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Using Cars for Logistics

Posted: Wed Sep 18, 2019 5:41 pm
by PTTG
What sorts of logistics networks have people set up using just cars? Since we can conveniently carry a pocketfull wherever we go, we can drive out to several separate bases to set up multiple cars to load up over time. Using circuit conditions, we can even be notified when a car is full!

Within bases, we can use cars to distribute critical but low-consumption resources. A carload of Processing Units will probably last a pretty long time.

This all throws automation out the window, unless you want to line your roads with conveyor belts.

So what sorts of approaches has everyone used?

Re: Using Cars for Logistics

Posted: Wed Sep 18, 2019 9:35 pm
by b_d
Like TRAIN WAGONS? but without rails but a Convoy cars vulnerable to attacks as they follow a waypoints like AAI?

Re: Using Cars for Logistics

Posted: Wed Sep 18, 2019 9:56 pm
by T-A-R
My favourite is putting cars on belts. Rockets have been launched that way:

viewtopic.php?f=193&t=67977&hilit=car+belt+allaizn
viewtopic.php?f=193&t=67977&hilit=car+belt
viewtopic.php?f=204&t=72597&hilit=car+belt

User Allainz published some fine documentation about the theory of belt moving cars (first link).

Re: Using Cars for Logistics

Posted: Thu Sep 19, 2019 5:57 pm
by Pandrosos
I think the only time I specifically used a car for logistics was when I was getting my first artillery set up. I parked the car so it'd be filled with artillery shells, then later on drove it out to my turrets. But I soon switched to an artillery train instead.

To reliably drive a car back and forth you ideally want a road. At the very least clear out any trees and rocks, but adding some stone for visuals and speed is better. But if you're going to do that, you might as well instead build a railway which can be automated and is also easier to do diagonally.

Cars and tanks can be useful for carrying construction materials. With circuit-controlled belts you could make a setup that will unload whatever's in your car then move it on and load it automatically with the desired cargo for building. I think it could be a viable alternative to a train for outpost building.

Re: Using Cars for Logistics

Posted: Thu Sep 19, 2019 6:19 pm
by BHakluyt
Pandrosos wrote:
Thu Sep 19, 2019 5:57 pm
I think the only time I specifically used a car for logistics was when I was getting my first artillery set up. I parked the car so it'd be filled with artillery shells, then later on drove it out to my turrets. But I soon switched to an artillery train instead.

To reliably drive a car back and forth you ideally want a road. At the very least clear out any trees and rocks, but adding some stone for visuals and speed is better. But if you're going to do that, you might as well instead build a railway which can be automated and is also easier to do diagonally.

Cars and tanks can be useful for carrying construction materials. With circuit-controlled belts you could make a setup that will unload whatever's in your car then move it on and load it automatically with the desired cargo for building. I think it could be a viable alternative to a train for outpost building.
Using Mylon's dirtpath mod is great for this since driving the same roads forms paths, even early game without having to make a lot of tile's especially with mods that make some tiles/paving a bit more expensive...

Re: Using Cars for Logistics

Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2019 7:10 am
by Pi-C
PTTG wrote:
Wed Sep 18, 2019 5:41 pm
Using circuit conditions, we can even be notified when a car is full!
How would you do that? You can't connect a car directly to the network to read its contents -- that's not even possible with trains (you can read the train contents of a complete train in automatic mode by wiring up the train station, not individual train cars). I guess you could use Inventory Sensors to read the contents of a car, but would you also be able to read its inventory size this way? Mods may introduce new vehicles with a bigger or smaller inventory than that of vanilla cars, or even change the inventory size of vanilla vehicles.

The only way I could imagine this works in vanilla would be to read the hand contents of an inserter and see whether it changed over a given time, but that is a bit clumsy, too.
What sorts of logistics networks have people set up using just cars?
Didn't set it up yet, just made a prototype for defining a simple route for a specific car with Autodrive so far. This mod could by described as a poor man's version of AAI Programmable Vehicles, I guess (I'm not a rich man, so it's fitting me alright!). Autodrive adds a Logistic network sensor that can be placed in the car to allow bots to load/unload it (because the path finding is inaccurate enough to make it impossible to always place a car reliably in front of an inserter so that it could reach it). I plan to use cars to fill the gap between transport belts (good for squiggling through crowded areas, to deliver stuff to the right assembling machine) and trains (good for transporting huge amounts of cargo over long distances).

Re: Using Cars for Logistics

Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2019 4:49 pm
by PTTG
I'd go with a single buffer chest right before the car. If it has contents, it turns off the input inserter. If the contents remain for more than an inserter cycle, then there either is no car, or the car is full.

Re: Using Cars for Logistics

Posted: Sat Sep 21, 2019 12:07 pm
by Mylon
Road trains, anyone?

Re: Using Cars for Logistics

Posted: Sat Sep 21, 2019 1:16 pm
by BlueTemplar
I'm playing on hard game settings, so cars tend to be a mandatory step :
Much cheaper to set up than rail, especially fluid wagon research for oil.
Also, it's easier to explore with them, especially now that you can't place rail at unlimited range anymore...

They are also nice to get the first sulfuric acid to uranium mines.

Re: Using Cars for Logistics

Posted: Mon Sep 30, 2019 10:19 am
by T-A-R
Mylon wrote:
Sat Sep 21, 2019 12:07 pm
Road trains, anyone?
Yes, finally someone did it. Railroads are so 2018...

Re: Using Cars for Logistics

Posted: Mon Sep 30, 2019 10:47 am
by darkfrei
It's always something strange with land trains.

https://mods.factorio.com/mod/LandTrains