Factorio Forums

I don't know if the topic has been proposed before, *very* new to the forum.

The short of what I'm suggesting is simply "Directional rails".

The long of what I'm suggesting is:
What if there were rails that were directional? What if they followed a similar system to the currently implemented rail signals, but controlled flow of the rails? Just like fluids being unable to build mixed liquids together, theoretically you wouldn't be able to build a rail that has a directional rail on its path into another rail path.

The idea is to help manage rail building and add the option (mind you, "option" is emphasized here; it shouldn't be a necessity for those who much prefer to spaghetti their tracks and free-form to their heart's desire) for directional conformity to make future construction easier. My friends and I tend to build rails and then realize that we built on the wrong side and have to readjust accordingly. What if that realization never had to become a thing?

I realize how vague this can sound, and I honestly wish I had pictures to show what I'm thinking of, but I'm horribly terrible at art and an image wouldn't do me justice.

I think you're going to need to be more specific are careful in your description, because right now this makes no sense to me. Rails can easily be designated as unidirectional by putting the signals themselves on it. I'm pretty sure that Factorio even makes additional effort to prevent you from messing it up. I believe the game will only allow you to place signals on the side of the track that already has them or directly matching the current signals on the opposite side of the tracks. Additionally, when building signals or rail objects, it shows you the directly that the train is going. As long as you use signals to make your rails unidirectional, the game will make reasonable effort to prevent you from messing it up.

I'm honestly not sure how to explain it without a visual assistance, but I'll try my best.

Signals can be placed on either end of the rail, regardless of the "pre-set" direction of the rail.

Let's say you want to build a rail system, and while planning it all out, your mind wanders slightly and you end up putting a train onto a path that would just run into another train. Imagine two parallel tracks, and a fork to have a designated iron ore pickup. Then when you build the return, intending to head back the direction you came from, you suddenly find yourself having built right into the designated "to iron ore" rail, which was planned to be only "to iron ore" (or whatever other resources are in that general direction). With my proposal, all you'd have to do is slap a single "directional rail" to conform the entire span of the straight rail to that one direction, thus preventing you from actually building into it. Imagine two arrows whose points end up contacting.

I dont know, dude, I know this is a very vague suggestion because of what the logistics is ALREADY. I don't expect everyone to be able to understand.

So you want an additional entity that's there to stop you making a mistake in your design?

Are you constantly switching between Right Handed Driving and LHD in your train network? Consider sticking to one.
Hope I don't meet you in traffic