Build Action Repeater

[ssilk]

An entity, which is able to store build-actions and repeat them in the right moment.

How it works:
- The build-action-repeater is an entity, which can be placed anywhere.
- You give an empty blueprint into it. Then you can start to record a build action.
- After this record, everything you have build (normal placing, ghosts, deconstruction, blueprinting) is stored in a new blueprint. Especially the deconstruction can normally not be stored in a blueprint.
- Now you can deconstruct everything and press the play button. It will place everything as if you placed a blueprint at exactly this place.
- You can take now out this blueprint and put it into another build-action-repeater and press play: The blueprint is then placed exactly at the same place relative to the BAR as before.
- The BAR has ... let's say 10 stacks to place blueprints. And every stack can be triggered at some kind of event, some kind of programming is possible.

Now the fun begins:
Creating big (edit: endless!) solar panel area. Programming could look like follows:

- Blueprint1: Start, if we don't have enough power. Place a roboport and poles over everthing in the way. See https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=7342
- BP2: Start, when BP1 is finished. Clear up the whole area! Deconstructon of everything in the way.
- BP3: Start when BP2 is finished AND if we have enough solar panels AND accumulators. Then place solar-panel/accumulators around.
- BP4: When finished with BP3. Place a new BAR and copy in the current program of this BAR.
- BP5: Destroy this BAR.

This last command will destroy the current BAR, but the blueprints in it will be saved of course and the bots will bring it to this next BAR.

BP5 is not needed, if we have a BP-copier. But this is a completely different suggestion!

As events (BP1 and 3 is more complex) I can imagine for the first implementation just some simple circuit/logistic-network connection, like the smart inserter. "Don't have enough power" is then just a couple of inserters and chests, same principle as https://forums.factorio.com/wiki/inde ... ailable.3F

Later we will have special sensors for that. But that is also a quite different thread.

[katyal]

Well thought out idea ....I could just see a factory gain a life of its own with something like this

[n9103]

Just sounds like an alternative to construction bots' function that isn't particularly different. (Other than relying on the still non-existent extended sensor readings and better logic programming.)

[katyal]

Unless I've misunderstood ssilk, the idea is to have the factory build itself without player intervention. The mechanism for building the blueprint would be the same ie: Construction bots. The difference is that the factory places the blue print not the player.

[ssilk]

Exactly.
Forgot to mention the sense around this.

[n9103]

With extended programming and sensor readings, I don't see why a roboport couldn't do the same.

[ssilk]

We can put this functionality also into an inserter, but I think this is not the point...

[Koub]

That's me doing Excel Macros :
Start recording
=> Filter
=> Compute
=> Arrange
=> Stop recording
=> Go into VBA editor, and cleanse/indent/declare vars for the code to be clean
=> Enjoy

[LordFedora]

Did somebody say Turing complete?

[n9103]

I don't see why it's not already possible with the signal networks already present.
Just extremely tedious. Like it was for the guy that made DF Turing complete.

[Nova]

To be honest, this idea is too early. We have to get the new smart logistic in the new version (0.12?) before we can start suggest something like this. But as soons as we got this smart logistics, we have to look at the new features and try to use them.

But we can have this thread as some kind of "reminder".



Well, your example with the solar panels is weird. It sounds much easier to just store a big blueprint with a roboport, enough solar panels and accumulators. Placing one of this blueprints should give you a big power boost, but I don't know if that will be sufficient for modded Factories.

[immibis]

Programmable robots (like ComputerCraft turtles) sound more fun.

[ssilk]

Well, I thought a bit about this, before I made this suggestion.


I try to explain a bit, but the thoughts are a bit "jumping".

The blueprint is nothing else, than a program. It is not just a plan, it's really a lua program!
This is a game mechanism, which enables universal placing of entities. It will also allow to create bigger blueprints out of smaller, or deconstruction, instead of construction. Or any other type of construction building.

What it doesn't include is the "how". How is something built. It would be not much afford to replace the build routine. For example to create maps: take a BP and place it in the map editor, and the entities are immediately placed. Build a home base in seconds. And then play it. The world generator can be feed with a number of blueprints and will place them anywhere on the map. For example: You will discover an old mining outpost, if you search around. They are set by random.

The same can be done in game: instead of ghosted buildings, there is some new kind of "ghosted building" which cannot be placed by robots, but only by robot turtles. But the turtles don't exist and the robots do.

This suggestion is not about the "how"!

It is about automation of building new stuff. Endless self reproduction, how to program that, how to handle the "programs" (blueprints).

The "how" is a completely different problem.

[ssilk]

Similar suggestion: https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=8687