(A20) AutoBots - Automated Mining and Ammunition Making Bots (Revisited)

[arramus]

Here is a download link to an updated and revised version of the Auto Miner and Auto Ammo Maker combined into one mod, but still with the two separate 'automation' units, called Autobots (full credit to Snufkin who offered one of the most recent builds for the Auto Miner, but also to the modders down the line who have introduced similar features throughout multiple previous Alpha releases).

 

Down here: https://github.com/arramus/AutoBots-A20-2021Dec12

 

For detailed information about the economics of things, here is the more comprehensive A19 introduction.
https://community.7daystodie.com/topic/24421-autobots-automated-mining-and-ammunition-bots-revisited/?tab=comments#comment-430708

 

In the A19 and previous versions, players would be able to gather resources or produce ammo by adding augers in the tools section of the Auto Miner and ratchets in the Auto Ammo Maker to allow production to begin and use gas or other resources to power/convert to resources or ammo. With each subsequent addition of a tool, the total production time for each asset would decrease.

 

For now, things are changing a 'little' with the way it works.

 

Both the Automated Mining and Ammo Bot can be made on the Workbench after reaching Skill Level 4 for Advanced Engineering. They will now require the Advanced Bellows, Anvil, and Crucible to be able to mine all resource types or manufacture all ammo types as follows:

 

Automated Mining
Advanced Bellows - Clay and Small Stone
Anvil - Coal and Iron

Crucible - Brass, Lead, and Nitrate

 

Automated Ammunition
Advanced Bellows - 9mm, .44 Magnum, 7.62mm, Shotgun Shells, Regular & Shell Junk Turret , Iron Arrow & Bolt
Anvil - 9mm HP, .44 Magnum HP, 7.62mm HP, Flaming Arrow & Bolt
Crucible - 9mm AP, .44 Magnum AP, 7.62mm AP, Shotgun Slugs & Breaching Slugs, AP Junk Turret, Exploding Arrow & Bolt.

 

While the AutoBots have lost the capability to reduce mining and manufacture time through adding the auger or ratchet, adding the Anvil will reduce time by 50% as with a regular forge.

 

A few images and explanations for anyone new to these types of auto mods.

 

The Automated Mining Bot is created on the workbench and placed just like any other type of workbench. It uses a Control Panel as its model. It is best to place the Advanced Bellow, Anvil, or Crucible by using 'Shift + LMB' and it will automatically be placed in the appropriate slot. This allows the left side resource area to be updated instantly depending on if you have fuel to power it, or in the case of ammo production, gunpowder, coin, or any other requested resource. If you add it manually, the left side will not be automatically updated and you'll have to leave and return to the AutoBot to see it change.

 

The Advanced Bellow has been added and now Clay and Stone can be output at a rate of 1000 per 1000 gas. The economy is the same for all items but the requirement of a crucible adds the extra challenge for what may be viewed as more precious resources.

 

The process for the Automated Ammunition Bot is the same. In this case we have the Advanced Bellows, Anvil, and Crucible added which allows access to all ammo types. In addition, the Anvil reduces time from 60 minutes per batch of ammo to about 40 minutes. For more details on how much ammo is provided per 1 craft refer to the link at the top which breaks it all down in the A19 post.

 

The economy of mining is 1000 gas per 1000 mined resource keeps to the original versions, but with Shale removed due to the 800 Shale to 10000 Gas loop. The economy for ammo is a bit more complicated but is based on the cost of purchasing from Player Vending machines and half the use of gunpowder than usually needed.

 

Overall, it works out cheaper than being able to manufacture stacks of ammo but will be no free ride at all due to the resource use, coin, time, and tool/skill requirement.
The requirement to have a crucible and Skill Level 4 for Advanced Engineering for the more precious resources and ammo makes the AutoBots balance out with latter Game Stage features when coin and gas are usually in abundance and Skills and crucibles are available. It is not something for low level players and will typically give high level players more time to focus on questing and other activities while the resources and ammo are being cared for by the AutoBots.

 

This is an experimental release and feedback will be welcomed to see if it is stable and balanced.

Edited December 13, 2021 by arramus (see edit history)

[Gouki]

Hi arramus

 

I have modified the previous version and it works correctly.
To make carbon it gives me the following results:

 

carbon = 5 min without tools
three level 1 augers = 4:40 min
three level 2 augers = 2:40 min

 

The same happens with the ammunition, although it also marks an amount of time but they are manufactured instantly (possible bug), it would be a matter of reducing the times or leaving 1 or 2 slots to prevent them from being manufactured too quickly.
Regards

 

 

[arramus]

@Gouki Thank you for taking the time to check everything and show that it is still possible to add during A20. I can also see that magejosh has released a working version of the Auto Miner for A20. I checked magejosh's code and I had done exactly the same except for one 'item stack' update in xui. It was an oversight on my part.

 

<item_stack controller="RequiredItemStack" name="0"/>

 

And yes, the ammunition time issue seems to be tricky. Just having 1 or 2 slots for tools is also very possible. I shall check that.

 

I was unable to experience the instant time for manufacturing and it was counting down slowly as normal. You are lucky!! hahaha

 

 

For now though, I think I'm going to leave them with the forge tool requirement for the bellows, anvil, and crucible. This is because magejosh has released a version of the Auto Miner already and it is just like the original. Using this setup will give a different style with a tier system for resource and ammo types and also make sure magejosh's version will remain for players who prefer the original.

Edited December 13, 2021 by arramus (see edit history)

[magejosh]

Haha great minds think alike. I was already thinking about changing the 3 auger tools to 3 different tools and locking different resources behind the different tools. I like what you did here.

I was going to add a junk sledge and a drone as the extra tools. Only because I wanted to keep the tools from overlapping workstations but I can see how that might be an interesting gameplay element to decide between. 

[arramus]

8 minutes ago, magejosh said:

Haha great minds think alike. I was already thinking about changing the 3 auger tools to 3 different tools and locking different resources behind the different tools. I like what you did here.

I was going to add a junk sledge and a drone as the extra tools. Only because I wanted to keep the tools from overlapping workstations but I can see how that might be an interesting gameplay element to decide between. 

Hey that's a good idea. Adding the junk sledge and drone can give much more context to the automated process since they are already seen as self autonomous. I'll be watching how you update or release a new version.

[magejosh]

Oh, ok, i'll whip it up and post it tomorrow then. I had to solve the displaying player level not updating problem. So happy to have figured that out.

[magejosh]

On 12/12/2021 at 2:22 PM, Gouki said:

Hi arramus

 

I have modified the previous version and it works correctly.
To make carbon it gives me the following results:

 

carbon = 5 min without tools
three level 1 augers = 4:40 min
three level 2 augers = 2:40 min

 

The same happens with the ammunition, although it also marks an amount of time but they are manufactured instantly (possible bug), it would be a matter of reducing the times or leaving 1 or 2 slots to prevent them from being manufactured too quickly.
Regards

 

 

I actually had a similar issue while working on the update i mentioned last night. It was because i forgot another modlet was setting the recipe count for all recipes with electrical parts to 5, which was throwing off my scaling amounts and driving me nuts. Pulled them all out, added back in one by one and went oh, of course when i found the one changing the recipe. Any mod that affects crafting times can cause the inverted crafting times. Those have to be carefully balance or they break the system for crafting times.

22 hours ago, arramus said:

Hey that's a good idea. Adding the junk sledge and drone can give much more context to the automated process since they are already seen as self autonomous. I'll be watching how you update or release a new version.

Anyhoo, here's that update i mentioned @arramus

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QOpCoZPIGLeU3hFhBm7mUEiPWOy9j5IZ/view?usp=sharing

Use whatever you like. I found a suggestion by alter about affecting crafting recipe outputs interesting so i leaned into that in this. Also added crafting type tabs to the autominer and a description because the version i had didn't have one. Went ahead and used the robotic sledge and robotic drone as the two new tools, and set them to affect crafting times and outputs. Currently all set to small positive incremental improvements, but for balancing you could easily make the first two levels inversed of their current values and that would make lower tier weapons produce less in more time.

Here you see me at Advanced Engineering level 5 and all tier 6 tools.

It produces progressively less output and slower with lower tier tools and lower advanced engineering levels.

You need level 3 advanced engineering to unlock it crafting it.

[arramus]

1 hour ago, magejosh said:

It produces progressively less output and slower with lower tier tools and lower advanced engineering levels.

You need level 3 advanced engineering to unlock it crafting it.

This catches my attention because it really looks balanced with the timings. Unlocking level 3 advanced engineering for those on the Int track can be achieved quite rapidly, but getting access to those tools at higher levels will usually require GS advancement and until then there is a nice balance between Auto Mining and manual mining depending on priorities. The gain curve has been well considered for sure. I hope server Admin give it a full run through and share their feedback on the dynamics for their servers. Nicely done indeed.

[magejosh]

16 minutes ago, arramus said:

This catches my attention because it really looks balanced with the timings. Unlocking level 3 advanced engineering for those on the Int track can be achieved quite rapidly, but getting access to those tools at higher levels will usually require GS advancement and until then there is a nice balance between Auto Mining and manual mining depending on priorities. The gain curve has been well considered for sure. I hope server Admin give it a full run through and share their feedback on the dynamics for their servers. Nicely done indeed.

actually, my math was off and i didn't notice until after uploading. Had a tag in the wrong place and when i went to fix that i had a better idea how to harmonize that equilibrium between cost of resource to yields. Including i had forgotten about the book that lets you make the 10000 gas bundles for 800 oil shale. I balanced the shale yields with this in mind, making it so only with Advanced engineering 5 and 2 level 6 robot tools and at least a tier 2 auger you will not overcome the cost to benefit ration and achieve a net gain. Even so i believe my math has it taking you running 10k gas 10 times before you net enough shale for an extra bunclle of gas, meaning most of your 10k gas is tied up in producing shale over time to achieve that gainful yield. 

Here's the fix including the gas loop fix.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FdnKOecJVu223_aK5lj5ewlc3OrSqtMg/view?usp=sharing

 

[arramus]

2 hours ago, magejosh said:

Even so i believe my math has it taking you running 10k gas 10 times before you net enough shale for an extra bunclle of gas, meaning most of your 10k gas is tied up in producing shale over time to achieve that gainful yield. 

Here's the fix including the gas loop fix.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FdnKOecJVu223_aK5lj5ewlc3OrSqtMg/view?usp=sharing

 

Ah yes, that really shows a greater investment in time, or the need for multiple Auto Miners to see returns on gas to shale bundling benefit. And all the while that's being done if that's a route players choose, there'll be nothing free to make other essentials. A20 Auto activities will offer Server Admin some interesting variety this time around.

[Vain]

Seems there is a compatibility issue with SMX yet.
Get the error: NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object

Can u look into it if u get a fix for it? Would be awesome.

[arramus]

8 hours ago, Vain said:

Seems there is a compatibility issue with SMX yet.
Get the error: NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object

Can u look into it if u get a fix for it? Would be awesome.

 

 

 

And the fix?

 

Rename AutoBots folder to TheAutoBots.

 

This will load the Bots after the SMX Mods because they are loaded in alphabetical order. Remember this for any other mods you would like to install with SMX features.

[Vain]

I get this error now:

 

i changed the folder to 

[arramus]

I can confirm that after updating a dedicated server that I play on, to the most recent experimental build, I was able to manufacture an Ammo and Mining Bot on the Workbench, place them, add tools, and start to manufacture and mine without any NRE warnings.

 

Create

 

Place

 

Produce

 

Mine

 

All I can suggest, as with any change to Mods since load order changes may also change internal ID numbers of blocks/items, it to test it on a totally new World and see if the same error persists.

 

As with my attempt in the earlier post, I was able to successfully install and run the Auto Workstations with all of the main SMX Add Ons, on a new World.

[Ado125]

Hello, so there is some issue I have. With lvl5 of all tools inside autominer, I get some calculated result for amount of gas when i start mining. After a bit, it lowers itself to nonprofitable amount. For example with oilshale, I actualy lose more gas than produce, even with gas stack crafting, even though at start it shows it will be a little profitable. Same with any other resource. Im attaching my screenshots. There was nothing taken from autominer in the process

[arramus]

3 hours ago, Ado125 said:

Hello, so there is some issue I have. With lvl5 of all tools inside autominer, I get some calculated result for amount of gas when i start mining. After a bit, it lowers itself to nonprofitable amount. For example with oilshale, I actualy lose more gas than produce, even with gas stack crafting, even though at start it shows it will be a little profitable. Same with any other resource. Im attaching my screenshots. There was nothing taken from autominer in the process

 

 

If you can post in this thread below, you should be able to get a specific response to the AutoMiner (using the Auger, Sledgehammer, and Drone).

The Auto Bots in this thread provide an auto mining and crafting service but use forge tools and have no association with Oil Shale. The last post in this thread below shows the creator of the Mod I believe you are using.

 

[RAGE PVE]

Is there a bot for mining wood?  I'd seen one of these before and would save on trees having to get beat up so much?

[arramus]

I have not seen a mod for collecting wood. It is possible to add resourceWood to the automated mining bot as there are a few slots remaining in the menu list.

 

After resourcePotassiumNitratePowder entry ending at Line 24.

3000 Wood for 1000 gas, or change as needed. Could mine diamonds or anything in this way.

 

		<recipe name="resourceWood" count="3000" craft_area="AutomatedMining" craft_time="3600" tags="automatedmining" craft_tool="toolBellows">
			<ingredient name="ammoGasCan" count="1000"/>
		</recipe>

 

[Lord Neophyte]

Rename AutoBots folder to TheAutoBots.     

 

 

Dont work for me......since i interact with the terminal......it looks like this

 

[arramus]

That name change was tested on a totally new World. If this is what you see on a totally new World with only SMX and AutoBots, then our result was different.

AutoBots was made for regular default settings. It is best to request help in the SMX thread as it may change from time to time and is not something I monitor.

[Lord Neophyte]

ah ok, alright.....thank you

[arramus]

15 hours ago, Lord Neophyte said:

ah ok, alright.....thank you

I only have the latest stable installed A20.6 and that is not accepting SMX with AutoBots at all. There are a lot of load out errors. It doesn't seem to be looking good for future compatibility either.

[Lord Neophyte]

no, it works....just need another name to load after ALL the SMX files  (ZmxutoBots_A20_2021Dec12)  

 

(have just made some chances to the recipe ^^)

[arramus]

Ah yes, the addition of the ZMXuiCP for compatibility caused incompatibility. ^^

 

Yes. You found the new load order requirement and other people who visit will be able to use that for the future.

[Lord Neophyte]

1 hour ago, arramus said:

Ah yes, the addition of the ZMXuiCP for compatibility caused incompatibility. ^^

 

Yes. You found the new load order requirement and other people who visit will be able to use that for the future.

 

 i hope it can help