How do I tell bots not to repair walls?

[cityofgolem]

Just got my first construction bot and personal roboport, and went out to start trying it out, but as soon as I got near a damaged wall, my robot automatically flew out and repaired it. How do I blacklist things I don't want them to repair? Walls are FAR cheaper to replace than repair, so this is a huge waste of repair kits, and it's a lot of kits, considering he just used up more of them in the time it took me to realize what was happening and hit pause, than I've used in more than 24 hours in the game.

[Trenchfeet]

Automate repair kit production and turn them loose bud. They are trying to help.

[Purpleganja]

Originally posted by cityofgolem:

Originally posted by Purpleganja:

Try not making modules if you want to launch only one rocket and be done. Maybe just some lvl1 green modules on few power hungry machines that run all the time, but forget prods.

The whole problem here is that I'm running out of ore deposits. Production mods in mine drills reduce how much ore deposit I need to get the same amount of ore out. Production mods in forges make it take less ore from the mine to get the same number of copper plates. Production mods in intermediate assemblers make each later item in the chain take fewer of the previous item, and thus, ultimately, take less copper. "Forget prods" would in every way make this situation worse, not better.

You are using a lot of ressources from your limited first patches trying to save ressources in the long term and making those pollutes on top of it, making you need more ressources to defend against more evolved bitters.
Do you really save anything ?

Just giving my 2 cents to help tho, you can play it how you like!

[Sebine]

Originally posted by cityofgolem:

Originally posted by Sebine:

So the easiest solution that nobody has addressed yet

is to just not have walls.

"Die horrible as the bugs almost immediately overwhelm my base" does not constitute a "solution".

It's a solution.
Just not a good one.

[Purpleganja]

Originally posted by Sebine:

Originally posted by cityofgolem:

"Die horrible as the bugs almost immediately overwhelm my base" does not constitute a "solution".

It's a solution.
Just not a good one.

In the same vein of removing walls, making dragons theet instead of full walls can have the desired effect of having half or less wall pieces taking damage and needing repairs.

[cityofgolem]

Originally posted by fractalgem:

https://forums.factorio.com/viewtopic.php?t=5705

This analysis may give you a better feel of where you should bother with productivity, while considering that rushing a rocket launch can theoretically be done in just 5 hours: so anything taking longer than 3 hours to pay itself off might not be worth it if you're not willing to go exploring for distant resources. This analysis also, it should be warned, assumes the machine is in constant use.

That analysis does indicate that there's a few swaps I can make in which item gets the modules ahead of which other item, to tweak the optimization of my module use, but overall, it still upholds the way I've been using modules, at least in the early game when this copper shortage issue was arising. I'm not rushing Prod3 tech, then refusing to build anything until I've got a full set of Prod3s to go in it; I do give Prod1 a fairly high research priority, and research Prod2 and Prod3 when it fits naturally into the progression, and I use Prod1s pretty much as much as I can afford the pollution (then switch to Effic1 modules to get the pollution down so I can afford more). Even in an electric drill, the analysis from your own link indicates that it takes less than an hour for a Prod1 to pay back all the resources that went into making it.

Even when I'm using Effic1s to offset pollution to afford more Prod1s, it takes about 1.5 Effic1 mods to offset the extra pollution per item produced (total, incl both base and bonus production) from using a single Prod1 (assuming they're in the same building type, set to the same task with the same duty cycle; in practice, will be slightly more favorable as I put the Effic1s first in the buildings that produce the most pollution in the worst locations, and Prod1s where they'll save the most copper, which won't always be the same places). A Prod1 and an Effic1 have the same resource cost to make, so that means the total time for a single Prod1 and all the Effic1s to offset its pollution to all pay for themselves is about 2.5 or so hours.

I am not a speed-runner; one hour into a new run, I'm just getting started on a long-term automation set-up, and 2.5 hours in, I'm starting to get things going pretty well, but still have a lot to do to have everything automated nicely. Two and a half hours after my first drill gets its first Prod1 module, I'm still very firmly in the early game.

This all assumes that link's author's valuations of oil; I've never had oil be a limiting factor other than when I'd not yet established a source at all, and it can't run out outright, like copper was threatening to do, so that makes the modules effectively less costly to use than the above calculations suggest.

If anything, this analysis indicates that I was underestimating how beneficial Prod1 mods are, and should be increasing the priority I place on them. Note, for example, that even the "taking longer than 3 hours to pay itself off" threshold you yourself arbitrarily set, is met by Prod1s, even in copper-mining drills, even in the worse-than-worst case where it needs Effic1s to offset its pollution (and also putting them into copper drills), and is treating oil as being as precious per unit as copper ore.

[kremlin]

Might be worthwhile to focus on more rapid expansion. When I grow my resource input I tend to do it by making a large grid of big poles and radar and having visual on every patch in the radius. When I do that I tend to reveal an awful lot of ore patches, and most of them beyond the starting area are in the millions on default settings.

[cityofgolem]

Originally posted by kremlin:

Might be worthwhile to focus on more rapid expansion. When I grow my resource input I tend to do it by making a large grid of big poles and radar and having visual on every patch in the radius. When I do that I tend to reveal an awful lot of ore patches, and most of them beyond the starting area are in the millions on default settings.

Unless you intend to imply that exploring a place with radar makes it more likely to find ore than exploring the same place in person, this isn't actually adding anything to the discussion. I already established that, for the run where I nearly ran out of copper, I explored extensively, to the point that I ran out of safe places to go, and had to take on fights I wasn't really ready for, in order to explore more spaces, and when I eventually did find a second copper patch, another very tough fight to clear it off so I could mine it.

[kremlin]

It's also about keeping an eye on your borders to help minimize defensive costs in the long term. If you radar out wherever you explore it becomes a lot easier to keep those areas clear of the bugs when they start expanding in again. Keeping yourself in the loop on your map and keeping things clear for when you need to go farther out. Productivity modules won't keep those veins you did find from running out and it's better to clear an area once rather than every time you go off in that direction.

[Нагризолич]

Lmfao OP is saving copper on repair packs