miniature trains (Werksbahn), dump requester chest

[Sneaker2]

This just a little idea from my side.

I often find myself in the situation that I have huge belt bus set up in one direction just to find out later that I actually need some later researched stuff further at the front. Since I kind of dislike the robots as being just to easy for this task and I also dont want robots swarming over my head all the time I would want a miniature train set that could do the job.

This would be only 1 tile wide ( cars and locomotives 2 tiles long) and the tracks could be layed like belts with only the curves needing some L shaped rails (which could be created upon laying just like the curves for the big trains) This could make for some interesting set ups for factories and wouldnt also be new, since big factories in the past often had their own little railroad ("Werksbahn" in german). It wouldnt be as fast or spacious as the big trains but more flexible and nimble for the small haul. This would make for another challenge if the robot network seems just to easy.

It could be electric or also fuel based, I wouldnt really care that much.



Another thing would be a difference in requester chests. I often use the robot network only for dumping my stuff or filling up used parts again. A problem arises when I want to dump stuff, which I also request via network. I would like to feed this back into the system, but I would need a requester chest for this. when I set this up I immediately create a little robot network that would constantly demand stuff from the the offering chests, which actually I only set up to serve me personally.

Dumping all that stuff into storage chests I a way, but I somehow would like to be able tell storage chests, that they can only receive certain items so I could sort them back into the belt system. So all in all I need a requester chest just for dumping.

[Enginarius]

miniature trains (Werksbahn):

I egree with this idea. At first, I like to use "clean" transportways with only one type of item. The most time ather building some well structurated configurations, I need to redesigne them in later stages of research. I start to integrate "whitespaces" to avoid this happening but after following steps of research The problem restarts.

If the "Werksbahn" would drive on smaler (1x1 or 1x2) rails, would use 1x1 or 2x2 curves and could use rail-signals, I could integrate smaler solutions. In this case I could use one way with multible items to pass into or through big sized Industries without redesinge them, move a whole part of it some in space and without mixing items in an corrupting way. I need to tell you that I never used signals because I didn't need them but I would be proud to use them on the manufacturing side of my industries. Also I think the "Werksbahn" should went not as much as the actual trains and the cargo should hold much less the the cargo. Simply evrything smaler.

[leoch]

It sounds like you want to transport a few mixed high-tech items back down the bus. You can do that with a belt: have a circuit network signalling the items needed, and inserters only loading requested items. Connect the whole belt to another circuit network and subtract its contents from the original request to prevent too many items getting loaded.

You may still get a few more items than requested (e.g. you can't sense items on an underground belt), but it still works pretty well. I've been using one belt to get about 20 different items to a supply train this way, and it works fine (though the train loading is complicated to get right).

[Sneaker2]

@leoch

after some time and experimenting I think that the mini-train is still a nice option.

The systems you suggest are nice and I already built some of those, but they are quite clumsy and dont really satisfy my demand for on-demand-delivery. The solution would be to, either improve options for the circuit network (combinators get more options with the "each"-signal, if-conditions, could internally select red or green wires to make programming more precise, or more wire colors)

or get the train, which would haul stuff both ways on a 1 tile width track with only the stations being a little bit bigger.

In the end I hope we will still see some improvements to either transportsystem, because when the game comes to close I am often surprised how little options the circuit network gives you for factory control. Its not like you could do a lot with it, but you need a lot of space just to get some little set-ups going, which have to be repeated along the belts if you want it to work and you have no space for that in your factory to begin with.

best regards Sneaker2

[ssilk]

Added to viewtopic.php?f=80&t=25685 Higher Volume Conveyor[/spoiler]