Robotic Arm - What is it's usage and how to use it

[johndai]

I have tried to use the Robotic Arm with no success as I would like to setup auto feeding the Autohammer.

Any help would be appreciated. Many thanks in advance.

[Noobomancer]

My 0.9 quick-to-aluminum starter setup actually uses one of the new copper ones. They do a lot of things - a big one being belt-to-belt transfer.

They also take items out of storage and put items into things that aren't easily "hopper fed" - so things that take multiple inputs and the arc smelter.

[johndai]

Thanks for the reply. Will look at that and try to find out what I am missing.

[Noobomancer]

Originally posted by johndai:

Thanks for the reply. Will look at that and try to find out what I am missing.

A robotic arm will only work if it has both a source of material and a place to put things. Obviously, it need solid material and can't use fluids.

It can take items from the output ports of machines (though that is generally better done with conveyors) or from machines that don't have output ports and place them into input ports or machines without designated inputs. Any kind of storage unit also requires an arm if you want to remove items automatically (chests and racks), though automatic loading can be done with belts and junctions.

Check out GamesOmatic's "little tutorial" video on YouTube to get a view of them working. There is a thread somewhere here on the steam forums that has a direct link.

[Noobomancer]

Oh yes - the arms move material from "back" to "front", a 180° arc. The arrow you see underneath when placing indicates the back (the base of the arrow) and the front (the head of the arrow). The arm rests in a "disengaged" position, perpendicular to it's action. It will not pick things up from it's rest position.

B - back
F - front
A - arm
R - rest position
X - empty tile
> - Conveyor

From a top view:

> >B> >
XRAXX
> >F> >

Does that help?

[johndai]

That makes a lot of sense now. I thought I had placed a storage in different spots around the Arm yet it still refused to move lol I guess I missed a spot, will check again.

Will search out that vid too. A picture is worth more than a thousand words.

It's a great game which I really like but it has a steep learning curve. Thankfully we have some nice players who can throw some light when it's needed. I hope I am able to pass on some knowledge the more I play and learn.

Thank you for your time.

Update: Here's the proof you helped.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1681651752

[Noobomancer]

Lol - for what it's worth there isn't any particular reason to leave your autohammer 2 blocks up. The only reason I did that in the tutorial was to minimize the copper expenditures on pipes and ensure the steam network never accidentally picked up water from the boiler (since you'd have to disassemble the whole network including the hammer and steam engines to fix that fix that problem).

[johndai]

That was a good early tutorial which helped me get started. Future builds will be different now I know how things work together. With this build I am still testing the groundwork for each component.This game is fascinating, the more you learn the more you want to learn.