Factorio Forums

Hey all, I'm still relatively new to the game but I guess I don't see the purpose of trains when you can just build belts to connect resources. Usually when you are connecting a distant resource you have nearly infinite space anyway so you could theoretically build like 10 belts if you needed to get good throughput. Is there something I am missing?

Morlow wrote:Hey all, I'm still relatively new to the game but I guess I don't see the purpose of trains when you can just build belts to connect resources. Usually when you are connecting a distant resource you have nearly infinite space anyway so you could theoretically build like 10 belts if you needed to get good throughput. Is there something I am missing?

the steel is cheaper over the long distance

though in vanilla maps with default settings you don't really need trains which is why RSO exists

On longer distances it' s cheaper in sense of construction materials needed, as you need 2 belt sections to cover the same distance of 1 straight rail section.

Doing some quick math :
2 straight rail sections cost 1 stone , 1 steel & 1 iron stick to craft that could be also expressed as 1 stone and 5.5 Iron plates.
Whereas to cover the same distance with 4 express belt (blue ones) would cost you 86 iron plates and 8 lubricant
To do the same in red belts would cost you 46 iron plates.

Then of course there's the achieved compression 1 train wagon is about 3.5 rail sections in width (horizontally), lets say 4 for easy calculating., which equals to 8 belts
a Train wagon can hold 1.5K of ore whereas the same length in a single belt can hold about 60 ore, so you would need 25 belts to achieve the same amount of materials in the same length, wihtout taking into consideration speed diffrences.

The belts have the only advantage of ease to use. Everybody knows how to use belts, even zillions of them.
A complex train setup, on the opposite, requires a double PHD to setup correctly.

Of course I'm obviously exagerating, but there's a bit of truth in what I said above : I have somewhere between 400 and 500 hours of gameplay, and have never needed trains badly enough to actually try and figure how to actually do it. The countless how-to's, help topics about deadlocks, chain signals and all that stuff just discourage me to even try. My opinion might be biased however. Maybe is it just a piece of cake, but it's the way I feel it .

Aha, I hadn't figured that track is much cheaper especially then the faster tracks. Thanks!

This being a sandbox game, the only real answer is: because they're cool

I second the idea of trying out BSO, it places the good resources fields much further away, so you almost need trains.

Besides the advantages mentioned above, I can think of two main advantages of trains over large numbers of belts:
1) more flexible to adapt. As soon as you have double tracks going everywhere, you can easily increase throughput by just adding more trains, and decrease the amount of trains as an outpost runs dry. Building 10 rows of express belts is not so easy to do and adjust
2) passenger trains: the easiest way to move long distances is to hop on a train yourself and tell it where to go. I usually build separate "inspect" stations and railway lines near outposts and border sections just to make moving around less painful. You can add a wagon stocked up with basics (plates, gears, circuits, turrets) to make sure you never run out of iron just while you're setting up a new outpost or building an important part of infra.


Also, I've never tested it, but don't biters attack belts if they happen to run into them? They leave tracks alone, which means you don't need to defend the tracks, only the outposts.

I'm new to the game but finished the campaign which requires a train setup (some of the work is already in place which helps a lot!). It was a bit fiddly to get it working but not really any more difficult than the true train sim games and a basic single line with a loop at each end worked perfectly for me. Knowing where to offload and onload was a bit trial and error but I kind of liked that.

So why have a train? Speed, and they are just great to fiddle with! it is so quick to just hop on it to get to another build area and I personally enjoyed setting up and adjusting the route. I'm now several hours into a sandbox game and am just considering setting up a train route from my ever expanding main base area. I don't NEED to do it.. I just want to do it

This being a sandbox game, the only real answer is: because they're cool

Pretty much this. Regular unmodded map settings will get you to space without ever really NEEDING to use trains.

Everyone else pretty much covered the major points. Trains let you move vast amounts of resources (or yourself) at a high speed. One rail loop can easily support multiple outposts and multiple lines can keep dozens of rocket assemblers working around the clock. A large setup can even take you automatically across the map to wherever you want. That makes them COOL.

All said is true. Note also this comparison between the different types of transport: https://forums.factorio.com/wiki/inde ... ch_case%3F

Ok riding trains is a great idea. One thing I don't like as my factory gets bigger is how long it takes to get everywhere..

I've read this some time ago:

Belts are the basic
logistic bots are good to move a lot of stuff over short distances (I use them mainly inside my train loading / unloading area)
Trains are good to transfer lots of stuff over long distances.

Why use trains?

To use up all this red paint.

Finally. Closure.

Koub wrote:The belts have the only advantage of ease to use. Everybody knows how to use belts, even zillions of them.
A complex train setup, on the opposite, requires a double PHD to setup correctly.

Of course I'm obviously exagerating, but there's a bit of truth in what I said above : I have somewhere between 400 and 500 hours of gameplay, and have never needed trains badly enough to actually try and figure how to actually do it. The countless how-to's, help topics about deadlocks, chain signals and all that stuff just discourage me to even try. My opinion might be biased however. Maybe is it just a piece of cake, but it's the way I feel it .

This is why we need the mini tutorial tree that I'm thinking about.

ssilk wrote:All said is true. Note also this comparison between the different types of transport: https://forums.factorio.com/wiki/inde ... ch_case%3F

Heh, feels like ages ago I helped with some of that information. Early game, they are not much use as resources and biter proximity are fairly abundant, other techs tend to take priority. You can manage fairly well for a couple hundred segments to link in nearby copper, iron, or oil fields. Beyond that, you may want to consider trains. If you manage to find some extra space and want to "outsource" production of various goods, a train can also handle complex supply loads where a belt can only handle 2 different item types before sorting becomes tricky. Bots can handle complex logistic demands, but if you're operating a bot hub grid greater than 3x3, you're already starting to lose a significant amount of throughput (and forget about trans-map shipping via bots). That's another discussion entirely, of course.

One other reason I would like to add... Is for performance reasons. Belts are one of if not the biggest performance hog in the game. Running tons of belts across the map I imagine would greatly hurt your FPS and UPS. Trains on the other hand don't take hardly any processing power compared to belts.

The reason, why I like trains in factorio?
Once you set your train loading / unloading up, you don't have to change it anymore.
With a good railway setup, you can just connect the new outpost to your network, and you're done.
And if you want another outpost, just add it to your network the same way. And another one... And another one... And...

Koub wrote:I have somewhere between 400 and 500 hours of gameplay, and have never needed trains badly enough to actually try and figure how to actually do it. The countless how-to's, help topics about deadlocks, chain signals and all that stuff just discourage me to even try. My opinion might be biased however. Maybe is it just a piece of cake, but it's the way I feel it .

Trains are legit a piece of cake, I've got about 100 hours and I mostly understand the ins and outs of the train system, at least on a basic level.

kohli wrote:-- removed by daniel34

What does this have to do with Factorio?

mooklepticon wrote:

kohli wrote:-- removed by daniel34

What does this have to do with Factorio?

Maybe that's an advanced spambot. First it makes almost-relevant posts to gain legitimacy, then it starts linking to products.

Because trains are cool man