Train Fuel interrupts, any vs all

[Forblaze]

What exactly is the difference between these two interrupts?

I assume these exist so that you can send a train to a refueling station when it gets to low fuel. I feel like saying "if fuel (any locomotive) < X" means that the train goes to the station if ANY locomotive has low fuel, even if it's not necessarily the train with low fuel. Similarly, I feel like fuel (all locomotives) is saying that ALL trains need to be at low fuel before the interrupt works, which just doesn't sound useful.

Am I misunderstanding what these are for? Or am I just not interpreting them correctly?

[Scipione]

the "any vs all" is only for this train
you can have trains with multiple locomitves
thats what is for, so you can differ if you want the statement to be viable for "all locomotives within this train" or "any locomotive in the train"

[Forblaze]

Originally posted by Scipione:

trains with multiple locomitves

Ah ♥♥♥♥, that's so obvious. Thanks

[Khagan]

Originally posted by Forblaze:

that's so obvious. Thanks

You are the second person to ask the same question this morning, so perhaps it's only obvious in hindsight.

[Fel]

A train can have several locomotives.
One of the best example of this are trains going back and forth on a rail without loops after the stops, having a second locomotive pointing in the other direction (usually at the other end of the train) to be able to go "backwards" (technically forwards but with the other locomotive).

Larger trains can also require more than one locomotive, in the same direction this time, to increase the acceleration that is lost due to the "weight" of the wagons.

Any locomotive is useful in those cases since it allows you to send the train for refueling if at least one of the locomotives is running low.

All locomotives would instead be useful if you don't mind one or more locomotives running out first, usually only applicable for trains with several locomotives going in the same direction but needing to go through relatively long distances for example.

[Chindraba]

Odd. In my limited use of multiple locomotive trains I cannot think of a case where "all" is actually useful.

Multiple locos all facing the same way: Presuming they start life with the same fuel load, they will all consume the same rate of fuel and "any" would be the same as "all". Essentially it's the same as a single loco, just longer and more powerful.

Multiple locos in both directions: It is quite probable that with auto pathfinding and repeated trips the loco(s) facing one way will exhaust fuel sooner then the other direction. "Any" allows for the train to refuel if that happens even though the other way is in good shape. "All", however, runs the risk of the fast-users getting completely empty before the other direction is low enough to trigger. Now the train is stuck somewhere without fuel, and no way to get more.

In the first case "all" is redundant and in the second case it's just a big risk. I have to think that the devs encountered a case where "all" had a use, but I can't picture it in my own reasoning.

[Fel]

Yeah, "all" would be at best of very limited use, you would need to do something like specifically making all but one of the locomotives (in a case where they are all facing the same direction) run out of fuel after having fully accelerated in a very lengthy trip to save a bit of fuel or something like that.

I can't picture a situation other than a very niche use where it would be useful, but maybe the devs just decided to give us the tools regardless.

[Chindraba]

I have considered that there is a mod, if not 2.0 ready yet it probably will be, which allows for automatic coupling. If locomotives are in that mod's controls you could, possibly, end up with a multi-loco train with unbalanced fuel supply and, as long as one has fuel it will keep moving. WUBE is quite mod friendly and they could have been thinking ahead for such cases. Maybe anyway.

[Scipione]

a rare use case would be (as example): you play a railworld and have very distant railstations and you want to be sure all the locomotives in a train have atleast enough fuel to do a full roundtrip

[Fel]

Oh right, it's not necessarily "if all ran out", it could be "if all are over X amount" as well as a "reverse" way of checking fuel and sending the train off to a long distance trip.

[Scipione]

Originally posted by Fel:

Oh right, it's not necessarily "if all ran out", it could be "if all are over X amount" as well as a "reverse" way of checking fuel and sending the train off to a long distance trip.

yep, thats what so great with this game, you can always find new ways to use stuff you already played thousands of hours with ^^