Depots for specific resources

[Sethanor]

Hello everyone,

i've been trying to find an answer for this but i wasnt able to find it anywhere so here i am:

Is it possible with LTN to create resource specific depots?
For example: i want to build a depot beside every of my smelting arrays so that trains already packed with resources are ready to go when needed.
I dont want them to all sit empty at a central (or multiple) depot.

If this isnt possible, I'm open to suggestions as to how everyone else handles large smelting stations and single-resource trains?

Thanks in advance

[ssilk]

I use the network ID signal to differentiate networks for different items.

[mrvn]

Or just name the depot stops differently. The train will always return to a depot with the same name. So name a depot near your coal mine "Depot Coal" and send a train there and it will always return to it.

[GrumpyJoe]

Or just name the depot stops differently. The train will always return to a depot with the same name. So name a depot near your coal mine "Depot Coal" and send a train there and it will always return to it.

As long as there are idle trains at "oreX depot", this will work as intended, but if they are all running a schedule, a train from the main depot can still be called there.
Since I guess OP wants to scale up if that happens (no trains in depot, will trigger a warning if they are enabled) I'd go with network ID.

Might be some work, if he wants to integrate into more, interconnected IDs.
If it's just "coal ID" going from coal input to output stations, and it's not a rework mod with gazillion ores, it might be easy enough

[torne]

OP might want to just look at Train Supply Manager rather than (or in addition to) LTN. The basic use case for TSM is exactly what they described: fill up a bunch of trains with bulk outputs that then wait at a "depot" until they're needed by a requester station.

LTN is designed around trains sitting empty and then being given a task that involves both a pickup and a dropoff, and while there are ways to do more specialised things with network IDs and differently named depots as suggested by various folks above, it may not be the best option if you want a very different model.

I've had maps where I've used both at once for different purposes and that works fine. The resources that get made in large quantities at a limited number of places get loaded straight into dedicated trains and requested at any number of TSM stops, and the resources that are used in smaller quantities and/or have many different lower-volume sources (e.g. secondary/waste products in complex mod setups) get picked up and delivered by a smaller number of general-purpose LTN trains as needed.

Another option for that case is just.. vanilla trains, now that train limits are available. Having resource-specific trains that find somewhere to fill up and then wait somewhere until needed is fairly straightforward to do without any mods now just by calculating dynamic train limits and having a bunch of train stops named "Iron Plates Source" "Iron Plates Waiting Area" "Iron Plates Destination" or similar. And again, you can combine that with LTN for the cases where you're doing lower volume and don't want to dedicate trains and waiting space to those resources, and I've done that on some maps too

[mrvn]

Indeed. If you want to have the warnings then you need the IDs. But there are only 32 of them and you have to remember a bunch of powers of 2 to use them.

I actually like that trains can still be called from other depots. You can have a bunch of trains near but if there is a usage spike trains from a central depot can fill in. Better to have a slow delivery than no delivery. And if you want to monitor if you have enough trains you can always wire up a loudspeaker thingy so you get a warning when any depot runs out of trains.

But hey, if you use dedicated IDs for each ore you can put a depot at each mine and already fill the train while it sits there. Right in front of that put the provider stop and use the train contents as amount available. Then anyone requesting ore gets a train that's already loaded and ready to deliver.

[GrumpyJoe]

Was only pointing out what can happen with multiple depots on the same ID

Another solution could be having multiple length trains+depots. LCCCC for ores and whatever fits the rest.

In my Ab game I had LCCCC for ores and LCC for the rest, using the train length signals at the stations

[ssilk]

But hey, if you use dedicated IDs for each ore you can put a depot at each mine and already fill the train while it sits there. Right in front of that put the provider stop and use the train contents as amount available. Then anyone requesting ore gets a train that's already loaded and ready to deliver.

Interesting idea. Never thought of this. How do you manage, if there are many depots for the same resource? I mean, you cannot know which train will be assigned to that station, it could be a train from another depot station, but it can’t reach, because the filled up train is not assigned and blocks the path to the provider.

[mrvn]

But hey, if you use dedicated IDs for each ore you can put a depot at each mine and already fill the train while it sits there. Right in front of that put the provider stop and use the train contents as amount available. Then anyone requesting ore gets a train that's already loaded and ready to deliver.

Interesting idea. Never thought of this. How do you manage, if there are many depots for the same resource? I mean, you cannot know which train will be assigned to that station, it could be a train from another depot station, but it can’t reach, because the filled up train is not assigned and blocks the path to the provider.

I haven't tried implementing it so it might not work exactly as I think it would. With the provider station wired to the content of the train at the depot it will only provide items when the train at the depot is full enough. So it will never schedule a train to the provider station unless there is a full train at the depot. LTN tries to pick a train that's near. With the depot right next to the provider it should always pick that train.

If that's not working 100% then you would have to place the provider station a bit further from the depot and build it so another train can reach the provider station when there is a train at the depot and have a second loading setup there as backup. But that would kind of ruin it.

[ssilk]

I forgot also the timeout in LTN. If a train takes too long to deliver it is returned back into depot.

It would be really cool if LTN has a second “mode”: instead of depot - provider - requester - depot, it could be depot - provider - wait-depot for requests - requester - depot. For the new wait-depot we need to order how much resources should be parked here.

[mrvn]

I forgot also the timeout in LTN. If a train takes too long to deliver it is returned back into depot.

It would be really cool if LTN has a second “mode”: instead of depot - provider - requester - depot, it could be depot - provider - wait-depot for requests - requester - depot. For the new wait-depot we need to order how much resources should be parked here.

Or just never send trains in a depot with content to a provider/requester that doesn't include the loaded goods.

But I recently noticed that vanilla train stops now have a train limit setting. So you could just load the train up on the provider side and on the requester side adjust the train limit to how much space is in the buffer chests. The trains will then wait at the provider till one of the requester stations increases their train limit. And there is no thundering herd problem anymore. So LTN doesn't gain you much for such setups.