Roboport train car

[Filter62]

So today I was playing Factorio as always, nothing was happening, things were made, and suddenly biters decided to blow my electricity pole that far away from main base. It was near rail, but there was nobody to fix it fast, so half my outposts left dead) I know some workarounds, local electricity, e.t.c. But I got one really nice Idea, what if you could make roboport on train car, with it's own slots for robots and a little inventory, like in usual car. That would be neat, it might work just like player based roboport, but on train) I guess it will solve problem of fixing lost stuff. And it would be nice addition if you like it.

P.S. I wish you good luck with your game, you're best developers I ever seen. Keep up the good work!

[BHakluyt]

Hi. I am sure this have been said many times, but I do hope the devs read what we say again. I see a lot of potential for making vehicle grids part of the standard vanilla game and add some equipment for the grid like regenerative breaking units, transformers, batteries mk3 or something better than current vanilla mk2. I used electric vehicle mod and it, together with standard vanilla items and other mod's makes vehicles quite versatile. Roboports worked, lazer turrets fired at biters etc. I think this is the quickest best solution for the devs to expand an aspect of the game easily without needed trouble of new entities like the war train. Adding equipment into a locomotive makes it shielded/armored and ready for war. The best is roboports can be inserted and take care of maintenance on far away outposts.

[Engimage]

Vehicle grids are already implemented in the game but they are not enabled in vanilla so this can be done through mods.
Your idea is nice however it lacks another part - logistic provider wagon. This has been asked for many times as well so we'll see how devs react.
The main reason of why such wagons have not yet been introduced into the game is that their existance would oversimplify train logistics allowing creation of chestless stations processed only by bots which is just too much for the game.

However if such wagons would be limited to a small number of slots (like 10, 1 row) this would not hurt the game but would allow automated outpost deployment which imo would be an awesome feature itself, but such limitation would prevent this wagons from use in generic railway logistics.

[Filter62]

It doesn't need to have logistic grid, all I wanted a construction bots on a rail so we can fix stuff near rails automatically, it even simplifiesmdeath wall setup. Just build rail)

[Engimage]

I thought a bit on the matter and see that there is no need for specialized provider wagon at all for construction purposes. Construction bots may use train (or other vehicle) inventory for this just like player does.

So mostly the only thing we miss is having personal roboports operational from within train equipment grid.
This might be limited to functioning only when train has stopped (maybe only on a station) cause otherwise bots won't be able to catch up with the train.

[bobingabout]

There are mods available that add equipment grids to vehicles. With an equipment grid on a vehicle you can add a roboport. When you do, it works the same as your personal roboport... which controls a small number of construction bots. I don't think there's much support for Logistic robots though.

[BHakluyt]

With the mods I once used I got standard roboports working in the cars and trains. I don't understand why the devs don't just make vehicle grids part of vanilla since its in the game already. Another nice feature could be to add the functionality of the mod something like "Stop That Silly Robot" where you can set a speed limit or % above which robots won't fly out to repair and construct. Even add configurable train signals or train settings that a train can drive slower, then you can have a train crawling your base perimeter with robots and repair packs and lazer turrets etc.

Anyways, the devs has a direction in mind for the game and sometimes not all aspects and details are clear to us. I love the RPG aspect of the game, of which power armor and grid is a big part of giving that feel to the game. Just give it more functionality like being able to switch on and off certain items with hotkeys and you will soon feel like playing Deus Ex. And add an item that makes you stand still on belts. I don't know from which mod, but its really nice and convenient.

[ItsDarthChaos]

The original problem could just as easily be solved by connecting a roboport network alongside your rails, could it not? The only real issue would be in how far they may need to travel in order to provide the necessary repairs. However, this could be alleviated with the new buffer chest due to release in .16.

[Jon8RFC]

With an equipment grid on a vehicle you can add a roboport. When you do, it works the same as your personal roboport... which controls a small number of construction bots.

I forgot that they added equipment grid capability to vehicles. This negates my identical suggestion for a roboport train car. If a cargo wagon could have equipment and also slow down or stop when the bots go out, this would be great for making repairs along its path, especially for railworld scenarios.

Somehow leeching power from the locomotive would be great, but I'd also really enjoy seeing solar panels on top of a cargo wagon. Being able to use solar panels from connected cargo wagons would make things a little more doable considering how much power bots use.

I'd definitely download that mod.

[Jap2.0]

With an equipment grid on a vehicle you can add a roboport. When you do, it works the same as your personal roboport... which controls a small number of construction bots.

I forgot that they added equipment grid capability to vehicles. This negates my identical suggestion for a roboport train car. If a cargo wagon could have equipment and also slow down or stop when the bots go out, this would be great for making repairs along its path, especially for railworld scenarios.

Somehow leeching power from the locomotive would be great, but I'd also really enjoy seeing solar panels on top of a cargo wagon. Being able to use solar panels from connected cargo wagons would make things a little more doable considering how much power bots use.

I'd definitely download that mod.

Have you ever thought of searching for mods?

[Jon8RFC]

Have you ever thought of searching for mods?

I didn't know that mod slowed down so that the bots can be reclaimed after repairing, as opposed to merely enabling an equipment grid, that's awesome! I'm glad it's already done, but I certainly feel like an enormous moron

[Jap2.0]

Have you ever thought of searching for mods?

I didn't know that mod slowed down so that the bots can be reclaimed after repairing, as opposed to merely enabling an equipment grid, that's awesome! I'm glad it's already done, but I certainly feel like an enormous moron

Oh, that's what you meant. Sorry, I don't think it does that :\ . Not sure though, but if you just want equipment grids, that would work.

[Elok]

Alright,

One of the issue with Railworld is the challenge of making independent remote mining outpost.

Call me stubborn, but even if I know I shouldn't do it, I kept building big power poles along the rail to power my remote mining outpost.

Problem is, if some bitters get too close to a train, they get exited and start destroying my power lines. Then I have to react real quick to repair this before the bitter attack my powerless mining outpost.

So, without changing the bitter behaviour, I was wondering "And if the train could repair those poles automatically?".

So here's the idea :

- If the power poles have been destroyed, a train station close by get activated by the circuit network.
- A Train with a robot port is sent to that station and park, he then send the bot to repair the destroyed poles (and other stuff)
- The train then wait for all it's (alive) bot to come back and return to the base.

What you think?

[Engimage]

Your idea can currently be possible using vehicle grids by adding personal roboport to a wagon along with bots and materials. Don't forget to add power source to that the same way you do in your personal armor.

Vehicle grids can be enabled by multiple ones including Bob's mods

https://mods.factorio.com/mods/Bobingab ... eequipment
https://mods.factorio.com/mods/RubenGass/VehicleGrids
https://mods.factorio.com/mods/Optera/VehicleGrid

[Omnifarious]

I really like the idea to use for actually building a remote outpost. If you set things up correctly, One one map I had a system where every outpost had a stop specifically for supplying the outpost with stuff to repair it. I had a small train loaded up with supplies who's schedule included all of these stops. If that outpost's logistics network contain sufficient supplies it would turn the stop off.

This led to building outposts by just building the stop and setting up a constant combinator with the desired supplies. The base would then sort of build itself. I still had to blueprint everything into place from map mode. But, a train would repeatedly hop back and forth between my base and the outpost and bring more supplies until it had built itself. I just had to build the initial stop.

It'd be nice if I could make the initial stop as minimal as possible. In fact, just a train stop. I could then build the supply depot on a piece of land near me, set the constant combinator, then blueprint it again. Then I apply the blueprint from map mode and a when the train gets to the stop, the roboport on the train would build the supply stop.

A mod with a vehicle grid and a personal roboport would probably accomplish the same thing. I'd prefer a roboport wagon because then which supplies were available to the roboport would be very clear. It would operate as it's own logistics zone, just like a personal roboport, but it would only use the supplies in the roboport wagon itself. And it wouldn't pay any attention to chests, just blueprints that needed building within its own zone.

[bobingabout]

The only problem with the vehicle grid roboport, is that I'm fairly sure vehicle roboports (like the suit) only actually have a construction zone, not a logistic zone, and I don't think the roboport has the provision to perform logistic functions.
It definitely helps with building things though.

[Aeternus]

It won't need logistics. All it needs to be able to do is build - you can have it build a station to stop on, then unload construction bots from one of the spare wagons into a newly constructed Roboport, which then initiates a second stage of construction from wagons being unloaded at the builder station. Initial construction really only needs to be: Rail to the target, one Station to stop on, an Inserter to unload a few construction bots from a wagon, and a Roboport to unload them in. Building the miners and the defenses around the miners may require some manual tinkering, but it's nothing that can't be done, even from the minimap. Only annoying thing is that you'd need radar coverage to view the map to do remote construction... is vehicle grid radar a thing yet? Would be handy for trains.

But yea, this is solved by mod

[nosports]

You can blue print that......

Load your train with all you need, plus the bots....
Make a blueprint which build up the roboports and chest and inserter which will load these chest.
If you need power include some power-generating.

Then place the blue print which you want to do.....

I made it this way.......

Oh ninjad

[dood]

I don't understand why people play like this.
Just box all the resources in with turrets, you'll never have to drive a train through biters.

[Optera]

Only annoying thing is that you'd need radar coverage to view the map to do remote construction... is vehicle grid radar a thing yet? Would be handy for trains.

There's also a mod for that.
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Vehicle_Radar