trains taking way too long to load

[kraysellz]

Trains at trainstops will take forever to load a product if the trainstation is being fed into it from a belt constantly. So if I have a fast belt or omni pipe that is feeding beef into the train station at a fast rate, the train will just keep on loading it and loading it until maybe 10-15 seconds later or if the incoming product stops coming in. I'm guessing 10 -15 seconds is the max a train will wait at any train station no matter what and I'm guessing the issue is that the train keeps on rechecking to make sure it has something more to pick up before it moves on but it keeps on rechecking and rechecking since items keep coming in.

My game is rendered unplayable now because trains take way too long to make its cycles. Omni pipes aren't fast enough and they are messy to use if too many needs to be used. I'm on endless research now at end game and I require fast throughput of products but with this stalling it's backing up all my chain of products. Hope to get this quick fix in the next update.

[Erik Asmussen]

Originally posted by pat:

I have 0.180b. In that scenario where I posted that screenshot a few posts ago, I was able to resolve it with that minecart delivery. But I just turned off the minecart and had a belt deliver from the barn to the train station. The train with 5 boxcars stopped and waited approx 20 seconds before continuing.

Edit: I have no "move cargo" recipe.

Ok looks like there's a bug there I still need to fix up. Thanks for the info! I'm in the middle of a pretty big rebalance so I can't push something up very quickly, but I'll try and get it into the next one I publish. Maybe a week?

[kraysellz]

Originally posted by Erik Asmussen:

I thought this was a bug I fixed in the last version (see patch notes below), although it's possible the loading functionality is working differently than the load functionality.

The Train Stations shouldn't have a 'move train cargo' recipe anymore, because that functionality is now contained within the Train itself.

What version number do you see in the bottom-left when you launch the game? If it's less than .180, try updating the game. If it is .180, maybe there was an issue with the game migrating your train stations to use the new logic. If you build a new train station, does it still show the 'move train cargo' recipe?

Wait, so has this anything to do with my original post? I feel like everyone is talking about something that's unrelated to what my original post was talking about, or maybe everyone misunderstood what I was trying to get at. So it seems like this post has been hijacked by some ppl who are talking about something similar but unrelated to what I was trying to say or maybe they misunderstood me.

Anyways, all the above has nothing to do with what I'm talking about. Let me reiterate, and by the way, I think the Dev did fix this in a recent patch because I saw it working again where the train didn't take forever to load stuff, but now it went back to taking forever. It's possible that this happened when I switch to another computer but shouldn't because the version is updated and my saves are on steam cloud.

So my issue is I have a train station (several actually) that is being fed by multiple belts and omnipipes where the items are constantly being pushed into the train station, at a pretty fast pace. The train stops to load up the items but it still waits a bit to see if it has any new items to load even if there's 1 more that came in, so it loads that and waits a split second, but while it waits, there's more items coming in, so it loads that and waits and this continues for 15 to 30 seconds which is way too long. I'm hoping you can change it so that it only does ONE PASS and that's it. These trains need to move fast so there should be no reason for it to keep on trying to do many passes and keep trying to load even a 2nd time because loading everything first time is good enough, even a 2nd time wouldn't be worth it because the qnt is so small anyways. I understand why one would want this I guess since some trains will have to travel long distances so it's best use of time to make sure everything is loaded before the long transit, but in my case, I'm in end-game mode and trying to increase my throughput from everything (belts and fast production time) so I can get as much in as possible into the temples to get stars so I need a ton of qnt coming in and out in a short distance, and trains are the only way I can move 500 qnt of something into the next building quickly even if that building is right next door. Yes I can use omnipipes but they get messy fast if you have a small amount of space for what you're trying to do.

Here's a few screenshots:
snipboard.io / YFHgsc.jpg
snipboard.io / BMro9D.jpg
(no spaces above, i had to add spaces cuz steam kepts removing my link)

First one screenshot shows a sub-production chain to get gold/stones/iron and the 2nd one shows the main train track connecting that sub chain with the other sub-chains i have to product the final products of all of the products for offerings for stars. The train keeps stopping for long time in each station trying to get every single bit of items that is constantly being inputted into station. Please see if you can allow us to control how many times it tries to load. Once is enough for me. Thanks! Great to see the devs here responsive from feedback!

[ed]

This is the same issue. The trouble is that after the train loads everything that was in the station it checks again. If it finds one more item it loads that item, and repeats the process. So if items come in at just the wrong rate the train will load one item at a time until it's full, which takes forever.

You can work around this by making the items come in bursts, one long enough pause will send the train on it's way. I did this with a caravan, someone else did it with a mine cart, and an actually clever person used compute blocks.

The real fix is to make the train less optimistic (Hey, there may be more stuff, I'll look again!) and Eric will have a look at this after he finishes rebalancing things.

[Erik Asmussen]

Checking back on this - sorry it's taken a while, because the latest patch turned out to be pretty big.

I was able to reproduce the issue. It happens if you have items in the station that are not accepted by the train (due to an item filter). After the transfer completes, the train checks the building and sees that it still has some items to load. But, it doesn't check to make sure the items are actually compatible. So, a train can be fooled into waiting at the station for another transfer attempt, even though there's nothing else to load. It will eventually leave if the train is full, or if there are no valid items at the moment it attempts the transfer. But as you can see, if items are moving into the building fast enough, it will be able to perform a successful transfer, is fooled again, and stays there for a long time.

The fix is that it now confirms that any items remaining in the station are actually compatible with the train. If it can't find any, then it leaves immediately after the transfer.

I'm hoping to have this patch (.181m) on the beta branch in a few hours, and live on the main branch probably tomorrow.

[pat]

Huzzah!

[Erik Asmussen]

FYI this fix is now live in patch .181.

[pat]

I'm running .181o and the train still waits a very long time.

Edit: I must have a recently updated version, because I just tried laying some underground pipe and it looks very different.

[Erik Asmussen]

You can see the version number in the bottom-left of the launch screen.

If it is .181o, can you send me your map file? It's in:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\ [your account ID] \860890\remote\Saved Games

and you can email to [e-mail]

[mikeydsc]

Pat, do you make new maps when updates drop, or do you keep playing the same map?

If its the same, how many updates has it gone thru?

[pat]

Originally posted by mikeydsc:

Pat, do you make new maps when updates drop, or do you keep playing the same map?

If its the same, how many updates has it gone thru?

I absolutely don't start a new game with every update. Can't tell you when I started this one. Weeks, though.

[pat]

Originally posted by Erik Asmussen:

If it is .181o, can you send me your map file?

I was unsuccessful finding the file. I sent you an email with my attempts.

[Erik Asmussen]

I go the map file from Pat, and there was indeed a new loading bug - if the station keeps getting different items which are valid for the train, it will keep attempting to load one item, then the other item type, etc.

I'll fix this up, hopefully in next patch

[Erik Asmussen]

Think I've got this fixed. It'll be in the next patch.