Self Assembling Stations and Trains that don't need to be Scheduled.

Smart setups of railway stations, intelligent routing, solutions to complex train-routing problems.
Please provide - only if it makes sense of course - a blueprint of your creation.
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Self Assembling Stations and Trains that don't need to be Scheduled.

Post by gabriel »

Once the base is complete, it pulls the Ammo car to it, and wipes out any nearby biter nests, burning any indignant survivors into a hellish oblivion.
Once the base is complete, it pulls the Ammo car to it, and wipes out any nearby biter nests, burning any indignant survivors into a hellish oblivion.
Supply Depot - War.png (2.67 MiB) Viewed 14469 times
Demonstration Video: https://youtu.be/I_vtQMcdxSE
Check out the above demonstration video to get a glimpse of all this in action.
Supply Depot
In my factory I designed a blueprint for a logistics resupply station, with walls around it, Artillery, and defensive Gun Turrets, Laser Turrets, and Flamethrower Turrets.

****************************************************************
Check out the Accompanying Demonstration Video:
https://youtu.be/I_vtQMcdxSE
****************************************************************

It has a Train Station for unloading the Supplies, and a separate station for unloading Oil and another station for unloading Artillery Ammo. Bullets are part of what my logistics bots keep me supplied with so those are sent in the main Supply train.

It's basically a small fort that doubles as a resupply base, for when I'm far away from my central factory, and building something way out there. It has a Roboport and some logistics robots that keep my character's inventory topped up.
The finished Supply Depot in all its glory. A couple of construction bots are flying around placing the last few squares of Refined Cement.
The finished Supply Depot in all its glory. A couple of construction bots are flying around placing the last few squares of Refined Cement.
Factorio Supply Depot.png (2.79 MiB) Viewed 14473 times
Supply Depot w/Concrete: Looks nicer, but slower to build



Supply Depot Plain: Faster build without the Concrete Slab.

Loading Stations
Every now and then it needs to be restocked with Light Oil for the flamethrowers, Ammo for the Artillery, or more Supplies.

To keep these things stocked, I have 1 dedicated train for Light Oil, one dedicated train for Ammo, and one for General Supplies. I have 1 dedicated loading/parking station for the Oil Train, one for the Ammo Train, and one for the General Supply train.

Supplies:
This is the station I use to restock my supplies. It has to be placed within a Logistics Network that has each of the items being requested.
This is the station I use to restock my supplies. It has to be placed within a Logistics Network that has each of the items being requested.
Supply Loading Station.png (1.26 MiB) Viewed 14473 times


Ammo:
This is the station I use to restock my Ammo train.
This is the station I use to restock my Ammo train.
Factorio Ammo Loading Station.png (693.41 KiB) Viewed 14473 times


Light Oil:
This is the station I use to restock my Light Oil train
This is the station I use to restock my Light Oil train
Factorio Oil Loading Station.png (574.05 KiB) Viewed 14473 times

The Trains
To explain how this works, lets look at the example of Light Oil.

The train has a simple schedule with only 2 stops listed:
Light Oil Filling Station
Supply Platform Oil Drop

The train is set to wait at each station for 1 second of inactivity.

Every Logistics Resupply Station I build has the same name for its 3 stations. They all have a "Supply Platform Oil Drop" station, a "Supply Platform Ammo Drop" and a "Supply Platform Supply Drop" station. Each station is programmed to disable itself any time there's enough reserve oil, or ammo, or supplies, or whatever on hand, and to enable when the oil (or whichever thing) starts to get low (like, from being used by the Flamethrower Turrets).

Most of the time, all of my Supply Depots are full, and the train sits at the Filling Station with nowhere else to go. No other train uses that station and the station doubles as a dedicated parking spot for the train. That is its home.

When a bunch of biters attack one of the forts, the oil is used in the flamethrower turrets, depleting the reserves. Once the oil starts to get low, the station is enabled, causing the oil train to immediately make a trip and refill the oil, making the station disable again.

It works the same way for the Ammo and for the Supplies as it does for the oil. If I use the Supply Depot, by walking up to it and letting its logistics bots top up my inventory, as soon as the contents of the supply chests drop below a certain amount, the "Supply Platform Supply Drop" station detects this, and enables itself, prompting the resupply train to come back out and top everything up again.
The Starter
The best thing is, with this methodology, the stations build themselves. All I have to do is drop my "Supply Depot Starter" blueprint and make sure it gets built. Then I choose which style of finished Supply Depot I want, and I place the blueprint for the completed version on top of my just-built Supply Depot Starter, toss in a couple of Logistics and Construction bots to get it started, and then leave.
The Generic Station Starter that contains just enough stuff for the base to Summon the Supply Train and start assembling the rest of itself.
The Generic Station Starter that contains just enough stuff for the base to Summon the Supply Train and start assembling the rest of itself.
Supply Depot Starter.png (3.53 MiB) Viewed 14469 times


The newly built station detects that it is low on supplies (it has none), so it enables, summoning the supply train. Once the supplies arrive, they're unloaded and the starter robots that I left there get to work building the rest of the factory. First, they build a bunch more robots, and then they get to work building the rest of the supply depot. They can build most of it directly with the supplies being dropped off, such as Walls and Laser Turrets. Anything they can't make directly, they build a couple of assemblers to make it for them, then they place it.

Eventually when it has finished building, when you're ready, you come back and place an artillery train car on the little stub of track so that Ammo can start unloading and the canons start firing and start the war.

The Benefits
This gives me a few benefits:
1) The train only runs when needed - When the train isn't needed, its stays parked out of the way helping keep down the amount of traffic on my tracks.
2) It arrives faster - Because the train only comes when needed, and sits in a central location until then, it actually gets the job done quicker. I don't have to wait for the train to pointlessly visit all the other stations because it only goes where its needed.
3) When I build a new Supply Depot I just drop the blueprint and run. I don't even have to name any stations or schedule any trains. As soon as the blueprint is built, the fledgling station detects that its low on supplies, and summons the train.
4) The stations build themselves. When I build a new station I just drop the Supply Depot Starter, toss in a couple Logistics and Construction bots to get it started, then go about my business.
5) The Flamethrower Turrets and Gun Turrets make the base able to withstand an electricity outage during an onslaught. Even if they cut the wires and you loose your Laser Turrets, your base continues to defend itself with Bullets and Fire. (This was interesting to me because, until now, I only used Laser Turrets, and my bases were screwed if the biters managed to cut the power).

Side Discoveries
This is the station I use to restock my Ammo train.
This is the station I use to restock my Ammo train.
Factorio Ammo Loading Station.png (693.41 KiB) Viewed 14473 times
The fastest way to fill or unload a Train carrying Artillery Ammo, is to use a double row of Red Inserters to move the ammo from your train car into another train car that is just parked there. You get the highest storage capacity using an Artillery Car but the drawback if you choose to use an Artillery Car is that it can attack the buggers and start the war before your walls have finished building, before your young self-assembling base is ready to defend itself.
Notes
This method works because no matter how many supply stations you have, you can't visit them all at once. You can only ever visit one, so even though there's only one train, its not really going to get too far behind in keeping all the supplies stocked and parking itself back at home base.

In a multiplayer game, you might need to make a couple dedicated trains for each type of reloading. If so, let me know how you end up setting that up. Would you use different names for them and make them separate independent stations? You all probably know a lot of tricks about routing trains that I haven't figured out yet -- so maybe there's a way to give them the same name and have the trains intelligently go where they're needed.
Try it yourself
I've provided the blueprints above if anyone wants to experiment with this.

To use this in your own game, you'll need to build the dedicated parking spaces and the 3 delivery trains at your central base and connect them to a supply of Ammo, of Light Oil, and of each of the Supplies needed for the Supply Train. The Supply Train loader is loaded via a Logistics Network. Light Oil is loaded by pipe, and Ammo by Belt. So the Supply Train Loader just needs to be placed in a base in a Logistics network that somewhere has each of the needed supplies available.

Then, simply run a rail line with electric poles deep into the frontier. Then place the Supply Depot Starter blueprint on your rail line in the place where you want to make your supply depot. After that make sure you completely build the Starter pack because you'll need almost all that stuff in order for the base to complete itself.

Once the starter pack finishes building, place the completed Supply Depot blueprint on top of it, toss in a couple logistics and construction bots, and leave. (Or, stay if you like). If everything was put together right, the train will start delivering supplies, the robots will make more robots, and then they'll build the rest of the base, stock it with supplies for you, and exterminate all nearby biter nests. You can return at your leisure to collect the goodies, and build whatever you want around it without having to constantly return home for supplies.
Conclusion
The nicest thing about this system, to me, is the minimal effort needed to place these Supply Stations.

I plan to extend the methodology to build all kinds of self-assembling stations. I can use the same Starter Pack and just change the end result of the station, to make it a mine, or a different kind of fort, or a battery of furnaces or a solar power plant or anything.

I really like not even having to name the station and route the train to it -- because all the stations have the same name the train is just already set up, ready to go the minute the station is put down.

And once the needed supplies are delivered, the station disables itself and the train parks at its home base station in its dedicated parking spot, waiting for another need. As a final bonus, this keeps the train off the tracks unless its needed, reducing traffic on my rail system a little bit.
The Supply Station
The Supply Station
Supply Station.png (1.33 MiB) Viewed 14536 times
Last edited by gabriel on Wed Oct 17, 2018 12:24 am, edited 16 times in total.

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Re: Trains that don't need to be scheduled

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tldr

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Re: Trains that don't need to be scheduled

Post by disentius »

nice find. tx:)
If you use a car or a tank as a chest, even more storage space for your artillery.

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Re: Trains that don't need to be scheduled

Post by zOldBulldog »

Somebody correct me if I am wrong, but I think this is the non-TLDR version:

- Equal unload stations use the same stop name.
- Chests content > x% (i.e.: 75%) disable stop.
- Result: Train waits at load station (or load station stacker if you have multiple supply trains) most of the time.
- Note: Train at loading stop can hold up other trains loading the same product for other uses. Setup extra loading stops if this is the case.

Interesting concept:

- This approach could be used for many kinds of supply deliveries where you don't need dedicated trains. For example, it should work great for delivering sulfuric acid to uranium mines or train fuel to all the stations where you load fuel onto trains.

Possible improvement:

- Use a stationary Artillery wagon instead of Artillery cannon. Shell capacity is higher.
- Use an Artillery wagon to transport shells instead of a cargo wagon. Again, shell capacity is higher. Note: I have not tested yet, I am assuming you can unload shells from an Artillery wagon.


My thanks to the OP. I had been toying with the concept in my mind for a while, and his post helped me to formulate it clearly.

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Re: Trains that don't need to be scheduled

Post by gabriel »

Thanks! Yes thats a good summary of some of the main points.

I am already using an artillery car to deliver the ammo. If the post implied otherwise i was trying to keep things simple.

The idea of using a stationary Artillery Car instead of each individual Artillery Cannon is a pretty good idea!

I worked on all this last night and got better pictures and working blueprints, so I'm going to go back and edit the post to include those.


I would say what I focused on improving the most last night, was not included at all in your non-TLDR version. I now have it set up where I have a very minimal "Starter" blueprint that I can drop that contains only the Main Supply station and a couple key chests and a couple Assemblers to get started. Then I can place on top of that a blueprint for the whole Supply Platform and it just builds itself.

If its unattended, it builds slowly but it eventually makes it (maybe 5 or 10 minutes and 8 or 14 deliveries of supplies before its done).

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Re: Self Assembling Stations and Trains that don't need to be Scheduled.

Post by herkalurk »

Can you post the blueprint strings in code blocks? I'm clicking on the button to copy the string, but nothing is going to my clipboard.

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Re: Self Assembling Stations and Trains that don't need to be Scheduled.

Post by gabriel »

herkalurk wrote:
Mon Oct 15, 2018 9:19 pm
Can you post the blueprint strings in code blocks? I'm clicking on the button to copy the string, but nothing is going to my clipboard.
Wow, thank you for letting me know! I didn't realize they were broken! I'd put an extra carriage return in the blueprint string and that broke it.

Try it now! I fixed it!

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Re: Self Assembling Stations and Trains that don't need to be Scheduled.

Post by nosports »

Thats a nice methode....

I have a similar approach, but only for a artilery train position defended by a bunch of lazers.
-> so less things to transport

I don't use a on-site approach of building the station, becaus my base will supply the needed bits over the course of time.

currently experimenting with an automatic rail-building and solar fields.

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Re: Self Assembling Stations and Trains that don't need to be Scheduled.

Post by herkalurk »

The largest issue I had with it was I don't use some of the items you are delivering by default. Like cliff explosives. My map was started on older version, so it's all flat. Never made them, Had to change the combinator to make it stop bringing the train each time. How often do you have to use those?

Also, I set it up off my main tracks. All of my track are setup with 4 squares in between them 2 sides of the track, instead of the 2 you use. Nothing wrong with it, just had to rethink things.

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Re: Self Assembling Stations and Trains that don't need to be Scheduled.

Post by gabriel »

herkalurk wrote:
Wed Oct 17, 2018 12:24 pm
The largest issue I had with it was I don't use some of the items you are delivering by default. Like cliff explosives. My map was started on older version, so it's all flat. Never made them, Had to change the combinator to make it stop bringing the train each time. How often do you have to use those?

Also, I set it up off my main tracks. All of my track are setup with 4 squares in between them 2 sides of the track, instead of the 2 you use. Nothing wrong with it, just had to rethink things.
Nice! So you're using it!!! Yes! This makes all the time i put into cleaning it up and posting it worth while!!

Yeah i figured everybodies setups would be different, and you'd have to adapt some.
Cliff Explosives
I started playing on the flat version btw, so all the area around my base is flat. After you go far enough out (to places that i didn't explore until after upgrading to the version that had cliffs) you start seeing cliffs. You also see a solid line showing where the old terrain generation stopped and the new terrain algorithms took over.

I actually only started using cliff explosives recently. My goal with these self-assembling bases is to cover a lot of ground in the game. I want to make a railroad that goes really far to some totally new area. (And added bonus, when you get that far away from your original base all the ore patches have like 40 million of whatever in them).

At first i was building track as far as I could, building as much of the base as i could, then i'd have to make like 5 round trips back to my base all the way in the middle of the map to carry all the stuff i needed, to finish building it.

I came up with the idea for these "resupply" stations so that i wouldn't have to go back as far, and figured out the train thing so that it wouldn't waste my resources by keeping a bunch of resupply stations stocked up all the time, it would only bring what was needed (just enough to stock me one time, and as soon as that happens it summons the train to restock itself so its ready by the time i run out again).

Then i realized i could make them build themselves.

Now, as I trek across the infinite wilderness, I build tracks as far as I can, and i just run back to the nearest resupply station when i need more tracks. When I've gone about as far from the last fort as 1.5 times my artillery range (i want to be able to fight off biter nests from forming near the tracks between the forts), I drop my seeder station, drop my supply blueprint, drop a couple robots, and then wander off and let the bots do the rest.

Now that I have this technique, I can go a lot faster and a lot farther. And then I started noticing the cliffs do start to get in the way once you get far enough out, and some times it was impossible to put the resupply station anywhere close to where i wanted because of the cliffs. So thats when I adapted my design to include cliff explosives.
Changing the supply list
One other thing about the design -- if you change the supplies, you have to change them in the Supply Loading Station in 3 places, and of course in the Supply Depot too. In the Supply Loading station you need to change what the Blue chest requests. You need to change what the white inserter loads. And you need to change the signal generated by the 3 constant combinators.

When I designed this, I did not know you could make dedicated boxes for your train cars by middle clicking on the box once an item is in it. So instead, I use logic circuits at my loading station to keep the train from loading too much of any one thing.

When a train is parked at the station but in manual mode, the station stopped reporting what was in the train, and the inserters would all turn on, overloading the train until it can't fit enough different kinds of supplies anymore, breaking the system.

So those constant combinators send a signal any time there's no train in the station, that mimics a train (impossibly) fully loaded with supplies, in order to keep the inserters from going crazy if you switch your supply train to manual for a second while its parked at the station.

You could redesign my supply loading station to get rid of all the logic, and simply use dedicated slots in the cargo cars on your supply train to achieve the same goal, probably in a more reliable way.
Laser Defense
nosports wrote:
Wed Oct 17, 2018 8:00 am
Thats a nice methode....

I have a similar approach, but only for a artilery train position defended by a bunch of lazers.
-> so less things to transport

I don't use a on-site approach of building the station, becaus my base will supply the needed bits over the course of time.

currently experimenting with an automatic rail-building and solar fields.
I started out doing what you do, with artillery forts, that i was building myself, (well with my personal robots but not with a train to bring the additional supplies for me), and they were defended with Lasers.

I added in fire and bullets, because i wanted to explore more of the technologies in the game, because i'd already done lasers for a while.

Now that this fort has fire and bullets, I notice something! Before, the aliens could take me out by knocking down a power line, which shuts off all the lasers, then they were able to eat my whole fort at their leisure. Sometimes by the time i'd get there there'd be nothing left.

With these new forts, when they try to knock out the power, there's enough oil and bullet reserves to defend the fort for a long time, and they never get through.
Last edited by gabriel on Wed Oct 17, 2018 5:11 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Self Assembling Stations and Trains that don't need to be Scheduled.

Post by gabriel »

nosports wrote:
Wed Oct 17, 2018 8:00 am
currently experimenting with an automatic rail-building and solar fields.
How do you do automatic rail-building? With a mod?

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Re: Self Assembling Stations and Trains that don't need to be Scheduled.

Post by herkalurk »

If you're worried about power isolation be sure to have multiple power routes and batteries in every section. I've started depoying accumulator bases around my map. Each one has 4500 accumulators, surrounded by stone walls with laser turrets for outside protection, and 4 robo ports in the middle to keep everything repaired. I stock the robo ports early and let them place all the blueprinted items.

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Re: Self Assembling Stations and Trains that don't need to be Scheduled.

Post by gabriel »

Actually, I kind of want to come up with a design for a much smaller self-assembling fort, that just takes ammo, oil and shells and doesn't need electricity at all. I guess it'll need a little bit to run the arms and the combinators and robo-ports. I wonder if i can get enough power for that with solar panels or something.
herkalurk wrote:
Wed Oct 17, 2018 7:01 pm
If you're worried about power isolation be sure to have multiple power routes and batteries in every section. I've started depoying accumulator bases around my map. Each one has 4500 accumulators, surrounded by stone walls with laser turrets for outside protection, and 4 robo ports in the middle to keep everything repaired. I stock the robo ports early and let them place all the blueprinted items.

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Re: Self Assembling Stations and Trains that don't need to be Scheduled.

Post by nosports »

gabriel wrote:
Wed Oct 17, 2018 5:13 pm
nosports wrote:
Wed Oct 17, 2018 8:00 am
currently experimenting with an automatic rail-building and solar fields.
How do you do automatic rail-building? With a mod?
you can place a blueprint in the map if its visible by radar...

So just setup a delivery station with all needed things (Rails, Powerpoles, Signals, Stations, Roboports, Radars, Robos, .....)
If you place this station and keep it supplied you can occasionally look the robots place things.

You need to have a supply chain with radars and roboport along the rail-line then ....

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Re: Self Assembling Stations and Trains that don't need to be Scheduled.

Post by zOldBulldog »

nosports wrote:
Thu Oct 25, 2018 8:34 am
gabriel wrote:
Wed Oct 17, 2018 5:13 pm
nosports wrote:
Wed Oct 17, 2018 8:00 am
currently experimenting with an automatic rail-building and solar fields.
How do you do automatic rail-building? With a mod?
you can place a blueprint in the map if its visible by radar...
And you can make it visible by radar (even without power, in vanilla) with this little gadget. Just place one at the same separation that you would place a regular radar to achieve total coverage (I think it is one every 7 chunks if I remember right).


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Re: Self Assembling Stations and Trains that don't need to be Scheduled.

Post by Tairon96 »

gabriel wrote:
Sat Oct 13, 2018 10:49 pm

[...]
Notes
This method works because no matter how many supply stations you have, you can't visit them all at once. You can only ever visit one, so even though there's only one train, its not really going to get too far behind in keeping all the supplies stocked and parking itself back at home base.

[...]
Hi Gabriel,

in the subforum "Ideas and Suggestions"( »»» ) I have made a suggestion for a small scale transport system that would work like your self supplying depots :

Automated guided vehicles (AGV) ( »»» )

Sadly only a few people understand the benefits of a pull logic. They still prefer a factory like an assembly plant for Ford model T : Pushing the products from the head of the production process and hoping the intermediate products do not pile up. What a waste of materials for seldom created goods.

I am curious : How many stations can your supply train handle ? I guess, if you come to a limit, you will need additional trains. But how do you want to prevent the main depot sending too many trains at once to the same remote fort ?

For a small scale transport system, I am thinking about using circuit signals. But I have run into a problem, I have not been able to solve yet. I thought about a small arithmetic to correct the triggering threshold / the stored goods by adding a bonus to the storage while a supplier is on its way. The problem is : What will happen when the player picks up the supplier or the supplier is destroyed by aliens ?

The only solution I have found yet is to use only a single supplier for a set of requesting stations. More stations or more frequent orders by a single station would need additional separate networks (can use the same routes but not the same signal network). In this case, I don't have to worry about the goods during delivery and about what will happen if the single supplier is lost : The requesting station will ask for supplies during delivery until its need are fulfilled.

Sadly this is only a small step towards a pull logic. It can't control too many ordering stations and only one supplier per signal network.
Radar : Damnit, we are surrounded! :o
Artillery : Great, now I can attack in every direction! :D
_
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Re: Self Assembling Stations and Trains that don't need to be Scheduled.

Post by gabriel »

Tairon96 wrote:
Thu Dec 06, 2018 3:47 am

I am curious : How many stations can your supply train handle ? I guess, if you come to a limit, you will need additional trains. But how do you want to prevent the main depot sending too many trains at once to the same remote fort ?
In my example, there's not a problem with too many stations, because the stations I'm using are supply stations. Their only purpose is to supply my character with the items in my logistics request boxes, without me having to walk all the way back to the main base.

Because of that, only one of them ever runs low on supplies at any given time, because no matter how many supply stations I have, my character can only ever be at one at a time.

However, you bring up a really good point. I'm now in my second play through and I'm using pull logic a lot more. Even in my examples above, in theory the oil for the flamethrowers could run low, if all of my stations got attacked at once. But really, the pull method is very powerful, and as I use it more in my second game, I'm stuck at the same place you are: Trying to figure out how to not pull all the trains at once when something is needed.

Did you ever figure it out?
Tairon96 wrote:
Thu Dec 06, 2018 3:47 am

For a small scale transport system, I am thinking about using circuit signals. But I have run into a problem, I have not been able to solve yet. I thought about a small arithmetic to correct the triggering threshold / the stored goods by adding a bonus to the storage while a supplier is on its way. The problem is : What will happen when the player picks up the supplier or the supplier is destroyed by aliens ?

The only solution I have found yet is to use only a single supplier for a set of requesting stations. More stations or more frequent orders by a single station would need additional separate networks (can use the same routes but not the same signal network). In this case, I don't have to worry about the goods during delivery and about what will happen if the single supplier is lost : The requesting station will ask for supplies during delivery until its need are fulfilled.

Sadly this is only a small step towards a pull logic. It can't control too many ordering stations and only one supplier per signal network.
With a single supplier, you don't even need any circuit logic. Just turn the stations on when they're hungry and off when they're full, and your single supplier will take care of them, and stay parked safely away at his loading station the rest of the time.


I'm trying to figure out a way to make distant settlements connected to my main base only through rails. I don't want to bring any belts, pipes, or even power lines. I'll make another post soon, but I'm trying to figure out a way to ship electricity on a train. I'm going to store the electricity as steam in a tanker car. I heard that you can't put steam in a barrel (i'll still try it though), but that it works to load it in a tanker on a train.

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Re: Self Assembling Stations and Trains that don't need to be Scheduled.

Post by zOldBulldog »

I am curious, have you tested this design in 0.17?

I have about the same number of flamethrowers and a solid line of lasers behind them, and the spitters are still causing significant damage. If it wasn't for bots constantly fixing stuff that gets damaged, it would be devoured very quickly. And that is without any attacks on the powerline yet. Evolution is at 92% and it got there very quickly.

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Re: Self Assembling Stations and Trains that don't need to be Scheduled.

Post by Unclebod »

There is only some things that need to be corrected in 0.17. The recipe for lamps has changed (iron stick is changed to copper wire, IIRC) and the stations also use iron sticks. No big problem, since you can add an assembler to make iron sticks without problem.

/UncleBod

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T-A-R
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Re: Self Assembling Stations and Trains that don't need to be Scheduled.

Post by T-A-R »

This system works rather well to supply multiple outpost stations, including self repairing/expanding walls with isolated botnets.

I suggest to add a yellow chest and a empty wagon, so you can get rid of waste (wood, personal disposal, stone etc.) and collect that at the same time of supplying.

How many stations you can supply depend heavily in the size of your base, and thereby the latency of the system. And ofcourse your buffer size. Once you start multiple supply trains, i would rather use multiple stations names to divide the network in smaller pieces (West-East for example). The loaded supply trains then can park closer to the outposts for rapid dispatch.

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