Is there a way to set platform requests with circuits?

[GAMING_Alligator]

I want my platform to request eggs from Nauvis, but only if it has any prometheum chunks left to turn into science. Does anybody know if there's a way to do this without having to babysit the platform?

[malogoss]

Maybe read the hub content, send that to combinators that send back a +1M eggs signal to the platform if prometheum = 0. Also set a request for 100 eggs, or whatever amount.

No idea if it works, but that's what I'd try. I'm trying to trick the platform into not activating a request even if it does not have the real items in inventory. Might work, might not.

Good luck.

Edit: confirmed it myself, that does not work.

[GAMING_Alligator]

Originally posted by malogoss:

Maybe read the hub content, send that to combinators that send back a +1M eggs signal to the platform if prometheum = 0. Also set a request for 100 eggs, or whatever amount.

No idea if it works, but that's what I'd try. I'm trying to trick the platform into not activating a request even if it does not have the real items in inventory. Might work, might not.

Good luck.

Tried this. I can get as far as using a combinator to send a signal to the hub.

But I can't see how to get the hub to use that signal to base a request on. I can only see how to do that with a constant, unless I'm missing something?

[malogoss]

Originally posted by GAMING_Alligator:

Tried this. I can get as far as using a combinator to send a signal to the hub.

But I can't see how to get the hub to use that signal to base a request on. I can only see how to do that with a constant, unless I'm missing something?

Maybe I was not clear but...
I'd set a request for eggs, just like you'd normally set any request. That request is totally independent of what is happening with the combinators. It stays what it is at all time, the amount requested never changes, no matter what is going on with the combinators.

Then my hope would be that the request stays inactive when I want it to because of the combinators and the +1M egg "artificial" signal. Like, if a wire is connected to the hub with a signal of +1M eggs, I'd assume the hub/platform factors in that 1M when determining if its requests are fulfilled. If it requests 200 eggs and sees it has a million, that request would be inactive.

But as I said. That's what I'd try. Will it work as I expect it to work, no idea.

[malogoss]

So I loaded the game I tried what I proposed.

It does NOT work as I expected. It would be convenient if it did, but no. Do I still get a medal for trying?

[GAMING_Alligator]

Originally posted by malogoss:

So I loaded the game I tried what I proposed.

It does NOT work as I expected. It would be convenient if it did, but no. Do I still get a medal for trying?

Sure, have a mad scientist award for that.

And yeah, now that you explained it, if that worked, that would completely solve my question. Kind of annoying it doesn't.

Can it really be that there's no way to influence what gets requested by circuit?

[knighttemplar1960]

I don't think so. I tried my train trick and set a negative number of specific items in a constant combinator but it doesn't work the way it does for a train. The actual content of the hub is used and the negative signal from the combinator is ignored.

[Pandorian]

I never found a way to change what the platform hub requested. What I ended up doing was a direct insert into my lab. Enable if promethean is >=25, override stack size, set filter(blacklist) based on contents of lab. This makes it so I only input eggs if there's chunks to match. (I had dedicated inserters for chunks.) My platform would then leave Nauvis after sending the science packs down. After that it's just a matter of reading your traveling from signal, putting the extra eggs onto a belt, and tossing them over the side.

[Liwet]

Don't let it go to Nauvis unless it has promethium chunks. Drop off any science it has and pick up a set of eggs. Don't send it back to Nauvis unless you have enough or excess promethium to process with the eggs.

[RiO]

Originally posted by Liwet:

Don't let it go to Nauvis unless it has promethium chunks. Drop off any science it has and pick up a set of eggs. Don't send it back to Nauvis unless you have enough or excess promethium to process with the eggs.

Yup. This is the only way the logistics will work out correctly.
You send the ship back to Nauvis only when you have prometheum chunks.

At that point it will start requesting biter eggs, and you fashion all the chunks into science.
Which you can do in one of two ways:

The first is that you configure the platform hub and landing pad to immediately orbital drop all the science back to Nauvis and keep it buffered on the surface, rather than on the platform - so you can immediately leave orbit once everything has been processed and you stop receiving eggs.
You then put in a condition using the "from" and "to" platform signals to throw overboard remaining eggs and wipe the science recipe from the science plants; so that any remaining eggs are ejected into trash slots and can also be thrown overboard.

The problem with this solution is you will be sending your platform back out continuously for more and more science and you're making Nauvis responsible for getting rid of it in time or the entire process will jam; eggs will be hatching up-top on the platform; and oh-my ...

So, the second solution is probably better:
You keep the science on the platform, and your departure condition becomes having no more science AND having less prometheum chunks remaining than required for one recipe iteration.

Meanwhile, as soon as you have less prometheum chunks remaining than required, you start just throwing the biter eggs overboard as you receive them. You just toss them. Straight up.

You have to, because it's impossible to work out a freshness timer and only purge them when close to expiring -- since you'll be receiving those eggs in different batches at different levels of freshness and while you can configure inserters 'spoiled first' there's no way to know where one batch ends and the fresher batch (which might be good for another 10 minutes or so) starts.



There is a third way, but it requires that you have a second platform acting as a go-between.

You configure your prometheum chunk platform to ferry between the Shattered Planet, Nauvis and Fulgora, in that order.
En route to the Shattered Planet, it loads up on prometheum chunks, up to a set amount and then you fly it back; heading to Nauvis.
On Nauvis it loads up the corresponding amount of biter eggs -- but does not process them into science yet.
Once en-route or at Fulgora, you process all of it into science and toss overboard residual biter eggs when done.
Fulgora requests a few rockets worth of prometheum science to be dropped there and buffers it for another platform to pick up.

That other platform will do so periodically, slowly dropping what it has onto Nauvis as Nauvis's science labs is consuming it. Which means your prometheum platform can also only slowly drop the science onto Fulgora.
And thus you can condition it restarting the trip to the Shattered Planet on having dropped all its science onto Fulgora.


The trick is to never leave the platform over Nauvis. So that the request for biter eggs can only ever send up an exact measured batch - to be processed over another planet.
You can use this with Gleba as well - as long as the 'import from' for your platform's biter egg request is set to Nauvis, it shouldn't tangle up with any eggs shipped to Gleba for overgrowth soil.
But you might prefer not to if you have a science hauling ship visiting all planets on demand via interrupts when a certain science flask's cargo count hits 0. Because it might also trigger Gleba to 'wake up' and start producing additional agriculture science prematuraly.
Depends on whether you're just creating it continuously; or are limiting it to only activate when receiving a request from orbit for more.