Factorio Forums

siggboy wrote:How would you write new tags to the train? The lamp is already reserved for a different purpose.

siggboy wrote:One of the ideas was to use the rails for reading and writing train-related information. What do you think of actually doing that with SmartTrains? You could get rid of the combinator at the station, and instead make the rails smart. This is a far-reaching suggestion, but if the game offers the API it might be better than what we have right now (and it would not be against the spirit of SmartTrains and not out of scope, either).
If you use the rails, they would have to be put into a read-mode and a write-mode, otherwise one would have to add input and output ports, that's probably not possible.

Choumiko wrote:I haven't checked, but i doubt rails support wires connected to them, so it probably would mean an invisible entity. which probably ends up being messier than the combinator

siggboy wrote:

Choumiko wrote:I haven't checked, but i doubt rails support wires connected to them, so it probably would mean an invisible entity. which probably ends up being messier than the combinator

Let's assume rails don't support wire connections and that it's not going to be added to 0.13.

So we'd have an invisible entity, but that does not seem to be feasible.

Could we maybe add a modded rail signal? That is circuit connectable and it's associated to a rail/block/segment. Then the magic rail signal would get the capabilities we need (read/write to a wagon/locomotive that is on its rail segment).

Choumiko wrote:I am currently slowly updating the Readme/Manual, if anyone wants to add text snippets, images feel free to create a pull request or post here.

The only thing that can write bulk arbitrary signals from lua to circuit networks is a constant combinator.

siggboy wrote:This looks very nice. BTW this is the wrong thread for this, but please make a post to the thread that I've started and maybe post a blueprint/demo map of your system there, we would really like to try it.

I don't know if you have looked at the old version of my system (that is documented on the front page), or the newer version (version 2). I have still not updated my documentation for version 2, but it does have two kinds of stations, "requester" and "provider", what you call "unload" and "outpost". The depot will release a train when a requester needs a product and there's a provider that has it in store. The requesters also keep track of incoming resources, so the trains will be efficiently distributed (there will be no "oversupply" of resources). In 0.13 I will also allow the providers to have more than 1 resource type in stock, the inserters will select the correct resource to load when the train arrives.

I do not count trains, I count the resource amounts directly. So when the train leaves the depot to pick up 6000 iron from P and deliver it to R, then R will be notified that it will receive 6000 iron. It will then subtract this 6000 from the amount it requires (because it will soon be incoming). Only if it consumes the iron really quickly it's possible that a second train will be requested (before the first one has arrived with the 6000 iron). This avoids the problem that you have 4 trains with 6000 iron each sent all to the same requester very rapidly (and then it has too much and other requesters can starve).

Your system is very advanced in the train distribution, because you do not require the trains to run through the depot. They can go from an unload to a provider directly, and you even take distance into account. This is very efficient, but I imagine it's difficult to set up in a real game.

I think in my system (and in the systems made by other people who have posted), the bottleneck can be the depot, because the trains always need to go there. In my latest version (also not published), I can have multiple lanes in the depot, so it's possible to release a lot of trains very quickly. They still all have to go there, and it will become a limitation with many trains.

siggboy wrote:How do you solve the refueling problem, if you cannot guarantee that your trains run through the depot?

xmnovotny wrote:I had decided to write a mod called CircuitLogger for logging wire signals. It is wery nice to see exactly what is "in the wire" tick after tick. There is a link: https://mods.factorio.com/mods/xmnovotny/CircuitLogger .

And best thing is that the issue was caused by short electricity shortages from peak consumption.

Now I'm going to holidays and when I come back, I'll made demo save of my system and some blueprints.

siggboy wrote:Another thing that interests me is how large your circuits are (i.e. how many combinators per unload/outpost and main CPU). I imagine that your design requires quite complicated circuits at the outposts.

Choumiko wrote:

siggboy wrote:OK, so if my train is currently waiting at the Depot (for a signal), and I add a new station to the line, will the train know about that new station when it leaves?

I'm answering with a careful yes. When leaving it gets the signal value, then checks if the line needs updating and updates and then does the jump. So it should work, if not it's a bug.

siggboy wrote:OK, I'd like to report this bug now .

If I update a waiting train (at the depot) with a new station, then save the updated line in ST, the other trains do not know about the new station when they leave.

I have to remove/add the trains manually to the line for them to get the update.

It would be rather important for my purposes to have this fixed, because updating all trains manually after a line change is not practical in my case (probably breaks a lot of other setups, too).

Choumiko wrote:Should be fixed here

SmartTrains 0.4.3 https://github.com/Choumiko/SmartTrains ... tag/v0.4.3

Removing/adding a station somewhere in the schedule is likely going to mess up the goto rules, so better check them after such changes.

Bizobinator wrote:I'm a little bit confused what the purpose of lines is? I usually only produce enough resources at a mine-site to warrant a single, 2-container train.

Lol: Everyone is doing all these fancy things, and here I sit, just using it to make sure my trains have enough fuel

• fix adding a new line
• fix hardReset to properly initialize

Bizobinator wrote:I'm a little bit confused what the purpose of lines is? I usually only produce enough resources at a mine-site to warrant a single, 2-container train.

Lol: Everyone is doing all these fancy things, and here I sit, just using it to make sure my trains have enough fuel