Reasons
- It is strange to use diesel locomotives in space (for obvious reasons) - with all of this hi-tech materials new trains are needed.
- Vacuum/low pressure and low-gravity
- Using magnetic power to stay on tracks in space and even in high-speed
- Electric power is easier to get in space and it does not need oxygen
Detail
- New locomotives has internal battery (no big capacity) which can be charged with multiple sources
- New variants with those efficient flat solar panels on rooftop can be enabled
- Charging from internal equipment grid
- Charging station for low-solar sorfaces
- Electric power is equally distributed between all locomotives in train and wagons can help with power too
- New trains are faster with better acceleration (usig holmium magnets, low-weight components and high power), but with 50% power efficency (that power is needed to stay on tracks)
- Have slighly higher capacity
- Can be used on surface too (good aerodynamics and they still have wheels too)
- Low health/resistances - not very good for dangerous zones
- Charge state is visible as remaining fuel (sorry, no other visuals available now)
- Train must be at least 10% charged to move (odd behaviour on low power)
- Currently no special research - trains are unlocked by Space rails and Flat panels
- And
Short variants
- Short variants with lower capacity can be enabled
- In SE many items are needed in low/medium quantities, but many types of them are needed, so train stations for normal trains can use a lot of space
- Locomotives/cargo wagons are of length 2,5 (normal size is 6), so 2 of them fits nicely in space of normal sized wagon
- Short fluid wagons are of size 3 - pumps are very sensitive on positioning
- Short fluid wagons must have odd number of short-sized locomotives/cargo wagons in front of them, but there can be any number of normal sized ones or short fluid wagons (see picture)
Charging from equipment grid
- At least 1 battery must be present
- Options available to enable equipment grid (on space trains only)
- All locomotives/wagons with grid in train contributes to this
- Settings to limit charging
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- Maximum fuel state of train do drain battery (good with using solar variants)
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- Minimum battery state - when that power is needed for defense
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- Minimum fuel state - if it is too low, minimum baterry state is ignored (when mobility is more important then defense)
Warnings
- This is my first mod and i am not good at graphics (using Blender for the first time)...
- I have not tested this in multiplayer
- Maybe it could use some optimizations (but it seems to be not too much UPS heavy)
- I am using them for some time and they works nicely
Possible future changes
- Electric fuel state visualization - but i have not needed this, so not top priority
- Some optimizations
- HD graphics
- Graphics tweaks (like cargo wagons have no moving doors)
- Better integration with some mods (for equipment grid)
- Standalone variant (if needed)