Builder robots!

[blissful canopy]

Like having railways all over your world, but need a hand building them?
How about a swarm of robots!

"Future-Tech" Robots are Factorio style building robots that can build railways that adapt to the terrain of the world.

https://youtu.be/-oNbtLZnfZU

Still lots of bugs to fix, and then the plan is for them to be survival friendly by consuming the resources they need to build and requiring energy to function. And instead of placing a block at the build site being able to build far away structured from the comfort of your base.

[compact fox]

looks very cool
kinda reminds me of the Buildcraft Robots

anyone else remember those?

[blissful canopy]

I should try that mod out, I only played buildcraft 1.12 which I don't think had them

[compact fox]

yea they were quite cool but ofc not like those in Factorio

the Factorio ones were probably more inspired by the buildcraft ones lol

[blissful canopy]

haha fair enough

[compact fox]

actually kinda funny:
Factorio was inspired by Tech mods/Modpack for Minecraft (Tekkit for example) and now there are Minecraft Mods/Modpacks inspired by Factorio

[blissful canopy]

That's cool!

Just checked out the buildcraft robots, I guess I'm going for something pretty similar.

[compact fox]

yeah it's cool
I have kinda missed something like that
I mean turtles still exist in modern mc but just aren't the same

[blissful canopy]

Yeah cc is great, arguably my favorite mod, but yeah different to buildcraft 's approach

[compact fox]

there is also nothing wrong with taking "inspiration" from old mods
(just check them out ingame if you haven't yet)

[compact fox]

yeah, theoretically the same capabilities but one is fun while the other is mostly just work and then reward

[blissful canopy]

Yeah, for the mod I'm making I don't plan to add any programming elements

[compact fox]

yeah no lua pls

but still lots of controls and customization options ofc

(me dreaming, no pressure)

[blissful canopy]

hopefully you will be able to use them for these "dynamic" builds (ones that kinda adapt to the terrain), and also for regular schematics.

And for the dynamic ones being able to customize the blocks it uses and also the type, so rail, road, canal etc

[compact fox]

I suggest you just try to get schematic building for now

[compact fox]

you mean it takes the avaliable ressources from the land or in "some parts of the schem can be replaced by other blocks"?

[blissful canopy]

So like, in the video and pics that's an example of a dynamic build, where it decided whether to use a cutting/embankment/tunnel/bridge based on the terrain. So I'm thinking being able to swap out those stone bricks could be a good start

Did that before schematics as I figured there are already mods for those like creates schem cannon

Also I'm not sure if I wanna allow players to use them for more than just building in my mod, else they might become the answer to everything which could get repetitive. Currently I have made it so they don't pick up any blocks they break to discourage using them for mining

[compact fox]

Ok yeah, maybe actually don't do schematics first (just though that was easier), but If you just want to automatically build tunnels or bridges then that makes more sense first
with the mining and etc. that should be in the config at some point (ig)
just maybe emphasise the fact that you have a large swarm of intelligent robots, not a stupid cannon or printer (how about some mechanic where robots can climb on top of each other to reach high places or whatever? just some cool "swarm-like behaviour"?
(of course that is really tricky to make and different from the drones in factorio)

[blissful canopy]

Oooh that would be cool, although stacking might be a bit complex for me haha.

[compact fox]

Also for Performance, maybe think the pathfinding though

One last idea: maybe Model them after ants in some way?

[blissful canopy]

Yeah, so for the path finding I'm using a library that is much better optimized, and has support for long distance path finding too

I did think ants haha, spinoff mod idea? 😁

[compact fox]

Not spinoff but similar behaviour perhaps?

As in working together and as in "pathfinding" (the way ants "do"

Just some crazy ideas

[blissful canopy]

Oh so like they all use the same path like ants do?

[compact fox]

Would be cool

Make them "explore" the area and Mark waypoints

[blissful canopy]

That would be interesting

[compact fox]

Interesting CS/Graphs task

But maybe just make them try to follow a central path as long as possible before diverging first

[blissful canopy]

Yeah I could see if that can be done with the lib I'm using

Already had to tweak it a bunch as it was for quilt originally

[compact fox]

Hmm ok

Yeah good luck

Or fun

🤔

[blissful canopy]

xD

[compact fox]

Keep me(/us 🤔 ?) updated then

[blissful canopy]

Will do! Thanks for your interest and feedback!

[cursive cliff]

this is cool! are you implementing any actual swarm robotics techniques here or is it just a bunch of individual agents?

[blissful canopy]

Thanks! Currently they all act independently but kinda look like they are moving together due to their individual objectives being in close proximity.

The block I place in the video generates a list of instructions which are sorted by block position, and the robots will take them from the top of the list until the build is complete

[cursive cliff]

oh awesome!

i’m actually currently exploring doing a master’s degree in swarm robotics

it’s a really interesting topic and one that is remarkably easy to implement exclusively in software

you should look into it 👀

[blissful canopy]

Oh nice! Currently the closest thing I know to that kinda stuff would be boids thanks to Sebastian Lague

[blissful canopy]

https://legacy.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/f-tech-robots

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj3hSd8pg-M

[compact fox]

oh woow

👍

[blissful canopy]

Ive got it so it can build Schematics from Create (except belts i have set to ignore for now as were some issues)

Also been playing the mod in Forge using https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/sinytra-connector and it seems to fully work on forge, even the Create compat!

Will release update soon!

[blissful canopy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJuRXU-NbFY