Claw trains vs belts & transfer claw

[pat]

Once we get claw trains, everyone dumps their bots and uses the claw trains to load trucks. But what about intra-factory? At the beginning, we have to set up these convoluted layouts because there are no combiner-splitters, ala Factorio. But lately I've been taking the output of craters and having that delivered to refiner inputs via claw trains. It seems to take less space and it's easier to expand.

Is this something that people are doing, or is there a good reason to stick with the maze of belts and transfer claws?

[!?!]

1 Ore wagon carries as much as 3 claws and loads just as fast as 1 claw.
Don't bother with crates at all.
The loading and unloading is the biggest bottleneck and clawtrains are terrible at that.
You have to spam multiple individual ones in a mess of hard to delete claw tracks for claw trains to become effective.

[Doom]

Originally posted by pat:

Once we get claw trains, everyone dumps their bots and uses the claw trains to load trucks. But what about intra-factory? At the beginning, we have to set up these convoluted layouts because there are no combiner-splitters, ala Factorio. But lately I've been taking the output of craters and having that delivered to refiner inputs via claw trains. It seems to take less space and it's easier to expand.

Is this something that people are doing, or is there a good reason to stick with the maze of belts and transfer claws?

I'm not sure how you end up with a maze, to be honest.

WIthout claws:
https://ibb.co/WDvmLL5
[img]https://i.ibb.co/TKM9ss2/image.png[/img]

With claws:
https://ibb.co/X4wTJvX
[img]https://i.ibb.co/kydFcWK/image.png[/img]
So, allows to shrink the layout from 7x4 down to 6x4.

Honestly, both claws and belts are underwhelming. Claws increase build costs. A belt is worth $50 a piece, a transfer claw is worth $1000 a piece. And a transfer claw can drag a crate from any belt to any other belt. The problem is this thing moves in a step, one tile per second, for some reason.

A claw rail is worth $50 a piece, however, each claw is worth $2500, they require load/unload spots $1000 each, and those spots for some ridiculous reason ONLY work on top of load/unload areas which are worth $2500 a piece. Also, mining carts transfer more volume than claws (1 crate per claw, 4 crates per cart).

Sorta makes you wonder what the point is.

[Darkaiser]

I was thinking of this last night since we can't use tubes between containers in a building and outside containers. Haven't had a chance to try it yet but once you buy up the crane speed and raise the crane limit this looks like it might work between short distances.

The fact that you can run cranes with tighter turns than ore car tracks means that in tight spaces ( and there are ALWAYS tight spaces...) this might work. Will update if I have a chance to try this later.

[lozacenz]

Claws can also be positioned in the same place that other things already are (with the exception of elevated mine carts), while step conveyors cannot, so if you end up in a situation where your lines need to cross each other (basically 'before you have remote connectors') they have a niche use there too.

[jackal[ronin]]

when i want to transfer stuff from in a building to out a building quickly i set up the following at a door

inside stuff -> small container -> pour outy -> 2 pieces of cart track in the doorway with 1 cart on it -> suck uppy -> container. This way, you can put your track overruns by the outside container instead of trying to find space inside.

same thing for getting stuff into the building, just reversed. It's super simple and super fast.

[Doom]

Originally posted by Darkaiser:

I was thinking of this last night since we can't use tubes between containers in a building and outside containers. Haven't had a chance to try it yet but once you buy up the crane speed and raise the crane limit this looks like it might work between short distances.

The fact that you can run cranes with tighter turns than ore car tracks means that in tight spaces ( and there are ALWAYS tight spaces...) this might work. Will update if I have a chance to try this later.

Sharp turns and passing over things are a good point, however, claw train still leaves a lot to be desired.

Then again, thinking about it a bit longer I realized that you're probably "supposed" to try to lock the claw train in place above the truck/conveyer with that claw gate thing. Then again, claw train gate might not have enough functionality to offer instant 6 crate dropoff/pickup. Not sure if this will even work.

[travi24]

Just started using drones inside my main hub, They load the belts from my finished good belt to the belt that my claws come in and take to trucks, working beautifully, for now. Using ones set of claws for 2 trucks so I have 4 claws running to 8 trucks. Trains coming soon, I hope.

[Doom]

Bah. Of COURSE blocking the claw train above the truck doesn't work. So no instantly loading six crates with the claw.

[!?!]

Drones are pretty much superior to clawtrains for loading trucks in the span between trucks and trains and once you have trains, nothing beats minecarts anymore.
Drones need no setup, each drone is its own entity that can do the grab animation and unloading is instant.

If you want to delete drone unloading, you just delete the drone centers and boom, done.
If you want to delete tons of clawtrain tracks, you're gonna have a bad time.
Especially with things beneath them you don't want to delete.

[tripodalt]

claw train hav a important use
for avoid overflow waste or stuckage in factory
when a tank is full the crate pass the pump anf go to unloader
where you set on destroy all crates
or use a claw train for transfert the crate in excess to another line
who can be in another clustered factory
the connector cannot do it
by evidence the connector are limited to the more valuable use
mixer in and out
what hapend when a tank go full we loosing money
the basic of the game is to not waste or stock

[Xelephant]

drones are only okay if you use them at one spot in your factory. if you use them all over the place the pathfinding gets kinda wonky.
clawtrack benefits from short routes. To many load/unload points slow down your claws, just use two claw track instead.

[tripodalt]

since the begining i not liked drones i never build more than 16 and reduced to 12 when claws
i not supressed all the drone because the claw looked not efficient and the rail not optimally set
when i gone to train i just abandon them
the rpoblem is deconstructing a major risk because old design proved efficiency since long