How to lay down railroad track

[valenti_scott]

Hello-
I am learning how to lay down railroad track. First, yes, I see that curved track per se no longer exists. So I'm ignoring information on using curved pieces of track.

I found a YouTube video (DDDGamer LP) which seems pretty good and recent. I see that I can lay down a single piece of track. Then, if I hover over the piece of track I get two green arrows. I can click on an arrow and then move the mouse, and I get a green outline of track in any direction, straight or curved. Cool. I click again, and the track is laid down.

This is where I get confused. I still get green track, but I can't curve it anymore. It seems I can curve the track in a 45-degree curve, but from there it has to be straight.

Also, it is not clear how I say I am done laying track. I should be able to right-click or something to indicate I am done. The only way I see if saying I'm done is to put the track icon back on my toolbar.

The YouTube video talks about pressing shift-click, and I get "curvier" track, but it is laid down in white, meaning that it is a blue print, but I haven't gotten into blue prints yet. One thing at a time, please.

So, I'm making a little progress, but not as much as I'd like.
-Scott

[whiter2501]

First, there is two ways of laying tracks. You found the first one, and you can lay 90 degree tracks with that method, just drag mouse in the direction and slightly back. Does take some getting use to it.

The other method is using your roboports (if you have any) by shift-clicking on the green arrow. This will allow you to lay longer lines and it will "try" to lay them around anything that is in the way.

When you are done, press 'Q' and it will take you out of track assist and you can start placing other track piece, if you wish.

[whiter2501]

I would also get blueprint ingredients so you can blueprint all your tracks segment types, will save a ton of grief on crossings and stops. More so if you are OCD, like most of us that play this, myself included ^_^

[Name Lips]

I find I want to lay tracks to get new resources long before I get any kind of robots in the air, let alone the personal roboport that makes railroads easy to construct in blueprinted chunks. I consider modular armor to be end-game tech, and railroads to be early-middle-game tech.

Make sure you experiment with and understand the signals and how they interact with intersections, stations, and junctions.

[whiter2501]

You can also use the blueprint as a layout so you can put the tracks down yourself. Also roboports will build anything in its coverage area, not just your personal roboports

[AlexMBrennan]

I should be able to right-click or something to indicate I am done

Why?
For literally every object you cancel object placement by pressing Q or placing it back in the task bar so the current behaviour is perfectly consistent. For the record, RMB is used to pick up buildings.

[valenti_scott]

Ah, I see how to get a 90 degree curve now, thanks. And the Q key to stop laying track. Cool. I guess I should start learning about robots and blueprints.

[Name Lips]

Originally posted by whiter2501:

You can also use the blueprint as a layout so you can put the tracks down yourself. Also roboports will build anything in its coverage area, not just your personal roboports

Yeah but if I'm building a railroad, the point is to cover a great distance, and it seems odd to have already plastered the route with roboports. I would assume that somebody who's outside their base building railroads with robots would more likely be using a personal roboport.

[Solark]

Originally posted by whiter2501:

More so if you are OCD, like most of us that play this, myself included ^_^

I thought there was a reason I liked this game...