inefficient item collection

[Reiyuka]

I keep watching duplicants grab small amounts of polluted water, walk past a bunch of other polluted water, and then dump them into the unbottler. It's really tragic.

My wishlist item is to have dupes collect any item that they happen to be carrying, up to the maximum amount that their destination needs.

So if a dupe is carrying 1kg of copper ore or polluted water, and the thing they're delivering to needs 100kg, and they happen to walk past (or better yet, intentionally walk past) the same item, they should pick it up on their way.

[Sasza22]

2 hours ago, Reiyuka said:

and the thing they're delivering to needs 100kg

I`m not sure but i saw dupes pick multiple packs of iron to deliver it for construction. I think the issue is that the bottle emptier accepts any amount so they rather deliver the amout they are carrying than the max amout it would accept.

[Reiyuka]

Hm, a workaround then might be to specify a minimum amount of liquid that the emptier will accept.

[Sasza22]

Then small amounts of liquid would never be swept. Pwater will be left to ofgass until it`s gone

[Reiyuka]

True, small amounts would offgas.

Maybe they should make it so that bottled PW doesn't offgas? I mean, it's in a bottle.

[Fizzy Cyst]

2 hours ago, Reiyuka said:

it's in a bottle

It offgases in the bottle and blows the cork out. Perhaps you are concerned that the developers haven't got around to putting the cork-pop sound and animation into the game yet.

[Reiyuka]

Anyway, whatever the sidetrack, I think it would make sense if a dupe is carrying 88 grams of polluted water, and they walk past a bunch of other PW, they probably should pick it up.

[Fizzy Cyst]

The problem is larger that you've stated it. When given a task, dupes with (1) first pick up the material for it, (2) only then start traveling to destination of the task and (3) finally perform the task. You've mentioned emptying liquids, but it's true for construction and storage tasks as well. From the developer point of view, this is easy to code. From a player point of view, it kind of sucks. There have been numerous cases where I've seen dupes go get rock for a tile out of a container from wherever they start rather than using the giant piles of it in the excavation zone where I'm building a floor.

Changing this simplistic behavior algorithm to something more sophisticated is more difficult than it looks, and there are performance issues. Picking a single task and setting to out to be done is not computationally expensive. The space of possible combinations of tasks that could be done together in some way is enormous. I do agree that something along these lines is feasible, but it's a more difficult problem than it appears on the surface.

[Reiyuka]

I don't really care how difficult it is, I'm registering my complaint. The difficulty of implementation isn't really my problem.

Either they can do it or they can't. Stop trying to tell me what can't be done, and try to think about what can.

If they can't do it, they can't do it, and I'll be disappointed but otherwise mellow.

[Gwido]

If I understand well, currently, when a duplicant pick up something, he look aroun the position of this first pick up action, searching if there's another packet of this material.

That's why, sometimes, a duplicant only carry very small quantities.

The other reason is about the storage compactors. If a duplicant is going to deliver material to a compactor that is almost full, he will only pick up the amount that can be put in the compactor. He will not pick up more to put in another compactor.

 

You suggest that duplicant pick up material while he's walking to its destination. But it will add another task for each duplicant, at each step.

Some players already ask for FPS improvement. Adding wath you ask, will decrease it.

 

For sure, it's a shame to see duplicants carry very small amounts of material. But solving this situation will, in my opinion, replace a problem with another one.

[Reiyuka]

I don't think that's the cause. I'll see a dupe carry like 88 grams of polluted water to a dispenser, despite there being a bunch of other polluted water immediately nearby. There's plenty of room at the destination and plenty of supply at the source.

Maybe I'm just misremembering. I should try to reproduce it.