Rockets: QOL Automation Options

[Earl_of_Earlier]

Rockets have become quite cumbersome with the resource replenishment system. To get the full bang for your buck, rocket launches must be delayed, because the targets don't replenish a full cargo load between flights. Otherwise, a significant amount of fuel goes to waste - for example, running a rocket with only one cargo bay continously to one of the 30k satellites will result in an efficiency of roughly 50%, because trip time of 9 cycles (if we intentionally skip the rocket navigation talent), times replenishment of 55.6 kg equals just north of 500kg of retrievable material, yet we have to provide fuel for 1000kg every trip. That's a waste of 50% of the fuel.

Two solutions come to mind:

a) let us configure how much cargo we want to load, and calculate fuel requirements accordingly. It could be the same slider that we're currently using for the fuel modules.

b) give us some additional automation tools so we can delay rocket launches, like the engine giving a signal whenever the rocket is landed and fuel tanks giving a signal when full

I do love me some good automation, so playing kid in the candy store, these are the automation components I would love to see:

• Signal to Tick Converter Gate: Gives off a single tick Signal upon receiving a constant signal
• Toggle Gate: Similar to the memory gate, but just simply toggles it's state when the input circuit changes from no signal to signal
• Timer: Similar to the clock, but allows configuration in seconds, up to, say, 6000, so we can actually time things beyond the frame of one cycle

All these things can currently be built, but are very cumbersome and space-hungry.

[Sasza22]

1 hour ago, Earl_of_Earlier said:

Signal to Tick Converter Gate: Gives off a single tick Signal upon receiving a constant signal

That`s doable using a filter gate and a XOR. Very simple. Just split the wire and connect to both XOR inputs but one through the filter. The tick will last as ling as you set the filter.

The toggle is doable with the memory gate and a handful of others.

A timer gate though would be really useful. Normal buffers don`t last long enough. We can use the water clocks but building and calibrating them takes a while.

[Earl_of_Earlier]

25 minutes ago, Sasza22 said:

That`s doable using a filter gate and a XOR. Very simple. Just split the wire and connect to both XOR inputs but one through the filter. The tick will last as ling as you set the filter.

The toggle is doable with the memory gate and a handful of others.

A timer gate though would be really useful. Normal buffers don`t last long enough. We can use the water clocks but building and calibrating them takes a while.

Yep, as I mentioned all of that is doable. The timer gate can be built by having multiple pulse creators (Buffer > Filter > Not) on different intervals, and combining their signals with AND; combine, say, 17 seconds pulse with a 31 second pulse and you'll only get a signal on both every 17 x 31 seconds. As long as there are no intermediate common multiples - e.g., by only using prime numbers, you can approximate pretty much any timespan.

And while all that is possible, it's currently just very, very cumbersome. I'm using a combination of tick converters and toggle gates to control my rocket refueling system, and while it's certainly working, it takes up a lot of space and is really finicky to build: