Mobile Crates

[RiiDii]

I started designing parking/driving systems using belts because I am a horrible Factorio driver.

Artillery Ammo-Loader Parking Space Assist

Ammo Loader Parking.jpg (110.33 KiB) Viewed 7383 times

Cross-Base Driveway

Cross-base pathway.jpg (229.04 KiB) Viewed 7383 times

Gate Drive-Through Assist

Gate drive-through guide.jpg (399.02 KiB) Viewed 7383 times

Ultimately, this is what I ended up with: The video below shows a loop for demo purposes. The idea is to build a chain of similar inputs to put some standard core-base items in the trunk of an [unattended] vehicle. Players can go off and do other things while their vehicles are loaded up. This seems like it might be particularly useful in mmo games; players could jump into fully-loaded cars, drive out to new base sites and start building out-of-the-box. Walls are used in this example, the next step in the chain could be turrets, ammunition, assembly machines, belts, inserters, and whatever else to build a remote base. Tanks can be filled up as well. I added a fuel loader here, but you wouldn't want one at every stop.

In the example, a player can park an [empty] car on the three belts up-top. The belts guide the vehicle into position for filling, which is pretty forgiving so almost any angle will work.

We can't read the contents of the vehicle, so a counter logic circuit is used to put roughly 200 walls into the vehicle, then the vehicle moves-on automatically via the belts - like an automated car-wash system. Finally, while I used blue belts for this demo, the concept can be implemented early-game - as soon as cars and circuits are available, of course.

Logic controller blueprint:

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Copy blueprint

A few logistics notes:

1) Ammunition and fuel will fill up the vehicles' ammunition and fuel slots first, then fill up the trunk space.

2) Fill-amounts are approximate, so it's a good idea to leave at least a few buffer slots or leave some stack space. For example, in this demo I set the wall counts to 200, but 185 would probably be a better value leaving room for a +15 overfill error.

3) The logic needs to be jump-started by pulling a few walls off the end of the line. I'll work on a better solution if folks seem to like this idea.

4) Vanilla-friendly. I'm using the Creative Mod (Fix for 0.16) to run the simulator, but nothing else.

Video: https://youtu.be/te9uPbRPzcI

Mobile Chests.png (738.15 KiB) Viewed 7383 times

[zOldBulldog]

I agree that cars are too hard to drive. I have up on them and instead use trains. I even have a passenger rail system to take me around the base.

Cool concept though. I can see how it can make driving easier.

[Dry Hairy Tree]

Most people suck at driving the car at first. It gets easier if you don't give up...

[RiiDii]

These mobile crates are "mobile" like mobile homes are mobile in that they could move, but they usually just stay in one place.
Here's an example of an early easy recipe.

Cars as chests.

Cars as Chests.png (863.33 KiB) Viewed 7154 times

One thing to notice is, unlike regular chests, mobile chests can support more than four in/out ports. Placed correctly, a car can support up to 10 in/out ports. This also means that a mobile chest can send and receive materials from the same Assembly Machine, unlike chests.
Also, unlike chests, cars can have filtered slots and hold a lot more stuff. This is useful for directing materials to where they are needed.

Cars as Filters

Cars as Filters.png (608.44 KiB) Viewed 7154 times

Using the natural buffers (same as chests, but belts don't have much of a buffer), the maximum production capacity is easily maintained. 90/minute is 75% (Assembly Machine 2 speed) of 120/minute or 2/second.

Production Stats

Production Stats.png (547.25 KiB) Viewed 7154 times

Mobile chests aren't the end-all solution in Factorio but are intended to add some options that aren't otherwise available.

Advantages

• Up to 10 in/out ports
• Larger capacity
• Filtered slots
• Can be driven away

Disadvantages

• Can not be read by a network
• Not easy to block off excess space (I put wood in the empty slots to block them off)
• Can be driven away
• Expensive

[RiiDii]

More car fun: Extra-fast train unloader. I was able to squeeze in an extra line of output using Long Inserters sharing some of the same space as the cars.
The Stack Inserters can load 12 items at a time while the Long Inserters are loading 3, so this should roughly increase the unloading speed by 25%.

Video: https://youtu.be/RVCSomSXKSI

Train Unloader.png (1.64 MiB) Viewed 7114 times

*Edit: Updated video link

[Jap2.0]

More car fun: Extra-fast train unloader. I was able to squeeze in an extra line of output using Long Inserters sharing some of the same space as the cars.
The Stack Inserters can load 12 items at a time while the Long Inserters are loading 3, so this should roughly increase the unloading speed by 25%.

Video: https://youtu.be/SSA3QPxyd0Q

Interesting idea - it can't be placed via blueprint, but otherwise quite neat.

[RiiDii]

Interesting idea - it can't be placed via blueprint, but otherwise quite neat.

Not entirely -everything but the cars can be in a blueprint. There are only 16 cars... but placing them can be a bit tricky until you get the hang of it.
I can post a blueprint if people like, but this is more conceptual than practical (at this point anyway).

[RiiDii]

I clearly was incorrect: The maximum in/out ports for cars is not 10 (listed as an Advantage earlier), but the new record is now 19 (so far):

• 12 Inserters (any not-Long Inserters)
• 7 Long Inserters

Car with 19 In-Out Ports.png (724.95 KiB) Viewed 7076 times

I was able to use this feature to create a single-chest Fast Inserter factory. Here's the video: https://youtu.be/uGb5bk852fo
The production is a bit slow - just less than half-speed at about 44.44%, or ~40/minute. Copper Cables are the choke-point, but there simply is no more room.

Single-Chest Fast Inserter Factory.png (782.68 KiB) Viewed 7076 times

[xenapan]

I love it! if only they would allow a blueprintable version it would be great. The advantages are clearly there. We just need the cars to autoalign, support disconnectable circuts, removable wheels (so you can disable driving)

[luc]

I love these ideas