[0.13] Ideas to Improve the Rail-Planner (Bring back the Curved Rail)

[bigyihsuan]

See next page ( viewtopic.php?f=6&t=29090&start=10#p185160 ) for a list of ideas, that has been fallen out of this thread -- ßilk

As it stands, there are 3 ways of placing rails: Place straight rails manually, fiddle with the new rail placer tool to place a curved rails, or fiddle with the new rail placer to place a bunch of rail ghosts.

This suggestion is for re-implementing the Curved Rail item for manually placing curved rails, loops, junctions, and other things.

It would be made from 4 Rails (same recipe as pre-0.13), but when mined, yields 4 Rails. It would have the same rotating mechanics as 0.12, and it would make placing curved rails or loops less (hopefully) difficult.

So pretty much this has to do with how fiddly the 0.13 rail planner is.

[HanziQ]

Or just learn how to use the new rail placer tool.

[aRatNamedSammy]

personally, i prefer the new tool for rail

[ssilk]

So instead that I would counter this suggestion and say "make the rail-planner less fiddly"?

Bringing back the curved doesn't bring us forward, really.

[Nexela]

It took me about 20 junctions to get the hang of the new rail mechanics in .13.. in .12 I messed up so much or had to rotate 8 million times cause I rotated once too many. that if I didn't have roboports I hated building juntions. .13 for the win!

[Neotix]

New rail system is ok but it allow to place too short rails like 1/4 of circle. Because of that it's little hard to determine is I need 1 or 2 more segment to connect parallel rails and 90% of the time I make mistake and have to rebuild it.

[Compboy]

-1.

Old system worked. but was damn rotating. (pun intended)
New system... well as with all things new you just need to get the hang out of it. + thank you blue print book.

Counter: include FARL into vanilla

[daniel34]

I don't expect the devs to bring back the curved rail now that they have implemented the rail planner, so in the last few days I already worked on a mod that does that. I finished it today and uploaded it to the mod portal:
https://mods.factorio.com/mods/daniel34/CurvedRail

[siggboy]

I don't expect the devs to bring back the curved rail now that they have implemented the rail planner, so in the last few days I already worked on a mod that does that. I finished it today and uploaded it to the mod portal:
https://mods.factorio.com/mods/daniel34/CurvedRail

This kind of thing is the perfect case for a hole that can be plugged by a mod (and does not need to be in the Vanilla game). I will try this mod, thanks for making it.

However, I think the new rail laying tool is more than good enough and we don't really need a curved rail. What I don't like is the bad visual when you place a single diagonal rail, and how the end of a diagonal piece of track looks. Material for a different suggestion, however.

Or just learn how to use the new rail placer tool.

The Factorio devs really should begin and try to be more polite towards their players. These kinds of passive-aggressive replies are unprofessional.

[MeduSalem]

I want to throw my 2 cents into the matter...

... what if with a Keyboard shortcut when clicking with the railtool it switches to a curved rail as starting segment instead of a straight one and with your mouse guidance then decide if it becomes a clockwise/counterclockwise curve?

Would avoid having to click 1-2 rail tiles before the curve is supposed to start and removing the straight/diagonal tiles in the aftermath.


Apart from that I already got the hang of the rail tool (altough sometimes fiddly until the desired path shows up) and I wouldn't want to go back to the 0.12 piece-by-piece-solution.

[mattj256]

I don't have a problem using the new rail planner to put down curved rail.

It takes two clicks instead of one, which isn't ideal. It's infinitely better than the way it was in 0.12.

[ssilk]

I don't move this to "Won't implement", cause there are obviously some problems with the new rail-planer, which are expressed in this thread.


I would like to have more specific suggestions around this subject: What can be done to improve the current rail-planer?

[siggboy]

I would like to have more specific suggestions around this subject: What can be done to improve the current rail-planer?

From what has been mentioned so far:

• Make it easier to start with a curved rail. Right now you have to place a single rail segment in order to even begin placing longer rails, including curved ones (this implies that you cannot place a single curved rail, you at least have to remove the starting straight rail afterwards; I don't know if that is actually a problem).
• Make it easier to being rail planning. It's not possible to use the rail planner at all unless you have a rail segment on the ground already. It should be possible to directly go into the rail planner when you have a rail on the cursor, with no existing rails to click on. Related to the point above. (I.e. add a modifier/shortcut that will effectively place the starting rail and directly put you into the rail planner, as if you had clicked on the placed rail a second time; should also work with "shift" to directly go into the ghost-rail planner.)
• Improve the visuals for diagonal single rails and rail end points. Right now it looks like a graphical glitch (it's cut off very awkwardly at the end).

(Personally I don't think any of this is really high priority; it does not take long to get used to the rail planner, and then it becomes really easy to use, also to build complicated structures like t-junctions; it's certainly easier than the 0.12 way of placing rails, including sections with a lot of curves.)

[ssilk]

nice.

I fixed the title of this thread.

[Aatch]

I think a good addition however, that keeps with the spirit of the original suggestion is to allow you to scroll through available track pieces before placing any. I suggest using Shift-Mouse Scroll by default, as that matches how you select between blueprints in the blueprint book. So you'd start with the straight piece as normal, then scroll through any other pieces available.

Also, ssilk there's a typo in your title change, it's "planner", not "planer".

[bobingabout]

I mean, I personally have nothing against the new rail laying system, but it's still fiddly, and would be nice to still be able to place the curved rails for when you're working on junctions, and you want the rail in a very specific location.