Space platforms don't unload unless they have a wait condition

[zysnarch]

Repro steps:
1. Configure Vulcanus landing pad to request 5 EM plants.
2. Have platform carrying 5 EM plants visit Vulcanus with the following stop condition, while requesting nothing for itself:

07-07-2026, 22-44-05.png (24.52 KiB) Viewed 497 times

("All requests satisfied OR 5s inactivity")
3. Watch platform visit Vulcanus and immediately move to the next destination.

(This is probably equivalent to a lack of wait conditions, because the first "All requests satisfied" only applies to platform requests, not planet requests, and so it is immediately satisfied here.)

This might be working as intended. In that case, I apologize for using the bug report forum, but consider it a feature request. It seems to me that the "Unload" checkbox should always honored, regardless of whether the platform stops. I know I could instead add a "Time passed: 1 second" wait condition clause, but it seems like unnecessary clutter for what (I think) is a universal use case. Why would I ever want a platform to NOT unload when that box is checked?

[SoYman]

I have encountered this behaviour too and found it very counter-intuitive.
Unloading also does not have a dedicated condition, so unloading always needs some other unrelated condition like time passed or inactivity to happen.
It's probably tricky and full of annoying edge cases to implement a generic unloading condition, but it seems possible. Just wait while the cargo landing pad has any unsatisfied request for items that are present in the inventory of the space platform.

[Hurkyl]

I've internalized this as "platforms only unload while they're stopped".

Why would I ever want a platform to NOT unload when that box is checked?

It might help to look at things from the other angle. You don't actually know if you are actually going to drop anything to the planet until you've stopped in orbit... so do you want your platforms to still stop when all of your flight conditions are satisfied, just in case?

[zysnarch]

so do you want your platforms to still stop when all of your flight conditions are satisfied, just in case?

This argument would make sense if platforms had to stop in order to unload. That is not the case. You can test this by making the condition "Time passed: 0.5 seconds". Platforms are happy to unload at 400 km/s, they just need a brief delay to do so. It's unclear why that delay is necessary.

[Rseding91]

Thanks for the report however this is working correctly. The logic that checks platform schedules is unrelated to the logic that sends items between platforms and between platforms and planets.

As such, if you give them zero time to run the item-transfer logic the platform is happy to just move on after stopping for 1 tick. In the same way if you set a train to leave without any wait conditions - even if you have inserters set to put items from the train it may leave before the inserter has a chance to swing.