Are trains even any good?

[democles_pl]

I've mostly just been setting up miner/smelter colonies around with a conveyor belt to bring me the refined units to get constructed at my main base.

... why would I want a train? It seems like a less continuous supply and more convoluted system?

(I've seen some videos of giant bases with mammoth tower factories drawing resources from all over the map but I don't see why you would ever need to pull that many resources in the first place?)

[Suzaku]

Trains move a lot of resources, liquids included, to wherever you want them. They're for the people that want to use them. Technically you'll never be more efficient than just using belts, because that's your main limiter in the game, but stringing miles and miles of multiple belts across the world is a feat in itself compared to just placing a single set of rails, and some consider long belts ugly, as well as the performance impact of having to render all of the materials on it compared to a single train car carrying thousands of items within it.

[Cipher]

Originally posted by Suzaku:

Trains move a lot of resources, liquids included, to wherever you want them. They're for the people that want to use them. Technically you'll never be more efficient than just using belts, because that's your main limiter in the game, but stringing miles and miles of multiple belts across the world is a feat in itself compared to just placing a single set of rails, and some consider long belts ugly, as well as the performance impact of having to render all of the materials on it compared to a single train car carrying thousands of items within it.

100% Depending on your Rig belts are heavy performance!! Compaired to Slot Inv systems.

[cywizz]

[quote=
(I've seen some videos of giant bases with mammoth tower factories drawing resources from all over the map but I don't see why you would ever need to pull that many resources in the first place?) [/quote]

It all depends what your goals are, but for some the challenge IS to pull as many resources as possible to cater for high tier items. For example, I used the satisfactory calculator to calculate what is required to produce 1 Super Computer per minute (Which is very slow!)
You will need:

160 copper ore per minute
234 cubic crude oil per minute
26 iron ore per minute
1.374MW Power for all the machines

That is the requirements for ONLY 1 super computer every minute and there are many items using the same resources, so you can imagine why you will need all the resources on the map and other ways to get the ones far away, like trains

[Utnapishtim]

I use trains for transportation around the map. Hypertubes are fine, but i use them for shorter hops. I love being able to move from one side of the map to another with a trainload of supplies.
Yeah, for resource movement, I'm happy to build crazy stacks of conveyors.
The joy in this game is doing whatever is fun for you!

[Maehlice]

Trains excel at moving high variety and volume over long distances.

Each Freight Platform is fed by 2 belts, therefore each car is equivalent to two belts.

Each Freight Car acts as a separate container, so there's no extra combining and (smart) sorting necessary on either end.

One train can mix items and liquids without issue.

Each train can be theoretically infinitely long.

A player can essentially run the equivalent of an infinite number of separate belts and pipes by running one train and the associated route(s).

And on top of that, the railway itself doubles as a power line and as personal transportation.

For players moving a lot of resources across the map, setting up one train beats a dozen+ belts any day.

[democles_pl]

Thanks for the replies :)

I started my first game in the 'experimental' area that was supposedly challenging in vertical lifts. There isn't much space so I suppose my base never needed to consume that much.

I'm at tier 7 is the map option unlocked with tier 8?

[Liobuster]

and it greatly reduces the load on your machine because belts have to be rendered for the whole length as moving items where as the train only renders the cars for the same purpose

[Liobuster]

mappin is not tier blocked
its in the M.A.M. under the quartz section

[Doomier Guy]

I've quickly learned that you need to go big or go home ASAP in this game.

[pazartesi_gorusuruz]

Originally posted by democles_pl:

I'm at tier 7 is the map option unlocked with tier 8?

Map is unlocked through the research tree! I think it was the quartz tree?

Question: Do I need two freight platforms to handle 2 freight cars? Do you ever need two cars worth of stuff? It seems to me the basic lines can be handled with just one car looping all the time. How hungry of a base you would have to have in order to fully consume multiple cars worth of stuff before it loops back with full cars again??

[Troll]

Originally posted by pazartesi_gorusuruz:

Originally posted by democles_pl:

I'm at tier 7 is the map option unlocked with tier 8?

Map is unlocked through the research tree! I think it was the quartz tree?

Question: Do I need two freight platforms to handle 2 freight cars? Do you ever need two cars worth of stuff? It seems to me the basic lines can be handled with just one car looping all the time. How hungry of a base you would have to have in order to fully consume multiple cars worth of stuff before it loops back with full cars again??

You need as many freight platforms as there are freight cars.
As for the quantity, it depends on how big your separate factories are, and how logn the loop is.

In my last game I had a 1 engine 3 fright cars train, looping through the main base and 4 stops.
The train would go to the oil products part and fill up car 1, then to the iron and quartz products and fill car 2, it would then go to the nuclear ractor area and grab the wastes in car 3. Finally it goes back to base, empties car 1 and 2 and goes to the sea to dump nuclear wastes in the undersea storage facility. Then back to the loop.

This way, the factory storage would fill again and be ready for a new train round.
Having multiple cars, even if each isn't full, makes it easier to output your production without having to sort it right ou of the freight platform.

[pazartesi_gorusuruz]

Ohh, so that's what the empty platform is useful for xD I was wondering what that was for... Currently I am only using a 2-car train for hauling silica and alumina solution from the same spot, because they get produced at the same time and I need them back at the base, so there's a use.

I wonder if some of my train routes would be more efficient if I used the same train loop all the routes. Like instead of having a train bring plastic and then go back, another one brining steel pipes and beams and then going back, and the alumina stuff and back..

Also I wish there was a way to make the trains not loop if the storage "somewhere" (destination for example) is full. Because they just seem to be looping with a full inventory of stuff when there is no place to take them

[Dunhill]

They come into play very very late. You unlock them very late on, at least compared to Factorio, and they're not viable even then. I'd say they become decent when you set up extractors for most resources in two separate areas. Otherwise, just use belts, and maybe trucks.

[gussmed]

Trains are, in fact, quite viable. Rails cost 25% of what belts do, and you can run multiple train routes along a single set of rails. If you have an existing rail network, you only need to run a short branch off the main line to transport additional material.

Trains aren’t that late. As things are implemented now, they’re roughly at the halfway point. The show up when you’re about to transition to oil power, which is going to require that you transport plastic and rubber long distances, and before aluminum and nuclear, both of which are complex and time consuming to implement.

[pazartesi_gorusuruz]

Originally posted by gussmed:

Trains are, in fact, quite viable. Rails cost 25% of what belts do, and you can run multiple train routes along a single set of rails. If you have an existing rail network, you only need to run a short branch off the main line to transport additional material.

Trains aren’t that late. As things are implemented now, they’re roughly at the halfway point. The show up when you’re about to transition to oil power, which is going to require that you transport plastic and rubber long distances, and before aluminum and nuclear, both of which are complex and time consuming to implement.

what they don't crash into each other?