Roboports should output missing materials to circuit network / Roboports emit signals with missing blueprint items

[thialfi17]

TL;DR

Roboports should have a circuit option to output the missing construction materials.

What?

Roboports already have an option to "Read [missing] logistic network requests" and I would like a new option to "Read missing construction requests".

Why?

I have been making an auto-assembler/mall mainly for the challenge but, one way in which this design is useful is for crafting one-off items that you may need in generally low quantities and don't want to setup a dedicated assembler/recipe for e.g. train stops or items of higher quality that you don't want a stockpile of because the ingredients are so expensive.

You can see my blueprint here: https://factorioprints.com/view/-O9ol48Km8FeH3RkiEaZ.

It is currently possible to automate construction of items up to a certain amount in the logistic network (build a buffer) or to automate construction based on missing logistics requests but not missing construction requests (space platforms have this feature but it's not something that appears to be applicable to Nauvis).

I think this fleshes out the logistics system a little bit more and due to the (effective) support of this feature on space platforms I think there is a good justification to add this to roboports as well.

If this is accepted I might have a couple of other suggestions for improvements to circuit conditions, but this is a key feature that I cannot work around with more buildings/wires

[Koub]

[Koub] Merged into an existing thread with the same suggestion.

[Hares]

Hard +1 on that.

[Gorthunk]

Roboports should have a circuit option to output the missing construction materials.

With the SA changes I've been using circuit conditions a lot more and this has become a glaring omission. I'm not sure if there used to be more reason not to have this feature, but the alarm is pretty well aware of what the logistics system does and doesn't have so it would be cool if I could use a construction signal alongside my assembly-by-request mall.

[mrvn]

And space platforms can do it. So it can't be a impossible problem anymore. Even just outputing the max 600 items the alert shows would be sufficient for most applications.

[gdubrocks]

Support.

[bluegreen1024]

And space platforms can do it. So it can't be a impossible problem anymore. Even just outputing the max 600 items the alert shows would be sufficient for most applications.

It was surely possible even in 1.1 because several mods did this very thing. (I haven't checked but I hope at least one of them has updated to 2.0). But I also support this being a base game feature so that planets and space platforms have parity with each other (and for performance reasons).

[bluegreen1024]

Sadly I can't remember the names of those mods and I wasn't able to find anything when searching either "construction" or "ghost" though... so maybe they haven't updated.

[aaron311]

"Ghost Scanner"
"Logistics Signals"

were two that I used.

[mrvn]

"Ghost Scanner"
"Logistics Signals"

were two that I used.

Do they generate signals for the whole surface or individual roboport networks? I think the performance problem was with deciding which roboport network each ghost belongs to.

Anyway, the game generates alerts for up to 600 missing ghosts per roboport network so clearly that part could be put on the circuit network.

[bluegreen1024]

Definitely not per surface iirc, as that would be useless pre-2.0. But neither of those two seems to be updated and I can't find another that does the same. And you are probably right, since two distinct roboport networks can have overlapping construction zones. I've never tested whether the base game alerts give consistent values in that situation.

[Hares]

Definitely not per surface iirc, as that would be useless pre-2.0. But neither of those two seems to be updated and I can't find another that does the same. And you are probably right, since two distinct roboport networks can have overlapping construction zones. I've never tested whether the base game alerts give consistent values in that situation.

They tend to throw a warning if the closest network does not have the required machine, even if it is present on the overlapping network (warning is removed after entity is built). However, I don't see any concerns even on the duplicating values since this will be only used to producing or importing missing materials, and importing a few machines more is completely OK.

[mrvn]

Definitely not per surface iirc, as that would be useless pre-2.0. But neither of those two seems to be updated and I can't find another that does the same. And you are probably right, since two distinct roboport networks can have overlapping construction zones. I've never tested whether the base game alerts give consistent values in that situation.

They tend to throw a warning if the closest network does not have the required machine, even if it is present on the overlapping network (warning is removed after entity is built). However, I don't see any concerns even on the duplicating values since this will be only used to producing or importing missing materials, and importing a few machines more is completely OK.

Ghosts now change color when a bot is assigned to them. So the alert in the wrong network should also disappear at that time, maybe with a 10s delay for it to fade.

Although I recently blueprinted a huge solar array and got a warning about 3000+ missing ghosts. So the 1 item per tick for 600 ticks limit on the construction bots and alerts seem to have been raised. So the delay may have changed.

[spectria.limina]

Throwing another +1 on this; I really want to use it to automatically resupply bases.

[Sworn]

+1 as well

[fazol]

+1, please

If performance is the problem, maybe some kind of on-demand scan.
For example provide x signal and scan will began and will take some time - same as we can see when we hover over missing materials alert, it raises over time. When it finish it will emit y signal and items missing for construcion. With that we can still make some circuit magic and scan we are ready to build/send train with materials etc

[mrvn]

+1, please

If performance is the problem, maybe some kind of on-demand scan.
For example provide x signal and scan will began and will take some time - same as we can see when we hover over missing materials alert, it raises over time. When it finish it will emit y signal and items missing for construcion. With that we can still make some circuit magic and scan we are ready to build/send train with materials etc

I would doubt performance is a problem when the option is not selected. And then don't use it unless your CPU can take it. Does that make sense?