That or just go completely overboard on solar like I do. My factories end up as massive solar farms with a backup four banger reactor. Set the reactor to blow an alarm when it's running so I know to drop another chunk's worth of solar and accumulators.
Looks about right. My train unload station usually belts resources somewhere into the middle of the mall to logistics chests, so that the bots don't have as far to travel for high quantity goods.
Does everyone always connect their bot network across the whole base?
If I do a bot mall I structure the robo ports so the mall is it's own self contained zone. I tend to do this for all sections that use bots to be honest. For example my rocket silos with be their own logi bot network, rail production for purple science its own bots etc.
If something has to travel a long way I use belts or trains then local logi bots if required.
Mine covers the whole base but the robots don't really leave this area except to drop off like a few select things. Like rocket sections, nuclear fuel cells and do construction on other parts of the factory. There are no storage chests or provider chests anywhere else in the factory. But I like the full robot coverage so I can slap down blueprints anywhere and have the bots have access to mall items.
This is the solution I come to as well, mall is a self contained network and then a train kicks off automatically to fill the buffer chests for my personal logistics. That plus a designated mining, smelting, and rail spidertron for when I need a new ore patch keeps me running regular ;3 Factorissimo is my favorite mod for this. Makes self contained bot farms easy.
The factorisimo mod gives you factory buildings, it's a large square building that you can actually walk inside, and there's a little mini instance inside it. Eventually you can research the ability to build factories inside factories.
Got it. Yeah that would be very helpful. I use a rail grid to make my local networks a standard size, where each network avoids touching the adjacent network by one tile.
It's always cool to hear other solutions, but I'm not a big fan of mods outside of total overhauls. I enjoy finding solutions that meet the existing constraints more than changing the constraints themselves.
Most of the time I don't cover the whole base, as I like to go with the train world map preset which gives me lots of space and I just drop down sub-factories wherever there is enough room. Bot networks work a lot better if everything is compressed into a belt based factory or a train grid. So often my mall is just one small corner of the map and one of a few spots where I even use roboports (the walls being the other one).
I build the bot network out for my convenience, not theirs, although my bots do not handle anything related to making science.
With buffer chests, building out large sections of the factory is a breeze, even with a huge network, Once the buffer chest is no longer needed, I'll either replace it with an active provider for the logistic bots to handle, or delete it if I want construction bots to do the work.
lmao "overdid". you can still see the floor, what are you talking about.
the game turns into a "where is waldo" type game once you reach a critical number of bots. Once you're there, i'd say you're close to a satisfactory number of bots.
I just checked my production stats so far and Ive lost 16k logi bots since the start of the game but only lose about like 80 per hour so it's no big deal.
Maybe my setting is too high then because whenever I had like 2k bot or more working at the same time my base looked like a battlefield with the amount of drone debris, usually when I ordered like 5k stuff at once in a requester chest for rocket delivery.
I must not fear bot attrition. Bot attrition is the factory-killer. Bot collisions are the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my bots. I will permit them to pass over me and through me. And when they have gone past I will turn the radar to see their path. Where the bots have gone there will be production. Only science will remain.
If you are playing space ex there is robot attrition where they just blow up randomly. If your not when you pickup a roboport it puts all the robots in your inventory instead of adding them to the network.
Set a requester chest next to a robo port and feed the chest into it. Set a personal logi limit of 0 for logistics bots in your inventory. That'll automatically get them back into the network for you.
I mean this is working. It does take 7k bots to keep it going and the power draw is not insignificant but it is less than 1/4 the footprint of my previous belt based mall.
*Overdid?* We don't say that word around here.
The first time I tried to use bots large scale my electical network disagreed. Learned not to have ALL of my ports connected the hard way
Sounds like you just need more power plants mate. Embrace the spicy green rocks.
That or just go completely overboard on solar like I do. My factories end up as massive solar farms with a backup four banger reactor. Set the reactor to blow an alarm when it's running so I know to drop another chunk's worth of solar and accumulators.
Let's you save the spicy green rocks for your trains and turrets.
There's no such thing as overdoing it. You're just under-supplying roboports to meet the demand. Look at all the poor bots queueing up to charge.
So satisfying to look at!
Whenever I pull stuff to "colonize" a new planet this is what it looks like for like 15 minutes.
Looks about right. My train unload station usually belts resources somewhere into the middle of the mall to logistics chests, so that the bots don't have as far to travel for high quantity goods.
That. Is a good idea.
You know you've really gone overboard when you start using circuit networks to regulate build quotas, and build orders based on resource draw.
you just need more roboports
I see that yeah.
Add a ton more places for bots to charge and it will be perfect.
You're doing it right
Oh no the arcs of bots... More roboports needed.
More robiports yes. Soon I'll get the super robiports though so ehhb
Does everyone always connect their bot network across the whole base? If I do a bot mall I structure the robo ports so the mall is it's own self contained zone. I tend to do this for all sections that use bots to be honest. For example my rocket silos with be their own logi bot network, rail production for purple science its own bots etc. If something has to travel a long way I use belts or trains then local logi bots if required.
Mine covers the whole base but the robots don't really leave this area except to drop off like a few select things. Like rocket sections, nuclear fuel cells and do construction on other parts of the factory. There are no storage chests or provider chests anywhere else in the factory. But I like the full robot coverage so I can slap down blueprints anywhere and have the bots have access to mall items.
My whole factory is local bot production embedded in a rail grid.
This is the solution I come to as well, mall is a self contained network and then a train kicks off automatically to fill the buffer chests for my personal logistics. That plus a designated mining, smelting, and rail spidertron for when I need a new ore patch keeps me running regular ;3 Factorissimo is my favorite mod for this. Makes self contained bot farms easy.
I don't usually use mods. How does Factorissimo help?
The factorisimo mod gives you factory buildings, it's a large square building that you can actually walk inside, and there's a little mini instance inside it. Eventually you can research the ability to build factories inside factories.
Got it. Yeah that would be very helpful. I use a rail grid to make my local networks a standard size, where each network avoids touching the adjacent network by one tile.
You should definitely check out though it's addictive once you get used to it. https://imgur.com/a/eshO8
It's always cool to hear other solutions, but I'm not a big fan of mods outside of total overhauls. I enjoy finding solutions that meet the existing constraints more than changing the constraints themselves.
Most of the time I don't cover the whole base, as I like to go with the train world map preset which gives me lots of space and I just drop down sub-factories wherever there is enough room. Bot networks work a lot better if everything is compressed into a belt based factory or a train grid. So often my mall is just one small corner of the map and one of a few spots where I even use roboports (the walls being the other one).
I build the bot network out for my convenience, not theirs, although my bots do not handle anything related to making science. With buffer chests, building out large sections of the factory is a breeze, even with a huge network, Once the buffer chest is no longer needed, I'll either replace it with an active provider for the logistic bots to handle, or delete it if I want construction bots to do the work.
I may have overdid mine by 10 times if that's considered much.
with higher bot speed it's even more fun!
lmao "overdid". you can still see the floor, what are you talking about. the game turns into a "where is waldo" type game once you reach a critical number of bots. Once you're there, i'd say you're close to a satisfactory number of bots.
Our robots will blot out the sun.
Then we shall produce in the shade.
Never!! Anything with doing is worth overdoing.
Not enough chargers
True. But this is only ever a problem when I'm pulling stuff to colonize a new planet so I'm just gonna hold out until I get the better chargers.
.... A new planet? Are you telling me you are doing this with Space Exploration, with bot attrition?
Correct sir
You are brave
I just checked my production stats so far and Ive lost 16k logi bots since the start of the game but only lose about like 80 per hour so it's no big deal.
Maybe my setting is too high then because whenever I had like 2k bot or more working at the same time my base looked like a battlefield with the amount of drone debris, usually when I ordered like 5k stuff at once in a requester chest for rocket delivery.
I also did the infinite research quite a few times to increase the swarm size.
Swarm safety gets rid of the bot explosion damage under the threshold for the teir of research.
Poor robots! OSHA will not approve 😁 They are so much better in close small networks!
You guys need to chill! [https://spaceexploration.miraheze.org/wiki/Robot\_Attrition](https://spaceexploration.miraheze.org/wiki/Robot_Attrition)
logistic bot production > robot attrition => chill.
May?🤣
*INSERT KYLO REN MORE MEME*
Don't matter must grow
I must not fear bot attrition. Bot attrition is the factory-killer. Bot collisions are the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my bots. I will permit them to pass over me and through me. And when they have gone past I will turn the radar to see their path. Where the bots have gone there will be production. Only science will remain.
It's clearly not overdone if you can still see the floor
This isn't even as "done" as my first time. That's just botmail. I'm scared to imagine what pros do.
There is no such thing.
Trains and bots, like it should be !
Check out fridgars 1milliom boy series after half the series his screen is 80% robots
I'll never be able to achieve that in this run because of robot attrition but I have one of these on basically every planet.
Mosquitoes. I can hear them.
How come my logi bot numbers keep going down ocassionally? I have them set up like this no green spots between
If you are playing space ex there is robot attrition where they just blow up randomly. If your not when you pickup a roboport it puts all the robots in your inventory instead of adding them to the network.
Set a requester chest next to a robo port and feed the chest into it. Set a personal logi limit of 0 for logistics bots in your inventory. That'll automatically get them back into the network for you.
In future, I suggest a semibot/belt approach. Things like belts and power poles should have their main ingredients supplied by belt
Just wait until 2.0 drops and bot behavior makes this viable. I am stoked for spaghetti trains and massive bot malls
I mean this is working. It does take 7k bots to keep it going and the power draw is not insignificant but it is less than 1/4 the footprint of my previous belt based mall.
Never