Personal robots

[D Ravenheart]

Question,

I've been playing this game for over 2000 hours now,
Something has been bothering me since the day i first used a personal robotport,

Why cant the robots that i carry with me, use external robotports to recharge if i happen to be on the move?
Sometimes this causes a whole herd of robots be slow AF while they are passing over other robotports on their way to me?

Kinda annoying xD

[knighttemplar1960]

Robots stay in their own net work. Your personal roboport(s) are their own network and your robots stay with you. If it didn't work that way, when you leave the roboport network your robots would stay behind.

The robots work the same way for spidertrons. Even if you have multiple spidertrons the robots that start with that sipdertron stay with that spidertron.

[D Ravenheart]

Originally posted by knighttemplar1960:

Robots stay in their own net work. Your personal roboport(s) are their own network and your robots stay with you. If it didn't work that way, when you leave the roboport network your robots would stay behind.

The robots work the same way for spidertrons. Even if you have multiple spidertrons the robots that start with that sipdertron stay with that spidertron.

I understand how the networks work,
But when networks connect, they share the charging spots.
I just think this should be true for personal roboports too.

[shadain597]

Originally posted by GRANT MACDONALD:

Originally posted by knighttemplar1960:

Robots stay in their own net work. Your personal roboport(s) are their own network and your robots stay with you. If it didn't work that way, when you leave the roboport network your robots would stay behind.

The robots work the same way for spidertrons. Even if you have multiple spidertrons the robots that start with that sipdertron stay with that spidertron.

I understand how the networks work,
But when networks connect, they share the charging spots.
I just think this should be true for personal roboports too.

But the point is that personal roboports don't connect to other networks, unless you count having multiple ports in your armor. Changing how it works now would probably either require a significant rework of the code for robots and/or create much more substantial problems in the game, such as robots slipping into other networks or being a greater drain on UPS.

But I certainly wouldn't mind having a better indicator telling you that you have personal construction bots wandering around. While I'm usually pretty good at noticing them, my friends definitely leave bots wandering across half of the map without realizing it.

[AlexMBrennan]

Your personal roboport does not join the existing network and I am pretty sure that you do not want them to fly off to build concrete on the far side of your base.

[knighttemplar1960]

Originally posted by shadain597:

Originally posted by GRANT MACDONALD:

I understand how the networks work,
But when networks connect, they share the charging spots.
I just think this should be true for personal roboports too.

But the point is that personal roboports don't connect to other networks, unless you count having multiple ports in your armor. Changing how it works now would probably either require a significant rework of the code for robots and/or create much more substantial problems in the game, such as robots slipping into other networks or being a greater drain on UPS.

But I certainly wouldn't mind having a better indicator telling you that you have personal construction bots wandering around. While I'm usually pretty good at noticing them, my friends definitely leave bots wandering across half of the map without realizing it.

You can track robots on your minimap. There is a button that you can click on the UI to display robots in the same way that you can display power poles and pollution. You can also keep track of how many robots you have in your inventory and when there are fewer than you are expecting you can look around for the wanderers.

[D Ravenheart]

Originally posted by AlexMBrennan:

Your personal roboport does not join the existing network and I am pretty sure that you do not want them to fly off to build concrete on the far side of your base.

That is indeed unwanted, but i was merely talking about the recharge option.

[shadain597]

Originally posted by knighttemplar1960:

Originally posted by shadain597:

But the point is that personal roboports don't connect to other networks, unless you count having multiple ports in your armor. Changing how it works now would probably either require a significant rework of the code for robots and/or create much more substantial problems in the game, such as robots slipping into other networks or being a greater drain on UPS.

But I certainly wouldn't mind having a better indicator telling you that you have personal construction bots wandering around. While I'm usually pretty good at noticing them, my friends definitely leave bots wandering across half of the map without realizing it.

You can track robots on your minimap. There is a button that you can click on the UI to display robots in the same way that you can display power poles and pollution. You can also keep track of how many robots you have in your inventory and when there are fewer than you are expecting you can look around for the wanderers.

Well, yes, but it clutters up the map if you're keeping the logistics bots busy. Maybe separate toggles for logistics and construction bots would be the way to go?

And, yeah, I tend to do the latter, but I did say a better way of keeping track would be nice. Obviously, my friends don't obsessively check as much as I do.

[THE kilroy]

There are some problems with that though. It would probably take more time for the robot to fly further from the player and then charge and then return. And thats assuming you stay put and not go even further from the couple of gridbased charging stations. Which would impead the idea of having a portable robotport anyway.

Toggling your personal roboport on the hotbar when coming close to gridbase network is probably the best bet. that way tasks that CAN be done within charging range of gridbase, will not be done by personal roboport.


Maybe add some extra batteries to tour power armor. Maybe you would be interested in one of the mods that add a "tesla coil" style antenna to your power armor that lets you wirelessly charge your armor from the grid. I find that usually the over queing of charging personal bots is due to battery levels.

[knighttemplar1960]

Originally posted by shadain597:

Originally posted by knighttemplar1960:

You can track robots on your minimap. There is a button that you can click on the UI to display robots in the same way that you can display power poles and pollution. You can also keep track of how many robots you have in your inventory and when there are fewer than you are expecting you can look around for the wanderers.

Well, yes, but it clutters up the map if you're keeping the logistics bots busy. Maybe separate toggles for logistics and construction bots would be the way to go?

And, yeah, I tend to do the latter, but I did say a better way of keeping track would be nice. Obviously, my friends don't obsessively check as much as I do.

You only have to turn it on long enough to track the stragglers. The robots take 1 1/2 seconds to recharge no matter what type recharging port they use.

If your power armor is running out of power to recharge robots and that is why they are getting left behind you can take exoskeletons out of your armor and replace them with personal batteries and then ride around in a train, car, or spidertron and save the battery power for construction. You can also add more personal roboports (without adding more construction robots) to increase your personal construction area and the number of available personal roboports for recharging.

[RiO]

Originally posted by GRANT MACDONALD:

Question,

I've been playing this game for over 2000 hours now,
Something has been bothering me since the day i first used a personal robotport,

Why cant the robots that i carry with me, use external robotports to recharge if i happen to be on the move?
Sometimes this causes a whole herd of robots be slow AF while they are passing over other robotports on their way to me?

Kinda annoying xD

Just pick up your personal robots. Like: pick them directly from the air as they are slowly drifting back to you. They will go back into your inventory, instantly recharged, and without even draining your armor's power supply. Same for when a queue is forming around you to recharge off of your armor: just - pick - them - up.
(Yes; it's kind of exploit-y. No; nobody cares.)

[shadain597]

Originally posted by knighttemplar1960:

Originally posted by shadain597:

Well, yes, but it clutters up the map if you're keeping the logistics bots busy. Maybe separate toggles for logistics and construction bots would be the way to go?

And, yeah, I tend to do the latter, but I did say a better way of keeping track would be nice. Obviously, my friends don't obsessively check as much as I do.

You only have to turn it on long enough to track the stragglers. The robots take 1 1/2 seconds to recharge no matter what type recharging port they use.

If your power armor is running out of power to recharge robots and that is why they are getting left behind you can take exoskeletons out of your armor and replace them with personal batteries and then ride around in a train, car, or spidertron and save the battery power for construction. You can also add more personal roboports (without adding more construction robots) to increase your personal construction area and the number of available personal roboports for recharging.

How is constantly toggling it any more convenient than constantly checking your bot count? For a game about automating things, this is entirely too fiddly. Just because it technically works doesn't make it a good solution.

While I can't speak for everyone, including the aforementioned friends, I believe the rare occasions where I end up accidentally leaving bots behind is because I'm in a moving vehicle and fail to notice some bots fly off to complete some task I wasn't concerned with. For example, driving past a forest where some of the trees got marked for deconstruction, or an outpost that isn't 100% repaired. More common in multiplayer than singleplayer, since everyone has separate things they are working on.

[knighttemplar1960]

Originally posted by shadain597:

Originally posted by knighttemplar1960:

You only have to turn it on long enough to track the stragglers. The robots take 1 1/2 seconds to recharge no matter what type recharging port they use.

If your power armor is running out of power to recharge robots and that is why they are getting left behind you can take exoskeletons out of your armor and replace them with personal batteries and then ride around in a train, car, or spidertron and save the battery power for construction. You can also add more personal roboports (without adding more construction robots) to increase your personal construction area and the number of available personal roboports for recharging.

How is constantly toggling it any more convenient than constantly checking your bot count? For a game about automating things, this is entirely too fiddly. Just because it technically works doesn't make it a good solution.

While I can't speak for everyone, including the aforementioned friends, I believe the rare occasions where I end up accidentally leaving bots behind is because I'm in a moving vehicle and fail to notice some bots fly off to complete some task I wasn't concerned with. For example, driving past a forest where some of the trees got marked for deconstruction, or an outpost that isn't 100% repaired. More common in multiplayer than singleplayer, since everyone has separate things they are working on.

If your computer can handle it there's no reason to detoggle the bot UI (I play with mine on all the time. I have bot based smelter systems built and use bots for plastic production for throughput reasons. I can tell at a glance if I'm over or under producing that way.)

You can keep your construction bots as a link in your "tool belt" so you don't even have to open your inventory to check your construction robot count. You can also just ignore the wandering robots. They will eventually catch up to you. If you need more just grab them out of storage in your logistic area and when the stragglers finally catch up to you, if you have your auto trash set up, your logistic bots will move the excess construction bots back into storage.

It only has to be a problem if you try to make it one.

[jamiechi]

I used a mod that made the roboport zap the bots as they flew by it. I don't remember which one it was or whether it also zapped your personal bots as they flew by.

There is a mod that causes the personal bots to recharge instantly. 'Quick Charge Personal Bots'

[kremlin]

I wonder if any of the mods that add a 'charging tower' for robots do it universally so they would help.