Selfdriving Logistic Cars

[Skellitor301]

So I had a thought, we can make trains that run on their own, and bots that are just about as autonomous as it gets, but I figured why dont we have cars or trucks that run autonomously as well? Basically taking the car or truck, shoving a robot in the driving seat, and setting waypoints for it to go along like a train, to pick up and drop off resources. This would be a bit more logistically sound for a medium distance area to drive along and drop off resources where they need to go. Say for example it's mid game, you just started working on bots, no trains yet, and you have slow bots that can carry one thing at a time. Well by then we'd likely have cars that have quite the trunk space but no real need to use it other than spare fuel for the car, unless we decide to haul resources ourselves.

With automated cars, to balance them a bit out, it would make it so you cant ride in the car since the cabin would be taken up by a robot, and you can set up loading and unloading zones. Lets say you have an iron ore mine set up and it's a bit of a walk from the mine to the refining area for example. put in the loading zone at the mines, and an unloading zone at your refining area, and a few waypoints between for the car to travel along, much like how you can set up waypoints for a unit in most rts' to patrol and travel along each waypoint. With the trunk space of a car, constantly traveling between the mine and the refineries, it's going to be able to boost the mid game and make you think of new ways to lay out your factory for better road vehicle use. We've seen mods that encourage trains, but few to encourage car use. This would be a great use of the car other than helping getting the player from point A to B, which will eventually become obsolete when you research exoskeletons anyway. This can keep the car in use

[Adil]

no trains yet,
and you have slow bots

We have quite a different midgame.

As for absence of such mods. /here was a long blabbering about why it'd be difficult for me personally, but then I've remembered about this mod./
So yeah, lets hope someone comes by one day and does all that mountain of coding.

[hitzu]

The Railway tech requires just green science Logistics2 and Diesel engines researched and can be utilized even before it becomes automatic. Drones requires much more to research before you can use them. I just don't know how and why you get robots first.
And how automatic cars would be different from the trains?

[Skellitor301]

I generally dont go for trains myself, I usually have a robot network before I would begin a train system. As for the difference, it's basically a vehicle that makes mid to short distances more efficient versus either train use or bot use. Trains work best when it's a long distance, and bots work best when you have a small army of them at least. With this idea, you can have one or two cars going back and forth, carrying a large load of goods to and from nearby outposts.

[hitzu]

I generally dont go for trains myself, I usually have a robot network before I would begin a train system. As for the difference, it's basically a vehicle that makes mid to short distances more efficient versus either train use or bot use. Trains work best when it's a long distance, and bots work best when you have a small army of them at least. With this idea, you can have one or two cars going back and forth, carrying a large load of goods to and from nearby outposts.

Wait. Why cars would be better on mid distances than trains? What the specific characteristic a car have that makes it better, than a train?
Anyway you'll need to build some sort of infrastructure for cars, such as paths clear of obstacles, stations, you'll have to assign schedule etc. They would be just little trains

[Skellitor301]

Yes, I mentioned that in my original post about figuring out new ways to layout a factory. As for why cars are better for mid distances than trains, cars are not tied to a track, so you can easily set up a path for them to go between two points. As for a train, you /have/ to lay down the track between the two points, and make the room for them to go between two stations. With this idea, you can have these cars running in the factory, going between certain factory setups. This can also improve immersion as this closer to real world logistics. Unload from a train or pick up from a depot, deliver to destination via road. Not only that, people like to try and play the game with different rules, this would bring more gameplay in that regard. (No inventory crafting which has it's own mod, build a town like factory where each town does one thing so you have to use trains, etc.)

So in short, it's easier to set up than a train, and it can build immersion.

[hitzu]

But... You will have to say somehow to cars where they should move and it brings us to some sort of path that is nothing but rails. Well, just wait for 0.13 or 0.14. Devs mentioned that they will make rail-laying process more friendly. I think it will be like placing just few waypoints instead of placing rails piece by piece. Just like you described.

So in short, it's easier to set up than a train.

No. It's not

And I better would prefer completely different transportation mode like ropeway or pneumatic tubes rather than smaller version of the good old train.

[Adil]

What the specific characteristic a car have that makes it better, than a train?

Well, for a starter car doesn't need a square of 48 tiles to turn around, or 24+ tiles to unload, also, when switching to parallel line it's not limited to steps of 4 tiles.

[hitzu]

What the specific characteristic a car have that makes it better, than a train?

Well, for a starter car doesn't need a square of 48 tiles to turn around, or 24+ tiles to unload, also, when switching to parallel line it's not limited to steps of 4 tiles.

Why do you think this would be different for cars?

[Adil]

Well, because we currently have cars, and we know their physical capabilities. And discussion here is about how it would be nice to have an automated vehicle with those. The fact that implementation with recolored trains, which you described earlier, would not have those properties doesn't say a thing about the idea in general.

[Skellitor301]

As for the pathing, I did mention that as well in my original post, where you set waypoints for the cars to go to, just like stations for trains, but instead of them running down a railway that you set down, it makes a bee line straight to the waypoint. As I also mentioned, this is common in RTS games when you set a unit to patrol along a path, you set down at least two points, and the unit goes between the points. The setup for it to go between these points would be just like the train stations, you set points, you give the car a list of waypoints to go to and it'll go to each point in that order. This is an easier way to set up than a train system because you're not laying down the tracks between the waypoints, you're just walking along a path and you place down a flag or marker, name it, and move onto the next until you reach the end point. Then you set down the car anywhere you want, because it's not tied to a railway track, give it it's list, and it'll be on it's way to freely go between each waypoint as it's told.

Another cool thing that could be implemented with this idea is the use of road lights and forward sensors for when you're using multiple cars in the factory. The roadlights'll run on a timer, and function pretty much like real world lights, stopping cars coming from a certain direction to let cars coming from the perpendicular direction to cross. This of course would be best used inside the factory with road networks. As for the forward sensors, it'll detect if there's a car stopped infront of it and it'll either stop or dodge the car to avoid collision. These two additional idea, of course, would be unlocked with research much like how everything else extra in the game

[hitzu]

[Moderated by Koub] : this off-topic post never happened. *waves one hand*

[Skellitor301]

[Moderated by Koub] : subsequently, this post never happened either. *waves one hand*

[hitzu]

[Moderated by Koub] : nope, this one neither. *waves one hand*

[Skellitor301]

wow dude, way to not hit on stereotypes. Also no, I was presenting a mod idea to expand logistical ability, not make it so we have cool cars. Just like in the real world, most modern civilizations rely road vehicles to transport goods within a road network to deliver goods to and from locations within a town or city. I figured since that is true for the real world, why cant it be true in Factorio when we got automated trains and vehicles to get a more immersive experience with more logistical options.

One thing I thought of when I thought of this mod idea, is production buildings from a rp standpoint. Build little factory modules that take in resources and make them into something else for distribution. Each module is built within a squared off wall to imitate the building, using gates for it's doors, and in between each 'building' you have roads and sidewalks for you and your vehicle network to traverse down. So basically each module is cut off from eachother and you use these vehicles to transport goods between them. Not entirely efficient from the game's base standpoint I know, but it is something that can be done that would be clever to put together none the less.

[hitzu]

wow dude, way to not hit on stereotypes.

Ok, ok, I will not extrapolate. You may drive either more or less than an average American drives per day. According to this data it was almost 37 miles/day in 2000. This site give little bit lower numbers and also compares to other rich countries. As you can see the difference is obvious. Again, you can for sure drive less, I just cannot know, but I bet even if you don't drive at all almost all your friends and acquaintances do this every day for every day routines. And this in its turn may possibly affect on your mind and world perception. Of course this is just my speculations, don't get me wrong, I don't want to offend you. I just want to say that you can be a little bit biased towards cars and therefore you want more usage for the car in the game.


But, revenons à nos moutons.
Everything you want is achievable using trains.
I understand that you don't want this "rail-laying mess", but this is WIP and game is still in alpha. It will change. And of course it will change sooner then devs can implement your idea if they suddenly want to. But now you can just use this mod https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... hilit=FARL
If you want shorter vehicles, Yuoki's trains are great for this https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... 70&t=15303
Everything else in your concept would be just the same as the current train stuff. You would have to build the same stations, control crossroads using some sort of signals just like we do now, manually manage cargo lines. So probably devs will not make this real.

[Skellitor301]

You're missing the point Hitzu, first of all my point of view of cars has nothing to do with what i'm presenting here, I'm pointing out that it would be nice to include them as they're used more in the real world to transport goods over a short distance, no bigger than a city or a town normally. You dont normally see trains being placed to carry goods from two industries that are a few miles apart in the real world, which brings me to the second part. This idea was not just in expand the logistical options of the game, but to make the game more in depth for players who would like to have a more realistic world feel to the game. This idea isn't for everyone, yes, everyone has their own kind of game they like to play, or their own mod they like to use. You dont /have/ to use a mod if you dont want to hatzu, doesn't mean others wont like different things in the game.

Take Minecraft for example, that game is heavily modded with a wide variety of mods. Many I wouldn't like to try, but they are there anyway, doesn't mean I should go and put it down just because I dont see the point in using them, it just means someone else liked the idea and other players might as well. I personally thought it would be interesting to use cars which drive themselves like trains do, and use them for a logistical advantage and have that level of depth, give the player a different option for short delivery routes that are easy to set up and much easier to set multiple destinations and dropoffs in one area than you would a train.

[hitzu]

Yeah, I'm missing a point, the one where you explain why and how those cars are supposed to be easier to set up than the trains.

[Adil]

Yeah, I'm missing a point, the one where you explain why and how those cars are supposed to be easier to set up than the trains.

Yes, you somehow manage to do that despite several explaining posts. (No, I'm not american, I don't have a car and I don't dream of one.)
Anyway why is this argument still going? It's not like something is going to change from it.

[Skellitor301]

Honestly I dont have a clue Adil, this thread is an idea for a mod that's free for anyone to pick up and make if they desire. IMO I think would be a cool mod that gives the game alternative options to base building, give the player a reason to try something different and get a different experience from the game using different tier logistical methods like this