Does LTN work well over longer distances, or is it better to build local warehouses?

[skydivertricky]

Hi All

Im just going through retro fitting LTN into my existing modular base. Im now wondering how I should set up the ORE deliveries.

In Vanilla:
All my smelting is done in pods. each pod can smelt everything with one delivery station and 1 supply station (2-6 for ore, 2-4 for smelted goods - see here: https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comme ... t_smelter/ ). The way it worked was that each delivery had the same name and would be deactivated when the ore buffer level went above the HIGH threshold or a train was curently unloading, and re-activated when it went below the LOW threshold. (about 80k HIGH and 10k LOW ore/stone). Because there are several smelters, the trains would go and fetch a load of ore from a mine 12k at a time. Then on the way back, if it was currently routed to one that de-activates, it could just get re-routed to another active station. If all smelters became de-activeated, the ore trains would go into an ORE stacker, so that when a station needs more ore, they could simply stampeed to the nearest station in need of supply. This way, no warehousing is needed and there is a good throuput of trains to provide ore. Because of this, I didnt have much stacking at the stations.

Simply retrofitting gives me a dilemma. I cannot allow too many trains to travel to the station so the line doesnt get blocked, but the longer travel times means it could deplete the buffer while the train is in transit. If I increase the number of trains allowed at delivery, I increase the chance of backing up the trains onto the mainline.

Is this a LTN limitation? is there anyway I can "warehouse" the trains like I do in vanilla? or will I simply need to create an ORE warehouse where ore is dumped then another LTN network supplying the ore on the last mile on the main LTN network?

Any help or ideas appreciated.

[Optera]

The best result will be using all these together:

• increase station buffer capacity
• expand stations with a stacker for however many trains you need
  having a stacker for trains with total capacity exceeding station buffer is pointless, as ltn will never assign more than stations provide
• set train limit to max number of trains fitting in stacker + station

The only reason to ever consider buffer warehouses is on site smelting and transferring plates between long plate trains and short core base trains. However I would argue that it's more efficient to build the heavy plate consumers such as Green Circuits to accept the long plate trains directly and allow short trains to make a trip to far smelters for less demanding production.

[rdrunner]

Hi All

Im just going through retro fitting LTN into my existing modular base. Im now wondering how I should set up the ORE deliveries.

In Vanilla:
All my smelting is done in pods. each pod can smelt everything with one delivery station and 1 supply station (2-6 for ore, 2-4 for smelted goods - see here: https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comme ... t_smelter/ ). The way it worked was that each delivery had the same name and would be deactivated when the ore buffer level went above the HIGH threshold or a train was curently unloading, and re-activated when it went below the LOW threshold. (about 80k HIGH and 10k LOW ore/stone). Because there are several smelters, the trains would go and fetch a load of ore from a mine 12k at a time. Then on the way back, if it was currently routed to one that de-activates, it could just get re-routed to another active station. If all smelters became de-activeated, the ore trains would go into an ORE stacker, so that when a station needs more ore, they could simply stampeed to the nearest station in need of supply. This way, no warehousing is needed and there is a good throuput of trains to provide ore. Because of this, I didnt have much stacking at the stations.

Simply retrofitting gives me a dilemma. I cannot allow too many trains to travel to the station so the line doesnt get blocked, but the longer travel times means it could deplete the buffer while the train is in transit. If I increase the number of trains allowed at delivery, I increase the chance of backing up the trains onto the mainline.

Is this a LTN limitation? is there anyway I can "warehouse" the trains like I do in vanilla? or will I simply need to create an ORE warehouse where ore is dumped then another LTN network supplying the ore on the last mile on the main LTN network?

Any help or ideas appreciated.

LTN works differently.

You have 3 station types: A Depot - each train has its own home depot where it waits for work and refules (Duplicate station names ok - I give 1 Name per depot with N Stations)

A Requestor : A Station that want stuff (Ore for a smelter) - NO - Duplicate names allowed. Orders only once it exceeds request limits. Smelter example: Only request full ore trains of 160 stacks, 3 trains max (Stacker holds 2), Request: 30.000 Ore)

A Supplier : A station that offer stuff. No Duplicate names allowed. Can be single item (Copper mine) or complex (Oil refinery with: Sulfur, batteries, explosives, kegs of lube,....) all in one station

If there is a need and the supply can be fullfilled, LTN will create a train JUST for that delivery.