Dynamic train routes based on circuit conditions.

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Tickstart
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Dynamic train routes based on circuit conditions.

Post by Tickstart »

TL;DR
Right now you can pretty much only hardcode stations into the list inside the trains. In order to make the train move dynamically, you have to globally enable and disable the stations it travels to, which in essence means this train has to own its own set of stations that no one else can use. Why not just have something like "if [circuit condition] travel to X"?
What ?
In the train menu, when you select a station you would be able to fill in an optional condition. If the condition is unmet (be it based on data from the train or data sent from the circuit network) this would locally disable the station for this particular train.
Image
This is different from train limits because if a limit for a station is 0, the train waits for it to be unoccupied. With my suggestion, the train ignores the station altogether and can go somewhere else. When the condition is met the station appears, and the train can depart for that station (hingent upon whether all conditions for the previous stop has been fulfilled of course).
Why ?
Trains are a little too static in nature, in my opinion. Now you can simply pass a signal along the wire from an outpost that you need more supplies, and a train could react without interfering with others. This would prevent supply trains from going to places they don't need to. This can be achieved by enabling/disabling stations in vanilla, but as I said, you need to create brand new stations for it to not mess up for all the other trains. This simple system would also create options like having multiple instances of the same stations be in the menu. So the same train station, depending on what "version" of it you end up on can have vastly different subconditions. Like, "empty cargo", but also "fill sulfuric acid" etc. You also create the ability to jump around quite freely in the list by creating dependencies or whatever I shall call them, so if you arrive at a station, then that event alone could control what the next station for the train would be and so forth, if there's a particular order you need to travel depending on what role you are fulfilling.
Simple trick, many opportunities. It's also optional so it wouldn't mess with existing setups.

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ssilk
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Re: Dynamic train routes based on circuit conditions.

Post by ssilk »

Can you explain, why turning off the station via circuit condition (which has the effect, that this station is ignored) is not an option for you?

This is similar:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=64362 Dynamic train schedule
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=96679 Train entering conditions (includes also a big link list of threads)
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Tickstart
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Re: Dynamic train routes based on circuit conditions.

Post by Tickstart »

ssilk wrote:
Sun Jul 18, 2021 10:31 am
Can you explain, why turning off the station via circuit condition (which has the effect, that this station is ignored) is not an option for you?
Thanks, I'll read those links. To answer your question, that is what I'm doing, and it works fine. But, it means I can't share stops between trains. If one train is to ignore a stop, I have no choice but to globally disable it, making it unavailable for all other train as well.

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Re: Dynamic train routes based on circuit conditions.

Post by ssilk »

O.K. And why to use circuits for this? Is there something that distinct it from the mentioned suggestions?
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Re: Dynamic train routes based on circuit conditions.

Post by amliebsch »

I like this suggestion, and I think it could be simplified by just making the condition inclusive of train contents and circuit network contents sent to the train through the stop, just as is currently done to calculate wait conditions. This would enable a couple of scenarios:

1. Using deciders to function as a railroad switch to set the next stop of the train, e.g., sending a "blue" signal to send the train to the "blue" stop next or the "white" signal to send the train to the "white" stop next. Enables switchyards where the stop calculates where the train should go next by setting a flag that interacts with the train's schedule conditions.

2. Including shared stops in a train's itinerary that are conditional on the status of the train, e.g. skipping an unload stop if the train is empty, or skipping a fueling stop if the train is not low on fuel.

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