Seriously... wtf is up with picking the furthest storage from you, dupe!?

[dearmad]

The algorithm behind the dupes' selection of which storage bin to go to... is dumb as ****.

[Glassyfo]

They pick the closest storage at the time they get the task I believe.

[bobucles]

Dupes look for items closest to them when they choose a task. It leads to strange decisions like grabbing 30kg of hatch poop to refuel a coal engine when there's a full storage bin sitting next to the generator.

Use the automatic dispenser or autosweepers to consolidate a messy work site into a single pile. Once it's in a pile you can take full advantage of a supply dupe's 2000kg inventory to haul it around instead of watching them run half way across the map to build wires 25kg at a time.

[Yunru]

I wish they used the same logic as the proximity priorities setting. It would fix... most things.

[dearmad]

I just pray the devs come up with some improvement before release,ffs!

Even with me totally spending one on one quality time nurturing my dupes through a cleanup task, it took two cycles to get a basin clean of debris before i could flood it. The three bins intended to hold the debris were FOUR tiles away from the edge, on the SAME LEVEL, yet i had to ... 

 

Oh good grief i don't even want to describe it. Suffice it to say a low point came when i force emptied/denied my third outside bin on the other side of the colony.... 

Wouldn't a simply algy be:

 

1. Get task

2. Check for materials/Required machine NEAR place of task, NOT nearest me.

 

So sweep task means:

Check for bin NEAREST location of sweep item i am targetting. NOT  nearest me ffs.

Or refuel generator:

Check for fuel required (coal) nearest to generator i am targeting, NOT nearest me.

Again... Ffs.

[Sasza22]

4 hours ago, dearmad said:

Wouldn't a simply algy be:

 

1. Get task

2. Check for materials/Required machine NEAR place of task, NOT nearest me.

 

So sweep task means:

Check for bin NEAREST location of sweep item i am targetting. NOT  nearest me ffs.

Or refuel generator:

Check for fuel required (coal) nearest to generator i am targeting, NOT nearest me.

Again... Ffs.

The issue is that it`s all backwards. It`s not the dupe who selects the task. It`s the machines.

Lets say a generator needs fuel. Checks for available dupes and adds a task to the colony task list with the proper priority. When a dupe is free he goes to do that task (might as well be the dupe furthest from the machine).

Storage tasks don`t originate from the debris but from the storage bins (even thoguh the debris are marked for sweep it`s the bin ordering the task). The bin will select the nearest dupe to do the task since proximity searches for nearby dupe first, then for the object to sweep. It`s a logic problem of finding the perfect route between 3 objects where one is moving. It sounds like an easy fix but we discussed it a lot and it seems a pretty big problem. Changin the logic affects all deliver errands in the game and might cause unintended problems elsewhere.

For most tasks it`s the logic is optimal as usually you want to deliver to one place from multiple spread out places. But with storage bins you often deliver to multiple destinations from one single place so it`s less efficient.

[dearmad]

Actually in my case I wanted ONE destination from the multiple pieces of debris all relatively clustered together. I even purpose built some bins nearby...

So there should be a basic logic change to the SWEEP order (only) when given, and the debris from that selection should act as the machine generating the task and look for a bin nearby.

Or maybe if a bin has generated a fill-me task, a few other bins could be polled to see if there is another that is *significantly* closer to the debris before the task actually goes out.

Same for generator: Picks nearest coal and tells dupe go get it... this sounds like what the game already does as you explained it, but somehow it gets this wrong?

What am I missing here? I'm slow.

[DarkMaster13]

18 minutes ago, dearmad said:

Actually in my case I wanted ONE destination from the multiple pieces of debris all relatively clustered together. I even purpose built some bins nearby...

So there should be a basic logic change to the SWEEP order (only) when given, and the debris from that selection should act as the machine generating the task and look for a bin nearby.

Or maybe if a bin has generated a fill-me task, a few other bins could be polled to see if there is another that is *significantly* closer to the debris before the task actually goes out.

Same for generator: Picks nearest coal and tells dupe go get it... this sounds like what the game already does as you explained it, but somehow it gets this wrong?

What am I missing here? I'm slow.

The dupe looks at what's closest to *them* when they get the task, not what's closest to the delivery item.  This is normally fine, assuming they're not walking away from their final destination to get the item.  The problem the OP is bringing up is that they *also* pick the destination when they first get the task, not when they've picked the item up.  So they can end up walking across the whole map twice to complete a task because they started on the wrong side of it.

+ D                         -  +

+ = bin for delivery

- = item to deliver

D = duplicant

The dupe in the above example is given the job to deliver - to one of the two +.  It would be far more work efficient to go pick up the object and then deliver it to the bin immediately next to it.  However the dupe will take it all the way back to the + on the left because that's the one he was closest to when he got the task.

[Sasza22]

1 hour ago, dearmad said:

Actually in my case I wanted ONE destination from the multiple pieces of debris all relatively clustered together. I even purpose built some bins nearby...

For that scenario building a few bins with high priority set to sweep only should work the best. Works for me most of the time. It needs to be higher priority than your other storage but sweep only so they won`t move stuff from other storage to this one. Also there shoudln`t be other sweep tasks ordered. Then the dupes will have no choice but to do it right. After that just set the storage to normal priority so you can do the same elsewhere.

For stuff like coal or food i just set up a storage with fairly high priority (7 or 8) so the dupes just gather all the loose stuff before it`s needed and when they need to deliver coal or eat some food there`s only one way they can go. Basically make sure your dupes can`t do it the wrong way.