[0.12.X] Biter-Friendly Rails

[Hexicube]

Description:
A simple mod that makes rails no longer considered to be built by a player, causing biters to completely ignore them. Intended to be used with RSO and Misanthrope, so that rail maintenance isn't a chore with the increased biter aggression.

Biters will chase after trains that go past, and will still attack signals and stations. Only rail pieces are ignored.

Biters will expand their territory next to rails, as if they didn't exist. As such, long stretches of rails could find biter nests right next to them!

Should work with all mod-added rails or mods that interact with rails. It goes over all added entities that are either "curved-rail" or "straight-rail" and removes the "player-creation" flag, whilst preserving all other flags (such as 8-way-rotation).

Should be multi-player compatible, though I haven't tested. Can't imagine how it would cause a desync.

Details:
Factorio Version: 0.12
Released: Match 18th 2016
License: CC0 1.0

Pics:



Download:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/132 ... _0.1.0.zip

[Factorio2016]

very good and correct mod
Rails and stops are not edible

[Hexicube]

Stops are still edible, the gif didn't properly show that off.

[orzelek]

Maybe also make signals not edible?

Rails without signals are rarely used in any organized transport route

[Hexicube]

You can always build miniature outposts at junctions with some laser turrets to keep the signals safe.

I intentionally left signals and stations out, those have collision boxes and lights on them whilst rails are inert ground pieces. That way, there's still some challenge to getting a long distance railway working, but it will at least be manageable.

[orzelek]

When you ahve signals every 15-20 tiles.. this is not a solution really

I'll stay with my normal rails and make sure biters have something else to eat

[Factorio2016]

stops should be not edible:
-the train will not be able to come in automatic mode.
(I built a railroad, bugs ate it. it's bad. the impossibility to use Railways. they will need to lay down again)
they can nibble stop! But not until the end! it needs to stay.
-need to rename again.
(rename stops again will be annoying)

Signals must be edible.
they blink and annoy the animals
(trains will face will be accidents (fun gameplay))

[Hexicube]

Biters will sometimes chase trains (which is vanilla AI), so either way your stops should be defended.

[Factorio2016]

can make so that they did not chase the train?

[Hexicube]

Probably, but it's against the point of this mod. Rails are completely inert and don't impact biters in any way (they have no reason to attack it like they don't have a reason to attack iron ore).

Trains are loud, coal-powered chunks of metal flying around the place. Signals have lights on them, and stations tower over the landscape (and also have lights).

[Rockstar04]

One downside I have found using this is that I can no longer select rails in blueprints.

[Hexicube]

I hadn't considered that, but there's nothing I can do about it. Blueprints must use the same flag that the biter AI uses.

[seronis]

Signals being visible is purely for the players benifit, not something that the beloved spaceman would really do. The signal objects TO ME would be circuitry built into the rail in non visible boxes that pass those signals through the track itself / wires running along the track. A spaceman would not build big bright flashing things that were not gonna be actually SEEN by anyone (he looks at the control screen inside the train itself).

AKA: there is no reason not to make signals just as biter immune as the rails themselves.

[Hexicube]

True, but bear in mind that normally you wouldn't also build a lot of exposed rails with no warnings. The visible signals are useful so you know when a train is coming, as they turn yellow.

[seronis]

If i cant see the train with my eyes its too far away to matter. I dont sit idle on tracks. The lights serve absolutely zero purpose to me other than burning CPU cycles changing active rendered sprite.

[diilmac]

nice work

[Hexicube]

burning CPU cycles changing active rendered sprite.

The effort needed to change the sprite being rendered is on the order of nanoseconds (logic discounted, because that's mandatory for train AI). It's either a single number stating where in the sprite-sheet it should look, or two for x and y.

[Damrus]

I hadn't considered that, but there's nothing I can do about it. Blueprints must use the same flag that the biter AI uses.

That's a shame :/

Makes laying parallel tracks using Blueprints with F.A.R.L impossible

[Kazaanh]

Any way to make rails visible on the map again?

Wouldn't indestructible tag be better?

[Vittorio]

Hello!

First inconvenient feature is rails no longer visible on the map. Neither mini-map, nor big map (by B keybutton).
Secondly, I cannot deconstruct railts by robots with deconstruction planner now.

If you can fix it, that would be great!