Factorio Forums

Title tells everything

In openTTD, there is great feature - You press some key combination, and Railroad Signals are automatically placed in equal steps along tracks.

How it would work in Factorio?

On long track segment, You place first signal manually (just after intersection).
Then, You place second - also manually (Many players place it "wherever Big Pole appears", so distance here is random - it may or may not be optimal)
Then You go to eg. next pole, and press eg. CTRL + SHIFT + Click where You would place next signal - in optimal distance from second one.

Game takes distance from previous signal or ghost signal to currently placed, and repeat ghosts all the way forward, until intersection, Track Switch or Train Station.
If there are intersection, it may place Chain Signal at the last possible point.

Signals are built by bots, (or by player, but he knows where exactly put them, if there are no landmarks, like Big Poles)

Remember - not everyone build tracks with blueprints...

Oh yea. That OTTD tool to automatically put signals on long straight tracks was awesome. In factorio even with BPs i often have long straights with no signals at all becaues it's too much effort to walk along the whole track and put them down.

This.

Or just have an option to have factorio autoplace signals as you build track. (You probably need to place one signal at the start to tell factorio what side of the track signals should go).

Zavian wrote:Or just have an option to have factorio autoplace signals as you build track. (You probably need to place one signal at the start to tell factorio what side of the track signals should go).

It would not work if You are upgrading one-track to two-track. When You are building one-track, You do not place any signals (or, just one at the beginning). How do You want "tell" Factorio to upgrade old track when You just build new one?

Zavian wrote:Or just have an option to have factorio autoplace signals as you build track. (You probably need to place one signal at the start to tell factorio what side of the track signals should go).

The distance between signals you get from train length.

Blueprints are best for this. Just ride along in a train and place blueprints of signals so your personal bots can place them. Mine are not placed every large power pole, as I have longer trains than that, and even it is not bad to have more signals, it's better to have them closer to the lengths of your trains.

It sounds like you want FARL's automatic rail layer. It's a pretty damn handy mod that does all the hard work of laying rails. Be sure to check it out.

bobucles wrote:It sounds like you want FARL's automatic rail layer. It's a pretty damn handy mod that does all the hard work of laying rails. Be sure to check it out.

How about they add that to the base game as well?