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Force a rail signal to be green by circuit control

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2017 4:29 pm
by IV 
Have an option to make a signal green if some condition is true. This will potentially lead to collisions, but only due to active choices made by the player. This would allow someone to 'program' his own logic for how trains behave.

Re: Force a rail signal to be green by circuit control

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2017 4:41 pm
by aober93
Totally not thought thru.

You can turn a signal green ,that is any signal that you havent turned red. And currently its possible to turn any signal red.

However actively switching to green doesnt make sense, because a controller needs any sensor and there is none.

So the feature is already in game. And your idea of "potential collisions" is out. Whats the deal here

Re: Force a rail signal to be green by circuit control

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2017 4:47 pm
by Yoyobuae
IV  wrote:Have an option to make a signal green if some condition is true. This will potentially lead to collisions, but only due to active choices made by the player. This would allow someone to 'program' his own logic for how trains behave.
Trains are wild things that will defy any kind of control. ;)

Give a train two path options:
  • One path immediately has a red light
  • Other path has several green lights
Train may choose to go down the path with red light instead of the other path. If you want train to go thru some specific path, you need to ensure the whole path, all the way to the destination is green. This makes any kind of circuit control of train pathing unfeasible. You need to change the signals of the whole train network to control a single train, but that makes isolated control of multiple trains impossible.

Circuit controlled waypoint stations would provide much easier/better control (and doesn't introduce collision risks everywhere).

Re: Force a rail signal to be green by circuit control

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2017 6:49 pm
by ssilk
As aober93 already said: Not thought through: What is with all the other trains? What is with block reservation of a fast train? What's if a train is directly before the other and you switch to green? Makes no sense. Moved to won't implement.

You are free to make a new suggestion, but I would say, that should be thought a bit better through... ;)

Re: Force a rail signal to be green by circuit control

Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2017 11:31 am
by IV 
Hmmmm... yes, I have to agree. It is not compatible with the system. Maybe it would be better to enable/disable a signal by the circuit all together, which is already implemented: it happens when you (de)construct a signal. [Edit: this can be done by using this mod https://mods.factorio.com/mods/justaran ... blueprints but messing with trains is probably the worst thing one can do with this mod.]

My goal is to have a two way track that allows multiple trains that go in one direction. Preferably nor the number of signals used nor the minimal gap between trains would not grow as the track becomes longer.

Re: Force a rail signal to be green by circuit control

Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2017 5:04 am
by katyal
I have discovered a reason for wanting this to be implemented. Recently NiftyManiac came up with a mod that allows for coupling/decouipling trains when they stop at a station. I've been playing around with his mod attempting to build an automated sorting yard where trains are broken apart and rebuilt to supply outposts. As it is the whole yard has to be one huge block and is limited to only one shunting locomotive (two locomotives back to back). If I were able to set signals to green I could have more than one shunting locomotive operating inside the yard.

Re: Force a rail signal to be green by circuit control

Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2017 7:04 am
by ssilk
Good idea. But how should hat be implemented? A shunting yard in reality works quite different than this idea. My opinion is, that you need much more than just this.
And the other problem is, that it is too much micromanagement to fill wagons with only one item. What you really want is something where the wagons are unloaded, sorted and refilled into wagons. A sorting station/factory.

So for me this has too much questionmarks. Maybe you can remove some? :)

Re: Force a rail signal to be green by circuit control

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 9:16 pm
by hansjoachim
I want to make an intersection with very high throughput. If I am able to force signals to be green I can start all the queued trains at the same time and get the maximum throughput without an z axis.
If I could set all the lights in an intersection through circuit condition I can avoid collision, allow multiple trains in a block and most importantly pack trains really tight. That could dobbel the potential throughput in an intersection.

Re: Force a rail signal to be green by circuit control

Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2017 3:23 pm
by ssilk
The current signal name is "block-signal". For me - if it would be possible to force green signals - it would be the same as to have no signals. Which is quite strange and for other players not awaited behavior. IMHO any other behavior (add a switch or such stuff) than yet would make that concept unclear to most of the players.

The "right way" to solve this would be to add a new signal "pure signal", which needs to be switched by circuits only. But that would add a new item which is used in quite rare cases.