[MOD 0.10.2] Automatic Rail Laying Machine

[Dark]

Is there a way to solve this? i cant load my game, tried removing the mod but isnt working either

It's related to https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=7&t=4875

[ssilk]

I've been playing around with this mod now for hundrets of thousands of rails. This mod is complete fun and should be added to the vanilla game.

Some suggestions:
- Slows down for me for diagonal rails. A bit tweaking needed here.
- it is complicated to make exact curves. For example I drive through swamp-land, sometimes only one rail-wide. Then I need to be quite exact. Or laying out a circle is a mess with it. There are some ways thinkable, perhaps we should be able to set "marks", which the rail layer automatically tries to hit?
Another would be to see more exact, when the rail would be bowed. Some kind of "mark", which shows the player: I would place it straight and then a curve. Or there is a mode, where I can steer it with the wasd-keys. Again: Some more are thinkable. The point is just to be able to control the rail layout.
- It should be able to be switched of, cause it is complicated to drive home with this after you made your job or want to refill, when it always wants to place tracks.
- If I placed a wrong track I would like to delete it, as long as I'm in the train, cause getting out, running to the wrong track, mining it and return is too slow.

More features could be added, for example some kind of portable roboport to place blueprints to create railway station... like https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =32&t=4232

[safan]

i haven't bothered with automatic curves anymore after the few first times:
I just fill it with straight rails and do the curves manually

i wish it would do curves only after an explicit command, and that you could say "45 90 or 180 degrees"

[imajor]

I still get an error :/

Same here:

---------------------------
Error
---------------------------
...majori\AppData\Roaming\Factorio\mods\rail-layer|data.lua:88: attempt to call global 'rolling_stock_back_light' (a nil value)
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

I was using version 0.9.8, then I downloaded and installed the latest experimental (0.10.6) it started and worked properly.

BTW this is an extremely good mod. When I started playing factorio about a while ago, I thought that the biggest problem is that it is hard to lay down the tracks. So I started looking around for the possibility to make a script or mod which would help with that, and then I found your mod. Thanks a lot!

[imajor]

I have a question: wouls it be possible to control the direction of the track the same way as you control the direction the train goes when you drive it? Instead of the mouse cursor? So with the 'A' and 'D' keys? That way it would be easier to create loops.

[sbroadbent]

What I like about this mod is that it automatically clears trees in it's path, while laying down rail. Makes laying rail down much easier than having to get out of the normal locomotive to clear the trees. What I don't so much like so much is controlling how or when it makes curves. My best advice is to go slow and manually place corners by hand.

A few questions:

For Rail Laying trains that have more than one cargo wagon, if it runs out of rails in the first cargo wagon, will it grab them from other cargo wagons? Also, in the event that someone is using the Cargo Wagon Inventory Upgrade mod do you have to use the original cargo wagon, or can the Rail Layer use rails from any wagon it's hauling?

Also, is it a game limitation that you can't 'mine' anything such as removing track, buildings or other things while inside a car or other vehicle? Would be nice to be able to remove sections of track while still being inside the machine, so if there was a misplaced piece of track, you could remove it without having to jump out.

[keyboardhack]

What I like about this mod is that it automatically clears trees in it's path, while laying down rail. Makes laying rail down much easier than having to get out of the normal locomotive to clear the trees. What I don't so much like so much is controlling how or when it makes curves. My best advice is to go slow and manually place corners by hand.

You don't have to go out of the train. you can use your shotgun to remove the trees while you place down tracks in the train.

Haven't tried this mod yet, but if it's as good as it looks like it's, then it's gonna save me a lot of trouble

[zyrus]

Hi,

your machine sees to be a bit broken in 0.10.9.

Driving NE deploys NW-SE rails.
Driving NW deploys NE-SW rails.

/Z

[Brathahn]

i can confirm this.
it worked fine until the 0.10.9 update.

[thegreyman]

From what I can see, the direction of the rotation changed behind the scenes, and then later the positioning needed to get the tracks laid in the correct spot changed as well. Replace the control.lua file in the rail-layer folder to fix this issue.

Happy Rail-laying!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mvut75es0vbp2 ... l.lua?dl=0

[OBAMA MCLAMA]

From what I can see, the direction of the rotation changed behind the scenes, and then later the positioning needed to get the tracks laid in the correct spot changed as well. Replace the control.lua file in the rail-layer folder to fix this issue.

Happy Rail-laying!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mvut75es0vbp2 ... l.lua?dl=0

I've updated the McLauncher rail-layer download with this fix. (just re-download and it should work)

I don't think kolli is maintaining this mod any more, Its such a great mod. Going to have to rely on the community to update it, it seems.

[ssilk]

I made a diff - for those who can use patch:

Code: Select all

> diff -u Downloads/rail-layer/control.lua Downloads/control.lua
--- Downloads/rail-layer/control.lua	2014-06-25 16:19:58.000000000 +0200
+++ Downloads/control.lua	2014-09-10 14:35:37.000000000 +0200
@@ -241,8 +241,8 @@
 	    end
 	    --diagonal \
 	    if ((raildirection%4==1) and (cargo_straight>1)) then
-		  placetrack(edge.x+2,edge.y,5,"straight-rail")
-		  placetrack(edge.x,edge.y,1,"straight-rail")
+		  placetrack(edge.x+2,edge.y,7,"straight-rail")
+		  placetrack(edge.x,edge.y-.5,3,"straight-rail")
 	      if (raildirection==1) then
 	   	    edge.x=edge.x-2
 		    edge.y=edge.y-2
@@ -254,8 +254,8 @@
   	    end
 	  --diagonal /
 	    if ((raildirection%4==3) and (cargo_straight>1)) then
-		  placetrack(edge.x+2,edge.y,7,"straight-rail")
-		  placetrack(edge.x,edge.y,3,"straight-rail")
+		  placetrack(edge.x+2,edge.y,1,"straight-rail")
+		  placetrack(edge.x+.5,edge.y,5,"straight-rail")
 	      if (raildirection==3) then
 	   	    edge.x=edge.x-2
 		    edge.y=edge.y+2
@@ -281,7 +281,21 @@
 		    local success=false
 		    success=placetrack(edge.x+curves[i].xoffset,edge.y+curves[i].yoffset,curves[i].curvedir,"curved-rail")
 	        if ((curves[i].corner==1) and (success)) then
-  			  placetrack(edge.x+curves[i].cornerx, edge.y+curves[i].cornery, curves[i].cornerr, "straight-rail")
+          			if (curves[i].cornerr%2 == 0) then
+            			    placetrack(edge.x+curves[i].cornerx, edge.y+curves[i].cornery, curves[i].cornerr, "straight-rail")
+          			end
+          			if (curves[i].cornerr%8 == 1) then
+          			    placetrack(edge.x+curves[i].cornerx, edge.y+curves[i].cornery-1, 3, "straight-rail")
+          			end
+          			if (curves[i].cornerr%8 == 3) then
+          			    placetrack(edge.x+curves[i].cornerx+.5, edge.y+curves[i].cornery+.5, 1, "straight-rail")
+          			end
+          			if (curves[i].cornerr%8 == 5) then
+          			    placetrack(edge.x+curves[i].cornerx-1, edge.y+curves[i].cornery, 3, "straight-rail")
+          			end
+          			if (curves[i].cornerr%8 == 7) then
+          			    placetrack(edge.x+curves[i].cornerx, edge.y+curves[i].cornery-1, 1, "straight-rail")
+          			end
 	        end
             raildirection=wanteddirection
             edge.x=edge.x+curves[i].xmove

I think also the idea to use the A/D-key to give the directions would be really useful (instead of mouse, which is needed in reality for other stuff).
And something to switch it completely off.

[billw]

Yeah it took me ages to figure out that I was meant to use the mouse to set direction, I just assumed it would be directional keys! Only problem with that is the directional keys are also used for specifying what branch to take while moving along existing line.

What would be nice is if the rail laying was toggleable because I am constantly accidentally laying rails on the way to where I actually want to branch my line.
If this mod is no longer being supported by author then I might add this feature myself as it should be pretty trivial.

[ssilk]

https://forums.factorio.com/forum/mem ... ile&u=2522
Not here since 22th Aug....

I mean there could be nothing against discussing this mod and making patches for fixing bugs or new features (don't see the big difference). It would be a little bit different, if you use the mod and make an own clone from it, then you need to ask the author. So I think it would be ok to add new features into mods.

[OBAMA MCLAMA]

When I asked for permission to use his mod on McLauncher, he said it was fine but be warned he is not updating the mod anymore.

This mod really needs to continue, if you guys pm him I think he will read it because it emails the person.

[cpy]

Does anyone else have this problem of machine lying 2x as many diagonal straight rails as it is supposed to and bugging out getting stuck?

Ok sometimes it lay 4-5 rails at the same spot. WTF?

Version 0.10.9 with that fix.

Game crashed when i tried to pick up one wagon. I can't remove that wagon. Can't pick it up, can't shoot it. It just crash game.

[Boogieman14]

Does anyone else have this problem of machine lying 2x as many diagonal straight rails as it is supposed to and bugging out getting stuck?

Yeah, I'm running into the same issue. I suspect something's going wrong with the detection of track being present. I've been staring at the lua for half an hour now, but I can't make heads or tails of the code.

And in fact, because of these stacked rails, Factorio refuses to load the game any longer Returns an error saying that a segment is already connected to another segment.

[Boogieman14]

It appears to go wrong as soon as you manually place some diagonal track. In a quick testrun, I was able to build a decent length piece of track (and destroy a few biter spawners in the process), but things would go bad as soon as I tried to build a branch line (changing direction because I ran into water, for instance). Workaround for now is to manually remove a few pieces of track, so you're starting from orthogonal track, and have the ARLM pick it up in the desired direction.

[ssilk]

I also made some tests. Yes, there a some bugs, which are a bit annoying, but it is still possible to use it.

It currently can't be used, if you try to begin with diagonal belts: Then it places tracks over existing tracks, which leads to blocking for the following wagons, instead of continue with the track, where the train is standing on. You can go around this bug, when you place the builder on vertical/horizontal tracks and then make a turn to diagonal.

Also there is some bug in factorio, I had some situations, where I placed the builder near switches (not clear if that was the reason) and the game dies.


Suggestions cause I layouted now many, about >100.000 of tracks:

- the "drive by keys" from above is really needed. It makes no sense to drive it by mouse, even if it looks nice in the demo.
- switch on/off is also really needed, also something which tells me, if there are some rails, on which rail the next rail would be placed.
- a better motor should be nice. I had trains with 6 wagons and it begins to get very slow, and not so fun.
- an included roboport is needed, when the tracks begin to get complex (stop the train, lay out tracks, while sitting in the train, wait until built)
- an included basic power supply is needed (build a roboport to build some solar grid to power the roboport, but then it is suddenly night and the roboport has not enough power left and all your robots "flee" to the next roboport, which is about 500 tiles away and leads through biter controlled area, nice).
- automatic placing of signals and power lines besides the track (configurable, place a one way signal (two way doesn't make sense!) every X tiles, place big poles right/left in distance of X tiles and destroy trees and other things before placing).

Nice to have:
- A really cool feature would be for complex situations to ghost-build some tracks and the path finder creates the best route through that ghosted tracks and creates some kind of "provisoric blueprint", which then can be placed, if you like it; you need only to wait for the robots to built that.
- A set of finished blueprints in the inventory of the builder: train stations for loading/unloading by belts or robots, solar power grids and such stuff.
-

[cpy]

This with electric rails and we're golden! Mouse control is unpredictable sometimes. If electric rails looked like real electric rails with overhead cables, you could use electric engines and not bother loading coal into it