Crop Automator

Queues harvest, plant, and treatment jobs across up to 24 other cells in a centered 5 by 5 service area, then executes one job at a time with a short pause between them.

Stats: Type Biosphere · Power in -60 W (draws from grid) · Output buffer 50,000 units · Stockpile 400 units (mixed)

How to obtain: Requires the Field Automation research (Plants 620,000). Buy from the Shop for 30,000 cr. Deploy the kit on an empty field cell with a Harvester‘s deploy().

Access: self · Like every component, exposes .id and .name.

Job submission

All three return a JobReceipt (payload .job_id, .queue_position). Submission is immediate; the serial executor works the 50-job FIFO one at a time (valid field work takes 0.1 hours per job).

.harvest(sector) `SELF ONLY`

Submit one harvest job for a covered sector. Missing output space pauses this FIFO head without bypassing it; a target mismatch is terminal, takes no work time, and advances the queue.

Outcomes: "queued" / "queue_full" (transient) / "not_placed" / "out_of_range" · Raises: ValueError for an invalid sector id

.plant(sector, seed_id) `SELF ONLY`

Submit one planting job with a species seed. The seed need not be loaded yet: the executor pauses at this FIFO head until the seed is present, then spends 0.1 hours and rechecks the target before committing.

Outcomes: "queued" / "queue_full" (transient) / "not_placed" / "out_of_range" / "invalid_seed" · Raises: ValueError

.apply(sector, item_id) `SELF ONLY`

Submit one Fertilizer Mk I/II/III or Growth Accelerant job. Same pause-until-material behavior as plant().

Outcomes: "queued" / "queue_full" (transient) / "not_placed" / "out_of_range" / "invalid_material" · Raises: ValueError

Field reads

.position()

The automator’s own grid sector. Jobs can target up to 24 other cells in its centered 5 by 5 service area.

Returns: String

.cell(sector)

One sector in the service area as a Cell snapshot: plant, status, growth, conditions, remaining treatment hours. The addressable set is exactly what harvest()/plant()/apply() accept; None means outside the service area or not a valid sector.

Returns: Cell or None

.cells()

Every served sector as Cell snapshots, for sweeping the whole area in one pass. Unscanned natural ground reports status "unknown".

Returns: List of Cell

Executor state

.status()

Exact executor state: "not_placed", "no_power", "working", "no_seed", "no_material", "output_full", "results_full", or "idle".

Returns: String

.current_job()

Active FIFO head as a CropJob (action, target, progress, blocker), or None while idle.

Returns: CropJob or None

.get_queue() / .queue_count()

Snapshot of pending CropJob values in exact FIFO order (active job reported separately), and the total unfinished count including the active job (max 50).

Returns: List of CropJob / Number

Results

.result_count()

Completed terminal results waiting in the inbox. At 50, execution pauses until results are consumed.

Returns: Number

.next_result() `SELF ONLY`

Consume the oldest terminal result as a CropJobResult (payload .job_id, .action, .sector, .item_id, .collected, .discarded).

Outcomes: "ok" / "partial" (harvested but output only had room for .collected; .discarded lost, cell cleared) / "empty" (success, nothing waiting) / "out_of_range" / "no_plant" / "not_mature" / "no_forage" / "not_empty" / "base_sector" / "already_mature" / "tier_conflict" / "invalid_seed" / "invalid_material"

.cancel_job(job_id) `SELF ONLY`

Cancel one active or pending job. Canceling active work discards only its progress; inputs and field state stay unchanged.

Returns: ActionResult · Outcomes: "ok" / "not_found"

.move_job(job_id, position) `SELF ONLY`

Move one unfinished job to a one-based execution position (1 = first, queue_count() = last). Reordering only pending work preserves active progress; displacing the active job preempts it (keeps id and request, loses progress, no terminal result).

Returns: ActionResult · Outcomes: "ok" / "not_found" / "invalid"

.clear_queue() `SELF ONLY`

Cancel the active job and every pending job. Completed results remain in the inbox.

Returns: CountResult (payload .count) · Outcomes: "ok" / "no_op"

Slots

.input

Standard multi-material InputSlot accepting species seeds, Fertilizer Mk I/II/III, and Growth Accelerant.

.output

Standard OutputSlot containing collected Forage. Send to a local destination, or let a local Plant Terraformer pull from it. Every route uses normal timed transfers.

Command mailbox

peek_command() · next_command() · command_count() · clear_commands() (SELF ONLY): see Script Commands.