Train station priority

[daaitch]

TL;DR

Different train stations can have same name and allow trains to pick one, which is currently implemented as "nearest first", but maybe you want to drain specific stations first and have better control over it.

What ?

Train stations should have a priority (signed integer), that if multiple stations have the same name, the train will drive to the nearest station with highest priority, which is possible.

Why ?

A large scale factorio world mostly has a huge rail system with hundreds of stations and trains. One very important thing is maintenance. Factory setups getting inefficient and you want to replace them, so you can cut resources and let it drain. At current it's not possible to give such stations a higher priority.

The only 80% workaround is to give different names (e.g. "XXX iron load", see picture) and let all trains drive to the higher prioritized stations first, then to the other ones, but it has other drawbacks. it will always tries to drive to the "low-prio" station, even if the train is already full and maybe that station is occupied so trains unnecessarily getting stuck.

trains.png (434.68 KiB) Viewed 2883 times

Regards
Philipp

[ssilk]

From the LTN-mod I know the possibilities. But also how you can oversee that over time. Distance is a very visible thing, priority is not, it’s just a number in a box and when you look on the map, you won’t see it. The game looses visibility and that’s an important factor, why I think this will not be implemented as it currently is.

So what I would ask is this:
How many different priorities would a normal player use at maximum? Surely not 2^31? But is one level (normal, prioritized) eventually enough?

Then I would suggest to have a different look for those train stops (on land and on the map). For example the train stop becomes an extra sign with three arrows on them and on map they have an extra ring around or something like this.

Well if there are more different levels of priority needed, we need to think more about it.

[boskid]

Ref 90474

[daaitch]

Making priorities visible to the player in a user-friendly way is a thing of course.

I'd appreciate to have at least 3 priorities:

Code: Select all

- low prio station
  - production recipe here is more expensive, but good as fallback (e.g. "infinite ores" needs additional acid)
- high prio station
  - it should drain (maintenance)
  - it is a secondary by-product that's produced anyway
- normal prio station

The reason why I stick to a number for the priority is, because it could be another variable (like limit `L`) priority `P` that's calculated: 0 is default, negative is low prio, positive is high prio. To make it more clear for the player, the game could group all stations by name and sort it by prio and present it like

Code: Select all

- <name> (<order>: <prio>)
- iron unload (1: 500)
- iron unload (2: 0)
- iron unload (3: -250)

There are a some advantages to use numbers, like you can always give a train station a higher or lower prio than another and you can create your own strategy, like prio >1000 is the old production line, that should be replaced asap, and prio >500 is some other legacy stuff that should be removed afterwards.

[JimBarracus]

A workaround is to add several train stations to the low priority station.

If there are enough stations and the path penalty is very high the other station will be preferred, if available.

read more: Railway- Factorio Wiki

[ssilk]

If there are enough stations and the path penalty is very high the other station will be preferred, if available.

That is exactly, what’s also written in boskid’s linked thread.

So read me through it. And I will move this to not implement.

Reasons:
- as boskid already said. I won’t repeat here everything.
- could be faked by adding stops before the target stop as penalty.
- bad readability of that feature, especially when many things happen at the same time, already argued.


I found also an an alternative:

Consumer priority could be implemented by giving us a "skip next schedule if condition is met" feature.

The high priority stops would be listed first in the schedule. If they are full (train limit) or disabled they get skipped.
Low priority stops would be scheduled for leave when empty. Which is already true if the train has emptied itself on a high priority stop...

That thread he points to is already discussed a lot, and there are also alternative ideas swirling around.

[SerhiiS]

Ref 90474

What about this?

Add train station group. Just like the conditions inside the station.
Within a group, an OR condition. eg, iron high priority OR iron low priority.
Between groups condition AND. eg, load iron AND unload iron AND load fuel.

How would I implement it? As you can see in the picture now with the current location of the stations, the train first goes to the "Load Iron High Priority" station, after loading it will go to the "Load Iron Low Priority" station". Can he just add a condition to SKIP the station "Load iron with low Priority"? I think it's not difficult. Once it's submerged, the next station will not be "Load iron low priority" but "Unload iron high priority".

I don't understand from the discussion why should a train change stations when it's already moving? Even if the station to which he is going is busy, this is not a problem -> the train will sent, as in the current logic, to the next station in the list.

It may be difficult to visually draw this in the game. But logically, as for me, it's very simple. If it was possible to make it a mod, I would make it a mod. But I have no idea how to draw my own graphics for the train route in schedule.

[FuryoftheStars]

Ref 90474

What about this?

Add train station group. Just like the conditions inside the station.
Within a group, an OR condition. eg, iron high priority OR iron low priority.
Between groups condition AND. eg, load iron AND unload iron AND load fuel.

How would I implement it? As you can see in the picture now with the current location of the stations, the train first goes to the "Load Iron High Priority" station, after loading it will go to the "Load Iron Low Priority" station". Can he just add a condition to SKIP the station "Load iron with low Priority"? I think it's not difficult. Once it's submerged, the next station will not be "Load iron low priority" but "Unload iron high priority".

I don't understand from the discussion why should a train change stations when it's already moving? Even if the station to which he is going is busy, this is not a problem -> the train will sent, as in the current logic, to the next station in the list.

It may be difficult to visually draw this in the game. But logically, as for me, it's very simple. If it was possible to make it a mod, I would make it a mod. But I have no idea how to draw my own graphics for the train route in schedule.

This sounds a lot like the thread that was linked to in a quote in the post just above yours.

[SerhiiS]

...
This sounds a lot like the thread that was linked to in a quote in the post just above yours.

Like this mod? https://mods.factorio.com/mod/SmartTrains
Yes? and have 100k loads
But graphics in this mod and usability in this mod is not good.

I think the graphics of the mod are so poor because of the limitation of the factorio api. That's why I'm asking you to do it in vanilla. In mods, you cannot draw an arbitrary picture that the author of the mod wants and that the user wants. And factorio developers can create any interface design without LUA restrictions

[FuryoftheStars]

...
This sounds a lot like the thread that was linked to in a quote in the post just above yours.

Like this mod? https://mods.factorio.com/mod/SmartTrains
Yes? and have 100k loads
But graphics in this mod and usability in this mod is not good.

I think the graphics of the mod are so poor because of the limitation of the factorio api. That's why I'm asking you to do it in vanilla. In mods, you cannot draw an arbitrary picture that the author of the mod wants and that the user wants. And factorio developers can create any interface design without LUA restrictions

Not talking about a mod. Talking about a different suggestion thread that has not been shot down by the devs, yet.

I found also an an alternative:

Consumer priority could be implemented by giving us a "skip next schedule if condition is met" feature.

The high priority stops would be listed first in the schedule. If they are full (train limit) or disabled they get skipped.
Low priority stops would be scheduled for leave when empty. Which is already true if the train has emptied itself on a high priority stop...

That thread he points to is already discussed a lot, and there are also alternative ideas swirling around.