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!

Well, balancing out so many mods could be problematic, especially when they are already used and users are used to theirs characteristics.
It can surelly be made by additional mod option though.
My mod is problematic to balance - those trains should be faster (advanced materials, aerodynamics), but not too much. Flat solar panels were logical addon on them, but they are unrealistically powerfull for theirs size, so i was forced to add 50% lower consuption efficiency (magnets in rails sure needs some power).
They can be powered by internal grid too, so it is additional balancing problem.
But yes, i have no problem to add new options, if i am provided with needed values.
Option could be somthing like normal/multiballanced/multiballanced fast + options for % change of speed and efficiency.

It is clear that global balance is not a simple matter. But I think it's worth it. Because there are a lot of good and varied railway mods, and many of them would perfectly complement each other if it weren’t for balance problems.

Looking at the problem in private, in the case of your mod, I noticed two main problems in connection with the integration with Krastorio 2:

1. Discrepancy between the characteristics of locomotives and wagons
2. Hardware mesh mismatch

Here are the characteristics of Krastorio 2 locomotives and the most integrated Krastorio 2 mods with it - 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, equipment grid 12x12
Nuclear locomotive:
Weight 12000, acceleration power 3MW, maximum consumption 3MW, 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

Krastorio 2 wagons have a 6x16 equipment grid

Your big locomotives generally retain their vanilla stats and have a much smaller equipment grid. Wagons have no grid equipment at all.

Small locomotives and wagons are certainly smaller, but also insufficient compared to Krastorio 2

And one more thing - I was not able to find continuity between the study of rail transport and space railroads. Although, in theory, it should be ...

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....

1. Equipment grid - there are settings if it should be created by this mod and with what size - 12x12 is not in option list (max is 10x10), so it is created from other mod.
2. Those trains are specifically made for low-g nearly vacuum environment, which is bug-free and so they are not suited for combat (rooftop solar panels are also not so great on surface). Equipment grid is thus primarilly for power production/roboports.
3. Low weight is from advanced materials.
4. Long locomotive have air resistence only of 0.0056, short locomotive 0.0064 and wagons 0.008 - standard diesel locomotive have 0.0075 and wagon 0.01, so space variants are less affected and thus faster, than standard variants (air_resistence should be in comparision list too).
5. Bonus to acceleration doesn't increase fuel consuption - i learned it while trying to implement different battery charge states (to lower consuption when low on power, but only acceleration can be changed and it didn't lowered fuel consuption).
6. Small trains have worse air_resistance and are less fuel effective, but they needs less space, are much better at low amount transports (most SE items are needed in small quantities and i didn't wanted to use drones because of attrition) and have better acceleration thus better at short range and lot of crossroads. They are certainly not good at mining outposts, consider them more like local transport units.
7. I was too lazy to add new research - it is even harder when you can disable solar variants by tiers individually and small variants - it should be research behind space rails and solar variants behind space trains and solar panel variants, but in fact why have space rails without trains for it (diesel locomotives should be banned from space/surfaces without adequate atmosphere) - and slapping flat solar panels on rooftop is just simple task.

I can certainly add more grid options (if some mod will not override it of course), but consider them lightweight version.
And as i have written - it should be no problem to change power/charge with settings (although they are already written in description, i hope it can be changed). Internal size too, but wanted them to be not too overpowered, so internal space is not that bigger.
All i need are wanted changes to be implemented - it should than be not hard to implement them.

Thanks for the answer. Your position is clear.

Really I just wanted to balance all the stats of locomotives from different mods and their equipment grid sizes into a coherent system. And also to form a single integral system for the development of railway transport within the framework of SE + K2.

I would also like to point out that:

For example, the difference in equipment grid size is critical in that your high-tech trains will be significantly less flexible in terms of game add-ons, and weaker in comparison with other, less technologically "advanced" conventional trains. Which in Krastorio 2 have a several times larger equipment grid.

With inconsistency in technical characteristics, your reasoning is interesting and, to some extent, logical. But the difference in weight and power is 10 times !!!, even with this explanation, it still looks strange. I would agree with you if the difference in weight and power were 1.5 - 2 times compared to conventional trains

Regarding research, your laziness argument is absolutely crushing (just kidding).

I wasn't suggesting adding new research - I was suggesting adding new dependencies of space rail technologies on conventional rail technologies. And about the fact that there should only be space trains in space, I absolutely agree with you!

1) Equipment grid can be set larger, but i thing it was addded by other mods, not by Space trains (max size is 10x10 in its settings) - i can change settings to select bigger sizes, but it must not be overriden by other mods (some adds grid only if it is not set).
2) Weight can be changed, but then also power to balance it out. Other locomotives are equiped for combat and made from a lot of steel, so i wanted to differentiate from that.
3) As far i know they are unlocked by Space rails research. But i have not played K2+SE, so maybe K2 changed that?

Thank you for your responses!

It is quite possible that in your case my claims are unnecessarily exaggerated.

Although - when I tested your mod in a place with Krastorio 2 - the characteristics of your trains are rather closer to vanilla, and do not correspond to the logic of your reasoning.

And since Krastorio 2 increases some characteristics of trains by 10 times, the dissonance between locomotives from other mods that have retained vanilla parameters is very significant.

On the equipment grid - I'm sorry! I did not guess about the mod settings, so I remove the question. I hope my inattention did not offend you too much.

As for research - everything is in order - Space trains are available after researching the space railroad.

I was just noticing the lack of dependency of the space railroad research branch on the base (vanilla) railroad research.

1) I am not offended. Those were reassonable questions.
2) I haven't know K2 changed characteristics so much. I can certainly made some changed when K2 is detected (althought possibly through optional settings, to not change them, if someone is already used to them).
3) Space rails research is from SE - it can be reported to Earendel to change that, but i think he expected trains be already researched.
4) I wanted those trains to be not too much better than vanilla trains - just much better in space with lot of light and not burning fossil fuels without oxygen. I haven't used them on surface (unrelliable light source), used short variants on main orbital base (they performed excellently for my base) and long variant in mining operations of naquite (was forced to make recharge stations after some distance because of 1% light and after finishing of game to also to add charging from grid).

So i can certainly add more grid size options (like 12x12, 16x16, 20x20), option to change weight, power and efficiency (like increase weight 4x, power 2x and efficiency to 100%) and maybe even some option to increase statistics even more (if someone needs them more powerfull).