Dedicated logistic routes with drones between chests and independent logistic networks with drones (mail drones)

[aklesey1]

The idea is to add a logistic line between the request chests and the active provider chests and passive provider chests - everything can be implemented by analogy with the addition of routes for trains
Trains are biulk and requires much space
Drones can take items from any provider chests and put it any request or storage chest if their robort connected in aggregate logistic network - here's big problem - i can't split logistic newtorks if their logistic areas touches with ech other - I know that the game has labels indicating what roboports and another logistic objects have network numbers but it doesn't make sense if there's no way to separate them from each other if the network is still merged into 1 network, if not try to carry the roboports as far as possible and to prevent their contact
I know that drons could eat many energy but sometimes i want to have independent logistic lines which will be quickly serviced and the logistic network will not be excess or lack of items - i can realize it with conveyor belts but I can be limited in the place of laying the conveyor belt and the conveyor line will often be slower than a drone which can develop a higher speed and its route will be shorter than the conveyor belt because most drones stray fly in a straight line

The implementation of this logistical idea should be at the latest stage of the game and require utility science packs and/or space science packs
The more I play the game and try to plan logistics chains for highly specialized routes, the more I come to the conclusion that drones with dedicated logistics routes will be an excellent solution to this logistic problem
Just like mail delivery by mail drone

Too many words but i hope I hope I was able to convey the meaning of my idea

[slippycheeze]

I'm pretty sure this won't happen, but with the new features for pathfinding in the game now it shouldn't be terribly inefficient to do all this from a mod in Lua. The most costly part, getting from point A to point B, can now be fully delegated to the C++ code, just as the C++ implemented robots do.

[Impatient]

Being able to set up routes for bots has, as far as I can see, 2 advantages:


1. As it can be prevented that bots take shortcuts into enemy terrain, they can be protected from native attacks.

2. The route can be set in a way, that it runs along a chain of a (sufficient) number of roboports and thus times for going to and waiting for a recharge place and going back to the route can be kept low.

[ssilk]

That’s what trains are for.

[Lubricus]

I don't think logistic bots needs a buff. It's good that they have limitations and drawbacks.

[BlueTemplar]

You might want to try :
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/logicarts

[slippycheeze]

You might want to try :
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/logicarts

These are, in fact, pretty much exactly what the OP asked for, warts and all. Fairly sensibly balanced, too, in terms of cost, performance, and smarts. You need manually controlled circuit network interfaces to make them really smart, they otherwise just do their thing more or less trivially, and the overall cost of them is quite low. I wouldn't bet on it being lower than bots, but I wouldn't want to bet much on it being higher, either, at scale.