Easy solution to add a ton of automation

[thatguy321]

Right now when you select things to be deconstructed, they instantly stop working. Imagine the level of automation you could add if buildings continued to work even after they were selected for deconstruction. You could build a mining outpost, select it for deconstruction, and have a crate of construction bots waiting in a crate next to a roboport. Once a circuit condition was met, like "no more ore coming down transport belt" an inserter could load the construction bots into the roboport and they would then deconstruct the mining outpost. All that stuff could be automatically loaded onto a train and sent to the next ore field where you already blueprinted everything and placed down another roboport.

[Zerias]

If that example is your primary motivation, please consider the Auto-Deconstruct mod. When a miner runs out of resources, it is automatically tagged for deconstruction, making it easy enough to send to a new outpost as you suggested. For other buildings, I don't think there's an equivalent mod, but I'm also unsure what situations would need it for those buildings.

[thatguy321]

Thanks for mentioning that, I'll check it out. But with my solution, you would not have to leave hardly anything behind. All the turrets, walls, train tracks, signals, etc. could all be picked up and moved to another outpost or the main base. Or even furnaces too if you do your smelting onsite at the ore patches.

[EvanT]

You will have to collect the chest, roboport, etc at minimum. And by depending on no construction bots in the grid while the outpost is active you have no automatic repair and no replacement of destroyed entities.. This is a quite heavy disadvantage just to have the outpost gone.

[Zeblote]

I always have repair bots in every outpost. So this wouldn't actually be usable.

[thatguy321]

Good points about the repair bots! Well perhaps then you could modify the deconstruction tool so that the buildings are "ghost marked" for deconstruction and they don't become actively marked until a circuit condition is met? My point being is I think there could be a very easy solution to automating one of the most tedious parts of the game which is deconstructing mining outposts.

[Neemys]

The point of deconstructing something IS to deconstruct it, so you turn it off at the same time so it don't mess anymore.

So having building marked to deconstruction still work until they are removed is not a good change for as it will bring more hassle than good. Take this example, you need to rework the end of some construction line. There is belt that carry stuff to this end of line. Bot will only try to unload belt marked a deconstruction but because they still work, they receive new material from previous belt so bot will continue to try to unload, etc.

What's needed is a way to order deconstruction by circuit network. You could do your thing if you want (there will still be leftover) but it will not mess with thing as they are now. As a bonus for you, bot could be in roboport and repair while your outpost is working, and only deconstruct when you detect no activity.

While we are at it, why not being able to place blueprint by circuit network. After your outpost has been deconstructed, you could automatically, build a little and defended radar outpost, or something else.

______

Why do you want to deconstruct outpost when you are not here ? Not everything will be removed. Inserter and chest containing the outpost before it was loaded into a chest, the roboport used, either the bots in the roboport or inserter/belt used to move them to the train, the train stop and the rails leading to the outpost. You will need to go to the outpost anyway to remove those leftover. You will gain a bit of time, but with power armor and personal roboport and some technology, it take praticaly nothing to tear down an outpost. And while the outpost is deconstructed and you are not here to collect the leftover, biter can attack and destroy them too (mostly if they try to settle a new base near it).

[aober93]

Prebuilding is a nice idea, but essentially its still building meaning that you still have to do it. The only difference is that you are building blindly, which is by the current state and design of the game hardly possible. Gameplaywise this will be a building process, and you want it limited to blueprints only. Not good.

Automatic deconstruction can fit gameplay. But its value is fairly limited.

[Neemys]

@aober93 You can place ghost entity from the beginning of the game you know ? Even if you don't have bots, that make building planning better

[ssilk]

Moved from General to Suggestions.

[Yoyobuae]

Why do you want to deconstruct outpost when you are not here ? Not everything will be removed. Inserter and chest containing the outpost before it was loaded into a chest, the roboport used, either the bots in the roboport or inserter/belt used to move them to the train, the train stop and the rails leading to the outpost. You will need to go to the outpost anyway to remove those leftover. You will gain a bit of time, but with power armor and personal roboport and some technology, it take praticaly nothing to tear down an outpost. And while the outpost is deconstructed and you are not here to collect the leftover, biter can attack and destroy them too (mostly if they try to settle a new base near it).

You could have another roboport deconstruct that stuff, then another roboport which deconstructs that roboport, then another roboport... you get the idea. Deconstruction chain would go all the way back to main base.