Simple Questions and Short Answers

[Kyralessa]

Is a big train with 5 resources better than 5 trains with 1 resource? this mostly regards the time that the big train has to gather resources from each section

It depends on how quickly you can fill the train.

If you can fill 5 cars as fast as 1 car, then you're getting 5 times as many resources over time.

If it takes you 5 times as long, then you're getting the same amount of resources, but you're also only getting them 1/5 as often as before.

Personally, I prefer 1 locomotive, 1 cargo wagon (or 1 fluid wagon), for fast filling and low-latency delivery, but a lot of people run longer trains.

[ZzZombo]

Why does this train stop get twice the train count in the "Enable/disable" condition?

05-19-2026, 10-43-17.png (140.25 KiB) Viewed 374 times

If I remove either wire it suddenly goes back to the expected value. The combinators just pass through the signals unmodified.

[jdrexler75]

Mouse over to the top right of the dialog with the red/green wires, and you'll probably see that it gets 1 from the red wire and 1 from the green wire, and 1+1 = 2.

[ZzZombo]

I can see that, however, it makes no sense to me. The green wire is connected to the input port of the combinator while the red wire is connected to the output port of the other combinator. The 1st combinator thus outputs the stop's signals on the same green wire while the other outputs nothing over the red wire to the stop. Where does the red wire get the signals then to transmit them to the stop?

[jdrexler75]

Yeah I missed that... maybe you'll need to post your blueprint to let us see the details.

[Tertius]

The station is configured to output train count, so it outputs a 1. Output is 1 to red and 1 to green wire. Both added together are 2.
Enable/disable reads input, and since devices read the added input of red and green, it reads 2.
Sounds valid.

It's a rather unusual use case and doesn't usually happen, because you don't disable a station this way. Instead, you configure a train limit, either dynamically in this dialog as L or statically in the regular station properties.

[ZzZombo]

Why does the red wire output the stop's signal? The only source of signals it has is the stop and the combinator, but the latter doesn't produce any signals. It makes no sense that the wire by itself transmits the stop's output right back as its input. Also, the output is strange. With 0 or 1 wires it shows 1 train as expected. With two it shows 2. If it was a simple sum of the input signals I'd get 1/2/3 per 0/1/2 wires connected.

[Tertius]

It seems the station has an integrated circuit network, so it can see its own signals even with no wire connected. And if it is connected to at least 1 network, this network is used instead of the integrated one.

But again: the proper way to handle this is to use train limits.
You seem to use a modded signal that defines a train limit, in the enable/disable condition, it looks like a download icon. Set this signal as train limit and use no enable/disable condition at all, and no more than this amount of trains will get this station as destination. This is even more reliable than your setup, because it's possible with your setup that an arbitrary amount of trains can reserve this station in the same tick, since enable/disable has 1 tick delay, and overflow the station's waiting area when they arrive. Exactly because of this train limits exist.

[Nidan]

The wires make no distinction where the signal came from. They simply sum up the outputs of all connected entities and then provide that as the input to all connected entities in the next tick. Thus the train station sees its own signals once per connected wire. With no connected wires the control behavior isn't active, so even if the UI displays some values, they're not used for anything. (There are a few entities with special cases where the own output is subtracted from the inputs, generally for functions that pick one or a few signals from the input when the entity can, at the same time, provide signals that could change that selection; e.g. assemblers for set recipe (possibly changed by read contents/ingredients/recipe), asteroid collectors for set filters (read contents).)

For 2.1, one dev said they'll try and add wire selection options, like we have for combinators. But I haven't heard anything about the results of that attempt.