̶B̶u̶g̶: Assembler waiting on materials

[[$$$]_Hazu]

TL; DR Not a bug: If you are having issues with your assembler not accepting ant; make very certain of the ingredients of the recipe. Worker ant, vs small worker ant.

Issue tags: Glitch seems to occur when ants carry materials on to an assembler/ paths invalidate ants for assembler/ Ants get stuck by input of assembler/ Ants not moving

Steam user Sarchasm posted in his own bug discussion the following:

"Another bug I just encountered - if a small worker is carrying something and you use any path other than the "null" path leading to an Assembler, if you then upgrade that path segment to the "null" path, the worker will step onto the Assembler still carrying their item and the Assembler will get stuck. You have to delete the Assembler and rebuild it to fix."

I posted the following:

My assembler is also broken. Nothing I try fixes it. I've tried restarting the game and it does nothing. The old small worker ants just sit in front of the assembler, as it says waiting for materials. Theres an ant waiting on the input spot with a valid path behind it, and it just wont take anything in. I've tried a loop. and the ants just walk past the input.

It was working not twenty minutes ago, it broke, then I fixed it. Then I tried to slightly adjust the path to the input, and it immediately broke again.

I was using it just fine to make small driller ants. Then wanted to get the tutorial window out of my view, so I did what it told me to do, and switch the recipe inside it to the drone. After I put the material input for fabric into the side, it still said that it was missing ingredients, but it was the worker ant that was missing, not the fabric.

I built storage for the materials to be deconstructed into, then I was able to get it to work once, then I edited the path. It broke again, and I tried constructing it and deconstructing it several times with nothing working. I tried re doing my paths. I have tried everything aside from restarting the game. At this point I don't think I want to play it in its current state if I am going to get bottlenecks that I didn't make, and cant fix.

[[$$$]_Hazu]

P.s. Sorry for being dramatic, I was not looking closely enough at the input requirements for for the drone recipe. I went to try again after a few hours of chillin, and still couldn't figure it out. It was only when I was reviewing my clips, so I could make a video to post here, that I was able to find the root of my issues. The recipe for the Drone is entirely dissimilar from the Inventor Ant, and does not use little workers. Hope this helps any other gamers.

[ColinQ]

I have the same bug I cannot get passed it.
Assemble Drone = Worker + Fabric. I 100% have a Worker sat in it, with another ant looping around with Fabric but doesn't work. Same for small worker and screw

Any ideas?

[[$$$]_Hazu]

Make sure that it is not a small worker ant. The recipe calls for the worker that you get from combining two small workers. I was not conveying information well previously. My last sentence should have been something like; ".. dissimilar from the small driller ant (also made in the assembler), and does not use little workers.". I was simultaneously having issues with my inventor ants, and wrote that instead of 'small driller ant'.

[MrPhil]

I'm having a similar problem. In my case, I can't change the recipe; the only choice is none. The worker ant (upgraded one, not the tiny one that comes after being a larve) is waiting to get on the platform, and the Assembler says it has fabric. I tried deleting and building again a couple times but it didn't help??

[MrPhil]

I figured it out! I hadn't researched the drone yet! Duh

[Sarchasm]

I'll have to see if I can recreate my original issue...I think it was unrelated to the type/caste of ant since I don't think the ant won't walk onto the assembler if they are not the expected caste of ant.

In my case the ant was the correct caste (small worker ant->small miner ant) but they managed to walk onto the Assembler while holding something, which I think is something that should never normally happen.

[Fwiffo]

Originally posted by ColinQ:

I have the same bug I cannot get passed it.
Assemble Drone = Worker + Fabric. I 100% have a Worker sat in it, with another ant looping around with Fabric but doesn't work. Same for small worker and screw

Any ideas?

I'm not entirely sure what you mean - why do you have an ant looping around with fabric? Assembler doesn't take ingredients from ants, you have to build a dispenser from a stockpile into the special slot on its side that would provide the resource directly from the stockpile.

[[$$$]_Hazu]

Originally posted by Sarchasm:

I'll have to see if I can recreate my original issue...I think it was unrelated to the type/caste of ant since I don't think the ant won't walk onto the assembler if they are not the expected caste of ant.

In my case the ant was the correct caste (small worker ant->small miner ant) but they managed to walk onto the Assembler while holding something, which I think is something that should never normally happen.

I was having so many issues that day XD, I was just happy to see your post, made me feel like I was not going mad. I was also having issues with them carrying items to the assembler/ combiners, on top of my other complications.

(P)roblems, (R)easons, (S)olutions:

(P1) - I had Inventor ants on my Worker ant plant cutting path.
(R1) -Because old worker ants were on the same old trail as the small workers, on the way to the combiners and assemblers.
(S1) - I didn't have the caste gate yet, so I just made a separate old trail for the worker ants, that went parallel to the small worker ants.

(P2) - Ants standing on assembler/ combiner with an item.
(R2) - Because I make mistakes, and bring ants from the wrong points on paths, leading to plant bulbs, larva, crafting materials, etc scattering across the colony.
(S2) - Only take ants from a path after they have put away their items. Use carry gates to route ants back to storage. Use trash cans just before entry to crucial areas.
- Build extra storage for reconstruction materials.
- Remove the assembler, remove the dispenser, remove path into area if possible ( not necessary, just makes space for easy work)
- place assembler, place dispenser, link stockpile, connect path.

(P3) - Ant standing on assembler, no item, dispenser connected correct material. correct ant caste, assembler does nothing.
(R3) - I am not certain.
(S3) - same as (S2) just be sure to set the recipe to the ant you are trying to produce, ants will just walk onto an assembler if there's no recipe set. Once you have the recipe set and dispenser connected, then connect the path to the assembler. And of course (this was my main cause of issues) make sure that if you are trying to shove an ant onto an assembler, that it is in fact the caste that the recipe is calling for.