#Need help understanding what monorails are.... for?

4 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

mighty remnant
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So, I unlocked monorails.
I had intended to use these to deliver mining charges from production plant to the various mining operations, and return the chunks. However... that didn't work out. Since monorails are point-to-point, I would need multiple monorail stations (one pair for each end point); and they eat up all the power sending a handful of mining charges at once. My work-around is manually dumping stacks of mining charges, but this is a factory game, I want automation! Worse, the whole point was that blast miners use no power, but... the monorail would need power.

Ok, so, my second thought was that I am constructing a large shiverthorn / kindlevine processing plant that produces gel, kindle bricks, and plantmatter bricks.
but... a key balancing concern for handling byproducts to convert them from one type to another with alt recipes is back-pressure. Using a monorail eliminates this backpressure, so instead of turning excess plants into plant matter bricks when extract production backs up, instead, I am just filling to the brim a massive, un-limitable storage container. Additionally, if my products are not balanced, I will eventually be sending back and forth just monorail cars full of whatever resource was produced in excess (no way to "block off" space for a certain item type, that I can tell)

Well, how about consolidating some of the long-distance lines I have in place? I'm again running into the issue that monorails remove backpressure, and send small quantities if they have the power for it. This isn't as good as just running another belt line. I have, after all, automated conveyor belt production.

So, how about delivering items to an item mall? This runs into the sorting problem, as well as the backpressure problem, again.

Those of you that are using monorails: Why? What for? What problems do these solve in the long term?

hearty storm
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the monorail syste mis a great way to transfer large amounts of one item to another location. they are very fast; at the beginning they can transfer about 600 items per minute (60 items per 10 second cycle) but can transfer four times as fast with max upgrades. 600 a minute in any part of the game is fast let alone 2400.

you can also use them as quick-travel to otherl ocations with the railrunner upgrade, too. and you can go really fast with full upgrades. even if you arent transferring items between them, they are still awesome as a travel method.

monorail systems are typically used for the acquiring of atlantum ore, transferring explosives for blast mining, distributing fuel, or otherwise consolidating other resources. in one world i used it to bring copper from a remote mining location to my smelting area to save on performance. you can also transfer research to a remote lcoation so it doesnt lag as much

since its a two-way system, you can send fuel to a place and have it trade items in return. this also means in a multiplayer setting, you can set up rail systems between players and their base of operations, trading items with one another. its much easier than having to run across the map to do it

one of the downsides to running a lot of monorailis they need a good and stable source of power; making sure your crank generator (temporary or permanent) production is on point and assure you have an adequate amount of accumulators because they run on stored power instead of the active power supply

i kind of rememebr a post about improving the monorail system on the suggestion board but i dont remember what it is called

silent herald
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Theyre basicslly a long range conveyor thats faster

dim pendant