Railroads getting attacked

[Alfdaur]

Hi there,

In version 0.8.7 I used railways to transport all my goods across the land under the impression that the railroads didn't get attacked by roaming bitters. So with the use of strongly fortified mining-outposts I build the rocket-defens.

So I was playing factorio yesterday on a map with loads of bitters to keep things interessting. (I wanted to be hard pressed on expanding and attacked by loads of bitters.) Whille I had a train network to transport oil from my second and third oil pumps (I only got three), I didn't notticed any attacks. So yesterday I wanted to expand my oil pumps with another field I found using another train system., buth to my distress I found the bitters attacking my railroad.

So my question is: Was I just lucky during my last playthrough on version 0.8.7 or did something change in the bitter AI? I'm noticing that electricity poles are not attacked, but now I'm wondering for how long. I'm just a little bit sad that the railroads got attacked, because I found it really awesome that the railroads had there own little niche. I thought that railways not getting attacked was a feature, giving a reason to use them.

[ssilk]

They are attacked, if they are in the way. The try to get to your mines but like rails also.

[Deathmage]

As far as i know they attack you mine then see the rain and attack that, just because its there.

[Swadius]

Haven't built rails in this version yet. But how does one defend against biters that attack rails that transverse the middle of no-where without setting up an extensive amount of defense?

[jeroon]

I've got a lot of rails, and the only time it is attacked is, as said before, when it's near a base that's being attacked. If there is a wall on the other side of the rails, they will try to destroy the wall, and destroy the rail in the process.

Rails and electrical poles that are not near a base are only attacked by that idiot in his car, who drives into them, not by biters

[ssilk]

Yes. They have always a reason.
- The reason 1 is to go for the biggest pollution and destroy it. Therefore they calculate a path, which can be seen in debug mode. If something is in the way, so they need to stop, they begin to eat all.
- reason 2 is: there is a biter nest too near to a track, then they begin to make that too.

Not 100% qualified, if this is really so, because my knowledge is from different versions of the game.

[SilverWarior]

As far as I know biters ignore rail tracks/power poles when trying to get to their destination.
But if they start attacking other structures which are placed near the rail tracks/power poles they will also attack those.

[Alfdaur]

Well I had two instances of bitters attacking railways withouth any structers in the area. I think that in my case they attacked my railways because they where triggered by me, while working on the railroad.

[ssilk]

Ah, yes, that's reason #3.