[1.3.5] Fabricator and Factory Bugs

[Daredeviler_21]

So I just encountered two bugs on my crafting base that happened at roughly the same time.

For a brief idea of my base, the crafting area is a conveyor loop with one fabricator from each faction, one scrapper from each faction, a single refinery and four maxed out factories.

The first bug appeared when I queued up a Seed A.I., one of the Ion Pulse Cells it needed just stopped receiving the Rodius it needed, even though it was the only thing requesting them and Rodius kept going past it. I forced it to update and fix itself by setting another factory to craft one itself, which worked fine and broke the bug.

Now, the second bug. When the Seed A.I. was created (I was testing how much profit you could make when crafting components to sell) I needed to make a GSO block, but I couldn't right click on my GSO Fabricator. Here's when things make no sense. I take the fabricator off the base, and right clicking it still doesn't function, so I unanchor it to let it go into my SCU and got a new fabricator out, anchored it, right clicked and it worked, then hooked it back up to the base and right click stops working again, however unlike the first fabricator, when anchored away from the base, it works again.

If the save file is needed, let me know where the save file is located and I'll post it here.

[Daredeviler_21]

Also forgot to mention it's only the GSO Fabricator that isn't working.

[ZeroGravitas]

For resources bypassing component factories (CFs), make sure to remove and re-add all the fabricators after adjusting the CFs at all. Also, that the fabricator can see a refinery somewhere on it's line (but just one).

I've not heard of the second issue before, but it might be related to a non-crafting issue, perhaps. Or recent UI code work, I've no idea.

Anyway, there's a lot of old crafting bugs that I've listed in my guide, with workarounds. particularly check section 7 for CF related issues: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1191458767

[Zed]

Originally posted by Daredeviler_21:

So I just encountered two bugs on my crafting base that happened at roughly the same time.

For a brief idea of my base, the crafting area is a conveyor loop with one fabricator from each faction, one scrapper from each faction, a single refinery and four maxed out factories.

The first bug appeared when I queued up a Seed A.I., one of the Ion Pulse Cells it needed just stopped receiving the Rodius it needed, even though it was the only thing requesting them and Rodius kept going past it. I forced it to update and fix itself by setting another factory to craft one itself, which worked fine and broke the bug.

Now, the second bug. When the Seed A.I. was created (I was testing how much profit you could make when crafting components to sell) I needed to make a GSO block, but I couldn't right click on my GSO Fabricator. Here's when things make no sense. I take the fabricator off the base, and right clicking it still doesn't function, so I unanchor it to let it go into my SCU and got a new fabricator out, anchored it, right clicked and it worked, then hooked it back up to the base and right click stops working again, however unlike the first fabricator, when anchored away from the base, it works again.

If the save file is needed, let me know where the save file is located and I'll post it here.

Bug 1 and Bug 2 almost sound related based on the original post quoted above.

1) First Suggestion would be to blueprint (snapshot) the base in question and take it to a new savegame (preferably creative mode) for testing purposes for the following reasons:

a) Techs tend to have a "latent" memory of *how* they were assembled (i.e. the order in which the blocks were attached including "undo" 'requests' to arrive at their present form.) A newly-Spawned copy of the tech design would emerge "as-is" and not retain any of its "as-was" evolutionary steps which might be impairing conveyor functionality. This type of issue is usually noticed in Aircraft Tech which "do not fly straight" despite being completely symmetrical.

b) There are times when individual blocks "corrupt" (most often noticed when an SCU no longer identifies them as a block at all and will no longer pull them in.) and while 99% of the time manually placing the block into an SCU will correct this issue I have found it offers more peace of mind to scrap the block entirely to remove it from circulation entirely. After having done so it might make sense to re-save the save game as a new file name, restart terratech (and steam) entirely and reload that file to ensure it was the block and not the save-game itself that caused the issue.

2) The base itself may have a design flaw. Without either the savegame (If playing in Windows it would be located in : C:\Users\[Username]\Documents\My Games\TerraTech\[Steam#]\Saves\[TerratechProfile]\[SaveGameType]\ ) Or preferably a "3d Grabbit Snapshot" link so the base can be seen via a web-browser / Steam Workshop Item so the base design can be visually evaluated.

a) https://steamcommunity.com/app/285920/discussions/0/1643170269582584071/#c1643170903489649385 contains a list of some of the most common issues with base design running up against "Net-Ops" (TT crafting Idiosyncrasies) which might be causing part of the issue as the OP mentions " Four Maxed Out [Component] Factories"

i) Component Factories when fully moduled (dongled) will always default to create the most complex (sub)component available to them as requested by the fabricator(s) in use and will not "double check" against the requirements of (sub)components required for the component(s) requested by that specific component factory as the fabricator initiates all requests.

Try leaving one Component factory unmoduled (none of the 3 available dongle types attached) and re-initiating the block request from the fabricator to see if this is an issue with the Crafting-Tech's Design.

Hope the above information is of some help; I look forward to any follow-up questions should any arise.

[Daredeviler_21]

Alright, so issue 2 sorted itself out on it's own, as when I loaded up my save file the fabricator works again. I suspected some weird block ID corruption considering the fact that even when disconnected and placed as it's own base entity, it still had the issue. Something about my base itself caused the corruption though, as any GSO Fabricators placed onto the base got "infected" by this issue. I have also confirmed that whatever corrupted didn't persist through the SCU, as no fabricators have this issue currently.
It's interesting to note though that this block corruption happens quite frequently, as I constantly see blocks not being sucked in by the SCU, and didn't know why nor connect the dots between the corrupted fabricator being loosely related until mentioned here.

As for the resource bypass one, only one refinery is on the entire line, as I did encounter the whole 2 or more refinery issue earlier on into my save file. What's strange is that the resource bypass issue happened after the game had successfully auto-crafted about 20 components beforehand, with zero modifications made to the factories or the base itself. After I inputted the recipe into the factory manually, it fixed itself and didn't happen again.

[ZeroGravitas]

Originally posted by Daredeviler_21:

Alright, so issue 2 sorted itself out on it's own, as when I loaded up my save file the fabricator works again.

Ah, cool. That add's weight to my suspicion. I should have suggested to see what happens when restarting the game entirely; there are a bunch of bugs where a specific block ID of a certain type gets 'corrupted' (e.g. the animation state or attach points around it).

Originally posted by Daredeviler_21:

this block corruption happens quite frequently.

Are you able to get it to happen again on a reliable basis? If so, that would be new and it would definitely be worth uploading a save file (and preferably a video demo too) to the main bugs forum. Instructions for that and save file locations in this post: https://forum.terratechgame.com/index.php?threads/bug-reporting-guidelines-and-template.17193/

Originally posted by Daredeviler_21:

What's strange is that the resource bypass issue happened after the game had successfully auto-crafted about 20 components beforehand

So, it's going to depend upon which Component factories are being allocated to make the components and what level the components are. It might only happen with the exotic level components. Always worth removing and re-adding the fabricators with anything vaguely like this.

That can even be done mid-crafting by 'popping' the fabricator of by removing the last block holding it on, then clicking "Undo". Ingredient progress is restored.

[Daredeviler_21]

Block corruption is most notable when I destroy enemy techs and go to SCU their parts, not always, but frequently enough one won't get sucked in. Maybe 1-2 of these occur every 2-3 hours. It's not something I can replicate reliably.

I have noticed that usually if the last component a recipe needs is an exotic one, the factories don't auto queue it in, and I need to do it manually, however this is a small, negligible issue. However the Ion Pulse Cell, whilst it was being crafted for the exotic, is itself only a level two component, and it did receive the acid electrode it needed successfully, it just didnt accept the rodius. Also the undo trick to restore the recipe is a good thing to know.