[0.15.3] Rail planner + Map = To infinity and beyond!

[sambot]

I was very hesitant to report this one because it helps so much with rail building early game, but after I managed to place tracks outside the world I decided enough was enough.

Essentially, if you click an existing track to start building (not necessarily shift-click) then go to map view and zoom in to your location, you are still placing rails. Except the restriction that usually binds your range for rail placement- how far you can see- is gone. With rapid clicking, you can build a railroad to anywhere extremely quickly- no waiting for robots! Here's the kicker: It doesn't have to be terrain currently revealed by you or a radar, or for that matter, explored at all: the rails get placed anyway, so long as you avoid obstacles (which is tricky because you are blind at this point). If you can avoid hitting any obstacles (mostly trees) up to the edge of what the game has even generated, you can place tracks into the void. You can only place one section at a time, and after several seconds the game seems to generate the terrain, but it is plenty of time to click your way up and into to the next "block" of terrain. And the next. And the next. Once you "explore" your railroad, you will find that it goes straight through forests, biter bases, etc.

Using shift-click for building the rails prevents this- once you reach the edge, it gives up and replace your cursor with a red X, regardless of if you hold shift.

Also, I couldn't help but throw this together:

allyouneedisrailplanner.png (219.46 KiB) Viewed 1709 times

[Klonan]

Thanks for the report,

There has always been an unlimited range for the rail planner,
The zoom to map has no affect on this,
We decided that it would be more irritating for a range limitation, and ruin the convenience of the rail planner

[sambot]

Thanks for the report,

There has always been an unlimited range for the rail planner,
The zoom to map has no affect on this,
We decided that it would be more irritating for a range limitation, and ruin the convenience of the rail planner

Sorry, I didn't describe it very well as it was extremely late when I found the issue. I know that the rail planner has unlimited range. If you start placing rails, switch to the map, then use zoom to map, you can keep placing rails forever, even outside of where you can see or have explored. You can also place rails in areas that haven't been generated yet- those rails ignore all the collisions and rules that usually prevent you from placing rails through, say, trees. It is difficult to reproduce because you have to navigate around obstacles in the area that is generated, but not yet explored, without being able to see them. Once you cross that area, you can outrun the map generator and build a track through where other objects would normally block it.

It's the same effect as you get in god mode if you fly beyond where objects like trees are being spawned in and place things down before the map generator catches up.