Auto chest Bug

[Bubbles]

I have to recycling machines with a auto chest in between. Everything seems to be working as normal - and the suddenly the auto chest stops working for no reason. I have to take everything out of the chest, break it and then place it back and the items. Then it only works for a bit before it happens again.

Please fix this

[kudorori]

+1

[Ciotka Cierpienia]

+1

[DarkArcanum]

So oddly enough I find it stops working significantly less often when you chain at least 2 chests together. I have also noticed the recycler tends to quit more often than any other machine.

And to avoid having to pick up any artisan machine that has quit I just pop whatever I want it to be processing and that seems to get it going again. Usually just dot hat before ending the day and its back to normal the next day. I know this isn't a complete fix but should have you messing with it less.

[CatraGirl]

Same here. It works for a very short time, then just stops. I have one auto-chest with trash in it and a recycler on one side and compost bin on the other. It keeps collecting the finished product, but stops feeding new trash after a couple of runs. Same with my other auto-chest and the kiln... it's super annoying.

[Pyramide]

Auto chest was my biggest disappointment so far. I saved up all those coins and scraps so I wouldn't have to constantly refill my recyclers and mills. But when usnig it on the recycler, it just fills it up with one batch of 20, unloads the 20 scrap and then completely stops. The only way to get it working again is emptying the auto chest, removing it, re-placing it and filling it again.

And on the mills it doesn't work at all. Even when freshly placed it neither moves sugar cane into the mill nor sugar out of it.

Originally posted by CatraGirl:

I have one auto-chest with trash in it and a recycler on one side and compost bin on the other.

Tip: For the compost bins use seaweed instead of trash. You can easily get it in large amounts while farming kelp and you only need 4 seaweed instead of 40 trash for a full batch. So you can use the trash to make more scrap and also save 16 clicks per batch when manually filling the compost bin.

[sani]

+1 pls fix this

[Kent Breaker]

I regularly have issues with automated chests. They regularly get out of sync to the point that at the start of each day I exit to the main menu and then re-enter the game.

I think one kind of problem occurs when machines complete their task before the chest is able to load all of them. The most obvious example of this was when I connected a few kilns to process a ton of stone into glass, presumably related to how quickly stone is processed into glass. Every day it would start loading the stone into the kilns, but would get out of sync well before noon and stop processing anything. Every day I would restart the game and it would process another 40 or so glass and then stop.

I've also had issues with bronze kelp, which also processes pretty quickly. I had 4 extractors connected with two automated chests, each extractor processing a different colour kelp, and I'd come back and discover that the bronze kelp extractor was now processing silver kelp. I think all the bronze had finished processing by the time I re-entered my shed, and then got filled up with some random other kelp from the chest when the extractor/chests resynced.

In a similar style, I have a line of automated chests all connected to furnaces processing different colours of metal bars. Lately I've been finding that the chests stop collecting the bars, and the processed bars begin queuing up in the smelters rather than being collected. Or the smelters will gradually empty but not take in new bars from the chest.

I've also had items disappear from chests. I put 8 mangosteens into a chest connected to two mason jars, and I pulled out 6 mangosteen jams. Not sure where the other two mangosteens went...

[jilleybean]

I saw in another post on this issue someone mention a work around. Add a single extra chest to the chain with no machines attached to it. For example if you have 2 automated chests connected together and each one has 2 recyclers connected to it add a 3rd chest with no recyclers, for some reason you no longer have a problem. I have tried it and it worked for me.

[Nefrarya]

This bug is one of the main reasons I ragequit the game.. *checks watch* .. 9 months ago. And I think even at that point it had been a well-known problem.

I'll try the workaround with the extra chest, see how it goes. Thanks for the tip!

[Deputy Dawg]

Originally posted by jilleybean:

I saw in another post on this issue someone mention a work around. Add a single extra chest to the chain with no machines attached to it. For example if you have 2 automated chests connected together and each one has 2 recyclers connected to it add a 3rd chest with no recyclers, for some reason you no longer have a problem. I have tried it and it worked for me.

Thanks for the tip, I think I will give it a try. I will post back here if it works out well.

[Deputy Dawg]

Originally posted by jilleybean:

I saw in another post on this issue someone mention a work around. Add a single extra chest to the chain with no machines attached to it. For example if you have 2 automated chests connected together and each one has 2 recyclers connected to it add a 3rd chest with no recyclers, for some reason you no longer have a problem. I have tried it and it worked for me.

Jillybean, please find out who posted this auto-chest workaround ! ! !

I want to send them a big "digital" hug ! ! !

This is an absolute game changer ! ! !

Having an extra auto chest tagged onto the front of the conveyor belt really works. Your advice has transformed my game, and now all of my machines are 100% productive day and night, without any additional interaction by me.

I used to spend all morning going into all of my sheds and fiddling about with the auto-chests to get them working again. They were always messed up when I started each day.

I now have an extra 3 hours to do other stuff, instead of repairing the auto chests.

Thank you so much, I'm really, really pleased you posted this. You can probably tell...

Do you think the developers at Stairway are aware of this technique? I think they should run it through their Q&A testers at Stairway mission control. If they gave it the official thumbs up, they could issue a post on Discord and Steam advising other players about it. They would make hundreds, and possibly thousands of players very happy indeed, as the auto chest bug is the most complained about issue at the moment, and has been ever since the early access launch over a year ago.

Thanks again

[ApotheosizD]

extra chest work around works for like an hour irl then stops again, and i have to pick it back up and put it back down to get it to go again.

[Deputy Dawg]

Originally posted by ApotheosizD:

extra chest work around works for like an hour irl then stops again, and i have to pick it back up and put it back down to get it to go again.

Ouch, sorry it doesn't work for you. I've been testing it over several in-game days with eight sheds full of auto-chests and machines. I have the extra chests placed at the bottom of the line. I'm playing on PC. Maybe the workaround success depends on other factors, as it's working great for me. I had hoped it might be a universal fix and I'm sad it's not...

[jilleybean]

Originally posted by ApotheosizD:

extra chest work around works for like an hour irl then stops again, and i have to pick it back up and put it back down to get it to go again.

I am very sorry to hear that it does not work for you. The work around has worked flawlessly for me. I can load chests up and leave them to run for weeks and even seasons in game with no problems whatsoever. I wonder what it is that prevents it from working for you.

[VeraelHasta]

Yup, just started happening to me. Kiln chest keeps doing nothing. ANd I lost ~40 bottles of wine in one of the other chests, it just disappeared.
I think I'm going to leave a negative review until they fix the late game bugs. It is honestly a huge pain in the ass when you can't make separate saves and are stuck with saves every 30 minutes.