Factorio Forums

Something that I have noticed in he few times I've had to manually take control of a train via the map, I've noticed that pressing the "drive remotely" button does not automatically set the locomotive to manual driving mode. This means I have to press two buttons to actually gain control of the train, and every time, I've instinctively expected the locomotive to switch to manual automatically, so I'm confused for a moment when I try to move it and it won't budge.

My suggestion is for the locomotive to automatically swap to manual piloting mode upon pressing the "drive remotely" button. I don't see why this new behavior could be harmful in any way. Why would you want to remotely drive a train and not take control of it?

+1 Agreed.

I think it would be a positive change, but sometimes I do want to look at what a train is doing without interfering with it.

crimsonarmy wrote: Sat Dec 06, 2025 10:39 pm I think it would be a positive change, but sometimes I do want to look at what a train is doing without interfering with it.

I don't get it. You don't need to click the button to look at the train. In fact if you see the button, you are already looking at what the train is doing.

atomizer wrote: Sun Dec 07, 2025 2:58 pm

crimsonarmy wrote: Sat Dec 06, 2025 10:39 pm I think it would be a positive change, but sometimes I do want to look at what a train is doing without interfering with it.

I don't get it. You don't need to click the button to look at the train. In fact if you see the button, you are already looking at what the train is doing.

It is possible (quite probable in fact) that I was misremembering.

Turnerdeedo wrote: Sat Dec 06, 2025 5:17 pm [...]

@OP this suggestions looks very similar to that one : viewtopic.php?t=67778
Do you agree ? Should I merge them ?

+1 to this topic. I don't understand why you would click "Drive remotely" on a locomotive if you did not intend to manually drive it.

Koub wrote: Mon Dec 08, 2025 10:07 am @OP this suggestions looks very similar to that one : viewtopic.php?t=67778
Do you agree ? Should I merge them ?

That topic is about creating temporary stops in the schedule using Ctrl-Click; I don't see how this is related.

+1

I've lost track of the amount of times I've clicked on the remote drive button, tried driving the train, realized it was still set to automatic, and had to switch to manual before driving it.

I can see why it doesn't switch it to manual for you, because someone might not realize it switched from automatic to manual and leave remote view forgetting to switch back to automatic. However, could there be some more obvious indication that the train settings were changed? Or perhaps driving the train in remote view sets it to manual temporarily, that is, it switches back to automatic after leaving remote view?