Need help: Train station; was Flexible Cargo Wagon Alignment
Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2016 1:59 am
I moved it into gameplay help. See the reason for this in the third post -- ssilk
Given the upcoming changes to make train car lengths more consistent, I was thinking of some further related changes that would make it easier to design train stations effectively. One idea is to provide small spacer train cars which essentially do nothing, but can be added to a train just like any other train car, and which will space out the cargo wagons. This is so that train loading/unloading stations can have more room and use more precise alignment when placing the chests and inserters for each cargo wagon.
Below is an example of the current situation, with an attempt to maximum the unloading rate (and idealized a bit to presume that cargo wagons are exactly 7 tiles long). It doesn't really work very well because there's not enough room to arrange the belts. Plus the chests make an impassable wall which is inconvenient. And there's nowhere to place electric poles, so substations are mandatory.
Here is a proposed situation, with optional 2x2 spacer train cars placed at the player's discretion. Also, I've shortened down the cargo wagons to be exactly 6 tiles long, which opens up the option of using medium electric poles instead of substations. That latter change might be unpopular if people are used to their 7-tile cargo wagons, but that middle tile always causes me so much annoyance.
I considered 1-tile long spacers too, but that might get tricky with art, trying to find something that doesn't look unnatural. Plenty of other stuff with trains are already confined to 2x2 squares anyway, so at least it follows a consistent pattern.
These spacer cars wouldn't be expected to add much weight to the train, so as not to discourage players from using because they need to balance a desire to have efficient trains and fewer engines with the desire to have clean stations that aren't overly cramped and messy.
Given the upcoming changes to make train car lengths more consistent, I was thinking of some further related changes that would make it easier to design train stations effectively. One idea is to provide small spacer train cars which essentially do nothing, but can be added to a train just like any other train car, and which will space out the cargo wagons. This is so that train loading/unloading stations can have more room and use more precise alignment when placing the chests and inserters for each cargo wagon.
Below is an example of the current situation, with an attempt to maximum the unloading rate (and idealized a bit to presume that cargo wagons are exactly 7 tiles long). It doesn't really work very well because there's not enough room to arrange the belts. Plus the chests make an impassable wall which is inconvenient. And there's nowhere to place electric poles, so substations are mandatory.
- A dense train in the current (0.12) version, though assuming idealized perfectly-7-tile long cargo wagons, at a poorly working high-speed unloading station.
- Factorio - 2016-03-25-20-28 - Compressed Train.jpg (188.52 KiB) Viewed 2432 times
- A hypothetical train consisting of spacer cars and 6-tile long cargo wagons, at a roomier high-speed unloading station.
- Factorio - 2016-03-25-20-28 - Spaced Train.jpg (199.36 KiB) Viewed 2432 times
These spacer cars wouldn't be expected to add much weight to the train, so as not to discourage players from using because they need to balance a desire to have efficient trains and fewer engines with the desire to have clean stations that aren't overly cramped and messy.
