Sweeping and storage

[Dirmagnos]

Can anyone explain the mechanics of this to me ?

Or to be more precise, on what basis dupes choose storage containers to deliver stuff ?

Because i had containers, setup in exactly same way, yet dupes seem to take stuff to one that literally in Alaska. Its like miles away, even tho nearest container with exactly same settings is just dozen squares away. Its not full, have all same permissions and priorities, is is far closer by by any iteration of pathfinding...yet dupes often ignore it and take swept stuff to some remote container that is a lot lot lot further. For no legitimate reason i could think about.

At first i thought it was related to work orders, eg dupes pick up stuff and then it somehow bumps work order for constructs that makes them take that resource to location where it is actually needed. But i was wrong. Then i thought that it may be some timed issue, eg newer built containers do not 'register' on their radar. Again, i was wrong.

So, whats the deal ? Why to hell, out of all presented options, they often choose the worst one, even tho we are dealing with fairly simple equation.

[GreatGameDota]

Depending on the priority of the container that's where they'll be sending stuff. Are you sure both container have the same prio?

[Dirmagnos]

Yes, im 100% sure. I specifically made several in that area, with all relevant checkboxes(excluding of liquifiable stuff and slime). All my other storage is on 5 or lower(if they are in some completely remote area) priority(eg same or lower). And they all were made 3-4 cycles prior to sweep.

And i constantly see this behavior. With dupes not taking stuff to closest viable storage, but run somewhere God knows where for no apparent reason.

[GreatGameDota]

Just now, Dirmagnos said:

Yes, im 100% sure. I specifically made several in that area, with all relevant checkboxes(excluding of liquifiable stuff and slime). All my other storage is on 5 or lower(if they are in some completely remote area) priority(eg same or lower). And they all were made 3-4 cycles prior to sweep.

And i constantly see this behavior. With dupes not taking stuff to closest viable storage, but run somewhere God knows where for no apparent reason.

Are the closer containers more full than the far ones before sweeping?

[Dirmagnos]

Just now, GreatGameDota said:

Are the closer containers more full than the far ones before sweeping?

I had made 8, In 2 of them dupes dropped some assorted stuff at the start, but nowhere near even filling them half-way(rest were empty). And then just proceeded dragging materials to storage at center of map, that is like 4 screens away. While nearest eligible storage container was like 12 tiles away, completely ignoring it.

I even canceled sweep once, testing, maybe it would reset this behavior. Nope, still taking stuff somewhere far far away. Checked all other storage as well, nothing.

And i see it all the time. Sometimes they do carry stuff to nearest container, other times they dont. And no, 'sweep only' in not enabled on any of them.

[GreatGameDota]

14 minutes ago, Dirmagnos said:

I had made 8, In 2 of them dupes dropped some assorted stuff at the start, but nowhere near even filling them half-way(rest were empty). And then just proceeded dragging materials to storage at center of map, that is like 4 screens away. While nearest eligible storage container was like 12 tiles away, completely ignoring it.

I even canceled sweep once, testing, maybe it would reset this behavior. Nope, still taking stuff somewhere far far away. Checked all other storage as well, nothing.

And i see it all the time. Sometimes they do carry stuff to nearest container, other times they dont. And no, 'sweep only' in not enabled on any of them.

Well are all the setting exactly the same? Do any of them have sweep only? Have you tried reloading?

[avc15]

To me it seems like maybe something changed with automation update? Or it could be my imagination.

Used to be if I had containers located near every major dig, and i had the same settings applied on all of them, with all the same priority, dupes would pick nearby containers to store things in.

Yesterday I made a new game. All my boxes have exactly the same priority and settings (except 1 where I'm storing slimes and polluted dirt). The dupes are all running clear across base to store debris in one particular container, and didn't switch to the next one until it was completely full.

Strange. I'll do some further testing and see if it was something I did differently this time.

33 minutes ago, GreatGameDota said:

Are the closer containers more full than the far ones before sweeping?

this i never knew about. Do they prioritize filling up containers evenly? I wish they wouldn't, except sometimes I can see that being useful (when using compactors to drop resources on the ground)

[GreatGameDota]

6 minutes ago, avc15 said:

Do they prioritize filling up containers evenly?

Yea it makes it so they sweep faster, fill up the closet container then the next and so on.

[Dirmagnos]

32 minutes ago, GreatGameDota said:

Well are all the setting exactly the same? Do any of them have sweep only? Have you tried reloading?

Yes, with exception of some remote containers that have priority of 4 or 3 and containers that are designated for liquifiables and pollutants. General containers are all on 5.

No, none of the are sweep only. I use that feature rarely and always set them back to general afterwards.

No, probably should have tried that. Reloads tend to shake dupes up.

36 minutes ago, GreatGameDota said:

Yea it makes it so they sweep faster, fill up the closet container then the next and so on.

Not really, i did some testing, with a lot of containers in a row and then a lot of material on the floor, of same type, in same tile. Even in those cases random dupes tend to pick random containers out of all of them and then randomly fill them up. Not closest one, but one in line.

Doesnt make much sense, but thats how they work.

[KittenIsAGeek]

Yeah, I think that dupes should prioritize the storage locker nearest whatever task they're doing.  Instead of running half-way across the map for granite, why not grab it from the storage locker literally at their feet? I still haven't found a good solution except to lock the dupes into their work areas.

[Yothiel]

9 minutes ago, KittenIsAGeek said:

Yeah, I think that dupes should prioritize the storage locker nearest whatever task they're doing.  Instead of running half-way across the map for granite, why not grab it from the storage locker literally at their feet? I still haven't found a good solution except to lock the dupes into their work areas.

Actually, I think that's what dupes are doing. Except that they choose the container closest to their position at the time they decide to pick up some target, not the container closest to their target. 

With that assumption, if a dupe sees something to pick up on the other side of the base, and a container for it right next to him, he'll cross the base, pick up the item, and cross back to store it. And if there is more things to pick at the same position as before, he'll keep going back and forth. It seems consistent with what I've seen when spying on their behavior.