[MOD 0.14.x] LokisRequestChest_0.2.0 (smartRequest)

[LordLoki]

Hi Everybody,

I decided to put out my early Alpha here to get some Feedback from you guys.
Let me say that i never made a mod before but i wanted this Feature so i sat down yesterday Evening and looked at some Mods of other people to see how stuff works and after a sleepless night i have a basic version of my mod up and running.

What it does:
Instead of constantly pinging the robots to fill up the chest with items it lets them fill up once then stops the request until the item is down to 10 pieces
Then it lets them fill up to the requested amount again.
Prevents robots from flying around like idiots to fill up 2 items that were used for production.
When you set up the amount to fill up to keep in mind how fast and how much your robts can deliver and how fast the items go out. If your robots need 5 seconds to deliver an iron plate but the inserter takes out 1 every second your robots will still fly forever

How it works?
If you place the Loki Chest it works like any other Request Chest you put in your request like usual
but the chest will store your request in an array and when the requested amount is reached it will set the request value to 1
then it checks every tick if the itemcount is down to 10 or below and sets the request amount back to the initial value.
If you change a slot the array gets updated.

What is coming?
I am working on a gui where you can set the amount on which he starts requesting again. If you hover over a box and press "SHIFT +Q" you should already get the first draft of that but it does nothing special you just see what is the requested amount for each item.

What i want from you?
As stated before i am new to the Modding stuff but i have experience with Coding.
I tested the mod on my installation and it was working fine so far whole night producing advanced solar panels with robots
So if you could download it install and give me feedback on issues and bugs i would be a happy man

http://bit.ly/2dI4M5u

[LordLoki]

Was thinking about the mod Yesterday. I think i will change it so that the request gets deleted instead of set to 1.
Also i want to add an Option to check for items in the network first.

Lets say you have the robot set to fill the chest with 400 iron plates it gets filled up production starts and now its down to 10.
When the option is set the chest would first check if there are 400 iron plates available in the network then set the request. if not it waits till the network has 400 plates again and starts the fillup request.

That would greatly improve the efficiency of your robots cause they really only work if the set target can be fullfilled.

Greets
Loki

[LordLoki]

To all the 9 People who downloaded the mod. I hope you like it and it runs without problems so far.
I am still working on the mod cause i really like robots and this greatly improves efficiency of robots in supplying construction chains with materials.

Here are some News.
- added the function that robots wait till there are enough ressources in the network to supply the complete demand of a chest.
- still working on the GUI (we really need some decent tutorials on that)

Future Ideas
- I am thinking about adding a priority system to the chests that gives you the oppertunity to prioritize the distribution of certain items.

for example if you have 5 chests in your network that Request Copper you could set a priority List so that your Copper wire production is served first and battery production goes second etc.
You could run 2 modes of priorisation one that always prefers the higher ranked chest and a second one where higher ranked chest is prioritized but if the 2nd rank did not get a delivery since time x it temporarily takes priority. this would ensure you do not starve one path of production

Thanks and greets
Loki

[GTrak]

Nice mod!
I have a blueprint issue when request amount is 1.
looks blurprint doesn't remember my set number.

[LordLoki]

Hi Gtrak,

Thanks for the Feedback and the compliment, glad you like it
Did not think of blueprints when creating the Mod the problem here is that it will copy the "current" slots and not the table assosciated with the chest
For now a workaround would be to create the setup outside of your Roboport range then copy it cause as long as the request is not fulfilled it has the original request in the slots.
I will look into it to see how i can fix that

The next version will come in the next days let me know if you encounter any other problems

Greets
Loki

[LordLoki]

In case somebody is interested in the Mod i will upload a new Version until tomorrow and updated the Main post to comply with the General Mod Post style.
I will also add a small Video explaining what the Mod does and hope it will not be to shitty

So far the following Changes will be in the new Version.
CHANGES

• Changes the color of the Chest to Green so that its easy to distinct from the other Logistic chests (not a graphics guy but its not to terrible )
• Changed the Logic so if a chest is filled up the request gets deleted from the chest instead of set to 1
• Added a second condition so that the robots will wait until the network has enough material to fullfill the complete request
• Finished the GUI so now you can change the Fillup amount and the Minimum amount from the GUI
• Also added the option to change requested item via gui by dropping the item on a slot in the GUI

Known Issues

• The Chests can be blueprinted but will not have the requests copied
  • Manual Workaround just build your setup outside of roboport range then blueprint it (will work cause the request will not be deleted when its still open)
  • I plan to build in a blueprint mode so that you can activate this mode and all chests would behave like normal request chests again while this mode is on this way you can copy them with the request
• You can not Copy the settings with Shift + right click (same issue like the blueprints)
  • I think i can fix this without the need of an extra mode like above will look into it for version 0.2.2

Future Plans

• Change the GUI to make it look better
• Make a Menu for the GUI where you can choose the items to request instead of dragging them in
• Make the feature that robots wait until there are enough Items in the Chest Optional for each chest
• Check if its possible to open the custom menu when you open the chest so that you dont need to use a hotkey