Factorio Forums

boskid wrote: Wed Feb 12, 2025 10:45 pm During 2.0 development we decided against this idea because that was considered to be out of VRAM budget as it would not only require 45deg ramp sprites but also 45deg sloped sprites for all rolling stocks.

mzlink wrote: Sun Feb 16, 2025 2:09 pm But that would be required for turns anyway, unless you do transformation in real-time.

Almalexia wrote: Mon Aug 17, 2026 4:07 pm With the last major update 2.1 on the horizon, I feel like this is my final opportunity to request a feature that I have desperately needed since the rail revamp part of 2.0 was announced, already so long ago (still by far my favourite part of Space Age, and the main reason why I did not hesitate to get the expansion (sorry new planets lol, you're lovely but you're no elevated rails))

For all this time, I have dreamt of making 2-level 8-way intersections which are not ruined by having to bend all entrances and exits into only 4 directions

Furthermore, the need to deviate from a certain rail orientation in general due to having to accommodate ramp alignment (stations already do this enough :'( (and in their case I understand the alignment need far better)) creates a lot of situations where (1) a train loses speed for only this reason (the only set of bends in an otherwise straight run), (2) signalling arrangements are afflicted with... discomfort I suppose (not sure how better to describe it, it makes me uncomfortable: why do I have to suddenly have too much space in a segment and/or not enough segments?), or (3) things just become... aesthetically harmed (kinks in otherwise perfect lines AAAAAAAAAAAA): diagonal ramps would DOUBLE the amount of situations in which these problems do not happen... or even more than double, given how this much greater flexibility would permit slight design tweaks leaning into it that would further prevent later discomfort

Further-furthermore, another frequent reason to need diagonal ramps is that so often when working with limited space or just certain orientations, a diagonal ramp is *just* what is needed... but is not available to fulfil that need (Fulgora immediately jumps to mind, but there are many other cases, such as trying to fit something amid spaghetti, or just trying to optimise space or direction (sometimes everything else is diagonal)); putting a diagonal ramp in the middle of a 90º turn, for instance, would make a lot of things a lot easier (this does mean they need to be able to branch almost directly off a horizontal or vertical line without colliding with the continuation of that line, but that is hardly the greatest problem here)

Further-further-furthermore, just think of the possibilities!
Existing intersection designs could become more compact, and there would be more versatility to come up with new ones!
Modular base designs would suddenly have so many more possible shapes!
Diagonal versions of most existing intersection designs!

I gather that making diagonal ramps happen would require a LOT of work to make the trains look right when traversing said ramps, and I understand that as much as a humble end-user can (this game's devs are absolute #DevGoals and the effort they put into optimisation and polish is a huge part of that, so I also conjecture, with fear gripping my heart, that there must be some fairly strong reasons for the current absence of diagonal ramps), but that work would only have to be done once*, and Factorio would forever be rendered perfect by it (I may be a bit of a train autist)

*Maybe that could be made less troublesome by making diagonal ramps as long in both directions as the long side of the current ramps, because Pythawho?

It occurs to me now that the empty triangles on the non-entrance/exit corners of the square making up the diagonal ramp would need to be free for other things to occupy... which I am likely wrong in considering now a problem to begin with, given how the space under elevated rails can just be used freely; and if that is another situation, then the ramp can just be composed of diagonally overlapping squares

(I am also a bit surprised not to see more people request this essential game feature, but I don't come here often and may just be bad at searching, so please forgive me if this has been debated to exhaustion, it is just a very important issue to me and this appears to be the last time to request it with any hope of seeing it fulfilled)

This is why, for the greater good not only of Factorio but of Humanity, Civilisation, and indeed the Universe, it is my visceral and inalienable belief that diagonal ramps are fundamentally needed

Please please please pretty please I need this so bad it hurts

boskid wrote: Wed Feb 12, 2025 10:45 pm During 2.0 development we decided against this idea because that was considered to be out of VRAM budget as it would not only require 45deg ramp sprites but also 45deg sloped sprites for all rolling stocks.

Almalexia wrote: Tue Sep 01, 2026 11:36 pm IDEA: implement it like loaders, without visuals, problem solved!
Then it's up to the modders
(maybe give the ramp the visual, just not the trains)

mmmPI wrote: Wed Sep 02, 2026 6:14 am

Almalexia wrote: Tue Sep 01, 2026 11:36 pm IDEA: implement it like loaders, without visuals, problem solved!
Then it's up to the modders
(maybe give the ramp the visual, just not the trains)

Without visual , the train would just disappear, it seem quite janky to me and unlikely that it would be in the base game under this form. But if you are thinking of a "debug" item, hiden in regular game like loader, then the placeholder graphics could look like a ramp "with a roof" to make it look like the train is "inside", it would reappear when the elevation change is over ideally as if it was leaving a tunnel, progressively by one end, i don't know if it would alleviate, it may probably looks weird anyway

Almalexia wrote: Wed Sep 02, 2026 9:39 am Yeah that's what I mean by doing it like loaders: have it be there, but only accessible if a modder gives it an appearance