to think that the ammo cost is already included in the production cost of the unit.

[Exavier724]

I am of two minds on the ammo cost idea.

Instead of pathing back to an ammo chest (which would cause alot of issues I agree) why not make the ammo chest a reverse version of the artifact chest? You put ammo into it and any squad can pull from it. I wouldn't make it a requester by itself personally since it would limit some of the circuit network ammo controls you could set up (so it doesn't drain your factory).

As to what ammo does for your army, I don't think I would make it a "I ran out and am now useless" considering the amount of resorces already going to the bots. Instead maybe make it a passive buff to that squad? If it is "Supplied" with an ammo type it can use then it will get a +% buff to its damage output, If not then it just functions off base+researched damage bonuses. Would let you augment a smaller army (useful for congested, forested maps or those with resources to burn for both army & ammo) to get more effect out of each individual unit.

You could also tie in repair packs this way so the units auto repair if there are packs available to increase their survivability

[kyranzor]

Yeah.. I think overall the complexity doesn't add enough to the experience to make it worth it, especially because it will be suboptimal and hack to implement.

If I had 100% control over the way it is added, like to the base game, it would be more feasible.

[Arch666Angel]

If you want to simulate something like this, I would suggest you implement a kind of distance check to the next robot assembler, the farther the bots go the lower their fire frequency gets. Add a supply depot building so the player could extend the range, possibly with a counter check, if there are robots in range consume x amount of ammo.

Personally I like it the way it is.

[Mattyrogue]

At this point you may as well just factor in the ammunition consumption into the initial investment if you really want to go into it without adding any complexity (You know, something simple like 5 Basic Magazines for a Clockie, 10 AP for a standard robot, a couple of batteries or a couple of flamer tanks for Termies/Flamers)
That way the only additional load is on the player, instead of hacking in some half-working backend that may or may not work. Though if you ask me, the cost/investment at the moment is just right for the amount of usefulness you get out of these machines.

[cj89898]

Error I get: http://img.cjservers.net:3096/webserver ... -06-51.jpg

Update factorio to 0.13.x experimental builds.

My mod only works on the new Factorio versions, 0.13.14+

I realized that I was on v0.12.x a bit after the fact. (I use it on steam now so I had to enable experimental )

[Dramegno]

sorry if this has been asked already but the search/hunt radius of the army where is it centered on? I am mostly sure that it is centered on player spawn, the spot that the droid spawned at, and/or rally post?

[kyranzor]

sorry if this has been asked already but the search/hunt radius of the army where is it centered on? I am mostly sure that it is centered on player spawn, the spot that the droid spawned at, and/or rally post?

The hunt radius is centered on the squad. Almost all aspects of the robot army mod is squad-centered. The squad will always look for closest things (enemies, droid assembler to retreat to.. etc) from its own position.

[Dramegno]

so I can just move my rally point farther and farther away to effectively increase my area?

[kyranzor]

so I can just move my rally point farther and farther away to effectively increase my area?

The rally point doesn't do that.. what exactly are you doing?

[Dramegno]

I have exhausted all of the nests with in over a 10 minute car ride from my factory and my robots just sit their congregating where I have a singular rally point. I was hoping that I could possibly put a rally point(s) a little ways out towards the edge of my map and hope that the robots start moving again. I also have a few squads that looks like they have wondered over 10,000 units from my rally point and still hasn't moved after 2+hours of gameplay (also according to map they seem to be in a desert biome) I am just trying in the end get more artifacts for my starved research.

[Mattyrogue]

I have exhausted all of the nests with in over a 10 minute car ride from my factory and my robots just sit their congregating where I have a singular rally point. I was hoping that I could possibly put a rally point(s) a little ways out towards the edge of my map and hope that the robots start moving again. I also have a few squads that looks like they have wondered over 10,000 units from my rally point and still hasn't moved after 2+hours of gameplay (also according to map they seem to be in a desert biome) I am just trying in the end get more artifacts for my starved research.

Well... First and foremost, if the radar/map is entirely clear of nests the first thing you need to do is manually go out there and trigger new chunk-loads, which given time will trigger Biter expansions on their own. Let them regenerate and encroach again and you'll be able to send the bots out from the factory.

In the meantime, just pick up the assembler and move it towards the nearest outpost/frontline and redeploy your bots from it, they should pick up nearby nests in a radius of the assembler and go hunting.

[Dramegno]

Thank you for the help I now understand how this and other things work more effectively.