The Hinge: what's the deal with it not welding properly?

[Old-gamer]

I'm thinking this is not a new issue, but am currently trying to work on a turn in a section of rail. I was trying to play with some Hinges, but they are not holding their welds properly.

I can weld the Hinge just fine, but when I go into the Hinge setup and set it for free travel, it breaks the weld to a block it was previously welded to. What that really seems to be telling me is that it never welded correctly in the first place and releasing the Hinge just shows that it was not connected.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1531270921
PS: The rotor serves no purpose in the capture. I was just using it as a test since I couldn't get the hinges to behave (stay welded). So, I plopped the rotor in between them just to see if I could cause the hinges to stay together using a different part. I've also run into this same hinge-weld issue using hinges on vehicles where all looks good until you release the hinge.

[CoinSpin]

Well that is just weird! I know you've been around the block on this game OG, so I'm just going to assume you built it in the right order (... block, hinge, rotor, hinge, block ...), in which case this actually could be a bug introduced in a recent build. Might be worth doing a bug report and getting them the save file to the devs. Particularly if it's a repeatable behavior.

[Junkasaurus]

Actually, I think a video first would be better. CB is probably receiving hundreds of bug reports. We could first check if it really is a bug before sending them another report. Is it possible for you to record the process so we can see it happening?

[Old-gamer]

Yes, I've tried multiple scenarios with setting the blocks and hinges in a variety of placement orders and weld orders. Can't seem to find an order of placement and weld that results in the hinge holding place on both sides.

I've successfully used hinges in the past (within the last 3 months), but now they don't seem to want to connect and stay. The problem is always on one side as well depending upon which side I initially place the hinge in the placement order. I was wondering if some "hinge awareness" was out there that I'd missed.

[Old-gamer]

Originally posted by Junkasaurus:

Actually, I think a video first would be better. CB is probably receiving hundreds of bug reports. We could first check if it really is a bug before sending them another report. Is it possible for you to record the process so we can see it happening?

No I don't do videos, but like to watch 'em...😎

[Junkasaurus]

Are you trying to connect two ends of the rail together by a hinge? Because you cannot connect to grids together. You could branch off from a grid , but you cannot connect two seperate grids.

[Old-gamer]

The rail originates from a single grid with (originally) just blocks used for the turns that you can see down the line within the turn. But, I ran into a problem getting the rail-vehicle to navigate the turns using just blocks. So, as a test I broke into the turn and was thinking of trying some hinges in hopes to allow some movement (wiggle room) for the turn.

The problem with getting hinges to place and stay properly is not just with that rail. I am seeing the same issue on the rail-vehicle if I try to add any hinges to it as well. In the past, I have had no problems adding hinges to a vehicle (typically flyers). But now, that particular part just isn't working like it used to.

[Old-gamer]

Here's capture just down-rail of the capture that I shared above. I'm actually not very far from one side of my Rail-station and Base where I was building out the rail in that turn area.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1531369300

[Menzagitat]

Originally posted by Old-gamer:

No I don't do videos, but like to watch 'em...😎

Here, I made one :)
https://youtu.be/jEBATBFMsOE

[Old-gamer]

Watching your order of build, I see why your connections are holding. Being in "creative", you are welding each piece as it is placed. In "survival" it is not automatically welded and players will often lay things out first and weld later.

It also matters as Junka was saying that you are still on the same "grid" to avoid having hinge separation issues. In my scenario (above), when I broke into the existing rail (which was originally all on the same grid), I separated the rail into (2) grids at that moment. The slight screen lag that happens when you make that break is a clue.

So, my takeaways from playing with this further are:

• If you break a grid, only start adding hinges from whatever is your main grid going outward.
  
  
• Weld each hinge as you go outward from the main grid.
  
  
• When the last hinge is in place, adding another section of rail to it (going outward) will cause the level of the rail to droop starting from where you added the hinge(s). You saw that in your video as well. I have some ideas about how to deal with that droop so that the rail remains level. You could also use that droop to an advantage if you wanted to change the elevation of the run at that point.
  
  
• Using a series of hinges set to form a very gradual turn may be one solution to making turns on rail. I need to play with this further, but can already tell from the (4) hinges in the capture below that it may work. It is tedious work to set each hinge to just the right amount of turn and will result in a very gradual radius turn. But that is how rail works in RL too. Another way of addressing this need is to provide a swiveling ability in the rail vehicle itself.
  
  
• Wishing the Devs could just give us some curved blocks that would make rail turn creation easier and maybe attempted more by players. We have asked for this many times in the past, yet it remains unanswered.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1531845743
PS: Thanks for all the help and advice fellas! 😎

[Old-gamer]

Well, I got a complete rail-curve built entirely from hinges. It is very 'janky' and not a good solution for a variety of reasons. Hinges don't allow you to attach other blocks underneath them (for support trestles). They heave, sag and will not hold position regardless of being "locked". For example, with every hinge locked, if I remove that farthest support trestle from the end hinge, the entire hinge-curve assembly will fold back toward itself.

Back to the drawing board...
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1532068461

[Old-gamer]

Taking several chapters from our Nomad buddy "Squidge", I decided to grab a copy of his Rail-vehicle and return to using standard blocks for corners. Squidge's design works rather well to navigate the turns that my vehicle was not doing very well. As I always do, I tweaked things to match what I like in a vehicle, but retained Squidge's wheel layout that navigates turns so well.

Here is Squidge's Rail-vehicle in the Workshop:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1505073338&searchtext=rail

...and my working turns rail that will be a WIP.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1532308792
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1532314502