Bug Fleet Mining not working with Large Harvester

[Lone_Puppy]

Anybody had issues with large harvesters in a fleet?

I have a planet eater harvester for stripping the surface of a planet and wondered how it would go as a harvester on a fleet. Was the only one, as I was curious to see how quickly it would eat up an asteroid cluster.

I created a simple ship with nothing but a core to be the first ship in the fleet. Then added my harvester. It's pretty big. Sorry, I'm at work and don't have all the stats on it, but can sort out screen/video caps tonight when I get home.

It responds to moves/Idles etc fine with movement, but when I order to mine here it starts to move into position pointing away from the target asteroid and then starts to try and turn, but just jiggles erratically. Then it might turn a little more and if I'm really lucky, it starts spinning uncontrollably.

I thought it was because it was too big, so I built a smaller one as a test, that has nothing but cannon, power and trust with no armor. Does the same thing. My smaller ships perform sweet if I add them to the fleet, but it all depends on when I add them on how they react. If they are added after my planet eater, they jiggle and if added before they harvest normally.

Really odd behavior!

After running further tests, i noticed it looks like the AI is having some sort of issue with centre of mass on my behemoth and little brother. I could be wrong, but that's what it seemed like in one of my tests.

 

[TheWurm]

This appears to be a problem with the targeting, basically if you have more than a few seperate beam groups, the AI can't seem to choose which one to target with. A few beams seem to work fine, at least up to the masses I've tested.

 

[StormWing0]

The Ship has to have a Salvager Computer C&V'd to a Storage Block for the ship to go and mine something, and the Storage has to have enough cargo space. Also ran into a stranger bug where everything was hooked up but it still didn't work. Never been able to replicate it either.

Multiple Salvager Beam groups connected to a single computer works better than multiple computers and having 1 group to 1 computer ratio. Not sure what changes between the two though aside from having many more computers to target with.

 

[Lone_Puppy]

This appears to be a problem with the targeting, basically if you have more than a few seperate beam groups, the AI can't seem to choose which one to target with. A few beams seem to work fine, at least up to the masses I've tested.

I wondered about this myself. My smaller ships only have 6 separate beams and they work sweet.

The Ship has to have a Salvager Computer C&V'd to a Storage Block

It does indeed! I only use one salvager computer on these ships and have more than enough cargo space connected. Enough to eat 1-2 planets.

 

[SkaireKrough]

Anybody had issues with large harvesters in a fleet?
After running further tests, i noticed it looks like the AI is having some sort of issue with centre of mass on my behemoth and little brother. I could be wrong, but that's what it seemed like in one of my tests.

From what has been posted in other threads and from my own experience it is indeed an issue with center of mass not being close enough to the ships core, the closer they are to one another the less problems.
Also single beam salvager seems to work better than multiple beams for AI aiming, I'm currently testing out a salvager drone with single AI controller salvager beam with a logic controller salvager array that is triggered by materials flowing through a storage box linked to the AI controlled beam.

Edit: Tried to get storage to trigger logic but that doesn't work in current game, could use wireless logic to start and stop logic controller arrays on fleet controlled mining drones with AI controlled single beam salvager but I would rather have storage work with logic like it used too. That way I could also have storage full indicator lights on mining drones and possibly in mining fleet flagship.

 

[Lone_Puppy]

From what has been posted in other threads and from my own experience it is indeed an issue with center of mass not being close enough to the ships core, the closer they are to one another the less problems.
Also single beam salvager seems to work better than multiple beams for AI aiming, I'm currently testing out a salvager drone with single AI controller salvager beam with a logic controller salvager array that is triggered by materials flowing through a storage box linked to the AI controlled beam.

I might try rebuilding my Monsters with the core closer to the centre of mass and see if that makes a difference.

RE: using storage block to trigger logic driven harvesting is genius! Nice one!

 

[Lone_Puppy]

Well, I tried changing the centre of mass so it was right on the core and it did make the ship fly and position itself better, but once in position it began twitching. I suspect it's the targeting that's causing that.

Well, Using SkaireKrough's storage/logic method I'm going to try converting it into logic controlled with one beam for targeting and the rest logic. It harvest better with straight beams anyway, so I'm more than happy if it works.
[DOUBLEPOST=1461716344,1461714509][/DOUBLEPOST]Here's some pics of my small round version of my planet eater.

Spoiler: My Harvester Images

 

[StormWing0]

I'm thinking size of the ship is also the reason as well since it works fine for small things. >_>

 

[Lone_Puppy]

Sadly, I tried the single harvester cannon with logic controlled cluster on this ship and it still does the same shaking in my boots thing.
So, I would say that pretty much confirms it's either the size or a combination of size, centre of mass, targeting and stinkyness.

 

[spunkiethefirst]

Sadly, I tried the single harvester cannon with logic controlled cluster on this ship and it still does the same shaking in my boots thing.
So, I would say that pretty much confirms it's either the size or a combination of size, centre of mass, targeting and stinkyness.

Is there a server I can join you on to examine the behavior? I just need the time and place. I'm available usually from 10am till 2 am pacific time 7 days a week. You can send me the server address and time by clicking on my name on the left and click on "start a conversation".

 

[Lone_Puppy]

Is there a server I can join you on to examine the behavior? I just need the time and place.

I could probably create a server at home after work. That would be roughly 3-4 hours from now. This would be 6:30pm - 7:30pm New Zealand time.

 

[spunkiethefirst]

Ok I'll see you then. Post to this thread when you're ready. I'll be watching in case you are ready earlier.

 

[Lone_Puppy]

Cool. Will do!

 

[Lone_Puppy]

Sorry for delay. I'm setting up now. brb with IP
[DOUBLEPOST=1461741874,1461741583][/DOUBLEPOST]Hopefully this is correct

 

[Lone_Puppy]

I gotta go to bed. Maybe tomorrow.

 

[spunkiethefirst]

dangit the page didnt update i had to refresh the page for it to show anything past the Cool will do comment
[DOUBLEPOST=1461747059,1461746705][/DOUBLEPOST]Also you might want to remove that ip if it's yours. Send the address to me through a pm instead.
-click my name
-click start a conversation

 

[Lone_Puppy]

It's a dynamic one with my ISP, so it should be different next time.

 

[spunkiethefirst]

It's a dynamic one with my ISP, so it should be different next time.

When will you be available next?

If I can't connect we can use the official test server (play.star-made.org:4242) as its running latest release version currently. I'll be able to spawn the blueprint for you and whatever teleporting is needed.

 

[Lone_Puppy]

Actually you could jump on now. I've just started up the server and my IP is different so I'll send this to you now.

 

[Lone_Puppy]

I thought I should post that spunkie has solved the problem with the little brother to my planet eater.

The observations I took away from spunkie's testing was the issue for my harvester is the length and thrust to mass ratio.

• The length caused positioning issues where the AI was trying to avoid other entities, plus it seemed too far away.
• Not enough thrust for the ship to spin around and target also caused jitteryness

I have since redesigned the barrel shaped harvester with power and thrust evenly around the circumference and it maneuvers and targets nicely, resulting in a nice Asteroid eating machine.

I hope this helps others with drone harvesting issues.
[DOUBLEPOST=1461800598,1461800338][/DOUBLEPOST]Oh I forgot to mention one other observation.

I found making the harvester output the forward most facing module closest to the core.
This output targets/fires and triggers the ship to turn in the direction of the target.
This takes advantage of the other modules that fire straight out and creates a kind of sweeping motion that gobbles up masses of blocks from the Asteroid.

Happy hunting!