Changing rail recipe

[hitzu]

Sometimes it is something annoing that you have the whole stack of curve rails, but you lacking just one piece of straight segment you have to place in order to complete the line. I think it would be more natural way to produce curve rails out from straight pieces in ratio 1:5, and curve rails would drop 5 straight pieces after deconstruction.

[FishSandwich]

Agreed, whenever I want to automate straight and curved rails I always set it up with the idea in mind that straight rails will be used in the curved rail construction, because logically that makes sense to me.

Good call, +1.

[Choumiko]

Sometimes it is something annoing that you have the whole stack of curve rails, but you lacking just one piece of straight segment you have to place in order to complete the line. I think it would be more natural way to produce curve rails out from straight pieces in ratio 1:5, and curve rails would drop 5 straight pieces after deconstruction.

I'd rather have a recipe that converts a curved into 5 straight rails (or 4, as you have to cut the curve, bend it straight again ) than getting 5 straight rails back whenever i mine a curved rail (if i get your idea right)

Agreed, whenever I want to automate straight and curved rails I always set it up with the idea in mind that straight rails will be used in the curved rail construction, because logically that makes sense to me.

I'm falling for this from time to time too, but i'm not sure if it's really logical. If i were told to make a curved rail, i'd probably first bend the 2 steel thingies (english as well as native language word missing) into shape and then connect them with the wood/concrete/stone bars (again, words missing).

But eiter (or both) way(s) would be fine for me, that one missing straight rail or worse 1 missing iron plate to craft 2 straights realy is annoying

[hitzu]

I'd rather have a recipe that converts a curved into 5 straight rails (or 4, as you have to cut the curve, bend it straight again ) than getting 5 straight rails back whenever i mine a curved rail (if i get your idea right)

How the game shoud know what recipe of straight rails to choose from while crafting them manually?

[Choumiko]

How the game shoud know what recipe of straight rails to choose from while crafting them manually?

I might be totaly confused, but: to craft manually you still have to click a recipe, so you choose which one to use? You would simply have 2 recipes for straight rails

[hitzu]

How the game shoud know what recipe of straight rails to choose from while crafting them manually?

I might be totaly confused, but: to craft manually you still have to click a recipe, so you choose which one to use? You would simply have 2 recipes for straight rails

Indeed
Maybe for automatic bot rail construction, or rather deconstruction, this way would be better.

[Bleda]

the 2 steel thingies

I would say the two steel thingies are called "rails" and the whole thing is a piece of "railroad track"

Having seperate recipes and stacks for straight and curved rail is indeed annoying at times. why don't make the game turn layouts like the one on the right ond that screenshot into curves automatically? you place 5 rails down and *magic* they turn into a curve, but just visually. you can still mine each of them seperately.

[hitzu]

the 2 steel thingies

why don't make the game turn layouts like the one on the right ond that screenshot into curves automatically? you place 5 rails down and *magic* they turn into a curve, but just visually. you can still mine each of them seperately.

At first glance it seems to be a good idea, but look at this.

In the case of automatical replacement this layout would be inevitable, I mean you cannot make diamond crossing like this..

[Bleda]

you're right, that might become a problem if the pathfinding gets crazy...

so just make a recipe like 5 straight tracks -> 1 curved track. so you can create the curves as you need them.

[ssilk]

I think the curves are currently in the game. They will be removed (I hope so). In the end we'll need only straights, and drag the track, as we like it; in other words, curves will be bended automatically.

[Khyron]

I've kind of been churning on this idea for a while. In the long term I hope we end up with a track laying machine to automate the bulk of the job, particularly long stretches of track between resource bases (Yes, I've seen the mod). But there will always be times when you want to make a simple alteration by hand, or do some rail work before the track laying machine is available.

In those situations, I think we shouldn't be pre-building rail puzzle-pieces in assembly machines because of exactly the probems this thread is talking about. Instead we should carry a stock of either generic resources (steel, rock, iron-bars) or new intermediate goods (rail, concrete sleeper, wood sleeper, gravel, spikes), then consume those resources as required to build the track. I'll explain how...

1. Place ghost rail segments.
2. Extend rail (ghost or completed) by clicking on it, then moving the mouse to where you want the track to go. The game then determines which puzzle pieces will best connect the rail to where your mouse is. You then left click to accept the (ghost) path proposed by the game or right click to cancel.
3. Use your tool on the ghost segment (as if mining it). A progress meter builds up and at the end it deducts the required ingredients from your inventory.
4. And as has been said elsewhere, increase the variety of corners in terms of sharpness. This should have an effect on the train's maximum speed.

Just to be clear, the game will ultimately still use puzzle pieces under the hood and still snap to even-numbered squares. I'm not talking about free-range building. It's just that the interface abstracts those puzzle pieces away from the user. Also run-and-build can still work: pausing the player to complete construction before moving to the next tile, just like mining trees or something.

What we gain from this is:
a) No need to rotate puzzle pieces. Or carry stacks of multiple types.
b) The game can have a greater variety of corners without requiring the player to craft and deploy specific puzzle pieces. I think 'curve variety' is on the dev's agenda...?
c) Much faster planning of rail layouts.

The challenge is this would probably take a fair bit of time to implement :/

[hitzu]

I also thought about something like deafault rail laying machine, but not so buggy as the mod and having more functionality. Something like universal programming bulldozer. It can not only place tracks, but also cut trees, place power poles, walls and turrets. You can drive it manually or make a program for automatic work as a sequence of simple actions: move north, west, forward, backwad, turn left 90 degree, turn right 45 degree, move 100 sqares, move until get stuck, put {object} in front of you, put {object} on right/left side, follow Dozer "A", follow Dozer "A" with shift 2 sqares, return etc.
Probably I should make another thread for that, but I suspect that there are already tons of such suggestions on the forum.

[Choumiko]

I also thought about something like deafault rail laying machine, but not so buggy as the mod and having more functionality. Something like universal programming bulldozer. It can not only place tracks, but also cut trees, place power poles, walls and turrets. You can drive it manually or make a program for automatic work as a sequence of simple actions: move north, west, forward, backwad, turn left 90 degree, turn right 45 degree, move 100 sqares, move until get stuck, put {object} in front of you, put {object} on right/left side, follow Dozer "A", follow Dozer "A" with shift 2 sqares, return etc.
Probably I should make another thread for that, but I suspect that there are already tons of such suggestions on the forum.

That sounds like a game in the game Could be fun

As for rails/tracks etc, there seems to be something in kovarexs head already: https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =10#p61763 (Can't wait for the far future to become present )

[ssilk]

I
Probably I should make another thread for that, but I suspect that there are already tons of such suggestions on the forum.

Not exactly like this. the most similar I remember is eventually this: https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=7406

[hitzu]

I
Probably I should make another thread for that, but I suspect that there are already tons of such suggestions on the forum.

Not exactly like this. the most similar I remember is eventually this: https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=6&t=7406

I have no reason why they cannot be combined.

This task could be devided on few stages such as:
1 - implement graphics for dozer entity and its model and simple function as a manually driven vehicle for fast deforestation
2 - add first programming logic for automating the process of deforestation
3 - improve logic, add the ability to place entities in the world
4 - add the ability to use blueprints
5 - ???
6 - PROFIT

[tobsimon]

I always wondered, that the sleepers are obviously wood, but no wood is needed in the recipe. Instead there is iron rods.

Curved track should be built by click-hold-drag/move, as I explained here: https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... 606#p79606
Basically you build a normal straigt pieces by clicking just as it is now, but when you hold and drag/move all subsequent pieces have to connect. When you stray from the straight line, pieces are still added to the line, unless you went far enough to warrant a curve. Then the curve will be inserted, possibly replacing some recently added pieces. Subsequent pieces will connect in the new direction. A too narrow left right combination will cause an error and a gap (just as with the electric poles, when they cant be built), but basically you can run off in any direction leaving rail in your trail.

Curved rail then doesn't need to be an item in the inventory, it simply takes 4 to 5 rail pieces to build one.

Rail pieces then sould need stone steel and wood, because, you know, the sleepers.
Junctions on the other hand should need some additional iron rods for the levers and such. They should be expensive inventory items, used whenever you build a junction with the rail pieces.