Worker bots

[benwillard]

Worker bots and specialized roboports

Workers bots which could harvest trees or ores, using pickaxes.

What ?

The idea is to have a class of workers bots, working around a robotic mine (a specialized roboport) when harvesting ore or a around a lumber mill when harvesting wood.
The number of workers by mine would be limited by the mine tier, and the time to unload bots, by modules.
They would use pickaxes. Pickaxes could have some tiers too : wood and iron, wood and steel, plastic and steel. They would be out of use after a number of hits depending upon their tier ofc,like the old pickaxe. So you would need a supply of pickaxes to sustain a robotic mine/lumbermill.

Why ?

So you can have automatic lumber jacks. And a way to get ore from small deposits, or even have a workers vehicle (mobile mine/harvester). (With the same look as the one in Command&Conquer? )

(English is not my primary language)

[conn11]

If there was only a reason to automate wood (in Vanilla).
Construction bots can remove trees already (without the need of the long gone pickaxe).
Furthermore there are sufficient other options .

[netmand]

I can picture it; a sort of roboport acts as a source for the mine item, storing bots that are miners. These bot miners cover a specific area and seek tiles for the resource (for this description, let's not include trees). They move over to the tile and mine the resource, using a pickaxe like a construction bot would with a repair pack, mine the resource until it fills its cargo (or the square is depleted) and then drops it off at the roboport, where the resource is then dispensed.

One aspect seems to be missing though; how are mining improvements and modules handled? Normally the mine building itself works on one tile at a time and employs progress bar(s) to indicate mining time, this can also be enhanced when tech improvements are researched or modules are inserted into the building. Since this proposed moves the mining action to the mining bot, is it the intent to move all of the relative parameters to these bots as well such as progress and production tracking? How would beacons be employed?

[aka13]

I can picture it; a sort of roboport acts as a source for the mine item, storing bots that are miners. These bot miners cover a specific area and seek tiles for the resource (for this description, let's not include trees). They move over to the tile and mine the resource, using a pickaxe like a construction bot would with a repair pack, mine the resource until it fills its cargo (or the square is depleted) and then drops it off at the roboport, where the resource is then dispensed.

One aspect seems to be missing though; how are mining improvements and modules handled? Normally the mine building itself works on one tile at a time and employs progress bar(s) to indicate mining time, this can also be enhanced when tech improvements are researched or modules are inserted into the building. Since this proposed moves the mining action to the mining bot, is it the intent to move all of the relative parameters to these bots as well such as progress and production tracking? How would beacons be employed?

Klonan has implemented this in a mod quite a while ago, I am afraid if it is still in a mod form, that perhaps kovarex does not like the concept, or some other internal reasons exist.

https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Mining_Drones

[jamiechi1]

Yes, this is a very good mod, and I am fine with it staying as a mod and not built in.
But, it no longer handles trees or rocks.
And it would be nice if the mining bots could dig moats for me. Like the original Stronghold game.