Question about drones

[PersonalC0ffee]

Does Target, Source, and Destination all have to be located in the SAME ranch expansion you set the drone up in?

As an example I have 7 slime cages, in my main area. That's where the auto feeders are.

I have set up gardens in the lab and grotto. I install a drone into the grotto and tell it to take VEGGIES from GARDEN to AUTO FEEDER and it does nothing. YES I WATERED IT.

So what I want to know is if all 3 input commands, have to be located in the same ranch expansion as the drone is installed.

[purplecharmanderz]

Yes they do

[PersonalC0ffee]

Originally posted by purplecharmanderz:

Yes they do

That really hurts the effectiveness of drones if you don't arrange your base a certain way.

They really should be able to path between zones.

[WarnerCK]

Originally posted by PersonalC0ffee:

They really should be able to path between zones.

Other parts of the map are unloaded from RAM when you aren't there. The other zones effectively don't necessarily exist.

[PersonalC0ffee]

I had to completely reform most of my base and split my slimes up to effectively use the drones because of how they are currently implemented.

[WarnerCK]

Originally posted by PersonalC0ffee:

I had to completely reform most of my base and split my slimes up to effectively use the drones because of how they are currently implemented.

The behaviour isn't going to change. If all the zones had to be loaded at all times to satisfy niche bee use then the RAM requirements would put the game out of reach for most customers.

[Jackkel Dragon]

I think the description text either when building drones or when programming them does note that they must be in the same ranch expansion. And honestly, I'd prefer to have more drones per zone than have them try to path between zones, with how slow they move.

Also, WarnerCK is very correct about how zones work in memory. You can actually confirm where the cutoff points that start loading a zone are by having a drone selling plorts. You don't get any of the money from unloaded zones until they load again, then get the money all at once when you're close enough to load that area. Basically, the game tries to only have your current area and the closet adjacent areas loaded, since the physics engine takes a lot of memory to run. (This is also why items that haven't decayed tend to be in the same spot you left them: the area isn't doing physics calculations while you're gone. Only timers and basic logic runs for unloaded zones.)

Edit: Another thing to consider: you can't have drones feed slimes their favorite foods effectively if you have different slimes in the same zone. If a feeder goes empty while a drone is stocking them, it will give whatever it's holding to that feeder even if you'd prefer a different food item. For instance, I had a drone stocking a veggie feeder and a meat feeder, but the chickens weren't breeding fast enough and so the veggies went into the meat feeder. So, sometimes, re-arranging the ranch is part of the automation/efficiency-boosting process, drones or not.

[PersonalC0ffee]

Originally posted by Jackkel Dragon:

I think the description text either when building drones or when programming them does note that they must be in the same ranch expansion. And honestly, I'd prefer to have more drones per zone than have them try to path between zones, with how slow they move.

Also, WarnerCK is very correct about how zones work in memory. You can actually confirm where the cutoff points that start loading a zone are by having a drone selling plorts. You don't get any of the money from unloaded zones until they load again, then get the money all at once when you're close enough to load that area. Basically, the game tries to only have your current area and the closet adjacent areas loaded, since the physics engine takes a lot of memory to run. (This is also why items that haven't decayed tend to be in the same spot you left them: the area isn't doing physics calculations while you're gone. Only timers and basic logic runs for unloaded zones.)

Edit: Another thing to consider: you can't have drones feed slimes their favorite foods effectively if you have different slimes in the same zone. If a feeder goes empty while a drone is stocking them, it will give whatever it's holding to that feeder even if you'd prefer a different food item. For instance, I had a drone stocking a veggie feeder and a meat feeder, but the chickens weren't breeding fast enough and so the veggies went into the meat feeder. So, sometimes, re-arranging the ranch is part of the automation/efficiency-boosting process, drones or not.

Is this why sometimes when I come back from a teleporter the feeders go nuts and shoot like 20-30 items?

[Jackkel Dragon]

It might be... that sounds like it may be more of a bug. I don't know the exact logic used for unloaded zones, but I usually only see food overflow when the feeders are at capacity, and it's usually only one or two feedings worth. What speed are the feeders set to? Depending on how many slimes you have in a corral, you may want to lower the feeding speed.

For instance, my setup right now consists almost exclusively of largos, so I stick to around 6 slimes per corral, since the feeder shoots six food at a time. I put all my feeders at the lowest setting, because otherwise the slimes will let food decay around them when full. With this setup, I generally only lose one or two sets of food per day unless it gets trapped by the plort collector or involves chickens.

Now, if you have ~10 slimes, the default feeding speed should be fine. ~20 and you will want the highest speed. But maybe you left a feeder on a high speed with not enough slimes eating?

Another fun bit of weirdness you can spot when loading into a zone: sometimes, food that just ripened will pop into the air when you load in, since it was displaced by the new growth that had already spawned in just before loading. If I'm sprinting around a lot, I'll often see this even in the first carrot patch outside of the ranch, which is funny since the slimes spawn in by jumping as well. It looks like two sets of fireworks, followed by a lot of eating and plorting.

[PersonalC0ffee]

Originally posted by Jackkel Dragon:

It might be... that sounds like it may be more of a bug. I don't know the exact logic used for unloaded zones, but I usually only see food overflow when the feeders are at capacity, and it's usually only one or two feedings worth. What speed are the feeders set to? Depending on how many slimes you have in a corral, you may want to lower the feeding speed.

For instance, my setup right now consists almost exclusively of largos, so I stick to around 6 slimes per corral, since the feeder shoots six food at a time. I put all my feeders at the lowest setting, because otherwise the slimes will let food decay around them when full. With this setup, I generally only lose one or two sets of food per day unless it gets trapped by the plort collector or involves chickens.

Now, if you have ~10 slimes, the default feeding speed should be fine. ~20 and you will want the highest speed. But maybe you left a feeder on a high speed with not enough slimes eating?

Another fun bit of weirdness you can spot when loading into a zone: sometimes, food that just ripened will pop into the air when you load in, since it was displaced by the new growth that had already spawned in just before loading. If I'm sprinting around a lot, I'll often see this even in the first carrot patch outside of the ranch, which is funny since the slimes spawn in by jumping as well. It looks like two sets of fireworks, followed by a lot of eating and plorting.

Turtle is the speed and it usually throws out between 15 and 30 suddenly and immediately. It only happens if I'm gone a long time say maybe 30 min to 1 hour or longer. I don't REALLY take note of it every time it happens. It's legit doing the spitting star animation every time it does it and the number goes down by 1. It just does it VERY rapidly. I feel like it's playing catch up.

I have 5 largos in each pen. I have 3 veggie in the main, 2 fruit in the cave, and 2 fruit in the lab. Every largo is getting it's favorite food.

Even before drones, I noticed this problem but drones are responsible for plort collection and feeding in all their respective areas. I've seen the food/slime thing you mentioned.

[WarnerCK]

Originally posted by PersonalC0ffee:

Is this why sometimes when I come back from a teleporter the feeders go nuts and shoot like 20-30 items?

Yes. Not directly, but as a result of a decision the devs made to catch up the game state.

They could have kept it completely frozen time while the region was unloaded, or they could have simply deleted the food from the auto feeders that a calculation says would have been used up in that time, but they chose to just spit it out all at once when the region gets reloaded. Which is silly.

I reported it as a bug, and they said that they'd reconsider their options there, but I don't know that they'll actually change it.

[PersonalC0ffee]

Originally posted by WarnerCK:

Originally posted by PersonalC0ffee:

Is this why sometimes when I come back from a teleporter the feeders go nuts and shoot like 20-30 items?

Yes. Not directly, but as a result of a decision the devs made to catch up the game state.

They could have kept it completely frozen time while the region was unloaded, or they could have simply deleted the food from the auto feeders that a calculation says would have been used up in that time, but they chose to just spit it out all at once when the region gets reloaded. Which is silly.

I reported it as a bug, and they said that they'd reconsider their options there, but I don't know that they'll actually change it.

Dude, it totally seems like a bug!

[Jackkel Dragon]

It ultimately depends on how the game keeps track of timers when a zone isn't loaded, but I'd hope we eventually get an update where the game runs calculations for feeders/collectors without waiting for the physics engine to be loaded. Most food types aside from the ungrowable foods and Odd Onions are pretty easy to replace, but it can seem strange to return home to rotting food or sudden bursts of feeder activity when on the lowest feeder settings. I can certainly see it sticking if a fix would require a total refactor of the code for unloaded zones, but it would feel "cleaner" to have it tweaked to keep track better, like the drone plort selling seems to be.

[purplecharmanderz]

Originally posted by Jackkel Dragon:

It ultimately depends on how the game keeps track of timers when a zone isn't loaded, but I'd hope we eventually get an update where the game runs calculations for feeders/collectors without waiting for the physics engine to be loaded.

coming from someone who's dug in the code for modding, it basically stores the time it unloaded at and compares it to the current world time (which is partially visible in the time and day in the top left corner).

given that time is also what is used to determine if the food can even be shot out, for the feeder side of things it doesn't seem unreasonable to just run variable alterations and modify accordingly. it does get a bit more complicated for factoring in the slimes and plort production, but its not like its impossible. would ultimately save on resources for the system in question (we reduce the relevant function call count and remove the need for it to load in extra items and process their collisions - which adds more to the function calls beyond the original relevant ones)

still would have slight issues for drones without some other tweaks to the system, but catch up is a mess to begin with that could honestly go with an overhaul to improve its functionality anyways.

[PersonalC0ffee]

Originally posted by Jackkel Dragon:

It ultimately depends on how the game keeps track of timers when a zone isn't loaded, but I'd hope we eventually get an update where the game runs calculations for feeders/collectors without waiting for the physics engine to be loaded. Most food types aside from the ungrowable foods and Odd Onions are pretty easy to replace, but it can seem strange to return home to rotting food or sudden bursts of feeder activity when on the lowest feeder settings. I can certainly see it sticking if a fix would require a total refactor of the code for unloaded zones, but it would feel "cleaner" to have it tweaked to keep track better, like the drone plort selling seems to be.

Indeed.

[󠀡󠀡David_Doo]

yes they cant go into other expantions