Rocket Silo Logistics Need Improvement

[DrakeyC]

Simply put, the way Rocket Silos and orbital platforms interact with the logistics network is very shoddy and haphazard.

Perhaps the most frustrating part is that when a platform is requesting parts for construction, a rocket silo sends up a full load of a single item requested, instead of the amount requested or even a single stack. This is wasteful all-around, if a platform requests 10 Red Belts then just send up 10 Red Belts. Or, ideally, have bots deliver multiple items to a rocket to go up. I assumed initially that Rocket Silo logistics would work the same as Requester Chests, and they should - whatever is wanted, the bots deliver it in exactly the quantity desired, as long as there's no room. If the rocket is at its weight limit, then send up what you have now and load up the rest on the next one.

Speaking of loading up rockets, it is once again wasteful that bots do not deliver anything until the rocket is ready to launch. I especially noticed this on Gleba, where of course getting Agricultural Science Packs back to Nauvis demands speed. I can manually load the rocket while it's under construction and so can inserters, so why don't Logistic Bots?

I'd like a simple toggle for rocket silos, "launch when full". As-is, rockets automatically launch to deliver payloads to platforms that are demanding their cargo, even if the rocket silo isn't set to automatically fulfill platform requests. So I think it's logically to have a simple box to check to automatically launch the rocket once it's ready. Allow us to set a destination platform when the box is checked, to make sure it goes to the right one of course. Once that's done, we could set down a crate by the silo, dump all the stuff we want to send up into orbit into it, and let the system take care of itself, instead of us having to manually launch the rocket each time. Yes, we could make the platform demand those items instead, but this is simpler and easier for the player, and wouldn't even need logistic bots to take care of it.

[quineotio]

Perhaps the most frustrating part is that when a platform is requesting parts for construction, a rocket silo sends up a full load of a single item requested, instead of the amount requested or even a single stack.

The problem is how to implement it. What if you don't need a full rocket worth of materials? It'd never send anything. This can happen in two ways - firstly, you're not requesting enough to fill the rocket, and second, if the weight doesn't perfectly fit into a rocket.

How would you handle this? Do you send an entire rocket every time you request a single item?

if a platform requests 10 Red Belts then just send up 10 Red Belts.

What if you cancel one red belt so now you only require 9? Do the bots take one belt out? What happens if you don't have bots available?

What if you add another belt, so now you require 11?

How long does the rocket wait until launch?

Speaking of loading up rockets, it is once again wasteful that bots do not deliver anything until the rocket is ready to launch. I especially noticed this on Gleba, where of course getting Agricultural Science Packs back to Nauvis demands speed. I can manually load the rocket while it's under construction and so can inserters, so why don't Logistic Bots?

I assume they do this because they load the first available rocket. Otherwise you could have ten rockets ready to go, but the one that has already been pre-loaded just sitting there because it hasn't completed a rocket yet. This could result in a situation where you have ten rockets ready to go, but run out of resources to complete the one you've pre-loaded, and so your delivery never sends even though you have ten rockets sitting idle.

I'd like a simple toggle for rocket silos, "launch when full".

They do already, on the condition that a platform is requesting the rocket's contents. A platform must be requesting the contents of the rocket otherwise the rocket won't know which platform to deliver to.

[DrakeyC]

The problem is how to implement it. What if you don't need a full rocket worth of materials? It'd never send anything. This can happen in two ways - firstly, you're not requesting enough to fill the rocket, and second, if the weight doesn't perfectly fit into a rocket.

How would you handle this? Do you send an entire rocket every time you request a single item?

A simple alert "rocket is waiting for cargo" or the like would do, like when you drop items from orbit without a cargo bay.

What if you cancel one red belt so now you only require 9? Do the bots take one belt out? What happens if you don't have bots available?

What if you add another belt, so now you require 11?

How long does the rocket wait until launch?

Those same issues could be applied to logistics chest. And to be blunt, those are logical fallacies that do not provide an excuse for the fact that a platform requesting 10 red belts will not get a rocket unless that rocket can be totally filled with red belts. Again, limiting it to a stack, or rounding up to the next stack, would be a fair compromise.

I assume they do this because they load the first available rocket. Otherwise you could have ten rockets ready to go, but the one that has already been pre-loaded just sitting there because it hasn't completed a rocket yet. This could result in a situation where you have ten rockets ready to go, but run out of resources to complete the one you've pre-loaded, and so your delivery never sends even though you have ten rockets sitting idle.

Fair point. In that case, how about bots begin delivering cargo when the rocket is completed and the silo opens? Granted, it's only like, 10 seconds saved, but it's still faster.

They do already, on the condition that a platform is requesting the rocket's contents. A platform must be requesting the contents of the rocket otherwise the rocket won't know which platform to deliver to.

The rest of my paragraph acknowledges those points already.

[Nemoricus]

whatever is wanted, the bots deliver it in exactly the quantity desired, as long as there's no room.

This is only true for logistics to the player. For delivery to chests the bots will always pick up their maximum load, even if this will result in an oversupply. Since bots in an unmodified game have a maximum capacity of four, this means that the maximum oversupply is 3 items, so easily overlooked.

[quineotio]

There are two points. Firstly, the default logic should be the simplest possible for the general use case. Secondly, you can already to what you want.

As far as the default use case, you can't have rockets with mixed loads or less than full as the default because of the way requesting works on platforms. If you're building a rocket and having stuff automatically request, the rocket doesn't know how many items you need. For example, you're placing down belts - how many does the rocket send? Does it send one belt, because there's a moment in time when you only need one? Or does the rocket wait for some amount of time?

Or what if you need a combination of items that doesn't completely fill the rocket? Does it launch or not?

You can already define a custom minimum payload when you request items, and you can use the circuit network to detect platform requests, and you can use requester chests and inserters to load rockets manually. Some of your suggestions require manual configuration, which is exactly the same as it is now, except that it makes the default logic more complicated for the general use case.

It is a bit annoying having rockets only deliver a full load, but I don't see any way to do it differently. In practice I don't find it to be a big deal, except perhaps in the early game, because rocket launches are fairly cheap. So I just send what I don't need back down to the planet. And in the early game there's less going on, so it's not a big deal to manually load rockets.

Any system you implement will have annoyances depending on use case, because there are many different possible situations that need to be accounted for. But at least with the current system it's easy to understand and predictable.