Is there a way to easily change a bot's search area?

[TheSambassador]

Right now the number of clicks is, frankly, obnoxious. If a bot is stuck with nothing to do in their search area, you have to hit space, click the bot, click stop, click record, click the area in the code, then move the area. Is there any faster way to do this?

[hungrybutterfly]

Originally posted by snapshot:

Yes, I often change the bot area, for my "cleaning bots" (collect and transport bot, mostly for cleaning tasks). It's also quite annoying to remove all the items in the bot inventory because you want to restart its programm (a button "drop everything" would be very appreciated !).

Yep, we'll add a Drop All button

[Nodeka]

Automating the automation of the automation :')
In the alpha version, you could build a red light for bots to work around. Is it still here?

[hungrybutterfly]

Originally posted by dorianmode:

It would be useful to set a team of bots to a common search area for certain tasks, and be able to update all of them at once - wouldn't be a troublesome number of clicks if it was once for a whole team.

I'm thinking of when you expand/move a forestry, farm, colonist care or build area. The last two are the ones that take the most updating, and all of those industries often use common search areas for different tasks.

Actually you can do this with a Sign :)

[Varg]

Originally posted by hungrybutterfly:

Originally posted by dorianmode:

It would be useful to set a team of bots to a common search area for certain tasks, and be able to update all of them at once - wouldn't be a troublesome number of clicks if it was once for a whole team.

I'm thinking of when you expand/move a forestry, farm, colonist care or build area. The last two are the ones that take the most updating, and all of those industries often use common search areas for different tasks.

Actually you can do this with a Sign :)

This would be super helpful if the game mentioned. I finally got it to work and it's a great tool. :)
I think many people like myself is looking for this function without realising it exists.

The way I did it, I changed all my builder bots to search for a specific Sign (structure in area mode) instead of checking a certain area. Now when I move the Sign, my building crew happily follows.
Also, you cover greater areas with signs.

[Fulby]

I do this frequently with bots that move parts to blueprints. It's really tedious. It would help if we had the ability to specify a reference point on the map and update them to use that, or to move all the search areas of a group in one action.

[DizzieDawgie]

Originally posted by Fulby:

It would help if we had the ability to specify a reference point on the map and update them to use that, or to move all the search areas of a group in one action.

As the dev said, have you tried using the Signs yet? KoS just put up a new video showing how to use them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak2qu-1GeHo

[dorianmode]

Originally posted by hungrybutterfly:

Actually you can do this with a Sign :)

A whole new world - thanks for this advice!

[!?!]

So what do directional signs do?

[Kude]

So I would assume billboards have a larger areas than signs?

[!?!]

This really needs to be part of the tutorial.
Seems kind of a too important thing to just randomly hand out without telling what it does.

[DizzieDawgie]

Originally posted by Oscar Le Derp:

So I would assume billboards have a larger areas than signs?

Yes, billboards have a larger area... but only about 2 or 3 more squares on each side.

I found it helpful to put a billboard and a sign down on top of each other. Then I set my tree planters/choppers/diggers to follow the sign area and the log/stick/treeseed carriers to follow the billboard area. Since the logs/sticks/seeds can fall outside of the planted space, this ensures the carriers catch ALL the stuff.

I haven't figured out how to use directional signs yet.

[The White Raven]

Can you guys please explain better how signs works? can i put crates inside a billboard area and link a bot to the billboard, making it storing things in more crates when one is full?

[Kude]

Originally posted by The White Raven:

Can you guys please explain better how signs works? can i put crates inside a billboard area and link a bot to the billboard, making it storing things in more crates when one is full?

I not sure if that would work as you have to tell the bot directly which crate to use. I haven't experimented too much with this yet as I keep my storage centralised so no need for moving it. Although I could see this being useful for turf storage which would make sense having it local then moving it later

[dorianmode]

Originally posted by The White Raven:

Can you guys please explain better how signs works?

A sign can have a work zone attached to it. Any time you have a command where a bot works in an area - looking for trees to chop, dirt to dig, plants to harvest, colonists to feed, etc - you can assign them to the sign area instead. That way, when you move the sign, the bots update their work area, automatically, rather than having to manually change them by blowing the whistle.

A sign is potentially useful for anything that shows up as a highlighted area on the map.

Originally posted by The White Raven:

can i put crates inside a billboard area and link a bot to the billboard, making it storing things in more crates when one is full?

Crates are not a work area, they are a single object. You can move these around in the build menu (Press E and then M to get to move mode) and you could move a crate and a sign together if you wanted to take storage with you when you move the work zone.

That any help?

[The White Raven]

Originally posted by dorianmode:

Originally posted by The White Raven:

Can you guys please explain better how signs works?

A sign can have a work zone attached to it. Any time you have a command where a bot works in an area - looking for trees to chop, dirt to dig, plants to harvest, colonists to feed, etc - you can assign them to the sign area instead. That way, when you move the sign, the bots update their work area, automatically, rather than having to manually change them by blowing the whistle.

A sign is potentially useful for anything that shows up as a highlighted area on the map.

Originally posted by The White Raven:

can i put crates inside a billboard area and link a bot to the billboard, making it storing things in more crates when one is full?

Crates are not a work area, they are a single object. You can move these around in the build menu (Press E and then M to get to move mode) and you could move a crate and a sign together if you wanted to take storage with you when you move the work zone.

That any help?

Yes, smooth explanation, ty. Well that's bad you can't work storages this way, that would be very nice... I have to try if you can focus on an empty storage when the previous one is full but coding options are very limited so far that i realized it's better to give no more than 2 tasks to a given bot, not too much complex too.