Interplanetary Launcher is confusing me

[Gurgel]

Usually, it launches all in there (6 capsules, 1200kg or close to i). But sometimes it launches just one 200kg capsule. Same number of radbolts in there both times and it seems to always consume all stored radbolts, regardless of how often it launches in one go.

Has anybody figured out when it launches all stored material and when it launches just one 200kg package?

Edit: I think I have figured it out:

1. After every 6 launches, the building cleans itself.
2. If it has enough radbolts for one (!) launch, it will flush all up to 1200kg stored in it, doing up to 6 launches in rapid succession, and consuming radbolts stored, unless it reaches the cleaning limit. If it reaches a cleaning limit, it resets and the launch sequence ends. On the other hand, running out of radbolts after the first launch does not stop it from launching everything, only cleaning or empty storage stops it.
3. I _think_ that if it launched 2 or more times in sequence before hitting cleaning, it consumes the radbolts needed for each of those launches. I know that it if launches once before cleaning, it consumes the radbolts for one launch only.
4. If it has enough radbolts for at least one launch after cleaning, it will launch the complete rest of the material stored in it.  

That means: If you always make sure to have the launcher loaded with 1001kg or more (i.e. 6 launches), you get 6 launches for the radbolts needed for one launch. If not, you are assured one launch for those radbolts, but depending on when cleaning hits that may be all you get. 

If you keep the launcher fully stocked (conveyors), it will re-sync after a partial launch, because during the cleaning it will get filled so it does 6 launches in a sequence afterwards as soon as it has the radbolts for it.

[SharraShimada]

Hmmm... do you know WHAT it launches? Maybe 200Kg diamond is treated differently than 200Kg algae?

[Gurgel]

41 minutes ago, SharraShimada said:

Hmmm... do you know WHAT it launches? Maybe 200Kg diamond is treated differently than 200Kg algae?

Does not seem to make a difference.

There is some hidden "cleaning counter" that requires self-cleaning every 6 (?) cycles. Maybe if that one gets full, it will stop launching for that launch event? To be honest I have seen in launch only one payload only once, but that one was repeatable with save & reload.

[troyandabed]

From what I can tell, each launch costs the number of radbolts that is displayed in the UI, but if it runs out of radbolts after an initial launch it will continue to launch at no cost until it either runs out of things to launch or it goes into cleaning mode? Forget if I needed to fire another charge to pick it back up after cleaning or not. It definitely feels a bit counter intuitive considering actually powering it up fully wastes a lot of radbolts to do the same work.

[NeoDeusMachina]

It might be trying to create "full packages" of 200kg (or whatever minimim setting you have set it to) of the same material. Does your launcher have partial load stored in its inventory? For ex. 140kg of sandstone, 120kg of plastic, etc. that the launcher might be waiting for you to complete before launching it? Those might be blocking its inventory for other material to be launched. Hope that makes sense.

[Gurgel]

18 minutes ago, NeoDeusMachina said:

It might be trying to create "full packages" of 200kg (or whatever minimim setting you have set it to) of the same material. Does your launcher have partial load stored in its inventory? For ex. 140kg of sandstone, 120kg of plastic, etc. that the launcher might be waiting for you to complete before launching it? Those might be blocking its inventory for other material to be launched. Hope that makes sense.

That is not it either. It is completely happy to send mixed packages. 

32 minutes ago, troyandabed said:

From what I can tell, each launch costs the number of radbolts that is displayed in the UI, but if it runs out of radbolts after an initial launch it will continue to launch at no cost until it either runs out of things to launch or it goes into cleaning mode?

There may be some interaction with the cleaning. Yes. The one time I observed a single package from a full launcher, it did not clean before. It may have sent just 5 packages the before and hence have one left until cleaning. 

I think I will do a few more experiments in that direction. This would be pretty unintuitive though. There may be a bug that prevents launches being limited by radbolts.

[Gurgel]

It is definitely tied to cleaning. Updated above.

[troyandabed]

On 9/17/2021 at 11:06 PM, Gurgel said:

I think I will do a few more experiments in that direction. This would be pretty unintuitive though. There may be a bug that prevents launches being limited by radbolts.

If I had to take a shot in the dark, I would suggest that the behavior may be tied to the various states the launcher can be in (resting state, launching state, cleaning state, etc). As the animation transitions are also a concern for a logic, it may be that the issue is caused by a problem here. It would be clunky after each launch if it returned to resting state and then relaunched, so there could be separate conditional checks based on it starting to launch from the resting state and launching from launching state (immediately following another launch). If that were the case, then it would seem that the conditional check happening after a launch (which determines whether it should fire again or otherwise transition to a cleaning or resting state) checks whether there is material enough to fire and whether the cleaning cycle needs to run, but does not check whether enough radbolts are available to launch. The current behavior is a bit unintuitive, so the lack of a radbolt conditional check there may be an oversight.