Smart Train Combinator


A train-stop combinator that validates each train's dedicated buffer individually, instead of pooling all station storage together. One main unit wires to the station; empty 'buffer probe' shells each wire to a single train slot's chests. The main reads every probe's network independently and calls a train only when that slot's buffer is actually ready. Inspired by Simple Train Combinator by Odja_Anarchist.

Utilities
a month ago
2.0 - 2.1
293
Trains Circuit network

g Question

a month ago

Okay - I love trains, I wanted to try this mod.. I just need help understanding. If this mod doesn't dispatch trains, why do you need it? Seems like it just Auto names Stations for you, but you're still setting interupts? I am I missing something.

Are you able to upload a blueprint book with examples.

a month ago
(updated a month ago)

Fair question, the naming is the visible part, but it's not the point of the mod.

The core of it is the L and P signals sent to the station.

L (train limit) is only emitted when every wagon's dedicated buffer can be served. Vanilla circuit setups read one big station-wide buffer, so a station with 3 wagon buffers where only the first one is full still says "I can load a train". The train shows up, fills wagon 1, and then sits at the platform for a long time — while another station was actually better balanced. STC checks each wagon's buffer individually, so that station simply doesn't advertise itself.

P (priority) is computed automatically from how empty the station is: a fully empty station outranks one that still has stock. On top of that there are priority tiers, so you can favour some stations over others — e.g. prefer iron coming from a productivity-bonus smelter over a plain one, or drain a specific buffer first.

So yes, you still write your own interrupts / schedules — the mod doesn't dispatch. It makes the numbers the vanilla dispatcher reads actually correct at the wagon level.

The auto-renaming came later, and it opened up a second idea: mixed stations. With the advanced (multi) module, one single station can alternately request ore and coal — handy for smelting setups — instead of building one station per resource.

On the blueprints — good call, they're now in the mod description, one per mode:
- Mode 1 — one main combinator, two generic probes. Note that each probe is wired to its own chests and only to those; that isolation is the whole point.
- Mode 2 — same probes, but the multi-resource brain: one station, several resources, renamed as it claims them one at a time.
- Mode 3 — typed probes, one per resource, each with its own independent buffer and its own train length.

And if you want the other half of the loop, I made a companion mod: https://mods.factorio.com/mod/train-foundry-stc — it builds the trains and the schedules from the station names STC produces.

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