[0.12.1] Personal roboport doesn't work as expected

[ssilk]

In my eyes it is a bug: Place items via ghost while turned on personal roboport. Personal roboport will send a robot for each item. Everything is fine. The problem is: The item is taken from your inventory.

So this nice feature ends, when all of your items have been placed by the personal roboport. Until you don't have anymore.

This is the bug: you cannot place anymore, even if you are inside of a big robo-network.

This makes the personal roboport in the current form completely unusable, when you are in a robot-network: You really need to avoid it, turn it off, plug it out of your power-suit.

Maybe it is planned, that we will be able to have "ghost items", that can be placed as ghosts instead of having "real items" needed; I think something like that is really needed!
But until then I recommend to have a change in the usage of the roboport: If inside a logistic network build-area, the personal roboport is turned off,
or
if there is "another type of ghost", maybe needed to press shift-ctrl to force placing by your roboport, otherwise it will be always placed by the network.

[kovarex]

I don't get it, what is the bug again?

[orzelek]

Steps to get the bug (as I understand it):

1. Equip personal roboport
2. Have 1 assembler in inventory
3. Place ghost of this assembler while being in a big logistic network full of assemblers ready for placing
4. Your bot will grab assembler you are holding in hand and place it
5. You can't ghost place any more assemblers since only one you had got just forcibly taken

[Klonan]

Yep this is super frustrating!

Have one item, shift-click to place down... bots take your 1 item and you can't place anymore ghosts.

I think a good solution would be to say, construction bots from the personal roboports cannot take items you are holding in the cursor.

Also a semi-related issue. If you deconstruct a large amount of chests or something, the bots will keep harrassing you with the items even if your inventory is full. The only way to get them to leave you alone is to remove the armor and put it back on.

[oLaudix]

Also a semi-related issue. If you deconstruct a large amount of chests or something, the bots will keep harrassing you with the items even if your inventory is full. The only way to get them to leave you alone is to remove the armor and put it back on.

This one is annoying as hell. Even though i had like 100 empty storage chest next to me they just circled around trying to put shit in my inventory.

Also when i ghost placed more chests than i had on me, robots used all of them but then cried I miss 10 more chests even though there were more in the network. I had to go to the chest, pick it up and only then they used them. I guess bots from personal roboports dont use logistic network at all when i ghost place an item. I think it works fine with blueprints.

[kovarex]

Well, ok, but anyway, these are not a bugs, but rather small annoyances. Making small rules to avoid that would make some other people not like it as well, and it would make the logic overcomplicated I believe.

[ssilk]

Maybe the suggested solution is crap (forget it!). Maybe you should wait fixing this, before you do anything, cause maybe someone finds a way playing with this, but I really tried and the consequence was, that the personal roboport is currently plugged off most times. Sorry to say this so harsh.

And the reasons are like a bug. For example: I want to place belts.
And because I don't have many left, I will place it as ghost.
And because I place it as ghost, the personal roboport will take it from my inventory, instead of the logistic network.

That doesn't make any sense in that case.
It makes also not always sense, if I have many in my inventory; perhaps I have them, because I want to ride out and use them there, at a place, where I don't have a logistic network. Not now!

Btw. It makes also no sense, that the bots swarm out to cut trees, just because I walk by or drive by, cause I a) don't need wood in my inventory, b) don't want to be in danger to loose them.

TL;DR: I want to use the roboport not now, not here. Not always. But then and there.

See also https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =6&t=14088

[kovarex]

If you use this style of having just one item and using the robot network, don't use the personal roboport at all, simple as that.

I personally always keep stack or two, so I don't care, and as I use the request slots to keep the stack there, I don't have to care about it at all. Actually one of the reasons why roboport exists is, that as it builds from your inventory, you immediately see the result, you don't have to wait for the robots from the other corner of the factory to come.

[ssilk]

Hm.

Actually one of the reasons why roboport exists is, that as it builds from your inventory, you immediately see the result, you don't have to wait for the robots from the other corner of the factory to come.

Yeah, this is what I would like to have, but not always. Sometimes it makes more work to have things be built imediatelly. Maybe an easier way to turn this on/off. Maybe more intelligent behavior (see oLaudix's reply)

And at least: That it takes me the last item, that enables me to build more IS a bug. See Klonan's reply.

don't use the personal roboport at all, simple as that.

.... ... seriously?

[Klonan]

If you use this style of having just one item and using the robot network, don't use the personal roboport at all, simple as that.

I personally always keep stack or two, so I don't care, and as I use the request slots to keep the stack there, I don't have to care about it at all. Actually one of the reasons why roboport exists is, that as it builds from your inventory, you immediately see the result, you don't have to wait for the robots from the other corner of the factory to come.

I do the same, mostly just put down things by hand. But say i run out of belt, i will want to continue building the belt system, and not wait for a refill, so i would place down a ghost to continue building. But then the robots take my last item, and i cannot continue until i am resupplied.

Perhaps a succint solution would be to say, robots will take from your inventory, as long as you have more than 1 of the item, ie, they never take your last one. In that way, they will build from your inventory when you have the stuff, but they won't take the last one leaving you unable to place ghosts.

[Martc]

Perhaps a succint solution would be to say, robots will take from your inventory, as long as you have more than 1 of the item, ie, they never take your last one. In that way, they will build from your inventory when you have the stuff, but they won't take the last one leaving you unable to place ghosts.

I am not sure that this is a good solution, because some players may consider this as a bug, that robots are not using all of your items. Maybe if the last item is prohibited only while you are holding it in hand makes more sense.

I think best solution would be, if you will be able to use empty filtered inventory slot as a blueprint of that item. So not having that item is not problem for you, you can continue placing ghost images.

And I agree that current behavior is very frustrating. I usually picked some item up to place some ghosts and returned it back, now with personal roboport is this impossible to do. You must always use blueprint for that.

[ssilk]

I am not sure that this is a good solution, because some players may consider this as a bug, that robots are not using all of your items. Maybe if the last item is prohibited only while you are holding it in hand makes more sense.

Makes more sense, yes. As long as I put it back: Then it is gone.

I think best solution would be, if you will be able to use empty filtered inventory slot as a blueprint of that item. So not having that item is not problem for you, you can continue placing ghost images.

I would see the keeping of the last item just as a provisional fix, until it is possible to lay ghosts without having the item in the inventory and/or turning the personal roboport off.
Or other stuff. I mean I'm not fixed to one idea here. Maybe we need just a combination of different suggestions.

I just try to make the roboport more usable in all game-situations.

[Gandalf]

Just wanna add my +1 to this, I've also found this to be quite annoying.

Something that kind of works is having blueprints of individual items in your hotbar. However it becomes a little annoying because blueprints seem to refuse to stay under your cursor (they always get offset a tile to the left for me) and you don't get any sounds when placing a lot of them.

I really like the idea of being able to ghost-place the item placeholders from your reserved slots.

Whatever you do, don't just leave it as is because it's really annoying when the bots take your last item and you can't do anything anymore.

[JimiQ]

Simple GUI that would allow setting personal roboport active only outside external logistics network? I don't really see usefulnes of personal roboport inside big logistics network, but deactivating manually is too much hassle

[EvanT]

I would prefer having a toggle for this other than taking the armour off.

Prioritization of local drones over personal drones is not what I want when rebuilding stuff. Then I want the personal drones to use my inventory so the process is fast.
But mostly I want the local drones to take care of orders. So a button I can hold while placing blueprints, ghosts or "red blueprints" to define which drones will try first would be the ideal solution my eyes.

On the "Not as expected" part I would have expected, that personal drones use the vehicle’s inventory while I'm driving one.

[SHiRKiT]

I just think that no personal robots should do anything if the request can be accomplished by the real robot network that's covering the player. If the player is in a real robot network range, then the robots or should not do anything at all (which is not a good solution), or only do something if the request fails at the real network.

Without this, I think personal roboports becomes a hassle to deal with.

[kovarex]

I just think that no personal robots should do anything if the request can be accomplished by the real robot network that's covering the player. If the player is in a real robot network range, then the robots or should not do anything at all (which is not a good solution), or only do something if the request fails at the real network.

Without this, I think personal roboports becomes a hassle to deal with.

But we made the personal roboport exactly to avoid this. There is special logic forcing the personal roboport to be primary. You don't want to wait half an hour for the robots to come from the center of the base, you want to build it immediately and be resuplied automatically later.

If you want the game behave like this, don't use the personal roboport at all, simple as that.

[ssilk]

Ok. I have slept now several days over it: It's not a bug, I'm o.k. with it. And not worth to discuss so long around, I know the wube-style and you planned it like so, and I trust enough, that you have made many thoughts about it.

But sometimes we (the community) are not so sure about it. You can see this here. Especially when you suggest to use not a feature of the game if you want to use it for something, you don't have planned it for. I mean, it's Factorio, I never played a game, where I used so many stuff not in the way it was planned for. I think Factorio is the most misused game now.

I think, all what the community wants to hear is, that you are aware of this. Not even, that you have a solution yet.

O.k., you are of course aware, it can't be differently, but it doesn't look like so.

[MeduSalem]

If you want the game behave like this, don't use the personal roboport at all, simple as that.

Well I took your advice and unequipped it... because I can't deal with that since it causes only more manual work for me.

Seems like I'll have to resort on the good old trick of carrying around a bunch of real Roboports and extend the real network instead because doing it that way doesn't dump a bazillion of items I don't need into my inventory once I deconstruct something which I have to sort out manually afterwards.

And for building... well yeah my logistic networks may be vast and extensive and it might take a long time for construction robots to arrive from the center of the factory or whereever they may come from but I'll take that compromise if I haven't to clear out my inventory after deconstructing something, because that takes even longer if one deconstructs entire assembly lines with 20 different item types, since they don't even drop the stuff in a particular order in your inventory having you to wait until they are completely finished deconstructing or otherwise you'll encounter a race against the construction robots who will continue dumping something into your inventory that you put into the trash slot already.

Also my logistic network is probably better able to handle a huge request anyways, even if it takes longer for them to arrive they will still finish much faster than the personal roboport ever could because of how many Construction Robots and Items I'd have to carry with me, which I simply have no space for in my inventory, to make up for what the 500 Construction robots from the logistic network could do. Also I don't have to stay in the area to wait for stuff to get finished, I can wander off and do something else in the time.

Another thing is that I mostly only have blueprints in my inventory to reduce the amount of stuff I'm carrying around, so that's also counterproductive as I don't even have most of the items in my inventory in the first place, so I'm less inclined to use the Personal Roboport for actually constructing something inside my logistic area.

I'd only have used personal roboports outside of the logistics area for very specific items (outposts/bug hunting), but since always equipping/unequipping once leaving/entering the logistic network area becomes a pain in the butt, because of how one forgets to do that half the time, I'll leave Personal Roboports be for now.

[kovarex]

I'm quite curious, what is the root difference between your and my playstyle, that make the view on the personal roboport so different.

I personally have automated requests of the basic intermediate products and all the basic structures (belts, inserters, rails, assemblers, power poles, roboports, etc). Stack or more of each, so whenever I build the blueprint I have enough of it on me and I see the result in seconds, so I can work with that. I usually don't have problems with inventory space, unless I have a lot of crap that I can just get rid of. When I'm building specific things like solar arrays, I'm ok with the robots to take all of the solars/accumulators from my inventory (if I have some, I usually don't have), and the rest, they take it from the logistic network. I don't have to see the result now, so I can just put blueprint or two of solar array and I can leave it there as it is.