Is it worth setting up trucks?

[Nannerb747]

I have both trains and trucks unlocked and I'm about to set up a highway system around the map. I'm wondering if I should just ignore the highway and go straight to trains, or is it a good idea to have both.

[Tenzek]

Originally posted by kLuns:

Batteries and plutonium fuel rods last longer than cokes. Packaged fuel is also easy to make for trucks.
And they use less batteries than drones.

Trucks use fuel so slowly, so packaged fuel is pretty convenient. Once you get to turbo fuel, if you feel like making a 1-car train to distribute it, you can handle pretty much any practical number of trucks from one impure oil node.

[God of Snacks]

Im hoping that full release has like Tier 2 trucks that recharge at stations rather than take fuel

[Judge Rhadamanthus]

I use trucks a lot. I like the logistic challenge. The key is petrol stations. Its a pain to refuel your trucks at source or destination. I run them around the map and set up a series of docking stations that refuel them. The key is each petrol station needs three depots. A clockwise refuel, anti-clockwise refuel and importantly a separate depot that supplies the fuel. So there is a coal truck that circles the map delivering coal to the petrol stations. The two petrol stations are set to load, so they wont effect the trucks inventory, just refuel them. The third depot is unload and the only truck that stops there is the "tanker". Tanker unloads coal to third depot, which in turn feeds into the fuel slot only on the other two. Tanker depot is facing a seperate direction so other trucks dont dock there.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2912147674

[XLjedi]

Originally posted by God of Snacks:

Im hoping that full release has like Tier 2 trucks that recharge at stations rather than take fuel

I like that you raise the point for discussion!

On this one, I disagree. I don't think the refueling mechanic on any vehicle needs to be modified... but curious to hear other opinions as well.

[kLuns]

Originally posted by Judge Rhadamanthus:

I use trucks a lot. I like the logistic challenge. The key is petrol stations. Its a pain to refuel your trucks at source or destination. I run them around the map and set up a series of docking stations that refuel them. The key is each petrol station needs three depots. A clockwise refuel, anti-clockwise refuel and importantly a separate depot that supplies the fuel. So there is a coal truck that circles the map delivering coal to the petrol stations. The two petrol stations are set to load, so they wont effect the trucks inventory, just refuel them. The third depot is unload and the only truck that stops there is the "tanker". Tanker unloads coal to third depot, which in turn feeds into the fuel slot only on the other two. Tanker depot is facing a seperate direction so other trucks dont dock there.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2912147674

That seems to be a good method. Im going to make batteries and try this for my nuclear plant.

[Mr.America]

After having tinkered with trucks a lot I think the best use for them is to gather ressources from a location to a central node in a circular path that does not cross over itself if possible.

That way you can set up a number of truck stations at your central hub, fill them with fuel, have your truck stop at all of them to unload and do your sorting behind the scenes. Now you save that vehicle path and add trucks to the path until your outgoing truckstations stop filling up. It'll take about 2x10 - 2x15 truck stations and a bunch of smart splitters behind it, but it's a great use of trucks.

It is a hastle to get the fuel supply to where you want it, but once set up for the first time, increasing throughput is as easy as putting down a truck, getting in, load path, enable autodrive. Protip: Use trains to deliver fuel to everywhere and take back the ressources (further processed if possible)

[Khaesho]

If you have trains already, trucks probably aren't worth the effort. That said, early game (Just after coal power, and during initial steal setup) Trucks can be HUGELY useful for transporting mass amounts of material at distance.

EX. Me and a buddy, made a sky highway for a simple back and forth route transmitting Steel Bars into our main hub for processing into other mats. Single resource means you don't need smart splitters, and one (1) truck (on a short-ish track) was netting 14 stacks/min = 1400 steel bars transferred per minutes.

So, as the game progresses we can upscale that steel refinery as needed and the one truck wont hit capacity until we hit truly ludicrous volumes of steel, and at that point we'll either have trains or mk 5 belts or other means of transport.

Tl:DR Trucks/Tractors are nice for early game bulk transport of raw materials, less so for late game stuff.

[syro]

trucks are not worth the effort. it's a lot of work to get the paths correctly. make one mistake and you have to start all over. even when it appears to work, they still eventually get stuck. compounding that is the lack of a buildable highway so laying foundations for them to drive on is clunky and tedious.

[Tenzek]

Originally posted by Judge Rhadamanthus:

The key is petrol stations. Its a pain to refuel your trucks at source or destination.

Since I have my trucks and tractors converge below a train station, I like to use a train to distribute fuel along the rail line and feed the drop-off points for all of the trucks.

[Illuminia]

Originally posted by XLjedi:

Originally posted by God of Snacks:

Im hoping that full release has like Tier 2 trucks that recharge at stations rather than take fuel

I like that you raise the point for discussion!

On this one, I disagree. I don't think the refueling mechanic on any vehicle needs to be modified... but curious to hear other opinions as well.

I personally wish Tractors/Trucks had some alternative power options.

I'd love to be able to automate small-scale BioMass / BioFuel production, even if it would make just enough to enable fueling vehicles in remote locations away from Coal/etc. (Grow plants in automated greenhouse, convert to biomass, fuel vehicle)

... especially if we could pump liquid fuel into a vehicle, instead of having to use packaged fuel. (Seriously, it consumes the plastic/iron containers too!? lol)
I know right now it's a technical limitation - they can't make it so the port or vehicle can accept Solid OR Liquid. .... I'd be fine with just different versions of station/vehicle for liquids.

I'd love an mid/late game upgrade that can make vehicles run on electrical charge, like a built-in power storage battery that can charge at Stations.


... but it's not likely to happen ; and there are reasons that people rush to Trains.

I might setup a bad race track for all the tractors i'm "retiring", just because.