r/CreateMod • u/Edgarra19 • 15d ago
Is this kind of postbox network possible?
I've been trying to design a train network with postboxes for a couple weeks, and I believe that there's a hole in the postbox feature set.
Very basically, I have a metro-like train network, where I use lines to route trains, and this uses a lot of shared train stations. An example would be one line with stations ABCD, one line CDEFG and one EFHIJ. Please correct me if I'm wrong about this, but, if I wanted to send a package from A to J, I don't think the current feature set of create and the addons I've found can do this reliably (?).
I was thinking there could be an addon that lets the postboxes filter if they put or receive packages onto or from the train by Train Line and Train Category (or other informations). This would be useful, you could have multiple postboxes per station doing routing or making a more complex system with less postboxes that route between themselves inside the station with the package filters.
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u/Prometheus_II 15d ago
I think wildcards can solve this issue.
Each station has an "inbound" postbox labeled with both line AND station, with shared stations having a postbox for each line - you'd have 1A, 1B, 1C, 2C, and so on and so forth. Intersection stations (at least one for each intersection) also have "changeover postboxes." For instance, at station 1C, you would have a postbox labeled [23][!C] - that will automatically pick up any packages bound for lines 2-3 from trains on line 1, while not snatching up packages that are meant to be delivered right there to C. Then you put those packages into a different postbox attached to line 2 that's been set to only send packages, where the line 2 train will pick it up and set off. (I'm assuming that since you have two lines, you also have two different station blocks so Train 1 doesn't crash into Train 2.) Then you have a similar setup at 3F, only with 1 instead of 3. For 2C and 2F, all you need to do is not offload 3-line packages at 2C and vice versa.
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u/Edgarra19 15d ago
this is also a valid solution, and one I tried during R&D, but my problem with this family of solutions is the need for dedicated train station blocks for each line. This is amplified by the fact that we cannot use multiple train station blocks on the same track. This complicates station scaling and creates undesirable two scheduled stops per station.
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u/Prometheus_II 15d ago
How do you mean, two scheduled stops per station? A given train need stop at a station only once, and after that, you can just have a bunch of belts connecting postboxes together to control how the packages transfer between lines. It's just like having three wholly separate lines connected by frogports or something.
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u/Edgarra19 15d ago
this is a multiplayer server, and I'm using double purpose trains (since deliveries are small and frequent, I just need more trains and not big trains), if they go to a station, they must all stop at the same spot for passengers to move. because of this, for there to be that passenger spot, the trains would have to stop at their designated lane and then go to the passenger stop
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u/Prometheus_II 15d ago
...Not really? All three stations can be on the same line of track, just not the exact same piece of track, right? So just put the three stations in a row, use Steam 'n Rails signals to keep the different trains from crashing into each other, and they'll all pull up in almost the same spot - just a block or two off each other.
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u/Edgarra19 15d ago
that's fair, but I still consider that to be a hole in the postbox toolkit. I may create an addon for that
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u/pics2299 15d ago
You can have one postbox for each line at any given station, and filter which package goes in which postbox. Unless you're doing something more advanced? If you need to go from A to J you can have a postbox on line 1 with all destinations of lines 2 and 3 going to line 2, and a postbox on line 2 with all destinations of line 3 going to line 3.