TL;DR
Add a new “depot stop”. Which is used if a train is not able to leave a stop within some seconds (can be defined by a signal in the current stop)Add a new “refuel stop”, which is used if the train doesn’t have enough fuel left.
What ?
The depot stop is a new type of train-stop. (*)A train will go automatically go to a depot (the nearest free is chosen, but see below for extra rules), if - after (configurable/automatable) time - it could not find a next free station in its schedule.
You can configure that by
- adding it to the schedule somehow (a sign or something that shows that after that station the train will eventually stop somewhere else). Then it will only go to a depot, if the schedule allows it.
- adding it to the train (= add to the schedule for each stop). Then this train is allowed to go to a depot each time it comes into this situation.
- adding it to the train stop (= add to the schedule for each train at this stop). Then the leaving train from that stop is allowed to go to a depot.
It will go also to the Refuel Stop, if the fuel is too low. (**)
For programming the schedule there are the same rules as for the depot (by schedule, by train, by stop).
The fuel stop can have fuel as input-signals. In that case it will automatically set its train-limit so, that each train that enters can be filled up by a minimum of 50%.
By default the train chooses the next (=nearest) free (=train limit not reached) depot/refueller. But additionally there could be a signal or other information to limit the usage of a depot/refueller only for some types of schedule/train/stop. Similar to LTN’s network-signal (but without the complexity of bitwise operations
).Well, this idea is lent from there. Of course that mod is much simpler and easier to understand, and really useful, but a) I don’t like to change the station-names b) don’t like to configure schedules - I see it much more from the sight of a stop, which makes much more sense, because you will build your depot/refueller next to a stop, and not according to a schedule.shopt wrote: Tue Feb 22, 2022 1:23 am Doesn't Klonan's train control signal mod (https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Train_Control_Signals) already give you that with its depot stops?
(*) I thought about making it a regular train stop with extra signals to change the functionality of a train stop, but I think that would bring in quite complicated functionality and I don’t see really useful usage-cases in that.
(**) too low fuel can be a fixed value, but I suggest a simple measurement: for each round of the schedule the train measures how much fuel it it needs between each station. For comparison it takes the run between two stations, which needs the most fuel, multiplied by some factor plus a small buffer. If fuel is below that, the train searches for the next depot with fuel when leaving a stop.
Why ?
Because of all the discussions around the deadlocks caused by “not understanding” how train-limits work. See especially viewtopic.php?f=6&t=100570