I just updated from 0.2.13 and now trucks are much slower to get out of Request Depots (and takes like 10-15 seconds for inserted trucks to show up) and they come out one by one with like a second between each other which was definitely not the case before. Not sure how much of it has to do with my base getting bigger (8600 drones total) but my FPS/UPS is solid 60/60.

They also like to bring materials from very distant places. Like I had Supply Depots full with the material I requested like 10 units away, yet the trucks went all the way to the other side of the base to get the same materials.

I don't know, but overall the new version seems slightly worse.

Please consider adding some options (different logics, like targeting nearby depots or now, start request route with less than a full stack available or not, etc.) so we can tinker and find out what works for us.

Can you provide your save game?

Maybe there is something funky going on

There was no real spawning logic or timing changes in the update, the spawn rate was always limited to 1 per second, since version 1.0

Hi, also have trucks choosing further away mining depots for some reason - whereas there is a mining depot right next door:

https://imgur.com/a/MUuOKRH

I am currently also having the same issue with them going all the way across the base even Though there's a buffer depot like a third of the distance that isn't even being fully used :(. I'm currently experimenting with "city blocks" as I hadn't done that, so i can say for rough distances, the buffer depot is 7 big electric poles away, but they keep going to the one 19 big electric poles away, and thus never properly supply that source, so I had to increase the number supplying it.

I'm now at 19k trucks and 2.3k depots and trucks start to be really slow when they start coming out of new request depots. Like 1 truck every 5 seconds for new depots and some depots have over 50 requester trucks so you can imagine that things start to get slower and slower. Like as if the mod's main loop would be slower.

UPS is still solid 60, so I wonder if there's a max refresh or action per tick limit which if there is, I really hope we could change it.

Also, trucks at speed 17 start to drift a lot and just smash into buildings randomly and take a while to get back on track. It looks funny, but I wonder if that could be helped as well. Would also be nice if hovering over trucks in the inventory would show their speeds and stack size, similarily to logistic robots but that's not important.

Even so this mod quickly became my favourite supplementary mods! Do you accept donations in some form?

Hi Klonan,

I also noticed unnecessary long routes to far away locations instead of a provider right next to the request.

I've set up a minimum test savegame and could reproduce it:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/12XB-TAMoL5MC5BZ66G-bhuEwJCrhcs35/view?usp=sharing

To start, just drop drones (e.g. 10) into the requester.
After the fuel supply arrives some will leave and travel to the far away station. Only a few will chose the supply depot right next to it.

Here is a screenshot:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1dwG63u0aoY3_0rHZ7hOl4ZlD1O8o6DM3

Edit: Some things I've already noticed so far:

1.) With only one truck, it takes always the closest depot. Adding a second truck, this second truck then always went to the other (farthermost) depot.

2.) At this run after inserting single trucks one after the other with some time inbetween (seconds) up to 10 drones, I took 5 out again leaving 5 in the requester. At this point every 5 of them only went to the farthermost depot. Only after a few minutes one of them decided to go to the nearest depot again. A few minutes later a second one started to took the nearest supply depot again. (I assume it has something to do with them respawning/getting deployed after they were sucked into the requester.)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1NaCBQjILuCbNyaRgiwu0irzHmNs2SJQb

I've added some observations in the previous post, not sure if that triggeres the mod portal's notification system :D

Nice! It feels like each truck leaving a request depot is assigned to a different supply depot. Would also kind of explain why it takes so long for them to leave the request depots one by one.

I feel like I need to redesign my whole base to do smaller blocks with their separate transport system instead of everything being connected with roads.

I'm working on rewriting the request logic, so don't redesign your base yet :D

But yea, I see where my logic is causing some poor choices for the drones, so I am working to fix that

Since you're working on a rewrite of that... I've also notices the following:

1.) request (need) is not fully supplied (empty depot)
2.) supply depot slowly receives items via inserter
3.) transport drone is sent to that supply depot
4.) after a few seconds a further transport drone is sent to that supply depot
5.) here it could be that 5/5 drones are on the way.
6.) the first drone picks up the complete content of the supply depot (because the need is not fullfilled and dron can easily take everything below its stack limit)
7.) second (and all following) drone arrives at an empty supply depot receiving nothing or it takes everything which was inserted after the first drone left

I'm not sure that this is a thing you want to consider as in general I would just say: provice enough for your demands :D but it stilly looks silly having the complete base busy with drones with just a single plate of iron for each drone when the base in fact stands still.

All scenarios which I think of don't work with "easy solutions" or might be to heavy for UPS to implement (reservation logic/fair distribution/...). So in general I'd say: Just fullfill your demands 😂

Well I pushed it, lets see how it goes

nevermind my last post as i already see there is (Was?) some kind of request logic in place (at least one of my drones did not grab the complete stack it could but left something in the supply).

I'll test with the new version in a few minutes!

The new version on my test map looks promising nothing weird happend, they actually acted very smart. Do you mind tell us a bit about the logic behind the system now?

Oh man I love the new update! Putting the runtime global mod setting to 40 and I can watch my trucks just shoot out one after the other, starting instantly. 20k trucks (most of them idle though) and still solid 60/60. So good!

Once again, Klonan, do you accept donations? I'd like to get you a few beers.

Edit: Now I run into the issue of trucks getting stuck for 5-20 seconds at depots:
https://i.imgur.com/hvaw2FE.png (they can carry 4 stacks)
They're also kind of slow to start moving once they appear in front of request depots. Just sit there for 5-10 seconds. Maybe it takes a long time to plot their route?

Another issue is that now that they can start a pickup order with less than their full stack capacity, they keep going back and forth with only a few dozen materials instead of full stacks. Like I just tested that I had 10+ supply depots full of copper plates, added one request depot far away with one truck and it only brought 21 plates (instead of 400). I really wish I could set it up so that they only go out if they can bring full stacks - like it was some updates ago. That's my problem with flying robots; they keep flying and filling tiny orders ruining UPS for gigabases when you have like 100k+ of them when it would be much more efficient if they only flew with full capacity.

I have 70 trucks trying to deliver crude oil, but they fail hard because most of them drive to the nearest but very crowded outpost which is empty all the time trying to serve about 60 trucks (estimated) - and it can only provide 12k/m but I need 26k/m.
One other outpost is far away mostly holding two full oil depots but is only visited rarley (low production rate, but still full tanks).
And then 10 chunks further of the "two full fuel oil depots" there is the last and biggest outpost with 9 completely full fluid tanks. IN about 15 to 20 minutes of watching it might be that 3 drones come to the farthestoutpost.

The farthest outpost would deliver enough crude oil for my factory at the requester station. Together with the nearest and the middle outpost the 50K storage tank I have should fill up pretty quickly.

Is there anything one can do? Or are the drones just not made for longer distances?

If somebody needs save/screenshots I'd happy to provide them.

edit: removed duped message

Same. I guess drones have no idea about how much stuff is in the supply depots so they just go to the nearest and get stuck until they get served. But that doesn't explain this: https://i.imgur.com/ATyHmWw.png

There's clearly tons of stuff in there and it's getting rapidly filled by about 3 fulls stacks per second yet they are just sitting there and sometimes some would move but likely with very small quantities.

I wonder if it would be possible for trucks to sort of reserve materials from specific supply depots as soon as they leave the request depot then other drones would have to go further if the nearest doesn't have enough.

Any feedback, Klonan?

If you can provide the save game I can look into the problem

I wonder if it would be possible for trucks to sort of reserve materials from specific supply depots as soon as they leave the request depot then other drones would have to go further if the nearest doesn't have enough.

They already reserve materials in the destination depots

Thanks. As you can see in the picture, they have trouble with the reserving. They sit there forever and only bring in tiny amounts. Maybe because of how rapidly the depots are being filed (3 stacks per second)? Unfortunately, my modlist is a mess with custom stuff but I might make a clean testsave later. Can you tell me what would I have to change to disable trucks leaving depots for partial orders so that they only go if they can bring in their full capacity?

I have made a change,

So right now, what they do, is if they have less than 1 stack of the item, they will go pick up any amount, even its it just 1 of the item. This might be what is causing your issue.

So i've change the logic a bit further,
If they have less than 1 stack, and there are no active drones, the minimum amount will be 1 item.
If they have less than the request size, the minimum amount will be 1 stack.
And if they have more than the request size, the minimum amount will be the request size.

Sounds well thought out and exactly what's missing, can't wait to try.

Edit: figured out how to olny move full stacks capacity requests: request_depot.lua:
136 if self:get_current_amount() < stack_size then
137 return 1
138 end
removed and
166: local minimum_size = self:get_minimum_request_size()
changed to
166: local minimum_size = self:get_request_size()

Works exactly how I like it, it also greatly helped with tons of trucks waiting at depot entrances, though they still do if there's a lot of demand (even thought there's enough supply). Buffer depots nearby also help alleviate some of this.