Changelog

Fork of Ragingart's Freight Stations (https://mods.factorio.com/mod/freight-stations),
maintained by rat. Same entities, items, recipes and technologies as the
original, so saves and blueprints carry over - but do not run both mods at
once (duplicate prototypes). Fixes and changes below are on top of 0.12.9;
the untouched upstream history follows after the fork entries.

Version: 1.1.0
Date: 2026-11-06
  Changes:
    - Capacity grows with the group again, in size bands: the group's inventory is its prototype's fixed size, so members are swapped onto the next band's prototype (powers of two, capped at the tier's max_group: 100 stations for iron, 50 for steel) whenever the group crosses a band - rare, unlike the old one-prototype-per-exact-size replacement on every change. Wires, quality, health, last user and a pending deconstruction order carry over, the link id carries over, and items pour into the new band's inventory (growing always fits; shrinking spills the overflow). A group's window shows its band's capacity, rounded up from the member count.
    - Auto-connect no longer places balancer ghosts: a balancer is only placed when the builder pays for it from their inventory (free in cheat mode). Robot and script builds without a player make no connection until a balancer is built or pasted there.
    - Saves from 0.12.x and 0.13.x migrate: the old size-prototype stations (their prototypes stay in the mod, hidden, so the entities survive loading) are converted to the matching size band's prototype on first load. Every old group becomes one new group with a fresh link id; quality, health and last user carry over, circuit wires do not (re-wire after migrating). Bands round up from the old member count, so the old inventory always fits - nothing spills. Old ghosts convert too; ghosts of the old placer machines cannot be built by anything and are gone.

Version: 1.0.0
Date: 2026-11-06
  Changes:
    - Minimal-core rewrite of the whole mod. Stations and tanks build exactly where you place them and share one inventory per group: every member is an access point to the same linked inventory. Every entity is placed directly by its own item - no placers, no entity swapping, no per-size prototypes - so undo, blueprints, ghosts, pipette and fast-replace are all engine-native. Flipping a blueprint row now builds the exact mirrored row (the old known issue is gone by design).
    - Groups are the world: link ids live on the entities and connectivity is walked live, with no bookkeeping storage to migrate. Two non-empty groups merging pour the loser's items into the survivor's; a group splitting leaves the items with the largest piece and the other pieces start empty.
    - A station marked for deconstruction becomes a plain container stand-in while it is the last of its group, so robots empty it load by load; group-mates are simply mined empty, and cancelling restores the station with its contents.
    - Undo works natively: nothing is replaced behind the engine's back any more.
    - Two items per tier place the two axis prototypes (linked containers cannot rotate); the balancer is one rotatable entity per tier.
    - Engine notes from this rewrite, measured headless on 2.1.24: script_raised_built/revive/destroy lost their on_ prefix in defines.events (a nil in ipairs silently skipped them), and get_contents() on a linked container's inventory reads empty even with items in the slots - slot iteration works.

Bugfixes:
    - Fixed cmd+z leaving the stations behind even after the 0.12.11 fix: every group merge or resize replaces the station entities, and the replacements were created without a player, so the engine dropped the undo record the placer swap had just set up (a script destroy removes the undo steps referencing the destroyed entity, and only create_entity with a player adds one back). Replacements now carry the station's last_user, which keeps every resized station in its builder's undo queue - ctrl+z removes the station and refunds the item. Pasted stations are still removed together when the paste's own undo item is undone.
    - Fixed "select new contents" on a blueprint containing rails shifting every rail one tile down and one right: the station-to-placer swap's half-tile offsets made the engine re-snap stored positions; blueprint entities are now stored verbatim (set_blueprint_entities with fix_positions=false).
    - Fixed the cmd+z undo handler never running (an out-of-scope loop variable made it return early), so blueprint-placed stations are again removed - with the station item refunded - when an undo clears the area they were pasted into.
    - Hardened a handful of theoretical crash paths found in a whole-codebase review (a station replacement racing another mod's build, a failed stand-in restoration leaving a nil in a station list, and two unchecked nils in the pipette and refusal paths).
  Changes:
    - Removed the rail-adjacency placement rule and the wagon-slot snapping entirely: stations and tanks now build exactly where you place them, like vanilla containers, and pasted ghosts stay where you put them. This drops the placement guide, the "must stand beside a rail/stop" refusals and the one-tick ghost retry queue they needed. Flipping a blueprint still lands its balancer ghosts one tile off the stations (the engine cannot mirror the placer's one-sided footprint): a balancer ghost inside a built station's footprint is now removed instead of left unbuildable forever, and auto-connect fills the real gaps. Known issue, tracked for a follow-up: if a robot builds such a balancer before the station, the station ghost can still end up stuck.
    - Freight stations (and their placers) are now fast-replaceable like vanilla containers: a station blueprint can be built over an existing station instead of being blocked red - the old station is mined, and the new one keeps the shared inventory via its link. A pending dismantling stand-in whose spot was taken by a rebuilt station hands its contents to that station instead of spilling them.

Version: 0.12.9 (upstream, unmodified)
Date: 2026-10-17
  Bugfixes:
    - Fixed a crash when a freight station marked for deconstruction was removed instantly, for example by Ctrl+Z after placing it in the map editor. Its contents and the station item are kept.

Version: 0.12.7
Date: 2026-10-15
  Changes:
    - New mod thumbnail, showing freight stations and fluid stations beside a stopped train.

Version: 0.12.5
Date: 2026-10-15
  Bugfixes:
    - Fixed a station placed with a single click getting balancers to its neighbours. Only drag-building, blueprints and robots fill the gaps now, so neighbouring stations can be kept separate again.
    - Fixed a hand-placed underground stock balancer or underground fluid balancer not turning round to face its partner.

Version: 0.12.3
Date: 2026-10-15
  Changes:
    - Fluid stations hold 150,000 (three fluid wagons) instead of 25,000, and steel fluid stations 500,000 (ten fluid wagons) instead of 50,000, in line with how much the freight stations hold. Fluid already stored is kept.
  Bugfixes:
    - Fixed the upgrade planner offering every size and direction of every freight station, the steel stock balancers and the fluid stations as upgrade targets. Each of these items now has one entry there, like any other building.

Version: 0.12.1
Date: 2026-10-14
  Features:
    - Added fluid stations: long fluid tanks that sit beside a stopped train, level with its fluid wagons, placed and snapped like freight stations. Pumps and pipes connect anywhere along a station's long sides, and a sight glass shows its level.
    - Added fluid balancers: placed in the gap between two fluid stations, they join them into one shared fluid. Drag-building and blueprints fill the gaps automatically, and never join two different fluids.
    - Added underground fluid balancers, which join the fluid stations on both sides of the track into one shared fluid.
    - Added steel fluid stations, two tiles wide and holding a whole fluid wagon each, with their own steel fluid balancers and underground fluid balancers.
    - Hovering a fluid station outlines every fluid station it shares its fluid with.
    - New research: Fluid stations (after Freight stations and Fluid wagon) and Steel fluid stations.

Version: 0.11.3
Date: 2026-10-13
  Bugfixes:
    - Fixed flipped blueprints of station rows building only some of their stations. Pasted balancers and underground stock balancers now move into the gaps between wagon slots, the way pasted stations move onto their slot, so a row blueprint also works when it isn't lined up exactly with the train stop.
    - Fixed two underground stock balancers not linking up again after removing a third one that stood sideways between them.

Version: 0.11.1
Date: 2026-10-13
  Changes:
    - Stock balancers and underground stock balancers can be walked and driven over, like belts, so a row of stations no longer has to be walked around.

Version: 0.10.3
Date: 2026-10-13
  Bugfixes:
    - Fixed the game failing to load on Factorio 2.1 ("Value must be a list ... circuit_connector").

Version: 0.10.1
Date: 2026-10-13
  Optimizations:
    - Linking, splitting and removing stations in large groups is two to four times faster.
    - Marking a whole group for deconstruction, or cancelling that, no longer freezes the game for seconds: the group is changed once instead of once per station.
    - The mod no longer runs every tick when it has nothing queued.
  Changes:
    - The deconstruction planner lists each tier's stations and steel stock balancers once, instead of once per group size and direction.
  Bugfixes:
    - Loading a save after changing mods no longer switches off recipes that other mods had unlocked by script.
    - Blueprints in the blueprint library updated with "Select new contents" can be rotated and flipped like any other blueprint with stations.
    - The placement guide and group outline are removed when their player leaves the game, and the guide comes back on rejoining while holding a station.
    - Stations another mod placed without telling the game now get linked when the save is loaded after a mod change, instead of all sharing one inventory. A station copied that way no longer takes the original group's contents.
  Compatibility:
    - Station placement collides exactly like the station itself, including collision layers other mods add, so it can no longer be refused on ground where the station would fit.

Version: 0.9.1
Date: 2026-10-12
  Optimizations:
    - The green placement guide is about twice as fast near busy train stations.
  Changes:
    - Mining a station from a group keeps its contents in the group when the remaining stations have room. You only get what no longer fits.
    - Splitting a group shares items out by whole stacks, in proportion to each part's size.
    - When robots take down part of a group, its contents move into the stations that stay, as far as they fit, instead of leaving with the dismantled part.
    - A station marked for deconstruction leaves its group at once and becomes a plain chest holding what the group can't keep. Robots empty it like a vanilla chest and then remove it, returning the station last, instead of leaving a carpet of single items on the ground. Cancelling turns it back into a station.
    - Loading a save re-checks every group against the stations and balancers actually placed.
  Bugfixes:
    - Mining a station that isn't linked to others no longer deletes its contents; they go to your inventory.
    - Splitting a group that holds many different items no longer spills part of them on the ground.
    - Fixed a crash when linking stations after another mod removed a balancer without telling the game.
    - Groups stay correct when another mod destroys a station without telling the game.
    - Steel stock balancers keep their quality when placed.
    - The group outline while hovering a station now updates when the group changes under the cursor.

Version: 0.8.1
Date: 2026-10-12
  Changes:
    - Stations and balancers are kept out of the upgrade planner.

Version: 0.7.1
Date: 2026-10-11
  Changes:
    - Blueprints with stations can be pasted next to a ghost train stop.
  Bugfixes:
    - Fixed a crash when merging into a group.

Version: 0.6.1
Date: 2026-10-11
  Changes:
    - Entity descriptions.

Version: 0.5.1
Date: 2026-10-10
  Changes:
    - Items moved to the vanilla train row of the Logistics tab.

Version: 0.4.0
Date: 2026-10-09
  Major Features:
    - First release.