Banhi's Automation Innovation Pack in testing now! - 395113

[Red Shark 139]

I was kinda hoping for a tweaking of the "Critter" sensor to allow folks to test for Critters, Eggs, or Critters+Eggs.

Ah, well. Maybe the next content pack!

[Gurgel 1812]

3 hours ago, watermelen671 said:

Did you just release a stealth update @Ipsquiggle?

...maybe?

Dunno why there's a -D attached to it.

I don't have that. Special version for you?

[watermelen671 19208]

25 minutes ago, Gurgel said:

I don't have that. Special version for you?

Spoiler

I literally have no idea why I have that.

[KittenIsAGeek 1606]

5 hours ago, Saturnus said:

Not sure what use a wattage sensor that measures power consumption is useful for except maybe for detecting no power consumption. A much more useful wattage sensor would be one that measures power generation.

... Except that if you have your generators set up with smart battery operation, the only time they'll run is when power is being used, making power consumption a better metric.

Besides, measuring the power generator seems somewhat pointless to me.  Lets take for example a coal generator.  When its running (without an upgrade) it produces 400 watts of power.   So if its running, its generating 400 watts.  If it isn't running, its generating zero.  There really isn't any in-between.  So having a wattage sensor measure power generation would basically be sensing, "Is my generator running?"  Sure, there's some uses for that, but you can easily get the same result by placing a transformer after the generator, sticking your wattage sensor on the line between the generator and the transformer, and setting it to "Above 0 watts."  In the case of steam turbines or solar panels, the only two generators with a variable power production, you can use the same trick to figure out how much power they're producing by watching how much power is going out to your grid.  Yes, the transformer is an extra step, but to me it seems that detecting the power consumption is more useful since you already know how much power you can generate (with two exceptions) just by looking at the generator's numbers.

Besides, that's kinda how electricity works in the real world.  You can run a generator continually and if there's nowhere for that power to go, then no power is actually being produced.  The instant there's a complete circuit (aka something is consuming power), then the power is produced.  However, the generator is running whether or not this happens.  In the real world, you would see this as wasted fuel.  In ONI, its tracked as over-produced power.  So sensing power production is somewhat redundant because you'll never produce more power than you're using.

Lets say that you want to have a backup generator. You really don't want to run the generator very often, because the fuel is expensive.  For example, perhaps you're on Verdant and haven't found oil, so you're using ethanol to run a petrol generator.  Your other generators do great at running your base most of the time, but sometimes you have some high power grids kick on.  There's now two ways you can run this backup generator.  The first by having a smart battery that turns the generator on when it gets close to zero.  This is the method we've been using, and it works OK, most of the time, but not always.  Now, with this new sensor, you have some more options.  You can stick a sensor on each of the high-power circuits, AND them together, then turn on the generator when they both pop.  Or you can stick it on a backbone grid and when the wattage reaches a certain point, it kicks the generator on.  

 

The point I'm trying to make is that the wattage sensor detects both consumption and generation, because power that isn't being used isn't actually being created.  If you have two coal generators running and you're only running a research station, once the batteries are charged up, those coal generators are just burning fuel without actually producing any power.  Putting a wattage sensor on the line would show 60 watts -- the amount consumed by the research station -- even though you have two generators running.  The result is identical even if you're sensing power generation because a generator only produces power that gets consumed.  The wattage sensor detects how much power is going through the line, and that amount is going to be exactly the same if you're detecting the power generated or the power consumed.  They're always equal and opposite.

[SharraShimada 757]

It seems this update breaks nearly every mod, that adds or modifies a building. 

There is much to do for the mod-authors...

[Lilalaunekuh 865]

16 hours ago, Ipsquiggle said:

How do I become an open tester?

There's no sign up or registration for becoming an open tester. If you own Oxygen Not Included and want to join the Testing Branch, all you have to do is play the Open Testing build on Steam.

And have more than 16gb of available ram.

It seems the current version of the game isn´t able to load any of "late-game" bases (Cycle >2000) using a reasonable portion of my ram.

(I was able to load a map after killing many system tasks ... just to find out that the auto-save will result in an out of memory exception and an unsaved game.)

 

=> I would love to mess with the newly possible automation, but a new base isn´t offering this possibilty in a reasonable timeframe^^

 

PS: I had the crashes with and without the new low resolution setting.

Edited February 19 by Lilalaunekuh

[SharraShimada 757]

As of right now, the preview is not really playable. It seems 3 out of 4 times a plant drops a seed, the game just crashes. 

[KittenIsAGeek 1606]

59 minutes ago, Lilalaunekuh said:

And have more than 16gb of available ram.

It seems the current version of the game isn´t able to load any of "late-game" bases (Cycle >2000) using a reasonable portion of my ram.

(I was able to load a map after killing many system tasks ... just to find out that the auto-save will result in an out of memory exception and an unsaved game.)

I was unable to recreate this problem.  My 500-cycle map increased my used memory from 8.5gb to 10.5gb when loaded.  When autosaving, memory used increased to 10.9gb.  I don't have any current maps that are over 1000 cycles, but the memory used doesn't seem that much different from before the testing update.

[Lilalaunekuh 865]

1 minute ago, KittenIsAGeek said:

My 500-cycle map increased my used memory from 8.5gb to 10.5gb when loaded.

Ok I tested bases with 2000-4000 cycles playtime and 18-38mb savegame size.

[All bases were last saved/played before meep´s mandatory recreation update if that matters.]

 

[KittenIsAGeek 1606]

8 minutes ago, Lilalaunekuh said:

Ok I tested bases with 2000-4000 cycles playtime and 18-38mb savegame size.

What were the results?

[Lilalaunekuh 865]

Had to many crashes loading (the early ones mostly cause I had an other application still running) and some crashes even after a reboot.

After my 2. game crashed while saving I gave up. (So I had only a bit less than 10 cycles playtime with saves every 5 cycles.)

 

=> I wait for the next hotfix

 

Edited February 19 by Lilalaunekuh

[pether 214]

Do logic gates work with logic ribbons? I think they should work and return 4-bit number where each bit is a result of specific logic operation for each corresponding bits in 4-bit input numbers, like:
(1, 1, 0, 0) and (1, 0, 1, 0) = (1, 0, 0, 0)
(1, 1, 0, 0) or (1, 0, 1, 0) = (1, 1, 1, 0)
etc...

[Mantak 59]

20 hours ago, Ipsquiggle said:

Duplicants will no longer forget their progress when tuning a power generator, and will be more resilient to changes in the room

Thanks for this!!!

[Tzunki 32]

1 hour ago, Lilalaunekuh said:

Had to many crashes loading (the early ones mostly cause I had an other application still running) and some crashes even after a reboot.

After my 2. game crashed while saving I gave up. (So I had only a bit less than 10 cycles playtime with saves every 5 cycles.)

 

=> I wait for the next hotfix

 

Have the same problem, but for me it crashes on the first day in a fresh colony. Unfortunately it is not possible to see why.

[minespatch 77149]

Has anyone got to play with sweepy yet?

[SharraShimada 757]

2 minutes ago, minespatch said:

Has anyone got to play with sweepy yet?

I wont get to hits, because the game crashes nearly every time when a plant drops something. The devs have some work to to with this beta...

[Ipsquiggle 6250]

4 hours ago, Lilalaunekuh said:

And have more than 16gb of available ram.

It seems the current version of the game isn´t able to load any of "late-game" bases (Cycle >2000) using a reasonable portion of my ram.

(I was able to load a map after killing many system tasks ... just to find out that the auto-save will result in an out of memory exception and an unsaved game.)

Would you mind posting or dm'ing me your log and dxdiag, and possibly one of those late-game bases? Thanks!

[minespatch 77149]

Since Sweepy is the death to current gameplay, I better wait. Looking forward to see if he gives you back the water he mops.

[beowulf2010 654]

51 minutes ago, minespatch said:

Has anyone got to play with sweepy yet?

I had an early base when the preview went live and have had a couple "oopsies" to take care of so I haven't done anything but research them yet. Maybe tonight... 

[Sasza22 2393]

A few things that crossed my mind. The vents and reservoirs don`t use power. Previous automated storage needed power, even shutoffs needed power. Does the new stuff need power to work? If not is the old stuff getting changed to not require power as well?

Ribbon wires would be amazing if they could be connected to fabrication stations to control individual recipies. It would be a separate port and each wire of the ribbon would enable a different recipie. Would be amazing to control the smelter or electric grill.

[meepmoop 230]

Thats awsome!

I played around in sandbox to check things out and it seems like there are some very cool concepts added. Especially for people who like logic gates and automation and all the efficiency-factorio-features in ONI, which I think most of the hardcore players do.

Building hammer and notification sensor both sound a bit similar right?

Hope to try a bit more out on the weekend when I have free time, although im pretty decisive if to play now and share feedback-opinion or just wait for the final cut so I wont be disappointing of cut-features I liked.

25 minutes ago, Sasza22 said:

A few things that crossed my mind. The vents and reservoirs don`t use power. Previous automated storage needed power, even shutoffs needed power. Does the new stuff need power to work? If not is the old stuff getting changed to not require power as well?

Ribbon wires would be amazing if they could be connected to fabrication stations to control individual recipies. It would be a separate port and each wire of the ribbon would enable a different recipie. Would be amazing to control the smelter or electric grill.

To be fair i think the smart-storage power was a mistake. What ended happening is big part of players prefered exploiting some game mechanic (like pressure sensor) instead of using it. Or just avoid using it all together (CONSTANT 60w is a bit demanding)

Edited February 19 by meepmoop

[SL33PW4LK 25]

@Ipsquiggle, please add an automation port on the geysers when active or inactive after analysis on the device that is installed.

[pether 214]

13 minutes ago, SL33PW4LK said:

@Ipsquiggle, please add an automation port on the geysers when active or inactive after analysis on the device that is installed.

That would be so awesome!

I also always wanted rocket engines to have automation port to send signal if the rocket was in the docks

46 minutes ago, Sasza22 said:

Ribbon wires would be amazing if they could be connected to fabrication stations to control individual recipies. It would be a separate port and each wire of the ribbon would enable a different recipie. Would be amazing to control the smelter or electric grill.

Nice idea, but what in case when grill uses more than 4 recipies?

[Zarquan 1005]

20 minutes ago, pether said:

Nice idea, but what in case when grill uses more than 4 recipies?

I usually set up my grills to cook gristle berry, mushrooms, barbecue, and fish fillets forever.  Sometimes I also do frost buns if I have a cold biome.  Normally they spend most of their time on just one of them, but they are all cooked.

[Rico0 188]

22 hours ago, Ipsquiggle said:

we're putting a new free content pack, Banhi's Automation Innovation Pack, into testing today! 

Now just waiting for Liam's Germ Killer Pack!! ty!!