Take any item in the combinator in the bottom left; If we dont have a full stack of it, add it to a build queue
For each item on the build queue, pick one at random, try to build it, if we don't have enough ingredients, add them to the build queue
When building a item, build until we have TWO stacks, or run out of ingredients. This is one stack MORE then we use to determine if something goes into the build queue by inventory alone, this prevents thrashing, so we queue at 100, but will build until 200.
I use the H as a hold signal... this could be a lot cleaner and simpler, but it works, and I wanted to share! I'd love to see improvements.
A dependency we can't build will get stuck in the build queue (like plastic), right now I just have that displayed on the bottom using a manual check, but this isn't very elegant.
I don't have a reddit account to thank the original poster, but I do appreciate them sharing the idea! (If you use their original bogo design, be aware it doesn't recurse down the dependency tree very efficiently, so you will WANT to make your own build queue)
Issues I'd like to improve:
Too complicated, better alerting, less cycles rechecking recipes we already checked, if we change the original item combinator the build queue doesn't get reset, if I want MORE then one stack of something that isn't possible... that really needs to get fixed.
Did the space expansion introduce new combinator to enable this wonderful construction? I do not recall anything like this existing before the expansion.
I've got something similar except the number of items I want to produce is set by the constant combinator. The new logistics groups are awesome for this because I can have the combinator synced with things I want in my inventory.
I also have the radar network set up where trains report the items they have and stations request trains with items they want so I can request more materials be delivered to my omni-assembler when I need them.
The downside I've been wanting to fix is the need to specify all of the intermediates that are needed. That's not too hard to fix, of course, just attempt to make ingredients that are missing (like you're doing).
I've also been wanting to try and change from using a constant combinator to using the requests on the logistics network. So then all you'd have to do to get something added to the recipe list is start requesting it.
Yes, and No. Any storage container will work, the train is nice and big so its good for a do-everything build; Other good options are the cargo landing pads, and the SpaceShip hubs.
I love seeing all the different approaches to this.
My solution was to break all the recipes up into dependency tiers (coils & gears T1, circuits T2, inserters T3 etc.), which would then let me use the sorting on the advanced combinator to sort the execution. I guess it kinda works how the player crafting queue works:
counter cell holding an index
If logi_requests[index] is not craftable: increment index (counter resets at logi_requests.len)
If we "lock on" to something craftable we save it to mem
Calculate the total resources required (raw and intermediates) using lookup combinators and have that all on a line
Raws get requested, intermediates get "oned out" by a decider and then multiplied by the tier values.
That then gets picked by an advanced combinator which is sorting it by low to high and sent to the assembler.
It then makes as many as needed before moving onto the next thing until eventually it satisfies the saved logi request
It then resets the counter and everything starts again.
I liked that it was resilient to constantly changing network requests and made efficient use of the logi bots with bulk requests
This is very different then my previous ship designs, which had a dedicated combinator for each item I wanted to build - With that approach you manually had to specify the entire build dependency tree, and set build limits. https://hackertalks.com/post/4906636
The circuit here is a bit bigger, but I think I can make it smaller, but its far more flexible and dynamic.