Suggestion: Coal threshold for the coal generator

[Kincaid]

I have currently two coal generators to power my machines. The problem with this is, even when the priority is set to 9 and there is no other task with priority 9, my dupes won't fill it with coal unless it is completely empty and the batteries are drained. I also have a full storage with coal right between the two generators and plenty of coal. I even tried to have one dupe whose only job is it to haul stuff but he rather brought sandstone to a ladder that gets build instead of fueling the generator. (I also would prefer if bringing stuff to machines and bringing stuff to a site would be two different jobs) The problem with this is, if it happens at daytime oxygen production stops for a moment, depending on how busy my dupes are. If it happens before or during the night everything stops until daytime. No algae production, no oxygen production, no water refinement, nothing. And this happens a lot of times. More batteries won't work since they always get completely drained before the generator gets refilled. I think there should be a threshold for the coal like the generator has one for the batteries (what is this setting even for? It is set to 80% but the generators are still running even if the batteries are at 100%. Why should they turn off anyway? They should power my colony and the batteries are for backup like spikes in usage or running out of fuel). With a threshold for coal could set it to e.g. 20% and then as soon as the generator is less then 20% filled with coal a dupe should go there and fill it. This would guarantee that they never run out of fuel.

[CfSapper]

Change the battery percentage i had thet same issue just have it at like 60% or whatever works for your situation. 

[Thelder]

I think dupes only refill them when the Coal contents is low enough (below 100kg), regardless of your battery threshold.

So, to reduce downtime, build a Storage Compactor for coal only beside your Coal Generator.

[Kincaid]

5 hours ago, Thelder said:

So, to reduce downtime, build a Storage Compactor for coal only beside your Coal Generator.

Like I said, that is exactly what I did.

8 hours ago, CfSapper said:

Change the battery percentage i had thet same issue just have it at like 60% or whatever works for your situation. 

One Generator is already set to 50%, that doesn't seem to change anything. Both generators are running al the time until they are empty, then the batteries get drained and after that someone comes and refills the coal.

[zzKratoszz]

Are you on the stable version or the beta? If the coal generator is below a specific threshold of coal and is below your set battery % then the next available dupe should deliver coal depending on your dupe priorities. Are your dupes idle or busy with other more important jobs? Even at priority 9 your dupes will eat, poop, and breath first unless you call red alert. The coal generator will happily sit idle if your batteries are full and its not going to ask for more coal every tick. It needs some available space before it will ask to be refilled. 

Perhaps a screen shot or even a video could help us better help you. The key is in the details.

[Kincaid]

I started a new colony and it is the same again. It doesn't happen all the time, but sometimes it runs out of coal, batteries are low and no one feels responsible to refill it.

Anyways, I really don't understand why I can set a mimimum amount of percentage in batteries and not a minimum amount of coal. Both would be great. The generator could stop running when the batteries are almost full to not waste energy and the dupes could still refill it before it is empty. You would only need enough generators to provide the energy you actually need and not a lot of extra energy just to fill enough batteries to have enough stored power to run your colony half a day. 

[Whispershade]

On 11/6/2017 at 8:49 AM, Kincaid said:

Like I said, that is exactly what I did.

One Generator is already set to 50%, that doesn't seem to change anything. Both generators are running al the time until they are empty, then the batteries get drained and after that someone comes and refills the coal.

Have you given them increased priority? Like 7? They are both running because they dont get around to the job until the batteries have depleted. If you elevate the priority past your normal setting the dupes will jump on it as soon as the first threshole is crossed.

Also someone worked out that one full delivery of coal get charge six batteries.

[Kincaid]

It is set to nine. I understand how it works, I just think it should work different.

[Whispershade]

The coal generators are deliberately wasteful in the way that they are so  I am not sure how much traction you'll have against their design intent.

[Octyabr]

4 hours ago, Whispershade said:

Also someone worked out that one full delivery of coal get charge six batteries.

One load of coal is 500kg, at a consumption rate of 1kg/s, also producing 600W/s for a total of 300kJ, in 40kJ for each battery would be 7.5 batteries in total, or 7 big ones and 2 small ones.

Spoiler

1 hour ago, Whispershade said:

The coal generators are deliberately wasteful in the way that they are so  I am not sure how much traction you'll have against their design intent.

I like the way they are (now, remember when they overheated in seconds?) it forces you to build a large array of batteries to avoid wasted energy.

If any wants an advice with them:

Spoiler

Depending of your power needs, build several and set them to different thresholds: a couple to a high threshold (60%~70%) so they work most of the time and just to slow down battery depletion rate, and a few with a low threshold (30%~40%) to refill batteries.

 

[Kincaid]

5 hours ago, Whispershade said:

The coal generators are deliberately wasteful in the way that they are so  I am not sure how much traction you'll have against their design intent.

I don't understand what you mean.

[Whispershade]

1 hour ago, Kincaid said:

I don't understand what you mean.

I'm sorry, apparently when I first read your post I misunderstood what your issue was.

The way the coal generator is supposed to work is the threshold slider on the coal generator is the battery threshold at which a job will be created for dupes to fill the coal generator if it is not running. If your batteries deplete to 50%, for example, and the generator is not running or is very load, a dupe should come by to fill it. If they're always waiting for the batteries to be 100% depleted before going to fill the generator that is set at 50% then there is something wrong. It might be a bug introduced in the new update. It may be some configuration issue.

It may be that you need more generators and/or more batteries to handle the load between the period that your dupes can complete the task. It is hard to say without seeing a save.

What I meant by the fact that they are deliberately wasteful is they are deliberately setup to burn all the coal in them before they stop. I misunderstood something you said as a way to prevent the coal generators from burning through their supply if the batteries had sufficient charge.

If you want to post a save and under which update you're running it under, I or someone can look at it and see if there's some setup issue happening or if it might be a bug in how coal generators are now working.