Do bots get any smarter or?

[shrewdlogarithm]

I've had some fun playing this - I'm progressing a Settlement game through Level 4 at this point - but I'm starting to wonder what I'm really aiming to achieve overall??

It kinda feels like I'm just adding more and more stuff done by robots who are repeating mostly the same routines - just with more layers and more requirements - it feels a BIT endless and a BIT pointless sometimes...

The bots seem to be a BIT basic too - short programs, minimal logic - and upgrading them is more of a chore than anything else - does this improve or?

Can bots eventually do smarter things such as fulfill blueprint requirements or is it really just "find/drop/pickup loops"

Have I seen most of the game already or is there something juicier ahead??

[Fel]

They get more lines, better stats and more backpack slots but that's about it.
They can get "smarter" but only through you coding them for it.

With tier 2 bots or higher it is definitely feasible to make them do a bunch of stuff and switch between those tasks somewhat intelligently, but the basic blocks for the coding will still be the same ones.

If you don't find coding the bots fun on its own then the whole thing will probably feel a bit pointless indeed as pretty much everything else is just meant to give some use for the coding and show it working.

[shrewdlogarithm]

The bot coding stuff is fine but there are times when it feels like every new 'tech' is

Assign bot to area to pickup things and store them
Assign bot to area to plant/harvest things
Assign bot to make something from that
Assign bot to deliver/store that something
Assign bot to make tools for the bots
Repeat within Repeat within Repear

The way the code is written is a BIT clunky too - I wanted a bot who could pickup stuff and either store it OR load it into a process and switching that bot between the tasks wasn't smooth - I could drag code lines around, storing the not-in-use lines outside an endless loop OR I could use the save program function - neither feels intuitive when you want to swap that often (using 2 bots ended-up being the solution)

There also seems to be a lot of stuff which feels like it MIGHT be worth automating but then it might not - Example: by the time I realised I was going to need a fair few "Square Frames" I'd already made a load manually - do I make a Bot now, will I need more - who knows!?

p.s. Signs seemed like they were the start of some additional programming layer but in reality they end-up being a SLIGHTLY easier way to zone-out stuff that I feel I could probably do without

[Egan Wolf]

Autonauts is a game where you should create your own challenges. Yes, you could finish it with an army of simple bots that only take from A and add to B. But the whole point is to make it in a smart way. Your example shows it perfectly. You said you either move the blocks out of the loop or reprogram the bot from a database. But there are other options. Use shouts to control which part of the code should be executed. Or add If with a condition that will automatically check something further downstream. It's an automation game. If you did something yourself three times, that's twice too many.

I wouldn't say signs are a slightly easier way to zone area. Have you created your terraforming team already for clearing trees, stumps, holes, bushes, etc. for preparing a new area? You can bind them all to one sign and change their area with a few clicks.

[Wat]

Originally posted by shrewdlogarithm:

Can bots eventually do smarter things such as fulfill blueprint requirements or is it really just "find/drop/pickup loops"

Bots can do anything your avatar can, as long as it fits into their limited memory.

For more complex behavior, you can try plugging memory upgrades in all of them and then write more complex algorithms. This way, they can multitask.

For added complexity, you can also try the shout command. It is used for bots to send signals to other bots.

[Wat]

Originally posted by shrewdlogarithm:

Assign bot to area to pickup things and store them
Assign bot to area to plant/harvest things
Assign bot to make something from that
Assign bot to deliver/store that something
Assign bot to make tools for the bots
Repeat within Repeat within Repear

Bots recharging other bots work differently from the tasks above.

Also, using carts at mid-game require 2 or bots coordinating their tasks. One loads cargo, second pushes the cart, third unloads cargo.

[Egan Wolf]

Originally posted by Wat:

Also, using carts at mid-game require 2 or bots coordinating their tasks. One loads cargo, second pushes the cart, third unloads cargo.

Not anymore. You can now use vehicles directly on storages.