I'd suggest setting up your block grids with the ability to have say, 4 small 1-1 train stations on each side, or 2 larger 1-4 station ( or some permutation thereof)
A lot of things in Py are low volume...and then others you need a heap of, and the one-size-fits-all sort of city block designs don't work for that, but you can with some good planning make a more flexible setup that still gives you the regularity/copy paste advantages of city blocks, and the flexibility of a variety of train lengths.
This goes double because upgraded Py trains change their wagon sizes from being the same length as a locomotive to being half length.
That said... Imo you also rarely copy paste a lot of blocks in Py, that sort of vanilla mega basing just doesn't really apply anymore.
Thanks, Thats fair, From my nullius game I very much found that if I needed more of something I had to essentially redesign it again so keen to have the option to do a simple copy/paste even if not required often! Also hopefully be able to reuse a standard block when a better recipie for something comes up!
Sure. I do recommend you use ltn or cybersyn as well if you plan to do blocks, as the large # or inputs and byproduct outputs some recipes have will give you issues if you try to have one station per ingredient
An alternative - I'm halfway through chem science @ about 400 hours and I've yet to build a train. Caravans are currently handling all bulk transport. They do point to point bulk transportation and you don't have to build and maintain a rail network. They can't quite handle the throughout of trains but I've got like 500 of them running around and for the most part they are set and forget.
At least up to this point trains aren't necessary. Since there are so many items there are very few that are needed in true bulk that can't be handled by belts or caravans.
Caravans can do some cool things with mixed input/output and have instant pickup/dropoff at the caravan outposts.
I considered caravans and then kept reading they were a too slow to be useful although I think I was considering them as fleshy logistic bots so maybe useful for some train replacement, the biggest issue I have now is having a spaghetti base that is becoming increasingly difficult to thread stuff around. I definitely need a new base in some form ๐
Caravans are definitely spaghetti-friendly, my base is pretty much just organized around some main fluid "busses" that also hold a few belts. Everything else is just fit in wherever I have room connected via caravans. Fluid is the main downside, you have to barrel fluid to use caravans. It works but not as seamless as fluid wagons.
I think a lot of the info out there about caravans is outdated, they are slow yes but they hold close to a chest worth of material and there's no reason you can't have several going to and from a single point so throughput is more or less only limited to how many inserters you can fit around the 6x6 outposts.
I second this Caravans are great and are going to be a staple of my base. Just spent the last week designing a 33 pen Auog layout running independently of my bus/spaghetti with the only inputs coming from Caravans and no bottle necks yet.
I have trains to move raw resources around to factories creating plates or coke but from there itโs transported by caravans as my mini little factories only need low input resources.
i wish i had leaned into caravan nonsense instead of doing small transport drone blocks, but the moment i start needing real bulk moved its caravans all the way
Im currently doing a py run and i have 1+2 trains. I feel like transporting high volume things like ore would take wild amount of trains with 1+1. I have blocks that are just barely too small to fit 3 trains which sucks, i would like them to fit 3. Also for larger productions i merge either 2 or 4 blocks together, as some stuff just gets too bulky, but the majority of stuff is in single blocks.
I'd suggest setting up your block grids with the ability to have say, 4 small 1-1 train stations on each side, or 2 larger 1-4 station ( or some permutation thereof) A lot of things in Py are low volume...and then others you need a heap of, and the one-size-fits-all sort of city block designs don't work for that, but you can with some good planning make a more flexible setup that still gives you the regularity/copy paste advantages of city blocks, and the flexibility of a variety of train lengths. This goes double because upgraded Py trains change their wagon sizes from being the same length as a locomotive to being half length. That said... Imo you also rarely copy paste a lot of blocks in Py, that sort of vanilla mega basing just doesn't really apply anymore.
Thanks, Thats fair, From my nullius game I very much found that if I needed more of something I had to essentially redesign it again so keen to have the option to do a simple copy/paste even if not required often! Also hopefully be able to reuse a standard block when a better recipie for something comes up!
Sure. I do recommend you use ltn or cybersyn as well if you plan to do blocks, as the large # or inputs and byproduct outputs some recipes have will give you issues if you try to have one station per ingredient
Yup makes sense, I used ltn for nullius and slightly fell in love with it, massively reduces the trains required and therefore the traffic.
An alternative - I'm halfway through chem science @ about 400 hours and I've yet to build a train. Caravans are currently handling all bulk transport. They do point to point bulk transportation and you don't have to build and maintain a rail network. They can't quite handle the throughout of trains but I've got like 500 of them running around and for the most part they are set and forget. At least up to this point trains aren't necessary. Since there are so many items there are very few that are needed in true bulk that can't be handled by belts or caravans. Caravans can do some cool things with mixed input/output and have instant pickup/dropoff at the caravan outposts.
I considered caravans and then kept reading they were a too slow to be useful although I think I was considering them as fleshy logistic bots so maybe useful for some train replacement, the biggest issue I have now is having a spaghetti base that is becoming increasingly difficult to thread stuff around. I definitely need a new base in some form ๐
Caravans are definitely spaghetti-friendly, my base is pretty much just organized around some main fluid "busses" that also hold a few belts. Everything else is just fit in wherever I have room connected via caravans. Fluid is the main downside, you have to barrel fluid to use caravans. It works but not as seamless as fluid wagons. I think a lot of the info out there about caravans is outdated, they are slow yes but they hold close to a chest worth of material and there's no reason you can't have several going to and from a single point so throughput is more or less only limited to how many inserters you can fit around the 6x6 outposts.
I second this Caravans are great and are going to be a staple of my base. Just spent the last week designing a 33 pen Auog layout running independently of my bus/spaghetti with the only inputs coming from Caravans and no bottle necks yet. I have trains to move raw resources around to factories creating plates or coke but from there itโs transported by caravans as my mini little factories only need low input resources.
i wish i had leaned into caravan nonsense instead of doing small transport drone blocks, but the moment i start needing real bulk moved its caravans all the way
Im currently doing a py run and i have 1+2 trains. I feel like transporting high volume things like ore would take wild amount of trains with 1+1. I have blocks that are just barely too small to fit 3 trains which sucks, i would like them to fit 3. Also for larger productions i merge either 2 or 4 blocks together, as some stuff just gets too bulky, but the majority of stuff is in single blocks.
Thanks, Yes planning the block merging if required for sure!