Factorio Forums

TL;DR

Make roboports higher on priority list than passive provider chests

What?

Continuing from the post "bots keep taking repair packs and stuck themselves"
What I would suggest is to make a roboport higher on the priority list than a passive provider chest so that construction bots don't go pick up more and more new repair packs from a passive provider rather than using the ones that are already in the roboports.

Why?

To prevent overflow of fresh repair packs being picked up and bots getting stuck and prioritize the repair packs that are already in the roboports to be used first.
I know this could be circumvented but since different logistic chests already have different priority it probably wouldn't be too difficult to add a roboport in there as well.

I wouldn't want, that a bot first skims all roboports in a network before looking in chests.
It should at least be limited to the nearest roboport, which starts to make it more complicated.

workaround, use a storage chest instead of a passive provider. storage can be filtered to only repair packs, although other items can be placed via inserter or manually.

just use storage chest for your repair pack supply, set filter, done

jodokus31 wrote: Wed Dec 24, 2025 9:38 am I wouldn't want, that a bot first skims all roboports in a network before looking in chests.
It should at least be limited to the nearest roboport, which starts to make it more complicated.

workaround, use a storage chest instead of a passive provider. storage can be filtered to only repair packs, although other items can be placed via inserter or manually.

Yeah not every roboport but in a certain radius or at least the roboport the bot is sitting in. I would still say that if it's about the same distance, maybe even a few blocks more, to prefer roboports. if you look at my original post you'll see the issue I come into. Yes a storage chest would definitely fix that but why not have a failsafe in case you're using just the passive providers in your defense wall.

fi5hii wrote: Wed Dec 24, 2025 3:26 pm

jodokus31 wrote: Wed Dec 24, 2025 9:38 am I wouldn't want, that a bot first skims all roboports in a network before looking in chests.
It should at least be limited to the nearest roboport, which starts to make it more complicated.

workaround, use a storage chest instead of a passive provider. storage can be filtered to only repair packs, although other items can be placed via inserter or manually.

Yeah not every roboport but in a certain radius or at least the roboport the bot is sitting in. I would still say that if it's about the same distance, maybe even a few blocks more, to prefer roboports. if you look at my original post you'll see the issue I come into. Yes a storage chest would definitely fix that but why not have a failsafe in case you're using just the passive providers in your defense wall.

In my opinon, every network should feature a storage box anyway. What if you want to deconstruct some wood or rocks nearby or redesign parts of the wall from remote?

I appreciate the discussion and OP's contributions. I have a better understanding of how the current system works and no longer see a need to change it. The solution to OP's problem is to build a single unfiltered storage chest, full stop.

Any repair packs taken from the passive provider that don't fit in the roboport will be dropped in storage. The next robot that looks for repair packs outside of its starting roboport will go to the storage chest instead of the passive provider. The roboports may all fill with repair packs eventually, but that is a good thing, and can still be avoided by connected the train unloading inserter to the logistic network to limit the total number of packs in the outpost.

Reasons not to mess with what already works:

1. Using a logistics network without any unfiltered storage is like using train junctions with no signals. It can be done in certain situations, but is more amusing than practical. There is no reason to try and idiot-proof setups without storage chests.

2. u/jodokus31 correctly points out the issue with raising roboport storage priority. In large networks, bots would travel long distances to steal the first repair pack that gets dropped in a roboport, so they would never provide a useful buffer near hot spots (without needing actual buffer chests) like they are intended.

3. Unloading the train into a filtered storage chest will potentially make bots prefer new packs over *any* that have been dropped in roboports, having the exact opposite effect from what OP is looking for.