We are in dire need of "Do if X is more than Y" option

[Technoincubus]

For example, Egg cracker, break Hatch eggs only if you have more than X eggs. That will prevent wasting all eggs into raw eggs, leaving you without a source to repopulate or sustain your stables. RimWorld have simplest logic, where you can start making food when you have less than X rations and stop when you have Y. 

Same could go for other machinery.

[Grimgaw]

I believe that's what Automation is for. Door permissions, weigh plates, smart storage and you're set for you example.

Easy way outs like some slider or check box are not always best for gameplay.

[Gurgel]

Yes. But what would be nice is some global threshold-sensors, like "total of X in the room" or "total of X in the colony".

[Technoincubus]

Simple example from RimWorld. food production:

DO until you have X. For example, cook 30 simple meals.

At some point it was a problem because colonists cooked 30 meals, then one got consumed and they rushed to cook it again.

Then you have an option to unpause at Y. 

So task now, Cook 30 simple meals and then unpause task then you have Y simple meals left.

Now, colonists will cook 30 meals and then resume cooking them again when you have, for exmple 15 mels left.

That removes a lot of hassle in the colony and overall effectiveness piked.

If we had similar options it could make colonies much much more effective.

 

[Saturnus]

The problem is that fridges and smart storages aren't smart like smart batteries with a hysteresis control but only says if they are full.

If you could set an enable and standby point on fridges and smart storages most of our problems would be solved. 

[Yoma_Nosme]

I just stumbled over this post. Probably stupid question but... Do pressure plates register fridges or storages?

I guess probably not or someone else would have made something like that work.

But wouldn't this solve the problem if you would automate it this way that if pressure is higher than x for longer than a couple of seconds (in case a dupe runs over it and activates the plate it wouldn't register the signal) the fridge or storage is registered (sufficiently)full 

[Saturnus]

26 minutes ago, Yoma_Nosme said:

But wouldn't this solve the problem if you would automate it this way that if pressure is higher than x for longer than a couple of seconds (in case a dupe runs over it and activates the plate it wouldn't register the signal) the fridge or storage is registered (sufficiently)full 

I think you mean lower, not higher, but regardless contents of storages are not registered by weight plates so doesn't really matter either way.

[Sasza22]

1 hour ago, Yoma_Nosme said:

But wouldn't this solve the problem if you would automate it this way that if pressure is higher than x for longer than a couple of seconds (in case a dupe runs over it and activates the plate it wouldn't register the signal) the fridge or storage is registered (sufficiently)full 

You can`t do it for fridges but  you probably can do it with a dropper setup. A sweeper could drop food on a weight plate in a sterile room. The weight plate could have a filter attached to ensure it doesn`t send signals if a dupe runs by. This would just need a reasonable way to access the food.

[Saturnus]

23 minutes ago, Sasza22 said:

You can`t do it for fridges but  you probably can do it with a dropper setup. A sweeper could drop food on a weight plate in a sterile room. The weight plate could have a filter attached to ensure it doesn`t send signals if a dupe runs by. This would just need a reasonable way to access the food.

The obvious problem is that just dropping things on a weight plate is no different than what a fridge/smart storage already does. You can set up a system that every time there is above set amount of weight on the weight plate you'd move everything from the first weight plate to a different weight plate next to it that measures when the amount is lower than a set amount. This weight plate pair would essentially give the same effect as a hysteresis controlled storage. With the obvious exception that loading and unloading the storage could never be done at the same time.

If you like I can make a working set up.

[Rebrait]

8 hours ago, Technoincubus said:

Simple example from RimWorld. food production:

DO until you have X. For example, cook 30 simple meals.

At some point it was a problem because colonists cooked 30 meals, then one got consumed and they rushed to cook it again.

Then you have an option to unpause at Y. 

So task now, Cook 30 simple meals and then unpause task then you have Y simple meals left.

Now, colonists will cook 30 meals and then resume cooking them again when you have, for exmple 15 mels left.

That removes a lot of hassle in the colony and overall effectiveness piked.

If we had similar options it could make colonies much much more effective.

 

You can do that, 2 fridge, 1 priority 9(lets name minimum), 1 priority 7(maximum

To cook 30 meals and start again when you have 10 meal, you have to set the minimum at 9 meal and maximum at 21 meal.

If you want more, just add fridge in the middle priority(8). 

then you use a memory toggle, the first fridge ativates and the second reset.

 

edit: sorry about bad english, if you want i can make in the game to demonstrate

 

[Saturnus]

35 minutes ago, Rebrait said:

You can do that, 2 fridge, 1 priority 9(lets name minimum), 1 priority 7(maximum

To cook 30 meals and start again when you have 10 meal, you have to set the minimum at 9 meal and maximum at 21 meal.

If you want more, just add fridge in the middle priority(8). 

then you use a memory toggle, the first fridge ativates and the second reset.

Problem is if there's a partially consumed meal in the system then either the minimum or the maximum is never reached because fridges (and smart storages) only output on a completely full storage not if it's 99.99% full. That's why we want a hysteresis control on the fridges and smart storages instead,

[Dracian]

A simple population sensor that activates itself if it detects more or less that X organisms in its range would do the trick. Coupled to an auto-sweeper, that would do the trick

Klei please...

[Rebrait]

2 hours ago, Saturnus said:

Problem is if there's a partially consumed meal in the system then either the minimum or the maximum is never reached because fridges (and smart storages) only output on a completely full storage not if it's 99.99% full. That's why we want a hysteresis control on the fridges and smart storages instead,

I want that too, but there is a way to do(its not easy...) what he wants

 

[Saturnus]

7 minutes ago, Rebrait said:

I want that too, but there is a way to do(its not easy...) what he wants

Yes. I described it above with the double weight plates. It's complex and needlessly big but it works. A system with dual fridges/storages eventually breaks down because a few grams or kilos goes missing thus making the automation on the fridges/storages fail. It may work for a hundred or hundreds of cycles but then fail forcing you to start all over again. It is extremely annoying.

[fishpear]

try it with weight plates and automation. It is a part of game and have fun!

[Sasza22]

Lately i had a fridge setup in mind. 2 fridges are loaded by conveyor belts. 1 has a higher priority and lower amount stored the other is closer to the door so it`s emptied by dupes first. The door is only open during downtime to ensure dupes don`t load the fridges with lefovers (and break the full sensor). Maybe a third fridge just for leftovers outside.

The higher priority fridge activates the cooking station if not full. The second one deactivates it if it`s full. It`s doable via a few logic gates. The cooker should be inactive until the second fridge won`t get emptied and the dupes start using the first one.

I think i`m going to try to build this once the new upgrade hits. I wonder if it`ll work.

[Chipplyman]

15 hours ago, Sasza22 said:

The door is only open during downtime to ensure dupes don`t load the fridges with lefovers (and break the full sensor)

Dupes on different downtime schedules could break this. Though you might be able to feed the night shift entirely on leftovers and never allow them into the automated fresh food fridge room? 

If the leftover fridge is even higher priority than the automation fridges, and you never allow it to get full, you could leave the door open all the time I think. If it does get close to full you could build another or compost the old leftovers. 

I believe it's better to split downtime to reduce contention on the recreation equipment.

I haven't done science on any of this. 

[KittenIsAGeek]

I've used a multi-fridge setup to handle this sort of thing and it works -- but its a nuisance.  Also had to use multiple grills and such -- one for each type of food I was producing.

[Technoincubus]

It could be integrated into egg cracker setup just like we have auto-wrangle with creature drop offs. For example "crack if have more than X eggs" applied to eggs set on infinite production

[Saturnus]

We really need a critter sensor that counts the number of critters in a room. It would return the same number as seen on room overlay. Eggs count as critters, even in storages.

[clickrush]

On 4. September 2018 at 9:05 AM, Saturnus said:

The problem is that fridges and smart storages aren't smart like smart batteries with a hysteresis control but only says if they are full.

If you could set an enable and standby point on fridges and smart storages most of our problems would be solved. 

A memory toggle plus two containers?

[Saturnus]

Just now, clickrush said:

A memory toggle plus two containers?

Does that count the critters in a room?  As in the live ones plus the eggs, or just the live critters? 

[clickrush]

2 minutes ago, Saturnus said:

Does that count the critters in a room?  As in the live ones plus the eggs, or just the live critters? 

i was aparently confused. i meant it is trivial to build an actual smart fridge/storage. i agree a critter room counter incl eggs would be wonderful. i made that suggestion after the ranching update.

[Ellilea]

I'd like the "continuous" to not block the entire grill when an ingredient runs out. Would much prefer it work like priorities.

Cook mushrooms continuously -> if mushrooms are out cook pepper bread -> if peppers are out cook pickles etc.

[DMFan79]

2 hours ago, Ellilea said:

I'd like the "continuous" to not block the entire grill when an ingredient runs out. Would much prefer it work like priorities.

Cook mushrooms continuously -> if mushrooms are out cook pepper bread -> if peppers are out cook pickles etc.

Many  of us asked this several times. I really hope the devs will fix this in the next patches.