Space Engineers

Space Engineers

186 ratings
[SCAM] Simple Concurrent Adaptive Min3r
5
5
3
2
   
Award
Favorite
Favorited
Unfavorite
File Size
Posted
Updated
477.404 KB
Aug 11, 2021 @ 7:37am
May 20, 2022 @ 5:18am
10 Change Notes ( view )

Subscribe to download
[SCAM] Simple Concurrent Adaptive Min3r

Description
The idea
I designed this autominig solution to suit my approach to mining automation in vanilla game. The main goal was to make a system that would allow extremely early mining automation in survival with great scalability later on. At this moment it's tuned to mine spherical/saucer vanilla ore deposits in space and on planets.
Check out the sample to see if it's your thing before diving further.
Distinctive features:
  • Send to new mining spot with exactly one command (by positioning drone or doing camera raycast)
  • Scale number of drones easily with no added set up actions
  • All drones mine the single spot (called mining task) together with exclusive blocking shared path segments to avoid collisions (HOPEFULLY), hence the Concurrent word
  • Drones are recalled with a single command and dock to moving carrier automatically
  • Drones try to ignore stone layer, adjust max mining depth based on ore gain analysis, so it's kinda Adaptive
Current limitations:
  • Current mining pattern and concurrency approach requires all acting drones to have the same size
  • Drones have to be vertical miners (drills facing down, going downwards)
  • Base docking area has to be top open, docking drones descend vertically
  • Probably have quite an amount of bugs and hikkups - while I used them A LOT during my survival playthrough, I might've missed lots of test cases because of my playstyle, also recently the code undergone a huge rework
Usage
  1. Watch the quickstart video guide or read this guide
  2. Get the min3r of choice or build your own
  3. Copy the code to drones' blueprint, make sure Dispatcher and all Agents run the same version

Advanced features
Adaptive mining is a feature that allows dynamic change of mining plan based on ore income. If enabled on agent, it would constantly check what content gets into drills and do several adjustments:
- change skip-depth (distance from the mining area surface where drills block incoming ore, to eliminate stone input)
- change depth-limit
- send direction-banning messages to Dispatcher.

direction-banning would cancel out planned shafts in a small cone (going from the mining plans' center). This represents areas that are considered not worth expanding to.

Adaptive mining should be toggled on Agents (toggle:adaptive-mining in CustomData or run arg). If it is enabled on Dispatcher, it would enforce this setting on all drones in active group during task creation.

It is disabled by default to avoid confusion

Any ore input except Stone is considered valuable.

Tested workhorses
Small space: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2572154521. Not recommended for G environments. Risk of peer damage: almost zero.

Small atmo: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2572218085. Tested up to 1.2G. Risk of peer damage: small.

Large gravdrive: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2576438985. Not recommended for G environments. Risk of peer damage: none.

Small H2 (test prototype): https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2583145703. Tested up to 1.2G. Risk of peer damage: medium.

Custom Data boot commands for base and drones
Those commands are executed immediately on start/recompile. During runtime they can be fed to PB via run argument.
Base or Carrier (Dispatcher role)
command:set-role:Dispatcher command:add-logger:scam-log-panel command:add-panel:scam-gui-panel // for GUI mode on the 'scam-gui-panel' tagged screen command:add-gui-controller:scam-controller toggle:log-message command:set-value:max-generations:8 command:set-value:getAbove-altitude:5 command:set-value:skip-depth:0 command:set-value:depth-limit:50
Small drone - all Min3r 69R line (Agent role)
command:set-role:Agent command:set-value:circular-pattern-shaft-radius:3.6 command:set-value:preferred-container:Large Cargo Container x command:add-panel:feed-panel // uncomment below to enable adaptive mode //toggle:adaptive-mining
Large drone - gravity driven variants (Agent role)
command:set-role:Agent command:set-value:circular-pattern-shaft-radius:7.9 command:set-value:preferred-container:Large Cargo Container x command:add-panel:feed-panel // uncomment below to enable adaptive mode //toggle:adaptive-mining

Script argument reference

Too big to be included here, see script arguments reference discussion.

Troubleshooting and advice on how to avoid shooting yourself in a leg
  • Do not copy-paste drones in creative during their activity. If you have to, use clear-storage-state command and then copy
  • The orientation of connectors matters, both on base and on drone. While autopillock should handle any cases, drone pathing currently optimized for stock drones - vertical mining, vertical landing.
  • If you add/remove any blocks during operation, you need to recompile everything
  • When drone docks, it switches all batteries in recharge mode. After recent update, this might block a drone forever until you switch batteries manually. If you experience this, toggle base connectors' Power Transfer Override ON.
  • Use command:clear-storage-state on every PB to reset all internal state, if you see some weird behavior. You can use command:global:command:clear-storage-state on Dispatcher to broadcast it to every linked drone
  • Getting exception "Not enough thrust to compensate for gravity" - you drone struggled to overcome gravity. Can happen to weak ion min3r when in G environment and fully loaded.
  • If you have issues with drones not docking, make sure nothing is messing up with connector Custom Data. The script uses it to claim connectors for drones.
  • In case of deadlocks when drones seem to wait for each other and do nothing, try Purge Locks command as a last resort.
  • Don't use on asteroids in planetary gravity field. This would be considered planetary mining and won't go as you expected.

If you have issues
Please tell about them in the bug reports discussion .
Before that, make sure dispatcher and drones run the same script version (shown in the PB run printout).
Check script logs from dispatcher and drone - if you did not add specific LCD for logging, log can be found inside PB screen. Often you can get what went wrong right from the log.

If you have issues with drone docking process
Please prepare to answer these questions before asking or posting bug report:

1. Does the dispatcher PB show those drones as "ID awaits docking" in PB info printout (where runtime info, version, etc shows up)?

2. Do those free connectors you expect drones to dock to have something in their Custom Data (should be empty or having THAT drone ID)?

3. What lock ownership does the GUI show for those stuck drones ("general", "force-finish", etc)

4. Does the "Purge Locks" GUI button solve the issue?
Popular Discussions View All (4)
332
Apr 26 @ 3:37pm
PINNED: Bug reports, feature suggestions
cheerkin
19
May 11, 2023 @ 5:53pm
PINNED: Script argument reference
cheerkin
8
2
Feb 18 @ 1:28pm
PINNED: Set-up guide
cheerkin
399 Comments
cheerkin  [author] May 6 @ 9:13am 
Well, just post more information in bug reports then, what's your max depth and all these relevant settings. The drone switches only if it reaches max depth (possibly adjusted by adaptive mining) or cargo is full above threshold, I don't think there can be other cases. Maybe your entry point is too high and it thinks that it had reached enough depth. Anyway, please write to bug reports discussion so other users could see it too.
OCN-Scuba May 6 @ 7:09am 
Both versions, tried the new version to see if it corrected the issue.
cheerkin  [author] May 6 @ 3:51am 
I guess you are using the alternative version (with separate dispatcher code)? No point posting issues about it here as there is nearly zero chance that the author would see them.
OCN-Scuba May 5 @ 5:29pm 
Anyone have a constant issue with drones "completing" a shaft only after trying to drill it for a few seconds, Adaptive mining is off. More common when two drones are side by side in a shaft, have had them play "leap-frog" and complete multiple shaft.

New Improvements are nice, but removed the raycast command, how I have always mined from space. I have read the setup directions twice, must be missing something, but I can not see the ATC screen.
Sounder Apr 10 @ 9:22pm 
Loving the improvements, cheerkin. The new gui is good.
Phoenix 7 Mar 22 @ 10:55pm 
Hi... anyone here know how to setup a drone to operate in Lone role? I set up a static dock and built the drone the same way I would a regular SCAM drone. But it does nothing when I run the command:create-task
ShadowGames Mar 10 @ 5:11pm 
Hey mate, thanks for making this. Just recently started with SE. Being a software developer myself, I'm highly motivated to dive deep into automation! Looking forward to test your mod intensively on our multiplayer server!
cheerkin  [author] Mar 9 @ 9:39am 
From the author:

Highlights:
- Agents and dispatchers now have separate scripts.
- Improved air traffic control (ATC): Agents spent less time in the air waiting for a lock.
- Improved mining of multilayer deposits with the new "least depth" parameter.
- Reworked agent recall ("force-finish").
- Recall individual agents from the GUI.
- New: Safety distance between active shafts
- New: Hexagonal task layout
- New: Dense task layout option
- Improved GUI
- Removed the "Lone role".

The current state is a beta version, for more experienced (and brave) users.
cheerkin  [author] Mar 9 @ 9:39am 
To all SCAM lovers, there is an interesting release happening today
Manuel Schmitz made a branch off SCAM and implemented a lot of fixes, QoL improvements and new features.
You can get it here:
https://github.com/ManuelSchmitz/SCAM/tree/releases/0.10.0-beta1
cheerkin  [author] Mar 4 @ 3:06am 
IIRC it flies at the altitude that is ~surface + "getAbove-altitude" + "echelon-offset", try tweaking these.