Good afternoon! I am writing this message to a few rail mod developers in the hope that someone will respond to it.

I tried to put together some amazing rail mods within the framework of a single concept of Space Exploration + Krastorio 2 and found a terrible inconsistency and inconsistency in the characteristics of locomotives and cars, including regarding the equipment grid.

For example:
The weight of ordinary Krastorio 2 locomotives is several times, or even 10 times higher than more advanced versions from other mods.
equipment grid of locomotives Krastorio 2 12x12 and wagons 6x12. In other mods, there is either nothing, or much less.
The rest of the characteristics dance no less.

I, unfortunately, am not a programmer, but these mods ideally diversify the railway and logistics aspect of the game in all directions, especially within Space Research + Krastorio 2. Therefore, I propose to work out a single system for integrating the characteristics and research of railway transport for all these mods within the framework of Space Exploration + Krastorio 2 .

This can be done individually by adjusting your own mod.

And you can make an add-on, or a fork, in cases where the developer, for some reason, abandoned his mod and does not respond to messages

Here is a list of mods for which I propose to make a single integration:
Realistic_Electric_Trains_1.1_fix https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Realistic_Electric_Trains_fix
Battery-Electric Train https://mods.factorio.com/mod/BatteryElectricTrain
Bob's Logistics modhttps://mods.factorio.com/mod/boblogistics
Bob Logistic Krastorio2 Nuclear Locomotive https://mods.factorio.com/mod/BobLogisticKrastorio2NuclearLocomotive
Krastorio 2 - Additional Locomotives https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Krastorio2-more-locomotives
Space trains https://mods.factorio.com/mod/space-trains
Armored Train (Turret Wagons) https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Armored-train
Diesel Trains https://mods.factorio.com/query/Diesel%20Trains?version=1.1
Cargo Ships https://mods.factorio.com/mod/cargo-ships
Cargo ships rescale https://mods.factorio.com/mod/cargo-ships-rescale

Attached to the message is a screenshot showing a unified structure for the development of railway transport https://ibb.co/QQxP0GH

Thanks! I will be glad to any response!

Hi, thanks for your interest in my mod.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure what you actually want me to do. Do you want me to adjust things like locomotive weight or equipment grid? Do you want me to change the tech requirements for the battery-electric locomotive tech? Do you want some kind of unified tier list for trains and battery-electric locomotives would only be available after researching some of the other tiers first?

I don’t understand what the screenshot at the end is supposed to tell me either. What do the numbers mean?

Regarding the weight and power of battery-electric locomotives: How do they compare to the standard locomotive of Krastorio 2? I can easily make it so that battery-electric locomotives have all the same properties – except for the fuel – as the default locomotive.

Regarding the equipment grid: The recently released version 1.1.5 of the Battery-Electric Train mod should give battery-electric locomotives the same equipment grid as Krastorio 2 locomotives. Is that what you wanted?

Regarding your plans in general: It’s an interesting idea, but I don’t think it’s feasible and I doubt too many mod authors will be interested in it. The idea of having multiple train mods is to provide a wide range of different trains so that players can choose what they like. Unifying them and making them more similar would reduce diversity and would probably only cause other players to create their own, more different train mods.

Thanks for the answer!

This is a generalized letter to all developers from the list of mods listed.

I just considered this moment in a complex - how to combine and balance, within the framework of a single concept, your mod with a Battery locomotive, Wired electric locomotives, Armored trains, Diesel, Nuclear, Thermonuclear and anti-material locomotives, as well as Ships.

Specifically, in the case of your mod, for example, it makes sense to improve the integration with Krastorio 2 by some things:

1. Adjust the characteristics of the battery locomotive in accordance with Krastorio 2 standards
2. Add equipment mesh according to Krastorio 2 standards

Ideally, it would be to create a single concept for the formation of a hierarchy of development and research of railway transport. Screenshot https://ibb.co/QQxP0GH is an example of how such a hierarchy can be built. But here complex work is already needed, maybe even with the involvement of the developers of Krastorio 2.

I understand that this is a utopia, but, as they say - "hope does not shame"

Specifically, in the case of your mod, for example, it makes sense to improve the integration with Krastorio 2 by some things:
1 Adjust the characteristics of the battery locomotive in accordance with Krastorio 2 standards

Sorry, I don’t understand what you mean with that. What are the “Krastorio 2 standards”?

2 Add equipment mesh according to Krastorio 2 standards

This has already been added in Battery-Electric Train 1.1.5. Does it not work for you?

I was a little exaggerated about the standards. :)

Here is an example of the characteristics of locomotives and wagons in Krastorio 2 and the most integrated Krastorio 2 mods - Additional Locomotives https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Krastorio2-more-locomotives and SE Space Trains https://mods.factorio.com /mod/se-space-trains:

Regular locomotive:
Weight 10000, acceleration power 2MW, maximum consumption 2MW, equipment grid 12x12
Nuclear locomotive:
Weight 12000, acceleration power 3MW, maximum consumption 30MW, equipment grid 12x12
Thermonuclear locomotive:
Weight 13800, acceleration power 3.94MW, maximum consumption 39.44MW, equipment grid 12x12
Anti-Material Locomotive:
Weight 17940, acceleration power 5.18MW, maximum consumption 51.84MW, equipment grid 12x12
Space locomotive:
Weight 12000, acceleration power 4MW, maximum consumption 4.21MW, equipment grid 12x12

And your mod has vanilla specs
Battery electric locomotive:
Weight 2000, acceleration power 0.6 MW, maximum consumption 0.6 MW, unfortunately I did not find the equipment mesh.

For example, a comparison of the Krastorio 2 Locomotive Modular Grid AND your battery locomotive https://ibb.co/20z15dz

Unfortunately, the way Krastorio 2 modifies trains is somewhat restrictive. The authors apparently prefer to modify the other trains in the Krastorio 2 mod instead of modifying the vanilla locomotive early to let other mods copy that. From what I see, the only way to get your grand unified train scheme put into practice is with support from the Krastorio 2 developers. Asking all the train mod authors to adjust their mods even though Krastorio 2 potentially overrides most properties anyway is bound to fail.

The equipment grid should be available. The user who requested that feature confirmed that it works. Either you have a version older than 1.1.5 or you didn’t select the Krastorio 2 equipment grid in the Battery-Electric Train mod settings.

I agree with you that without the developers of Krastorio 2, my proposal is meaningless, so I sent this message to them too.

I'm under no illusions about how easy it is to convince so many different people to join forces to create a cohesive balance of their mods. I just had this thought and I wanted to share it, including with you. I think - the idea is quite sound.

Concerning specifically your mod - unfortunately I can not confirm your words about the equipment grid.

I have version of your mod 1.1.5.
There is a setting "Equipment grid for locomotives"
It has two options "kr-locomotive-grid" and "None"

Tested your mod in the Map Editor:
I tried both options - the result is the same - there is no equipment grid.

It's possible I've found some kind of bug in the mod....

If you need any additional data, such as logs, I am ready to provide them.

As for the characteristics, I don't know why the developers of Krastorio 2 changed them. But I suspect that the increase in weight increases the force of the collision, including when ramming enemies.

Maybe you have more information about this?
Because I have not yet received a response from the developers of Krastorio 2 on my message.

In principle, to improve the integration of characteristics - you can try to add one more item to select the characteristics of the locomotive in the mod settings: Vanilla or Krastorio 2.

There is a setting "Equipment grid for locomotives"
It has two options "kr-locomotive-grid" and "None"

Tested your mod in the Map Editor:
I tried both options - the result is the same - there is no equipment grid.

With the "none" setting, having no equipment grid is to be expected. ;)

Could you please set it to "kr-locomotive-grid" and upload the factorio-current.log somewhere for me?

I found the cause of the error with the hardware mesh

The problem is related to the mod miniMAXIme: Character scaler and selector https://mods.factorio.com/mod/minime
I will copy the contents of the log in the next message. I will delete it after your reply.

Regarding the overall balance:
Maybe this information will be useful for you...

I received a response from one of the developers of Krastorio 2 - raiguard, that he is considering my proposal, and generally agrees that there is a problem.

Maybe some solutions will come from their side....

Log text removed

Log text removed

Thanks, now I know what the problem is. It’s not related to miniMAXIme.

It will be fixed with the next release and the equipment grid should be available for you then.

Many thanks! Delete log text

Feel free to try out version 1.1.6 of this mod and compare the battery-electric locomotive to the regular Krastorio 2 locomotive. Weight and acceleration power should be the same now, in addition to having the same equipment grids.

Thanks! But, unfortunately, I updated your mod, but I did not find any changes in the characteristics

Maybe you will be interested: I recently created a micromod balancing several railway mods with Krastorio 2, including yours.

https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Train_balanced_K2_plus

If you manage to solve the difficulties with the integration of your Krastorio 2 mod, then with a pure heart I will remove the balance settings for your mod from my mod.

Thanks

Actually, never mind the weight and power. My mod still can’t copy those from K2 because K2 introduces those changes too late. My mod’s trains will have to be updated along with all the other trains, either by K2 or by your mod.

The missing equipment grid should be fixed now, though.