Perhaps part of the maintenance mechanic is a slow health drain over time? Just throwing out ideas.

That was my initial thought. "maintenance" on damaged equipment is easy and already part of the vanilla game. The problem is there's no way in the game engine to link damaged machines to "events". Maybe in .15 but not currently. My current idea is to to have an item that you can periodicly "craft" which delays the aging process. This could be automated from using other mods which allow you to read/write recipes via the circuit network.

That wouldn't work on miners though.

This is a good thought exercise.

I think I can set it up to create scripted ghost entities when a machine gets old or dilapidated. Then you could just have construction bots automatically replace equipment as-needed. Not really "maintenance", per se, but would do the job of eliminating micromanagement.

I am curious to see how you did ghost entities. I have been unable to make them without their decay bars. I like the idea of your mod though +1

The decay bars are there but it doesn't matter since the whole thing happens in about 2 seconds. Since the bots won't do anything until a spare is available, there is almost zero chance of a "hanging ghost" waiting for a spare.

hmm, what about the case that 2 or more machines deteriorate at the same time (within the time it takes to build the first one)? A quick look at the code makes it seem like it can mark a large area for 'maintenance' and only a few will get built.

Good question! I ran into this during testing. The solution was to only allow one item to be replaced per scan. (Scans every 15 seconds) So when multiple machines age at the same time, they have to "get in line". It sort of creates a "work ticket", with only one ticket being worked on at any given time.

Btw, I set up a save game and uploaded it in the forums of a factory with automated parts and replacement. Setting the config to rapid aging, it works beautifully. Machines are constantly getting old and replaced with no user intervention needed. I suppose it would be possible throw a monkey wrench into the process by manually snatching out a replacement part before a bot gets it, but you'd kind of have to do that intentionally and could simply put the part back or wait for a new one to get made.

true. I just wished they had a way for us to make a ghost that doesn't expire. Still even a small chance seems to high. I could think of a few way that it could get confused. Either way i will sleep on it and if i come up with any ideas i will send it your way on the fourms.

Great. I'd appreciate any help you can offer. :)