Strange packager behavior

[Wig Bang]

I have a large storage with a bunch of red phosphorous, pseudo, and acid.

I have a package with one route set FROM the storage TO the chem station which has Liquid Meth set as its recipe.

The package walks up, sets a stack of 10 red phosph in the chem set. So far so good.

He then goes and grabs another stack of red phosph, instead of acid or pseudo.

After that,he does pseudo.

So the chem station ends up with two stacks of phosophorous and one stack of pseudo and is therefore unable to start making meth.

Also, I had these exact same settings back over at my bungalow (relocating to barn) and they worked fine there. In fact I even had that packager set with two routes just like this one to each of my chem stations and it had no problem.

So what gives.. what am I doing wrong

[Grobi]

this happens quite often, only thing you can do: reassign the guy new,save, quit the game completely (not only to the main game scene). Restart and it should work. But sometimes, even after they did 50 times right they freak out and mess up completely.

[Wig Bang]

i'm just trying to imagine the logistical nightmare designing and implementing this must be for the dev

[Wig Bang]

I reset him, restarted, and programmed again and he's doing the same nonsense again.

So is there just no way to actually automate meth production? Is this just a key feature. that everyone understands and accepts is completely brokeN?

[Wig Bang]

In case anyone comes across this issue, apparently the handlers pull items off the storage in the exact order they're present in it. So if you want reagents A, B, and C to be used, then you have to store them in that very order (i.e. ABCABC...)

It's strange that the handler is going by order and not need, but anyway that's how it works.

[Grobi]

meth worked for me, but mixing the 8 product work for a few days than they screw everything up. cocain is even worse because the cauldron is completely bugged.

[vega]

there is a way i read to stack your output shelf manually so the handler will take acid then phosphorus then the pseudo. didnt try it yet. so the way you add ingredients to your output shelf that the handler takes from matters.

[vega]

Originally posted by Wig Bang:

i'm just trying to imagine the logistical nightmare designing and implementing this must be for the dev

big brain on tyler thats for sure:P

[TatsuSaisei =|[76AD]|= =*GoA*=]

I find pre-stocking any machine to full, THEN filling the shelves to full keeps the handler from goofing off... if you leave handler(s) the chance to fill a completely empty machine slot, I have seen them do just what you describe, and just fill it full of one, instead of each of the three!

Order of operations works for assignments, too, so it also makes sense for shelf presentation, especially from a programmatic point of view, it's just a minor array loop.

[Wig Bang]

Originally posted by TatsuSaisei =|76AD|= =*GoA*=:

I find pre-stocking any machine to full, THEN filling the shelves to full keeps the handler from goofing off... if you leave handler(s) the chance to fill a completely empty machine slot, I have seen them do just what you describe, and just fill it full of one, instead of each of the three!

Order of operations works for assignments, too, so it also makes sense for shelf presentation, especially from a programmatic point of view, it's just a minor array loop.

yep pre-filling is the main lesson i learned from this

[KellyR]

Workers in this game are mindless automatons. They make no decisions at all, so if you tell them to move stuff from one storage shelf to a machine, they'll try to move everything that can be moved, they're not smart workers that can pick a specific item type.

Basically think of them as human conveyor belts. Whatever you put in the source container will be moved to the target container indiscriminately.

And that's part of why I stick to weed.

[Orbnotacus]

Handlers will grab any item on a shelf they're assigned to grab items from, and take it to where it's assigned to go.

There is nothing stopping a handler from putting 30 of 1 item into the chemistry station.

I've fully automated everything in a meth manufacturing facility (EXCEPT restocking the chemistry station) which includes:

8 Chemistry Stations
8 Ovens
8 Mk2 Mixers

I used a mod to have 15 employees at the barn. 6 Chemists, which all covered the list of stations above, and the other 9 were all handlers.

Chemistry stations output to ovens, ovens output to 8 shelves.
1 handler moves Meth from 4 of those shelves to the other 4.
Another Handler moves those 4 shelves, taking them all to Mixer 1.
All the Mixers output to the next Mixer in the line.
Next to each mixer is 4 large shelves.
Each of these shelves has it's own handler that routes all 4 shelves to their respective Mixer.
That gives me 640 of each of my 8 ingredients I add to my Meth.
The last Mixer outputs to the brick press, which is the only Station 1 of my 9 handlers is assigned to.

I could have done half as many Chemistry Stations and Ovens. Which would give me 2 less chemists.
I could have not done that dumbass setup with 8 ovens going into 8 shelves, and done 4 into 4. That gives me 1 less handler.

So between 3 more employees, and 4 of the hypothetical 8 are using their 5th route to collectively put the final mixer ingredient from one of its 4 shelves into the mixer. There are 19 more routes we could have to stock 4 chemistry stations.

You may have noticed, that when an employee is on his way to grab an item from the shelf, that item is locked, and you can't grab it or interact with it in any way. We need to use this to our advantage.

Those 3 new handlers will each get their own 4 shelves, and each Handler will only move 1 ingredient (4 for maximum time before you need to intervene). Each handler has 4 shelves that each route to its own chemistry station. That's 12 of the available 19 routes we could use. The idea is you have 1 Chemist doing all 4 Chemistry Stations. He can only finish them one at a time. The second he finishes 1 cook, all 3 of the Handlers will spring into action at the same time. Each picking up their respective ingredient, locking it, but more importantly, "reserving" its space on the chemistry table. Once they add their ingredient, there's no more space, nothing more to be done.

Sorry for the long winded explanation. Logistics is my favorite part of the game lol.

[NathanSCN]

Just wanted to complain as well.
I played with a friend of mine and the 3 different resources to be put into the chemistry station are completely random. So sometimes it works but eventually it will come to a stop... super annoying as its supposed to be automatic to make live easier... :(

[Wig Bang]

Originally posted by NathanSCN:

Just wanted to complain as well.
I played with a friend of mine and the 3 different resources to be put into the chemistry station are completely random. So sometimes it works but eventually it will come to a stop... super annoying as its supposed to be automatic to make live easier... :(

All you have to do is pre-load the stations with the right stuff and then make sure the source storage never runs dry of any of the resources.

The problem is you have to *know* to do that. Which requires *knowing* that the handler uses a stupid algorithm to pick reagents from the source.

I'm hoping this gets fixed. (not improved, fixed - as it is, it's broken)

[NathanSCN]

You are kinda right -and thanks for the tip I learned here- but it happened many times by now, that I run out of ingredients at some point.
And when I reorder/-fill the main storages the problem starts anew. So I have to prefill again.
That means EVERY time this happens I have to refill not only the main storage units but ALSO EVERY SINGLE STATION...

So I hope this problem is being fixed soon - also because many other players are not even taking their time reading fixes but just giving games up altogether out of frustration.
Just saying.