Idea - Schedule Sets

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DrakeyC
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Idea - Schedule Sets

Post by DrakeyC »

TL;DR
Allow us to group stops and conditions for trains and space platforms into schedules that can be assigned easily.
What?
Group stations under a header "Schedule" (same as there's now the "Interrupts" header) with buttons for "Create Schedule", "Add Schedule", and "Erase Schedule". "Create Schedule" makes a blueprint/log of the current station line-up and the various conditions, which you can name. "Add Schedule" brings up a list of created schedules and lets you assign one to the train or platform. "Erase Schedule" blanks the train or platform's current station line-up.
Why?
This would make it quick and easy to micromanage trains and platforms and to assign new ones to tasks. For example, say you have a train picking up Coal from one station, Iron from another, and then taking it to an outpost to make Grenades. If you want a second train to do this, instead of having to manually assign each station and conditions, you could just plop the train on the tracks, click "Add Schedule", and voila, all the stations and conditions are instantly added. Space platforms could be the same way, you may have one picking up resources from multiple planets to craft Quantum Processors on Aquilo, if you want to step up production you can make a new platform and copy the Schedule for the first. You could Erase a train or platform's Schedule so you can personally use it yourself for a while, then add the Schedule back. If there's some emergency on a planet that needs outside help, you could have a Schedule prepared to pick up whatever is needed and deliver it, assign it to a platform and once it's resolved set it back to its original Schedule.

Given the massive scale-up of, well, everything, in Space Age, a method like this to quickly and easily change a train or platform's routing, or copy those settings to a new or existing one, could be helpful. I know you can do this between singular trains and platforms already, but this would be more functional than selecting and copying settings manually.
eugenekay
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Re: Idea - Schedule Sets

Post by eugenekay »

This sounds like the existing Train Groups feature.

It is not available on Platforms in the same manner, unfortunately. You can use the Interrupts mechanism to create conditions that will be used by multiple Platforms (or Trains); and this allows for centralized management of those Conditions.

Good Luck!
DrakeyC
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Re: Idea - Schedule Sets

Post by DrakeyC »

eugenekay wrote: Tue Apr 08, 2025 10:02 pm This sounds like the existing Train Groups feature.
Similar, but not exactly the same. I picture it more like blueprinting a series of stops and conditions that can be saved and copied between trains/platforms, and then tweaked or modified once in place.
eugenekay
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Re: Idea - Schedule Sets

Post by eugenekay »

Yes, that is the idea: the Interrupts are synced via the Groups methodology as well, and provide advanced "Conditions" system to "Temporarily" add a Stop/Planet to the schedule. In practice, an all-Interrupt train/Platform schedule will repeatedly trigger between "Load" and "Unload" stations for a given Item, similar to using "Permanent" stations. Because Interrupts are saved Globally they can be shared between different Groups, and modified without re-blueprinting every Train.

Good Luck!
Amarula
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Re: Idea - Schedule Sets

Post by Amarula »

+1
Don't get me wrong, train groups are a great new feature. However, when you want a complicated train and oh I love my complicated trains, it would be so nice to define schedule sets (nice name by the way) for one or more of the stops in a schedule, and then cherry pick which sets get re-used in other trains.
My own personal Factorio super-power - running out of power.
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