Factorio Forums

Let's say we have a train and four stations. Alpha, Beta, Charlie and Delta. Our train will go to the four stations in that order. Now, Let's say Beta Station is disabled for one reason or another. At present if the train is at Alpha Station and the Wait Until Condition has been met it would go onto Charlie and then Delta. This is great for load balancing this is not an issue. However. What if we need the train to go to Beta first?

What I'd like to suggest is something like we have in wait conditions but for stations. So an example would be like this.
Alpha
THEN Beta
Charlie
Delta

What this means. If the train is at Alpha it will not go to either Charlie or Delta until is has been to Beta. What it also means is we can disable Charlie or Delta and the train will goto either of them. What this allows is the following. A large train storage yard so you can have trains stored if the current demand isn't high. In this Example Alpha would be the rail storage yard. Beta would be as an example pick up Iron and Charlie and Delta would be Stations demanding Iron.

I've tried setting up this method by doing the following. All trains go to Alpha Station. They're set to wait at Alpha Station until X = 1 When I set X to 1 I also enable Beta Station. If you have one train this works. But if you have two or more trains it no longer works. Even if the Other trains are stuck at Alpha Station when I Disable Beta and X no longer equals one the other trains will no leave Alpha and go to Charlie and Delta with no inventory.

With this said, I was hoping my suggestion of having train be forced to go to X station before it will continue to others.

If all you want is a large storage yard, train stacker with signal should do the trick.

vtx wrote:If all you want is a large storage yard, train stacker with signal should do the trick.

This is true, However you need a stacker for every single station. The way I'm setting mine up is I have a stacker with room for X number of trains and it services multiple stations. As soon as the train conditions are meet and they can freely move to another station they will do so. So the only way for me stop this occurring is that when a station is disabled I set the signal red.

Do we want a full state machine for trains?

If you need a train to go to Beta after Alpha, don't disable station Beta or put a hold condition on Alpha that does not clear until Beta is available. Simple as that.
You're trying to make a fix for a problem you've caused yourself.

That said, a state machine for trains could be an option for huge bases. Isn't that what the LTN mod or fat controller is all about?

Yes, it sounds like you need to install LTN and be done.

You could do this manually but I think you are working at it the long way around. Being really low tech here...Lets assume A and B are the same type pickup and C and D are the same type drop off. Disable any station where a train is currently loading/unloading. The next train will be forced to go to the next station. It isn't fool proof but its a simple starting place if you want to build it yourself. For releasing trains into the network you need to look at the stations and perhaps add a timer. If a station hasn't seen a train in a while release a train. Trains coming back through the waiting area could be stopped if something like all stations are visited within some time.