Rocket QoL Suggestion after roadblock.

[PipZTaichO]

Hi, during my last playthrough, I set 2 goals to "finish" the colony: one is a 10 kg Oil Sour Gas Boiler, and the other is automated rocket supplying routes.

My biggest issue is on the second one, mainly on the rocket automation.

I want the rocket to deliver all the cargo on my main asteroid, get fueled, then travel to the "material" asteroid, get a full cargo, and then be sent back. To make it easier to read, I will call the refueling and emptying of the transfer Phase 1 (P1) and the loading of material Phase 2 (P2). P1 occurs on my main asteroid, and P2 occurs on the "material" asteroid.

My first automation issue was the Cargo Transfer, which has 2 states:

1. Not Filling/Emptying (Check mark - Green Signal)
2. Filling/Emptying (Cross mark - Red Signal)

Also Fueling has 2 states; these are based on the calculation of a Round trip from the current platform:

1. Not Able (Cross mark - Red Signal) 
2. Able (Check mark - Green Signal)

These signals are what the Output port of the rocket platform gives. (Besides everything else from the checklist)

The main issue is the way these states of Transfer and Fueling send the signal to the rocket from the same output. Transfer only sends a red signal when either the port loader or unloader is working; if it stops, it will change to Transfer complete." During P1 there is no issue since having it empty and fueled will send a green signal, but on P2 it's a problem since if by any means the flow of material stops, it will send a green signal even when the Cargo Bay is not full (Picture 1).

As you can see, the Cargo Bay is set to 1000 kg, but there is only 760 kg, and yet the rocket platform is sending a green signal. The plan was to have the rocket stay on P2 until the Cargo Bay (or bays) was full, then send it back to P1.

Another problem I found during P2 was the fueling; the rockets are filled to do a round trip, but when they reach the P2 asteroid, they will always have the Fueled sending a red signal, unless the game calculates it can do a round trip from that asteroid too, which is nonsense, since the P2 asteroid is the middle point, not the end (the round trip calculation was already done on the P1 asteroid).

On the Starmap I have the P2 asteroids at 7-6-6-8 hexes, which during P1, while selecting round trip, it says fuel is ok and sends green, but when it reaches the P2, it doesn't let the rocket launch (radengines 20 hexes per full tank) since it doesn't calculate they will have enough for the round trip.

As you can see in Picture 2, the rocket already on P2 launched with a round trip from P1, and when it reached P2, the Fueled status popped, and it started sending a red signal, as shown in Picture 3.

At this point I tried some stuff but couldn't find a way to do it, since I need both a green and a red signal from the same output port for this to work.

The main reason I wanted this to work is to give the Robo-Pilot Module another use. I know I could use the Interplanetary Launcher, but setting the radbolt generation, the cooling, the energy, the storage, and the payload reception area is too much hassle, and one thing I like about this game is the different ways it gives you to achieve the same goal.

If you have a roundabout, I'm happy to hear it. Right now I'm just manually sending a crew of dupes to collect the mats and be back every now and then.

I think this can be improved in a QoL for the Rocket Platform. As an example, I would suggest this:

Suggestion 1:

Add a third output automation to the rocket platform;

• Current: Rocket Landed output (Top), Launch Input (Bottom Left), Checklist Output (Bottom Right)
• To Be: Rocket Landed output (Top), Fuel/Integrity output (Bottom Left), Launch Input (Bottom Mid), and Cargo Output (Bottom Right).

As per the checklist in rocket launch:

1. Flight Route: Attach it to the "Fuel/Integrity Output." (I don't know if this is needed on the output since no rocket will launch even when trying to force a launch if the path is blocked.)
2. Rocket Construction: Attach this to the "Fuel/Integrity Output."
3. Cargo Manifest: Attach to "Cargo Output," and make this have a logic toggle based on the configuration. When you add a Cargo Bay, Gas tank, or Liquid tank in the rocket menu (Picture 4), a new tab will appear that will have a "Load Behavior" It will either ask to send a green signal when it reaches the desired capacity or when it is empty. Or make it work as the Reservoirs with Min-Max for outputs.
4. Cargo Manifest: Attach Fueled to "Fuel/Integrity Output." Green when desired capacity is reached in both fuel and oxidizer.
5. Crew Manifest: Add to the Spacefarer Module/Nosecone an input and output; the input will set the rocket to summon crew, and the output will send a green signal when the crew is onboard.

In that it gives the player the ability to bypass greens/reds with Not Gates, adds automation to the process of loading/unloading, and gives the rocket platform a lot more play with automation, it also gives the chance to use a timer, cycle sensor, and signal counter to set Dupe periodic missions.

Suggestion 2:

Make the Rocket Platforms able to "toggle" between duties, this only modifying which values the output port gives, for example:

1. General/Manual: The default, it has the same checklist as the one we have.
2. Cargo: Sends a green signal when the Cargo is full regardless of fuel and oxidizer levels 
3. Fueling: Sends a green signal when the fuel and oxidizer tanks are full and the Cargo is empty 

This one is pretty tunnel vision in the problem; it gives the platforms the chance to treat the asteroids as semi-POIs, which at the end is basically what I'm looking for here.

I would love to hear you guys thoughts on this, and perhaps squeeze rocket automation in the pipeline :).

[Charletrom]

I agree completely that rocket platform automation ports need to be revisited. I have been able to get liquid cargo missions to work before but in that case cargo transfer was never interrupted. Maybe an "advanced" automation mode would be helpful, where we can customize which launch conditions are considered.

Have you tried just using a timer? For example, telling the rocket to stay at the P2 asteroid for X cycles before leaving. For fuelling, depending on your engine design, I suppose you could bring the extra fuel needed in a liquid cargo tank and then transfer it to the fuel tank at P2. Not ideal, but could "work".

[PipZTaichO]

7 hours ago, Charletrom said:

I agree completely that rocket platform automation ports need to be revisited. I have been able to get liquid cargo missions to work before but in that case cargo transfer was never interrupted. Maybe an "advanced" automation mode would be helpful, where we can customize which launch conditions are considered.

Have you tried just using a timer? For example, telling the rocket to stay at the P2 asteroid for X cycles before leaving. For fuelling, depending on your engine design, I suppose you could bring the extra fuel needed in a liquid cargo tank and then transfer it to the fuel tank at P2. Not ideal, but could "work".

I tried, but the issue is for example the Niobium Volcano when it enters dormancy i have to manually turn it off since there will be a moment were there will not be any loading been made, which at the ends leaves it at semi-automatic. And not in a Set-up an leave it be way.

[Tytan]

Unfortunately, many things in automation need fixing.

[SGT_Imalas]

as for how a more advanced rocket platform can work like:

https://sgt-imalas.github.io/Wiki/Rocketry Expanded/Buildings/Normal Buildings/Launchpads/#advanced-rocket-platform

^ has 4 ports in total, 2 of them ribbons

I should update that graphic on the website...

Edited December 5, 2025 by SGT_Imalas

[Charletrom]

15 hours ago, PipZTaichO said:

I tried, but the issue is for example the Niobium Volcano when it enters dormancy i have to manually turn it off since there will be a moment were there will not be any loading been made, which at the ends leaves it at semi-automatic. And not in a Set-up an leave it be way.

Geotuners can send automation signals based on geyser dormancy