No-Player-Input Drillcone anytime soon?

[Primalflower]

it's been a while since the drillcone was added, but the ability to properly perform a round-trip with them is still not in the game, preventing the player from using them in an process that doesn't require them to at the very least set the rocket for a course back to the asteroid the rocket came from. This is a fair bit debilitating since IMO nuclear power is incredibly interesting and fun, but the only renewable source of the fuel it requires lies in a process that i must forever manually control, at least a little.

This is a bit of a pressing issue, will this be addressed anytime soon?

[Gurgel]

Can you actually do other round-trips automatically at this time? Just a question, not a criticism of your statement.

[Primalflower]

7 minutes ago, Gurgel said:

Can you actually do other round-trips automatically at this time? Just a question, not a criticism of your statement.

i'm not quite sure what you mean. Round trips themselves appear to work fine, you are able to deliver things like orbital cargo modules automatically with them. However if you set a round trip for an asteroid field, the rocket will reach the destination, and then instantly turn back, not having mined a singular thing, even if you try to do something like using an uber-slow rocket like the steam engine, so the rocket spends more time in the tile with the asteroid field.

[Gurgel]

1 minute ago, Lbphero said:

i'm not quite sure what you mean. 

I mean round-trips to other planetoids including landing there and delivering or taking on cargo, including automated launch. You know, a fully automated cargo pipeline.

[Primalflower]

2 minutes ago, Gurgel said:

I mean round-trips to other planetoids including landing there and delivering or taking on cargo, including automated launch. You know, a fully automated cargo pipeline.

Oh, Yes, this works too. If memory serves, once the rocket arrives on the destination's launchpad then it'll automatically set course for home, awaiting the automation signal to do so.

[Gurgel]

5 minutes ago, Lbphero said:

Oh, Yes, this works too. If memory serves, once the rocket arrives on the destination's launchpad then it'll automatically set course for home, awaiting the automation signal to do so.

Thanks!

[sakura_sk]

Aren't roundtrips to land a rover or trailblazer still bugged? If you have roundtrip active when you reach orbit of your destination, the rocket will try to immediately leave and pausing or " clear destination" in order to launch the rover/trailblazer doesn't solve it. (I'm avoiding using roundtrip for anything because of that )

[Primalflower]

7 hours ago, sakura_sk said:

Aren't roundtrips to land a rover or trailblazer still bugged? If you have roundtrip active when you reach orbit of your destination, the rocket will try to immediately leave and pausing or " clear destination" in order to launch the rover/trailblazer doesn't solve it. (I'm avoiding using roundtrip for anything because of that )

I'm not sure. I've never tried to use round trip with a rover or trailblazer, because the act of deploying them is manual and something that requires me to choose a specific location to work.

[ghkbrew]

14 hours ago, Lbphero said:

if you set a round trip for an asteroid field, the rocket will reach the destination, and then instantly turn back, not having mined a singular thing,

It'll work while flying though an asteroid field though, right? So setting your destination one tile past the field should work round trips.

[Primalflower]

22 minutes ago, ghkbrew said:

It'll work while flying though an asteroid field though, right?

No.

[NewWorldDan]

On 8/16/2021 at 4:11 AM, Gurgel said:

I mean round-trips to other planetoids including landing there and delivering or taking on cargo, including automated launch. You know, a fully automated cargo pipeline.

Absolutely.  I regard this as fundamental to the Spaced Out experience.  Sure, you can completely strip mine an asteroid, dump everything on the floor of your rocket capsule and fly back never to return.  Some people do.  But setting up a rocket delivery system to deliver water and supplies to a remote planet and return with the locally produced materials is something that should be done at least once.  My approaches to doing this have changed with the ways the game has changed.  Back in January, when CO2 engines were super fast (and that's all we had anyway), dupes would fly a daily mission, stay the night and return with a fully loaded rocket the next morning.  Things have changed with different engines and larger cargo bays - for one, it takes a lot longer to load a rocket.  But still, I like to make 2 dupe colonies off world (so they have a friend!) with room for a third rocket pilot, and make the other asteroids into legitimate colonies and the whole sector into a thriving ecosystem (no matter what it does to my frame rate).

[KonfigSys]

Yes, this is one of the things I hope Klei will fix before the final DLC release.

They made a good job on interplanetary automation - all these loading/unloading ports are great. You can set a return trip and a rocket will fly back and forward between two asteroids delivering cargo - loading O2 or water or solids to make O2 and dumping CO2, P water in fully automated manner. 

space POIs are not completely finished in my view. First, there is no signal when a rocket reaches the destination (ok, it starts mining as soon as it reaches it, so it is ok, no changes needed - so I thought the new sensor would recognize POIs). However, it will stay there unless you manually order it to go back. The main problem is diamond beats and cargo bays usage.

I hope that when the diamond beats are used up, the rocket starts coming back. 

Cargo bay usage is more complicated. You may want to continue mining p oxygen for example even if the solid cargo is full. I consider that the best approach here will be when ALL cargo modules are full the rocket is coming back (a bit a problem here for someone who uses liquid tank for p water return). So ideally you can choose which module (or modules) is to be checked if it is filled up. 

So it will be - a rocket automatically coming back when EITHER drill bits are finished or no space left for cargo.

Also POIs should be recognized as similar objects as asteroids in a sense that rockets do departure check:

if cargo bay is fully loaded?,

if bits are at 0%?

Then depart.

I do realize that currently it may be tied up to the rocket platform, then just make a virtual platform (could be invisible) at POIs for such checks.

Another crazy idea will be to have a new building - a space control center. You build it at any planet and can see all rocket information at once - the status of all rockets, if drill bits are present than their status, cargo load, etc.) You can see that on the map currently but not in a consolidated form.

When you run several rockets it becomes complicated.

[ghkbrew]

4 hours ago, KonfigSys said:

First, there is no signal when a rocket reaches the destination

I really thought this is what the new Starmap Location Sensor was going to be.  I was rather disappointed to find it you could only select planets, not POIs.

A sensor to tell when you're on the POI plus a port on the rocket control station to stop the rocket in flight would nicely fix the automated mining problem.