Factorio Forums

When referring to the "train position indicator" (TPI) i am referring to the white boxes shown on the rail track, when placing a signal or station or hovering above one.

TL;DR

Enable the TPI to indicate the position of N cars, where N is an arbitrary number.

What ?

I suggest a menu setting, that sets the number of train cars for which the positions are shown by the TPI, when placing signals or stations.

Currently (in 0.15) this number is fixed at 5. If I place a station or a signal, the TPI indicates where the cars of a train of length 5 will be, if this train stops there.

Why ?

This feature would make it more comfortable to lay down a rail system for trains of length N.

Currently it is very easy to lay rail systems for train lengths of up to 5, because of the train length/position indicator. But it is a cumbersome task for train lengths above 5 for the same reason. It can only be done efficiently with blueprints. BPs are great (I love them and use them where ever I can), but it is impossible to have a BP for every case. And in the case there is none available, the counting starts again. And after that the re-count, to be sure and not to plan and build a station or waiting line that in the end is one tile too short, which would mean everything has to be re-done (imagine a game without construction robots).

I would suggest standardizing your train size. It becomes infinitely easier to lay out track and stations if all your trains consize to the same pattern or two. And honestly, the only time you should really need trains longer than 5 cars, you're approaching Megabase scale. My factory runs perfectly smooth on 2-3 cargo cars per train. Or at least, it would be if I left room to improve my smelting operation. Simply put, its more efficient to have multiple smaller trains than one big one to move resources around.

For one, it takes longer to fill a larger train. In the time it takes to fill 4-5 cars, you could have focused on two cars, and had those unloading at their destination with a second train loading at the station. And two, if you have enough power and equipment to support quick loading of that many cars, then your biggest concern should probably be keeping the resource saturation at maximum potential, which is a daunting task if you're trying to mass produce something like Processing Circuits.

Of course I have a standardized train length. But what if it is 3-8? And there are valid reasons for train lengths of above 1-4. Think about mods. But those are not the point here. The point is to enable the TPI to show the positions of N cars. Whyever I chose to have trains longer than 5.