Hi Aaron and Gary,

I am excited by all of the progress that you both have made on the next version of Autonauts!  All of your fans will be thrilled once you have released the first of what I hope will be several incremental releases.  Have you given a name to this next version yet?  Will it be something like Autonauts II or Autonauts 100.0?

I certainly do not want to delay your release of Autonauts 100.0 but I would like to make a suggestion for something like Autonauts 100.3:

When I first started playing Autonauts over a year ago, I started making the Buildings including Storage Bins, Bench Saws, and Workbenches.  At first, I thought that I might be able to connect the output from one Bench Saw to the input to a second Bench Saw.  The first saw would cut a log into planks and the second saw would cut the planks from the first saw into poles.  I soon discovered that this was not possible.

I would like to suggest that for a future incremental release that you consider “Automating one Building’s output into another Building’s input”.  I can imagine that it could be done by allowing the tile that indicates one building’s output could occupy the same location on the grid as the tile that indicates the second building’s input.

Examples of Automating Buildings include the following:

1. Connect the output from Bench Saws or Workbenches or other Buildings to the input to Storage Bins for the same items.
2. Connect the output from one Kitchen Table that makes Pastries to the input to a second Kitchen Table that makes Raw Apple Pies.  A bot would then add Apples to the second Kitchen Table to produce its output.
3. Connect the Raw Apple Pie output from the second Kitchen Table to the input to a Crude Oven.  A bot would then add Sticks to the Crude Oven to produce its output of Apple Pies.
4. Connect the output from Buildings to the input of the new Railroad Cars so that items could be auto-transported.
5. Connect the output from the new Railroad Cars to the input to Workbenches or other Buildings.
6. Connect the outputs from multiple Buildings to the inputs to another Building.

I recall that you had posted a few months ago an image that showed that you had combined the input and output tiles of some buildings into a single tile, and so my suggestion might be a bit complex, but I have every confidence that you are capable of building the logic to do this.

Thank you for your consideration.

Yeah we have actually thought about this but decided against it. The thing that makes Autonauts unique is the use of bots. If you allow the connection of buildings either directly or via a conveyor it removes a large part that. Hope that makes sense :)