via PM, i got convinced that all my problems which i described in other posts, are no bugs at all and everything is working as intended, although some of my applications are difficult to do with the current intended workings.
that being said, two questions about what Optera just suggested :
Optera wrote:- Set your requester to constantly request a decent sized shipment of byproduct x
- add a decider combinator between pickup storage and stop set to byproduct x > desired shipment size = everything
this is similar to a suggestion how to do transports without "best effort" taking effect. but:
while the threshold is not reached, everything is fine, but what will happen during the time after the threshold is reached and before a train is sent and lowers the amount below the threshold again ?
if i now understand this correctly, a first train will be sent to grab the available items and internally that amount will be reserved, but until that train arrives and lowers the amount below the threshold, the decider will still forward the current amount and thus LTN will see more items arriving at the provider station and send a second train for a low amount of additional items. depending on how often and how many more items arrive and how long it takes the first train to get the items (lowering the amount below the threshold of the decider), the decider will keep sending the numbers to the station's input and LTN maybe even sends a third or more trains to get low quantities each ...
since the providing station can't know whether a train (and with what capacity, etc) was sent, the signal can't be shut off before the train arrives and lowers the number below the threshold. to know that, the output of a station would need to make available internal data like a signal for the number of reserved items (similar to the currently available signal of what the train wants to load or unload, but the new signal already being sent when a train is scheduled and didn't arrive yet), so that the decider calculates numbers based on that corrected amount and shuts off the signal below the threshold before the first train arrives.
how can this be handled with the signals that are available in the current version to avoid getting more trains sent for low amounts? maybe the simple decider (that compares amount to a threshold) needs to be replaced by a setup with two arithmetic combinators that calculates the amount of items for full loads like this:
available amount / desired min amount (rounded down) = desired number of trains
desired number of trains * desired min amount = amount to send to the station's input
Optera wrote:Note: I've set max train length to 4 on the requester and added a two L-CC-L train only for those runs. That way my normal deliveries are never touched by this.
nice idea to use the train length for simulating separate networks. but won't your shorter special trains go to your longer normal stations too? and in case that my normal trains are shorter, special trains no longer would go to normal stations, but the normal trains might also go to those special stations. to really separate groups of trains or stations from each other, or to have not only one but two or more types of special trains besides the normal trains (and thus using three or more different train lengths), we would need an additional signal "min train length" besides the currently existing signal for "max train length".
this new signal could also be useful to force long trains on a separate rail for refueling and waiting at a depot. without such a "min train length" signal, no big train would enter short stations (forbidden by use of low values for max length) but that long depot station could still be used and thus blocked by short trains. and thus i still would have to build
all depot stations long enough to be usable by the longest train even when 99% of my trains are only short trains.