Factorio Forums

So I'm a relative noob, and I just finished claiming a large section of the map via "great wall" techniques, and the net result is I've got a ring of robo ports surrounding a large (currently) empty zone. Trouble is robots are dumb, and will frequently try and make a delivery straight across the large dead zone. In extreme cases they end up running out of power and going straight back the way the came, never making progress. Or at best they waste quite a bit of time by repeatedly having to divert to the sides. Other than "don't do that" (I know the great wall has its detractors) is there anything I can do to mitigate this problem?

Only solution atm is to put some roboports in that zone to have charging points there.

The only real solution is to break your logistic network into several separate networks to prevent bots from crossing all the space alone. And then manage train logistics of materials required by "great wall" fragments.
You can't effect robot pathfinding in any way and they will always fly straight to their destination.

With some basic circuit network stuff, supplying outposts is easy.

What you do is this:
1.) take an arithmetic combinator and set it to multiply Each by -1, output Each
2.) connect its input to the roboport. Set roboport to read the logistics network content
3.) take a constant combinator and enter the stuff you want to be in the logistics zone and their amount (walls, repair packs, robots, etc.)
4.) connect constant combinator to the output of the arithmetic combinator (use the same color of wire for all this)

The trick here is that the signals on the wires are automatically added together (for example if you connect two chests you get the entire content). So let's say you have 90 walls, but you set your desired amount to 100:
90 * -1 + 100 = -90 + 100 = 10
So every time the output is positive you have a demand that needs to be satisfied. 0 would be perfect. Negative is over supplied.

Now you can activate the train stop when Anything > 0 (or maybe another value, so you don't get a train when a single item is missing). And have a train be at the station until inactivity.

Unloading the train again requires a bit of logic. Here you use a filter or stack filter inserter connected the above signal with "set filters". That will activate it for each item > 0 and only take out what is needed. If you want to distribute the items to another location you could unload into active providers. Otherwise passive providers or storage chests

The train can simply have a few filtered slots with all necessary items and be loaded with requester chests requesting a fixed amount.

Hmm, well I don't think furnishing the whole center area with robo ports is gonna be practical, at least not in the immediate future. I guess separating the networks is the best bet. Thanks for the advice. I've never tried interfacing with the logistic network manually like that. I knew you could but hadn't thought of a reason to do so yet. That seems like a viable plan, though perhaps still overkill at this stage.

Koub wrote:[Koub] Moved to gameplay help

Ah, yeah. Sorry 'bout that.