Feature request: Allow one-time orders from logistic network

[Recon419A]

I agree with this feature request. I love the new logistics interface, but it would be very nice (especially when playing modded saves) to be able to request something just once - or several times in rapid succession - without permanently queuing it. A good example is when you're building a nuclear reactor set-up: you probably don't want five hundred concrete, five hundred copper, five hundred advanced circuits, and five hundred steel in your inventory except for those times when you're hand-crafting a nuclear reactor (and I always hand craft them because I only need four or six). An even better example is heat exchangers: you're only ever going to need like sixty, so it makes no sense to automate, but crafting them by hand is a massive pain without setting an extremely high copper request that you have to trash when you're done. My proposed solution would be some sort of "shift click to summon materials" that allows you to shift-click something you don't have the materials to build, at which point one-time logistics requests are set to bring you the items you need to make it. You could then repeatedly shift-click it or shift right-click it to queue more "crafting ghosts" that would enter your crafting queue as the materials show up, preventing your inventory from filling unnecessarily. There would still be incentive to automate things you need a lot of due to crafting time, but it would ease the pain of managing so many obscure materials - especially in, say, Angelbob's, where I regularly keep five kinds of pipe, four kinds of gear, and four kinds of bearing in my inventory so that I can craft the various things like steam engines and pumpjacks that I haven't automated.

[NotRexButCaesar]

I’d say probably just add mod support for it

[ssilk]

The autotrash mod goes into that direction... at least it makes such things a bit easier, but far from perfect implementation of this suggestion.

[Makeyourselfnerd]

+1. I like this idea also, especially the ability to do a one time order based on a held blueprint.

For today, you all can just slap down a blue requester chest and do a one time order right there. You have to hang out a bit and can't go running all around, but just clear the request after the bots bring everything BEFORE you pull the stuff into your inventory and no excess will come.

[ssilk]

joined another old thread from March 2016 into this (bit older) topic — ssilk

[NotRexButCaesar]

I really just don’t think this is necessary. I would probably almost never use it

[PyroFire]

Perhaps this could instead be achieved by using requester/buffer chests for the items you want to one-time-order.

[Koub]

Perhaps this could instead be achieved by using requester/buffer chests for the items you want to one-time-order.

Unless you haven't discovered them, which was precisely my case yesterday, when I tried to setup an outpost, and I spent what seemd to me to be hours to fiddle with my regular logistic requests, because I suddenly needed excess items, and also afterwards forgetting I had set exceptional requests for my regular items, and ended up with thousands excess belts, inserters, mining drills, ... in my inventory I had to ditch. Well it can be done without, but it's a real mess.

[Drogiwan Cannobi]

TL;DR

It would be useful to enable or disable single logistic requests or rows of them.

What?

• When constructing large builds (especially outposts or other stuff outside roboport range) I always have to disable my logistic requests, empty my inventory and pick up a lot of stuff manually. Or alternatively (and even worse) delete my requests and request like 2k rails, 1k miners and so on which are sure to clog up my inventory once the build is done. Also in general I find it's never quite possible to really carry all the different buildings you might need (As I usually request 1k belts and stuff like that). It would be very nice to be able to enable/disable certain single requests or (even better imo) whole rows of requests. This way you could have an "mining outpost row", an "oil outpost row" and so on.

[Koub]

[Koub] Merged into older topic with same suggestion.
Also very related : viewtopic.php?f=6&t=14504

[jonc211]

TL;DR

Logistic requests persist and are always active. I think there is a use for a logistic request that is fulfilled one time and then deactivates.

What?

The more I think about it, the more I realise that there are two categories of things that you request through the logistic request feature.
Those that you always want to have supplied, e.g. belts, inserters etc. and those that you want once for a specific activity.

The specific activity requests might be things like setting up a new outpost, importing some artillery turrets to Gleba - that sort of thing.

The "trash unrequested" feature comes close to what I think would be useful, but you still need to remember to turn the request off once it has been fulfilled.

I can see some complexities in terms of removing items before the request has been fully satisified, but it feels like Factorio already keeps track of this to some degree? e.g. if I make a logistic request for some items, then once bots have been assigned, they will still deliver the items even if I remove the request.

Why?

I can see numerous use cases for this feature.

• I think this will help when building space platforms. The way the auto request for construction flag works is pretty much a one-time request. However, if you need an amount smaller than one rocket capacity, you need to set up a request with a custom minimum payload. If you have already placed a ghost, then the items get built and requested again from the surface. With a one-time request, this hassle would go away.
  
  Ideally, the auto construction requests wouldn't be special-cased. It would just create a one-time request and you could edit the minimum payload there instead of creating a whole separate request.

• If you're requesting a some items from a nearby chest, then it's not a large cost to trash them and put them back into storage.
  With Space Age logistics, the cost is much higher - both in time taken and resources. Rockets become very cheap in the late game, but if you're requesting something from one planet to another then the lead time is typically several minutes and it might take multiple rockets to transfer them. There is also no automated way of sending them back to the original location other than setting up new rocket launches.
  
  The incident that got me thinking about this and prompted the thread is that I requested some railgun turrets to Vulcanus to kill a big demolisher. I forgot to turn off the request after I took the turrets from the logistics network into my personal inventory. I then ended up delivering another set of turrets from Aquilo to Vulcanus that have no use now.
  
  Everything becomes cheap eventually in Factorio, but it feels odd to have to remember to turn these types of requests off to avoid oversupply.

[Tinyboss]

+1, this would be a genuine QoL improvement. The edge cases could be reduced greatly if one-time requests were blocked for items that already have a request set. Then you don't have to worry how it interacts with in-progress regular requests, auto-trash, or anything else.

Until it's assigned (meaning bots are assigned to carry the items to you) it can block creation of standard requests. Once the bots are all assigned, it would delete itself. That way if you start using the items before the full amount has reached you, it doesn't stick around and keep trying to get that many in your inventory. That's not how a one-time request is meant to work.

It could be made even simpler by requiring that the items be available right now, so that the jobs are assigned and the request is resolved immediately.

Hmm...although this assumes there are enough bots to assign the whole job all at once. Yeah, no getting around edge cases probably. But I trust the devs to know what to do!

[BlueTemplar]

I think this will help when building space platforms. The way the auto request for construction flag works is pretty much a one-time request. However, if you need an amount smaller than one rocket capacity, you need to set up a request with a custom minimum payload. If you have already placed a ghost, then the items get built and requested again from the surface. With a one-time request, this hassle would go away.

Ideally, the auto construction requests wouldn't be special-cased. It would just create a one-time request and you could edit the minimum payload there instead of creating a whole separate request.

Yes, I ran into this issue recently, and tried to logic my way out of it :

So, I managed to semi-automate it using «some wiring» :
- A second silo that is just there to serve as a giant radar dish to «read orbital requests» : signal A.
- The main silo for things to be delivered, set on «read contents» : signal B, which is then multiplied by -1 for EACH by an arithmetic combinator : - B.
- A 2nd arithmetic combinator that ADDs EACH : A - B = C : now we have a signal giving platform-requested build items not in the silo yet.
- C is sent both to a requester chest on «Set Requests» and an inserter (stack size = 1) set to «Set filters».

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

Copy blueprint

But since then I realized that it has an extra failure mode :
Once the rocket launches, requested items aren't in the silo any more, but are still requested by the platform.
(which could in theory leave before receiving them... do they get dumped back to the planet into the cargo landing pad (if available) ??)
So they will get requested again and end up as 'duplicates'.
(I guess this is solvable with more combinator logic, but what isn't ?)

[Kyralessa]

You can sort of do this by creating a separate logistics request section for such an item. When you're done using the item, just delete the section.

This isn't quite the same thing, of course, since the logistics bots will keep replenishing the item rather than giving it to you once and done. But with auto-trashing non-requested items, you wouldn't be able to create a one-time request anyway, unless you turn the auto-trashing off first.

New logistic request sections don't cost anything, so just create a new one (even if it's only for one item) whenever you like, and disable or delete it when you're done with the item.

[DragonRT]

This is a useful idea and I actually looked to see if you could do it myself.

[jonc211]

You can sort of do this by creating a separate logistics request section for such an item. When you're done using the item, just delete the section.

This isn't quite the same thing, of course, since the logistics bots will keep replenishing the item rather than giving it to you once and done. But with auto-trashing non-requested items, you wouldn't be able to create a one-time request anyway, unless you turn the auto-trashing off first.

New logistic request sections don't cost anything, so just create a new one (even if it's only for one item) whenever you like, and disable or delete it when you're done with the item.

Yeah, auto-trashing doesn't work too well with one-time requests for personal logistics. I think it would fit quite nicely for cargo landing pad logistics though. And maybe that's the crux of the issue, that we use the same logistics system in both cases.

The landing pad effectively acts as a buffer chest, but between space and the local surface. It requests from space and mkes available to the local logistics network. A one-time request for a landing pad would request the item(s) from space and then remove them from the landing pad's inventory and put into the local logistics network.

And disabling/deleting the request is the issue I'd like to avoid. Again, the problem presents with space logistics. You have a lead time of several minutes between requesting an item and it arriving. And because it's effectively a buffer chest, you can request the items to your personal inventory from the landing pad. But then they will get delivered to the landing pad again.

If this is all happening in the local logistics network over a few seconds, it's not a big deal. The extra time when dealing with space means that you would need to keep an eye on when things arrive to go and disable the request.

[BlueTemplar]

Hmm, some solutions here might involve putting the silo(s) and / or the cargo landing pad in different logistic networks than the main base ?

[MrSpreadsheet]

There's a mod for that. https://mods.factorio.com/mod/RecipeLog ... rom=search

[Kind]

TL;DR

An option for a one time logistics request in the logistic network menu.

What?

When onto the logistics network menu, you are able to right-click onto an item that is within the network and create a one-time logistics request for the item that you highlighted. It would bring up the regular request menu, but there only be the slider to change the amount you want for that request.

Why?

I believe that being able to send one time request for an item is beneficial for saving time and be able to simply obtain an item that you need, as the only other way of getting said item would be to left-click on to the item, see where that item is and obtain it, or setup a logistics request in your inventory for what you want, wait for the item to get to you and then delete the request.

[DanielloDD86]

YES I NEED THIS, the factory must grow. one request at a time