Hello Colonists! It's time for another update regarding navigation, pathfinding and bot requests. There are many new ways to make the navigation and request systems reliable. In addition, many small improvements and changes.

Finding the right path

Previously, bots were automatically locked to the nearest device that contained the desired resource. This was creating confusion for some players and looked like a bug, where transport bots could get locked. There was a dotted line indicating that a transport bot wanted to get somewhere. Currently, each single request (starting from the highest priority - most desired) is checked on all possible devices to make sure that it can reach its destination.
It's also working for astronauts! Previously, starving astronauts who picked food from a canteen would lock themselves to the closest dining table. Even if we tried to build closer to the astronaut, it wouldn't go there because it was locked to the first dining table. Right now, it's finding new tables when we build them. You can still see a dotted line for a split second, indicating a closer device (more efficient), but it cannot be reached, so instead a longer path was taken.

Improved Transport Bots requests

In addition to many navigation improvements, there is an option to choose between device types providing resources (producer vs storage):

• producer is a device that is crafting new items, for example, an asteroid catcher, smelter, kitchen
• storage is a container that has resources via transport, e.g. a base warehouse, storage container

List of changes

• Resource requests can now define a device type
• New savegame system with compression data, allowing to reduce savegame sizes by 70-80%.
• New water shader and updates based on the render side only
• Transport bot can now deliver and pick resources from devices blocked by conveyor belts

Bugfixes

• Fixed an issue where migrated bots would not save when creating a savegame
• Fixed an issue where asteroid catcher would not start a new crafting
• Fixed an issue where switching to other items when having active drag construction would cause a crash
• Fixed an issue where moving station would leave player behind after possessing asteroid catcher
• Fixed a multiplayer issue where the state was corrupted (having invalid docks)

I would love to invite you to Dev Stream #4 Please come to say hello and share your thoughts with me! Start today (Wednesday) at 21:30CET (9:30 PM) For people who have Steam broadcasting issues, I am also streaming on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/Tefel Thanks guys so much for support! Tefel (Terad Games)