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Lol. I basically only do rail worlds now or heavy mods (I'm like 75h into a space exploration run and just started going to other planets).
But no logistics bots? You mad man
I have a bad habit of restarting all the time, and I've always loaded up on mods.. I've just never expanded enough to figure out logistic bots which kinda intimidate me.
Bots are straightforward:
Storage is storage. This is where the bots put things you deconstruct and where the bots grab things to build.
Requestor chests use bots to attempt to always have the amount(s) you set in them at all times.
Active providers attempt to be empty all the time. Logistics bots will move items out of these chests into storage.
Passive providers are like active providers but don't need to be empty all the time. Bots will take out of a passive provider before storage (even if storage is closer to the destination)
Buffer chests are weird. I don't fully understand them but i believe they're basically normal chests until you get over X amount in them then they turn into active providers? You can set an option on requester chests to request from buffers and then i believe that it then ignores whatever buffer settings you have... I never use them...
An important nuance is that the network will try to keep the same item in the same chest so if you have wood in a storage chest in the north bots will fly PAST empty storage to go to that specific chest that already has wood in it. Also bots will never put items back in a provider and will never take out of a requestor even if the items inside are no longer requested by the chest.
Basically throw down a lot of storage chests in one place. Put passive providers as the output for stuff you build. Put requestor chests as input for assemblers (if you copy an assembler with a recipe you can paste it onto a requestor to automatically request the ingredients). Do not put gears in your network it's just easier to move iron around and make gears where you need it.
Okay that actually helped a lot! What about the other bots?
Construction bots just build blueprints and deconstruct things marked for deconstruction. They take items from providers first (active then passive) then storage. They'll put things picked up into storage (not sure if they go into requestors directly though).
You can build a personal robo port and put it inside your suit, then robots you have in your personal inventory will construct/deconstruct in an area around you and put/pull from your inventory only.
Usually you'll want more logistics robots than construction but you can select any robo port and see the number of available/idle bots of each type in the network. If you wanna get real fancy you can get these numbers out with wires and use combinatiors to do some logic like: Only add bots if all bots are in use or other such things
Edit: Construction bots will also repair damaged buildings! Just have repair packs in storage in your network somewhere and they'll make sure every building inside your network is at 100% health!
Construction bots: if you place a blueprint for a building, if it is in construction range of a roboport, a construction bot is free, and it has the item to build it in a provider, storage, or buffer chest in the network, then a construction will go get that item and then build that building.
Moving to construction bots is transformative to the redesign and rebuild loop because you can deconstruct an entire area with a deconstruction planner and a sweep of your mouse, then paste down 6 copies of your new design with a blueprint in a few clicks and just let the bots do the grunt work, while you focus on design.
The two things that broke me out of restarting everytime I hit midgame were learning construction bots, and trying for the Lazy Bastard achievement. Since I did that, I've never felt like ending a run before rocket launch.