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Factorio is the only game I have played that where the player can design rail systems. So I dont know how other games do it and I have never felt the need for a S.Curve. The current rail system is hardwired into my brain at this point but once I saw the new rail system and the train bridges my jaw dropped since then I have not been able to stop thinking about it.
How do signaling work in other train sims?
S-curves are essential to create by-passes when two trains use the track going in opposite directions. Those by-passes use a parallel track that is right next to the mail track. S-curves are essential for sidings as well.
Mind you, this isn't a game about trains, it's a game about building a factory, and trains are just one of multiple mechanics that this game has.
Personally I would like there to be more in-depth electricity system with different voltages, current limitations and maybe some other adverse effects that a poor or damaged system might have - imagine half of your factory being set on fire because you didn't put a fuse, biters ate your only power line to your other half, and suddenly voltage spiked to twice the required amount. But I understand that it would affect performance badly and would generally not be welcomed by majority of playerbase, let alone DEMAND IN CAPITAL LETTERS that it would be implemented now and not later.
Troll away. Terrible opinion aside, i guarantee you the devs, if they read your post, are gonna think the same thing i just said, grow up. Its not even constructive critisicm. Your just being sh1tty.
S-curves also exist, you just have to offset your tracks by 4 tiles. It's an artifact from very long time ago and would be changed for everyone, as was stated, not just owners of a DLC. Only bridges are going to be sold for money.
The changes covered in FFF #377 are, as you requested, being made for free in the base game which everyone now owns. That is part of the version 2.0 update. That we know of other updates to version 2.0 include the smarter robots, changing expensive mode from a simple setting to a full mod, and changing the research queue default setting from 'after launching a rocket' to 'always'. Turns out that the last of those, research queue, may not have to wait until version 2.0. It is already in the experimental version 1.1.92, including a new console command, which is not achievement-breaking, to turn on the queue in current games where it was not set to always in the map gen settings. I, personally, would love to see the next stable release version include the new rails. I have thousands of rail prints I need to outright replace, or at least rework and check, to use the new rails. Yes that is thousands, as in I quit counting them at 3000 as I was going through my print book. That task will not be complete until I start, and I cannot start until they add the rails to the game in release.
There is nothing incorrect about comparing the operation of game elements between games which have the same elements. Comparing the train track options in Factorio to those of Transport Fever, or Transport Tycoon, or comparing the automobile's handling in Factorio to that of Grand Theft Auto, or GranTourismo, for examples, can give someone context to see what their opinion of a game is. If the feature, trains in this case, is the primary focus of the player's choice in playing the game, such comparisons have more weight than other comparisons. If the feature is less important to their play of the game, the comparison has less value. Each player must choose the features they find important, and judge the game on those grounds. The difference is that one player's evaluation might not match another player's as they have different goals, play-styles and values for game elements.
I, for one, find the car (and the tank) almost impossible to effectively use. I kill more of my factory, or trees, than biters when driving the tank. I've never gotten the hang of using the weapons while driving, let alone the tactics others use like throwing grenades or capsules while driving in circles around nests. I've done quite will with GranTourismo on the PS2, however. In my case, the car and tank become secondary, or much lower, tools to use but rarely, while not changing my opinion of the game. My goals don't focus on driving or rely on driving to achieve them. I know others in Discord who practically swear by the tank while I couldn't care less.
Unlike the car and tank, however, I love the trains and they are always a central part of my factory builds. I have not played any other game with trains, so I have nothing to compare them to. Perhaps that lack of comparison keeps me from seeing the issues other players do. I've always struggled with the size of the curves, making weird patterns to compensate for the restricted range. It has not caused any actual problems, just requires me to back up, sometimes literally a few rail segments, and replan my "plan". Signals, on the other hand, I've found quite simple, fully functional, and intuitive. Again, I don't know how other games implement signals, so I cannot compare them. I have not, yet, found a situation where how to signal some section was not able to be figured out, and accomplish my goals for that section. There is a minor, though acceptable caveat to that; I cannot always actually place a signal where I want one. I accept that as a limitation of the game by being a grid-based game and things have to be placed within that framework. The same as not being able to place belts and buildings exactly where I would like, but only on the lines of the grid. So I can place rail curves too close together and not have room for a signal, on the grid, where one needs to be on the "logic" of the junction. Again, that's a case of backup and redraw the junction. Unless the game switches to a free-form placement system, that will always be a problem, no matter how they design the rails. And, from experience with something as simple as placing icons on the computer desktop I already know that I don't do well with free-form placement, but much prefer a grid-based system.
Although rails are an important part of my base designs, they are still a minor point in the totality of the game. The game, in my view, is about solving the puzzles of managing logistics and space to achieve some goal. Usually the launch of a rocket, often followed by scaled up production, but not always and seldom in my case. My last game was actually driven by the idea of making a complex train system and the "production" was merely a backdrop for the trains. Even then I found nothing unacceptable, or garbage, with the trains in Factorio.
Prior to the announcement of elevated rails, I actually have, or had, very few "asks" for the train system. My number one thing is that a locomotive ought to be able to "drive" in reverse. Reduced power perhaps, along with lower speeds even, but still able to completely operated from one station to the next entirely in reverse. Otherwise everything else is just things to make my ideas easier to create, and might not be of value to others. I'd like to be able to have a train's schedule change, or perhaps be branched, based on signals from the current station. I'd like to have trains know when their fuel is low and only then go to get more rather than having to either provide fuel at every station, just in case, or create a fuel depot and route every trip through there, every time. Again, just in case. A train with rocket fuel can operate for well over an hour between fuelings, but I cannot create a 1-hour long schedule in for the train to make it only detour once per hour to refuel, and if I could, I'd need to make a different schedule every time I changed the fuel. I'd like the ability to create a switch yard where sections of the train could be decoupled and the train could be rebuilt. That would make mutli-product dynamic trains possible rather than typically single product static route schedules. None of these things are deal-breakers, and all just set the parameters for the puzzles to be solved.
The new rails does solve one issue, and perhaps a few others I haven't encountered. It does not handle any of the the other issues I have, nor even my big "ask" of reverse drive. There are still many more announcements to come, and some of them may even address my personal issues. The elevated rails solve one problem I had, and didn't expect a game-provided solution to.
I am not interested in how other games permit tracks to be laid, or how they do tunnels and bridges. All that is what I see as the game developers working within what ever engine limits they have chosen. I am interested, greatly, in how other games implement signals. While I have no problem with Factorio's signals, and have so far understood them enough to accomplish all my needs, I do know that many do not understand them as well, and even find them impossible. As a railroad sim enthusiast you seem to be in a good position to explain to me how other games use signals, or rather, what signals they have and what the rules they operate under are. Factorio only had two signals, as you obviously already know, the rail signal and the chain signal. The rail signal's rule is simple: if there's a train in the block marked by the signal it is red, if a train approaching has reserved that block it is yellow, otherwise it is green. The rules a train follows for rail signals is, likewise, simple. If it is green and the train needs to enter that block, it reserves the block. If it is red or yellow, the train looks for a better route and if one is not found, it will go to the signal and stop until it is able to reserve the block, at which time it continues and enters the block. Chain signals are only slightly more complex, for both the signal's rules and the train's rules, yet are still quite simple. What and how are the signals in Transport Fever? Or, if you've played it, how are signals used in TTD, which I've seen mentioned many times in these threads?
Only 500, I have 5 times that. And am also a rail network fan, and have played or tried many many other railworld games.
TPF2, please, that game was so buggy, and only survives thanks to the dedicated modding community.
Parallel tracks right next to each other. I may be a rebel, but have ALWAYS done that in Factorio. Yes it has some issues. The Signals are different, but every train game is and Factorio's do work.
I am not keen on the new elevated tracks, but will get used to them. And like others have said Factorio is NOT a train game. It is a game that has trains.
The Factorio team are fans of Transport Tycoon Deluxe (and OpenTTD). They even mentioned it explicitly when they first introduced the signaling system.
Says the black knight.
S bends are coming, it was already covered, read wider buddy.
2 way rails require no signals of any kind if it is only going to be used by a single train. If it is designed for multiple trains it only requires paired signals at junctions and intersections. Sidings in Factorio don't work because the trains aren't programmed to reverse directions in automatic mode. If you want them to reverse directions you have to add a loop at the end of the stations so that they can make a 180 degree turn.
If you are going to do more than launch 1 rocket two way rails don't provide enough throughput and you'll need to switch to paired one way rails in any case which will save you materials and time in the long run since you can just make spurs and junctions off of your paired main rails instead of increasing your throughput by running a separate set of rails for each train you will use.
or are we thinking the Expansion is now Space Age, and any reference to expansion or Expansion would be Factorio 2.0?
either way - new rails are in the free update - which is nice :-)