2/27/2024
So many updates...
The game can be played as either a Character with crafting, inventory and logistics. Character players will start with 1/5 the number of bots that the Brave New Oarc (BNO) player starts with. The BNO player can not craft, hold much in the inventory, or have logistic bots except for the logistic chests that he/she can place. So this player starts with more resources than a Character player. This mod supports Krastorio, SeaBlock, SpaceBlock, Resource Islands, Transport Drones, Freight Forwarding, cargo-ships, bzlead and bztitanium, and I made changes to Alien Modules to enable each force to level up independently. The host would configure the mod from the UI when you start a single player or multiplayer game - you no longer need edit the config.lua mod. You have many options to make the game easier, or harder and I will continue to add to this. In game there is a swarm warning - every time a new swarm starts approaching your base. You can go into the Server Info UI and turn this on/off. You can also work in privacy by not allowing other players to see your base.

4/16/2023
Lots of people joining and quitting without knowing what to do. I understand the frustration. This is a BOT only mod and very much LAZY Bastard style of game play. It does not allow you to craft anything, but provides you a box full of resources that bots will setup if you lay down ghost's to tell the bots what to do. This results in a slow start, with very fast mid and late game. <2/27/2024 update - no longer a bot only mod - character mode changes that>

Next - crashing power was an issue, and the major concern is if you are on a team, crash power into the night, your bots will fly to your team mates for a charge, and stay there. I added a boiler and steam engine, with an extra blue box that requests trees and coal, FEED IT! This is intended to be a temporary solution since the placement is not the most ideal. DO NOT REMOVE THE WATER PUMP. It's not on water, so you can not replace it if you remove it. Use a filter to take the walls, or be very careful removing the walls, which of course will go on the bridge blocking biters.

3/31/2023
Your initial roboport covers your whole base with a huge logistics area. Level 3 Speed modules, Artillery and atomic bomb are available after you launch a missile. I can't imagine how you would launch an atomic bomb unless you're crazy enough to load them in spidertrons. Tanks are very useful early game and they will enable you to explore into the darkness. You can NOT fire weapons from a tank, but they act as great steam rollers for remote biter bases. I recommend a defense close by to retreat to though. You can sit right next to a nest and they will NOT attack you, until you hurt something in their base.

Starting Items:
Remember to go into settings ->Interface and choose "Pick ghost item if no items are available"
You start with four of every type of chest, 400 transport belts, 20 undergrounds, 10 splitters, 20 pipes, 10 underground pipes, 4 burner inserters, 20 yellow inserters, 50 medium poles, 0 small poles, 10 lamos, 4 stone furnaces, 1 offshore pump, 1 boiler, 2 steam engines, 4 level 1 assembler machines, 2 labs, 2 gun turrets and 20 yellow ammo, 4 electric drills, and a special unmoveable Mega Roboport that has a huge logistics and build zone.

Shocking news:
Only 4 furnaces to start ! Use them wisely. GET STONED <- Very important, one of your many starting tasks !
Only 4 burner inserters, and I recommend using burner inserters into your furnaces on the coal side, and you need at least 1 for your initial boiler. Burner inserters are cheap and iron only to make.
Only 2 turrets, which take 10 ammo each, and only 20 ammo. What entrance will you defend, and can only 1 turret really defend against attack?

You will need ALL of the initial 20 yellow inserters to make fast progress. Remember you won't get any more until you start making green circuits which require copper wire and iron.
4 Electric drills - you're welcome, that is quite generous. ;) Get creative !
Only 1 huge roboport! This roboport has 16 charge ports, so this will drain power quickly.
400 belts and 50 electric poles - this game is too easy !
And lastly - Bots in 4.1.9 - bots can be set to completely indestructible. The host would make these settings in the mod settings or in the config.lua file prior to hosting. You will really appreciate this when walking spiders through groups of enemy bases, with lasers to remove those bases. Make sure one spider has a personal roboport and plenty of repair packs.

How does this play? Most find it difficult to even get started. If you let your power drop to zero overnight, your bots may fly away to your team mates base seeking power. I've figured out how to instantly warp around my huge bases, can you figure this out ? You do have some items that you can hold in your inventory - even though a main part of this mod is to keep you from crafting, but also keep you from holding onto most anything. You can hold copper coil, so you can attach power wires. This could be very useful if you run out of power and need to disconnect a part of the base that is very power hungry, and focus on getting coal to the power source. You can hold onto Green and Red circuits, make them and pick them up from a box. Also you can hold vehicles - jeeps, tanks, spidertrons. And you can hold everything you need to put into your spidertron - personal lasers, batteries, fusion reactor, solar panels, blue/red protection, exoskeletons. You spidertrons can also use their logistics requests to store building materials which will be useful while walking outside the logistics network. Your Jeep and tank can not shoot - but the tank is a great early game steam roller to clear out pockets of your base that you don't want to do turret/roboport creep.

Some tips:
Use your green boxes - they can request and provide items - this makes a core number of assemblers able to build anything in the game. I have two primary assemblers and have made everything for nuclear power with them and frequently change them to make various needed items that I have not put into my mall. When you change the recipe, note that an inserter might get stuck with something in it's hand - you may have to flip it around the clear it.

Starting Advice:
You have walls, if you are playing without a moat, or with a moat bridge - USE THESE WALLS!
Get POWER ! You have until night before this advice becomes very noticeable.
You start with one boiler and two steam engines. 1) Get coal on some belts, 2) use all four of the electric drills on coal. 3) Drop your power setup for the bots to build. 4) Ready the power lines to link to power via ghosts. You have plenty of MEDIUM poles to start, but no small poles.

The accumulators will keep your power up for a short while at night, but you could go completely dark if you don't have any additional power running. Connect the power!

When you get new roboports - after getting red circuits - remember that they drain power until they are fully charged, make sure you make excess power.

POWER:
Listen - power is critical in this mod. Here is what will happen if you don't focus on this first. The 16 robo-charge ports will aid you later, but early will suck your power dry. If you get all those bots working and not towards power here is what will happen: You run out of power at night, the bots hang for a little bit waiting for power and to recharge. They bore of you, AND LEAVE YOUR BASE to drive towards power at your team mates base. Try to lay the provided power by the first night.

Power up - now what?
Stone - make furnaces.
Setup iron, move 2 of the 4 from coal to iron, now get burner inserters. You may be using upto 3 burners on iron, with a fourth waiting to be built. Use burner inserters on the 4 stone furnaces, you only have 20 yellow inserters and 4 burner inserters to start. I use 2 yellow inserters for output, but you can use 4 and move them later. Use the iron to make burner inserters since you won't have enough to feed 4 furnaces, and 2 boilers. Get about 12 burner inserters. Use your 4 assemblers to make copper coil, gears, pipes, burner inserters, and belts ! Then move everything to north of the solar cells, leave belts to make sure you have enough belts to make it north. Once you are ready to enter stage 2, which is when you move your assemblers to your new area, you will most likely have electric furnaces on iron(2), coal(1), and copper(1).

I draw a very long line from smelting south of the main roboport, to the north side for a mall. This give me alot of room for a long workshop. This will use all of your belts. All of their output goes to ONE red box, and I use a green box to request items potentially made elsewhere, or that is in the red box. I then put my labs above the green box. Early on this box could request stone and make stone furnaces. It could request gears, and take iron to make belts, or copper to make red science.

Now do the same for copper. If you get copper early, say 1 coal, 2 iron, 1 copper electric drill - after you seed coal on the belts - make copper coil. You'll need coil when you move to the workshop or immediately to make green circuits. Green circuits give you inserters, and electric drills.

Don't get stuck with only 4 furnaces. If there is no stone in main, I usually drop one of the four electric drills on stone, into a purple chest. Even if it's not in the logistics network, I get about 50 or more stone, then delete the purple chest. This gives me ten furnaces, you will need at least one furnace for a new boiler.

Seed both iron gears and iron pipes, to aid you in making steam engines for power. You'll be bouncing back to make furnaces, boilers, steam engines in pairs or quads until you eventually fill the 20 boiler run.

Now you're on your way, research, and expand that line to make a mall. I use 1 line for iron above the mall, 1 line of copper below the mall, another line above iron for both gears and green circuits, then a fourth line below copper to return to the center of the mall with long inserters, to dump into a red chest. Above that red chest is a green chest requesting everything needed to make ANYTHING. This is a very powerful setup!

Remember Red Chests provide whatever is in it to be moved by logistic bots to either a blue or green chest, and taken by construction bots to be placed on the map.
Items in a green chest can be requested from a blue chest, but not another green chest.
Purple chests tell the bots to remove the items in it immediately. I use these early game since my bots are under worked.

Also remember to use the logistics network - you don't need wires to set limits on production. Anything in the orange area of a roboport can be set to restrict output by programming the inserter to stop moving items when they reach a specific count. Also know that if you are putting those items on a belt they won't be counted until they reach a chest. so set you limit to something like 40 and 50 will actually make it there.

If the chest you push items into fills, your belt will stop. You can empty it by requesting in a green chest for the items you mistakenly over produced. The bots will still use them to build your base.

If you choose to take items from a buffer (green) chest, and no items are in the green chest, the bots will take that item from a passive provide (red) chest. Items placed in an Active Provide (purple) chest, will be moved to a yellow chest, or a green chest if their is a pending request for them.

Keep an eye on pollution, try to predict which side the biters will come in. I drop a blue chest and 2 burner inserters, I request 20 ammo, and 4 coal. This will work with no power, but it must be inside the logistics network (orange area). You should have enough time to get some research done and 2 more turrets before you get attacked. If you spawned in the middle of water, then you are safe from attack. Use either a stone furnace or walls (eventually) to block the bridge. Don't forget to make more ammo to fill both blue chests.

Mega Roboport:
This roboport is special in that it really pisses off the biters, they will attack it if they get inside your base, and if it dies, you lose the game. Your base is removed, you are sent back to the starting area and a gentle insult is spewed. It has 16 charge ports, but does not consume any more power while idle than a normal roboport. It will consume a lot more power than a normal 4 port roboport, while charging 16 bots.

Finally - this game actively disallows biters that are forming to attack from attacking IF you are offline.