Factorio Forums

At a trainstop, having a variable amount of inserters per wagon is something that really bugs me.
Can engines and wagons, including the coupling distance, please be EXACTLY a few tiles long so that each loader/unloader can be identical?

I don't think so. That would work only

- if wagons have exactly the same size as rails.
- if the are standing on straight rails.
- if the are in east-west-direction, cause for north-south they are shorter! See point 1.

I don't get exactly what you mean here. The suggestion is to make this work.

- if wagons have exactly the same size as rails.

If you mean tiles (rails are 2x2), then that is exactly what is being suggested!

- if the are standing on straight rails.

This is the case anyway at a station. It is annoying how a straight station has variable loading docks because of the wagon lengths.

- if the are in east-west-direction, cause for north-south they are shorter! See point 1.

Well, yeah. Screw vertical stations, or make them line out on grid as well, but with 1 inserter less.

But i like my vertical stations..

Well, I can explain much more, why this will not be working well. Instead I say, what is really needed instead of fixed inserter positions cause of wagon length, is something, that shows you the Inserter positions for each wagon, even, if there is no train standing at the train stop.

Umm ssilk, shouldn't the train engine and train cars all have the exact same length regardless of orientation? For it not to be, is both physically wrong, and bad for the game. So long as it is an exact number of tiles long (whole number (EX: 5)), instead of a little bit extra (decimal (EX: 5.3)). The links between each section of train obviously should be 1 tile in length, nothing more, nothing less.

Put another way:
The length's of the train engine and train cars should be the same whether they are horizontal (east, west), or vertical (north, south).
Having them not be the same is misleading, annoying, and harmful to the game.

The problem seems to be fundamental
https://forums.factorio.com/wiki/inde ... /Positions
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... 083#p37200

I think it hangs together with the angle you a viewing the map.

In every case my suggestion is more universal, cause it works also for curves: it will show all tiles and the wagon number it will grab.

In my opinion, not only should trains be exactly the same length when facing north/south as they are facing east/west, but they should also be exactly a certain number of tiles long too. I'm not sure how long they are now, but lets say 6 tiles long.

Okay, they might have odd lengths on curves, but still, at exactly 6 tiles long, this means that when stopped at a station, tiles 0-6 will be engine, tiles 7-12 will be carriage 1, tiles 13-18 will be carriage 2, etc etc.

Doesn't have to be 6, can be 8, or even 7, as long as it is uniform. 7 would be 3 and a half track segments long, doesn't really matter, the point is you can calculate exactly where to put your 4, or 5 inserters of a station on carriage 20 as easilly as you could for carriage 1.

I dont want to calc that, cause when I do, I will miss one tile and then I need to rebuild the whole station. And when I have an help in the game, which shows me the positions, the the wagons can have any length.

+1 to original post, the difference between two train wagons should always be a whole number of tiles.

Totally agree with this suggestion, I just never understood why this is not the same in the first place. It seems that some wagons can support 6 inserters, others 7 or 8 max for some strange reason, and they're all on different places.