Smaler Robot Stacksize

[Shaymes]

I suggest to reduce toe Robots stack size to 10

a Roboport can carry 350 robots (7 slots * stacksize 50)
but it cant handle the recharge of 350 robots with 4 loading ports
so that a single roboport can reload the robots, it need ~5min if each robot need 3sec to reload
ok you can build a 2nd roboport but then you have a total space of 700 robots etc

i think a stacksize of 10 will cause that each roboport can easy load the robots they carry, and if you need more robots you build more roboports anyway.
But the big circles of reloading robots disapear

the 2nd idea i have is a post 0.15 idea:

Like you do with nuclear stuff, maybe roboports can be connected in a sqare of 2,3,4 to increase the reloading spots and increase range.
Same will be nice to see for solar pannel, accumulator, radar, effect, becon etc

*edit* this thread need to be moved to balancing

[Vexos]

At late game its always better to go full robots and its only viable if you add tons of roboports, far beyond the quantity needed to complete a conventional grid of roboports. Whould be good to have an alternate smarter way to do it.

[ssilk]

Moved to Balancing.

[Frightning]

The main reason roboports are allowed to hold far more robots than they can sustain in operation is to help ensure the network runs efficiently. When a robot is done with a job and there isn't a new job for it to do, it will return to the nearest roboport with room for it, top off on power, and enter said roboport. If the roboports capacity roughly matched the number of bots it could support, then the bots would be much less efficient when returning home. A good rule of thumb in practice is 1 stack (50) of logistics bots per roboport, this is usually plenty, even for sudden demand scenarios (like a train arriving).

[greep]

This actually makes sense with what the OP suggests, then, as a 50->10 stack size would mean 70 bots per roboport, above your 50 rule of thumb, with some wiggle room.

That being said, not sure it'd work in practice due to construction bots, even with 20 stack size. You'd have to have dedicated slots for logisitic bots, which seems like more of a hassle to code, so it just sounds easier to have the ports be a huge bucket.

[Frightning]

This actually makes sense with what the OP suggests, then, as a 50->10 stack size would mean 70 bots per roboport, above your 50 rule of thumb, with some wiggle room.

That being said, not sure it'd work in practice due to construction bots, even with 20 stack size. You'd have to have dedicated slots for logisitic bots, which seems like more of a hassle to code, so it just sounds easier to have the ports be a huge bucket.

I frequently have several hundred robots congregating in a single roboport because they all just made deliveries near said roboport. That's the point I was getting at with my previous posting here, you need the 'deep pockets' on the roboport so that those robots don't spent time and energy roaming far to find a home to recharge at and enter.

[Tym]

The congregation of robots wanting to be charged at a roboport might be better addressed by charging-only stations. These might be scattered about a roboport's zone of influence, or it might be simpler from the development point of view to make them attachments to existing roboports.

[Engimage]

I see no need to decrease robot stack size.
However the main culprit while using robots is their charging.
I do like the idea of robots docking roboports while idling and the huge amount of roboports becomes an issue when you need high throughput.
That is why roboport charging stations are a brilliant idea like in this mods
https://mods.factorio.com/mods/Hertizch/RoboCharge
https://mods.factorio.com/mods/Bobingabout/boblogistics
For balancing purposes I would increase the number of charge pads on roboports to at least 10 and would introduce charging stations to dedicate roboports role more to logistic network coverage and robot storage.

Also Bob has introduced nice ideas of making robots more energy-efficient via research by increasing their maximum charge and making roboports charge them faster.

[Shaymes]

with a lower stacksize the robots spread more between the different roboports so you dont have the most robots at the same roboport