Factorio Forums

What did you do?

set a platform to request science pots from other platforms, also set to unload
the planet hub is also requesting them, and being steadily drained

What happened?

the cargo ship unloaded some pots to the planet, and some (the stuff that wouldn't fit) to the platform, the platform then did not drop the pots,when the planet hub was drained

What did you expect to happen instead? It might be obvious to you, but do it anyway!

the platform refused to drop items to the pots to the planet even when the planet hub was empty, only stopping the request let the pots drop

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as it is, if you set a platform to request from planet, if the supply other platforms thing is ticked it will give those requested items to other platforms, this makes sense as it allows for pre-launching items while waiting for a cargo ship to come by

however the reverse is not true, if a platform is set to request only from other platforms, and it is set to unload, and the planets hub is requesting that item it will refuse to drop it. making it impractical to make drop buffers

adding this would not cause circular requesting (unless i suppose you request from a ship that is itself requesting from the planet, but at that point they are doing it to themselves), while its current work around (a circuit controlled request that toggles on and off on a timer) absolutely does if the planet hub has access to launch silos

TBTerra2 wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2026 2:56 pm adding this would not cause circular requesting (unless i suppose you request from a ship that is itself requesting from the planet, but at that point they are doing it to themselves)

Yes this is the key reason I made it work this specific way,
Because it would be quite easy to accidently make a loop of `Planet -> Platform (from planet) -> Platform (from platform) -> Planet`

The use case of delivery orbital buffer is less significant, for now I would like to keep the logic clear that:
"Platform will only provide if they don't have a request for the item"

But things may change in the future if there are some specific use cases

Until then, I will classify this as not a bug, and move it do Ideas and suggestions

Upon further thought, I decided to change the logic to allow dropping (it is a simple change),
If something too hazardous results I may consider changing it back (bear in mind this is experimental)

So now in the next release, requests with just 'Import from: Platform' won't block dropping those items to the cargo landing pad

Can't you just limit it by the max requested amount?
Everything above that should be available to be dropped to the planet or be claimed by other platforms.

Klonan wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2026 4:04 pm Because it would be quite easy to accidently make a loop of `Planet -> Platform (from planet) -> Platform (from platform) -> Planet`

The recent change "Changed platform requests importing from platforms to allow providing the item to cargo landing pads.", lead to this exact situation in my save, and honestly I don't know how to mitigate it.

My use case, was a 'flying mall':

• I made a pair of logistic groups, with the same contents and planets, the only difference is that one of them was requesting only from planet surface and another only from platforms.
• Stationary 'buffer' platform above each planet, which was requesting exports from given planet (foundry, electromagnetic plant etc.), and had enabled "Provide materials to other platforms" option.
• Single 'hauler' platform which was flying around a planet system and requesting those goods from the stationary platforms (and only from those platforms, to not wait for rockets from planets). This platform has disabled "Provide materials to other platforms" option.
• On each planet's cargo landing pad I put one of those groups (the one requesting from planet, but shouldn't make much diff).

This was working really fine up to 2.1.11, I have basically recreated a giant Buffer storage chest above a planet, to reduce a transport time between planet and a moving platform.

In 2.1.12 it has gotten messy. If the 'hauler' ship is parked above any planet, all items in groups are launched to buffer platform, then they are passed to a ship (which had a group set to request from platform), then they are dropped from a ship to the planet, which launches a rocket with them back to buffer platform, and we are stuck in a loop.

I guess that this could be potentially resolved by using circuits, but the initial 2.1 behaviour was much simpler to understand to use.

Ideal, dream solution would of course be a true buffer functionality, either by baking it into "import from All" behaviour, or adding a separate option for that all together.

Oxenoth wrote: Wed Jul 22, 2026 12:31 am
The recent change "Changed platform requests importing from platforms to allow providing the item to cargo landing pads.", lead to this exact situation in my save, and honestly I don't know how to mitigate it.

My use case, was a 'flying mall':

• Single 'hauler' platform which was flying around a planet system and requesting those goods from the stationary platforms (and only from those platforms, to not wait for rockets from planets). This platform has disabled "Provide materials to other platforms" option.

What is the use case of the flying mall? Does it unload as some specific planet or such?
Would unchecking the 'unload' in the schedule on the left work to help?

Klonan wrote: Wed Jul 22, 2026 7:26 am What is the use case of the flying mall? Does it unload as some specific planet or such?
Would unchecking the 'unload' in the schedule on the left work to help?

It unloaded on every planet. I have kept a single logistic group for the whole mall, and expanded it as needed with things from different planets. I was basing on the fact that a planet exporting any particular item, would not request it back (or in game terms, that a platform requesting a good from planet X would not drop it back on that planet). This fact, together with checking "Unload" on every planet was a base of the solution, so changing any of those (which 2.1.12 did) would negate a whole idea.