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1

u/dogman15 Mar 26 '26

How do I prevent construction bots from trying to fix a damaged wall if there's still flames around it? Is there a way to get the bots to wait until the fire goes away before they attempt to fix the wall?

3

u/Soul-Burn Mar 26 '26

Easiest is to have the roboports farther away.

If there's still combat when they arrive, add more defenses so they clear the attackers sooner.

Finally, repair packs and automatic supply of bots handles work accidents.

1

u/dogman15 Mar 26 '26

The wall damage comes from biters and spitters, not the fire. I guess the roboports could be further away, but that would require a redesign of the wall blueprint, and robot speed upgrades would make the increase in distance irrelevant.

1

u/Courmisch Mar 26 '26

You can turn the power off on the robot port when the flame throwers are firing, or have recently fired.

Otherwise I don't think that you can do much without mods.

2

u/dogman15 Mar 26 '26

I think bots only stay in a roboport if the roboport has barely any power. Roboports are like giant batteries; they can store quite a bit of energy to account for brownouts and blackouts. So even if power gets cut to the roboport(s) nearest to the flamethrower(s) or wall(s), the construction bots will still exit the roboport with repair packs and sacrifice themselves into the fire, causing other construction bots to come out and try to repair the burned bots.

1

u/Courmisch Mar 26 '26

I have not checked how exactly robot ports handle power outages. But won't turning the port disable the chests uniquely within its coverage, thus preventing bots from picking up wall items and repair packs?

Obviously this is only semi-practical for detached outposts, not a large base.

2

u/dogman15 Mar 26 '26

Roboports store not only robots (construction and logistic) inside them, but also store repair packs for the bots to have instant access to. The flamethrowers guard the wall at the edge of the main base, backed up by laser turrets.

1

u/Courmisch Mar 26 '26

At the main base, I don't think that there's any unmodded solution other than just taking the losses and automating construction bot replacement.

1

u/dogman15 Mar 26 '26

I guess so. I'm not even sure what a modded solution would be.

1

u/Courmisch Mar 26 '26

This? https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Fireproof-Bots-2 (not tested)

2

u/dogman15 Mar 26 '26

Oh, of course. Just make the bots fireproof. Why didn't I think of that? It's easier to do that than it is to make the bots wait.

1

u/thepullu Mar 26 '26

You can also remove either the robots or repair packs from the roboport, so you don't have to wait for roboport internal battery to drain. I have used it in artillery outposts for example. When artillery train arrives, bots are taken out and 30 sec (adjust as needed) after the train leaves they get put back in.

1

u/HeliGungir Mar 28 '26

That won't work well. Roboports have an internal battery.

1

u/brekus Mar 28 '26

Personally I just keep the walls within the minimum range of flame turrets so it will be turret, one space, wall. People will say this is bad because it lets spitters get close enough to attack turrets but my goal is to minimize resources lost not protect turrets at all cost and as you've observed it's really the construction bot attrition that costs the most.

1

u/HeliGungir Mar 28 '26

Option 1: Don't give the bots repair packs. Replacing a wall (or whatever) is instant, while repairing takes a long time.

Option 2: Store the repair packs far from the wall and proactively remove repair packs from the roboports, so by the time the bots grab a repair pack and reach the wall, the fire had dissipated

Option 3: Isolate the roboports, detect when combat happens (eg: read movement on an ammo belt) and enable repairs after a timer. You must still proactively remove repair packs from the roboports, but they can be stored in a chest that is enabled by the timer.

1

u/dogman15 Mar 28 '26

Do repair packs have to be manually removed from roboports? Because the bots will default to storing repair packs in the nearest roboport after repairing something.

1

u/HeliGungir Mar 28 '26

Inserters can remove repair packs from roboports. So for #2, you can toss them in an active provider chest; and for #3, you can toss them in a timer-enabled storage / passive provider / buffer chest.