Surviving Mars - "Balance via Trains" not working properly

[YertyL]

Description
"Balance via Trains" not working properly


Windows


Steam

What is your game version?
1011140

What DLC do you have installed?
Space Race, Green Planet, Below and Beyond, Marsvision Song Contest, Colony Design Set, Project Laika, In-Dome Buildings Pack

Please explain your issue is in as much detail as possible.
The "Balance via Trains" feature only transports resources when a station depot has more than the desired amount. E.g. when two depots require 15 and one has 15 and the other 0, nothing is transported (image 1 and 2).

The way it should work, and the way drones and shuttles do work, is that desired amount in any depot is matched as closely as possible. E.g. When two depots desire 15 and one has 15 and the other 0, then 8 are transported to the other (image 3).

Can you replicate the issue?
Yes, start any game, build two train stations


File(s) attached

 

[tetaworx]

I can confirm the behaviour. Only when I force unload a resource from a transporter onto site A, the excess is being transported. Otherwise "balance" seems do not have any effect.

 

[d4m4g1c]

I also confirm. That defeats the point of using trains as automatic transport, like shuttles.

 

[phioring]

I also feel that them are not working as intended or as expected ?! I cannot really figure out how it works. After a while the station will be filled with metal and have to manually unload it to have it working again... not sure if bugged or the problem is on my end.

 

[YertyL]

I also feel that them are not working as intended or as expected ?! I cannot really figure out how it works. After a while the station will be filled with metal and have to manually unload it to have it working again... not sure if bugged or the problem is on my end.

The mod author is currently working on a mod/patch for the behavior: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2801556344
With this, it will at least send 1 on balanced mode when the other station has 0.

In the current unmodded version the fundamental problem is that when you have other storage drones will not bring more than desired amount to the station, but trains on balance will not send anything unless there is more than desired amount.

Setting desired amount to 0 will balance quantities across stations -- but drones will not bring anything to the station by default. So you either have to increase desired amount first so drones bring material, then decrease it again so it gets sent, or use the "send all" setting on the right side.

 

[phioring]

Thanks for the response. Will there be an official patch? Does the mod break achievements? As I understood some mods do break them?

 

[phioring]

So I checked out the bug fix mod (which is kind of disappointing this has to exist in the first place), anyway after a while many of my colonists started dying... half a dome was running over the map... and died. I do not think this is intended to either the dlc or the mod. I reloaded a save to check when it started. Now I think my colony is a bit messed up. All the planing is in vain, cause I relied on the new trains. That disappointment. Don't know if I have the motivation to start over. Why does the customer always has to be the beta tester? We pay for beta testing. More and more I feel scammed by the industry.

 

[YertyL]

So I checked out the bug fix mod (which is kind of disappointing this has to exist in the first place), anyway after a while many of my colonists started dying... half a dome was running over the map... and died. I do not think this is intended to either the dlc or the mod. I reloaded a save to check when it started. Now I think my colony is a bit messed up. All the planing is in vain, cause I relied on the new trains. That disappointment. Don't know if I have the motivation to start over. Why does the customer always has to be the beta tester? We pay for beta testing. More and more I feel scammed by the industry.

Well, I don't think it's intended either There is a bit about this in this reddit thread, maybe this could help? I myself have not experienced this yet. Perhaps just building some shuttles as alternatives would be a quick and easy fix?

As for the bugs...well, obviously I would also prefer if they were not there, but at the same time I can see how releasing something completely flawlessly is extremely hard. Without inside information it's difficult to know what's avoidable and what's bad luck, and who's responsible. With B&B I suspect that abstraction had outside pressure for release, since the bugs were so obviously gamebreaking, while the implementation of B&B itself was ambitious and not lazy in my eyes.

I think we can realisitically hope for some kind of fix released by paradox, but I assume this will be after the mod author(s) have done most fixes "unofficially".

 

[phioring]

Yeah, I got mad. Better now. I see your point regarding software development. There is no 100%. The thing is, I work for several big customers as consultant and software engineer. The quality we have to deliver towards these customers has to be "as flawless as possible". There are some kind of expectations we have to and want to satisfy. I know the world is not perfect. But we are working really hard to archive this and almost always do. If we do not make it in time, we will delay till quality is as expected. And sometimes as customer myself I kinda feel the same. Why are we not worth the effort?! We pay anyway. I know these this is high level complaining about first world problems. Just ranting.

So back to the topic: I know the shuttles could have helped me, but it happened before I got the tech and materials to build them. And this time, because the feature is new - right? - focus more on a play-through with trains.

Thanks for listening

 

[ChoGGi_2]

The quality we have to deliver towards these customers has to be "as flawless as possible".

That's pretty much the exact opposite of any game dev work

 

[phioring]

That's pretty much the exact opposite of any game dev work

The ChoGGi himself. Yeah true, the last 15 years has changed a lot.

 

[ChoGGi_2]

Closeer to 20, at least when patches started being a regular thing

 

[phioring]

Closeer to 20, at least when patches started being a regular thing

You’re right. I always forget we’re past 2020.

 

[LukeHro]

For now you can check the patch mod for an improved version https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2801556344

 

[phioring]

For now you can check the patch mod for an improved version https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2801556344

I know. Already installed. My people died anyway.

 

[LukeHro]

I was better balance mode, for the OP. There could be some reasons for colonists dying like disasters, stations out of power, stations full when they end the shifts (the patch increases the number of colonists that can wait at the station). @phioring If something else please reach out and send me a save

 

[phioring]

I was better balance mode, for the OP. There could be some reasons for colonists dying like disasters, stations out of power, stations full when they end the shifts (the patch increases the number of colonists that can wait at the station). @phioring If something else please reach out and send me a save

Thanks. I totally appreciate your effort here. I played past that point, but also removed the stations and trains already. They died running over the map trying to get home and suffocated. Now new colonists live where the station once were. It is okay. I will wait till the trains are working properly and try a new run later. But thanks tho.

 

[benthevaporeon]

did this ever get an answer to if this is a bug or not

i also have this issue were one station has 30 and the other has 0, both are set to have 30 and balance using trains, the 30 one keeps all of them, it works ok for transport when you have a large number of the resource you want, but not when you are low

granted its not a game breaking bug for me because it can be 'fixed' by manualy setting the trains to one way mode and back, or changeing the desired amounts, the trains work great for far away mines however


there is a small reason i think the balance thing may be the way they intended it, trains can have long tracks, and having them send one,two, or 3 items across a 4 or more hour track may be ineffecent, those things are probably best to do with air transports, baring a challenge run

other issue i have with these trains is that transports and drones will fill them up with crates behond their desired amount, like food or metal, cloging them up, if the change this, it might be better to have a high and low value you can store, or have it not store an amount higher then your requested amount and the difference between were its sent

 

[YertyL]

did this ever get an answer to if this is a bug or not

i also have this issue were one station has 30 and the other has 0, both are set to have 30 and balance using trains, the 30 one keeps all of them, it works ok for transport when you have a large number of the resource you want, but not when you are low

granted its not a game breaking bug for me because it can be 'fixed' by manualy setting the trains to one way mode and back, or changeing the desired amounts, the trains work great for far away mines however


there is a small reason i think the balance thing may be the way they intended it, trains can have long tracks, and having them send one,two, or 3 items across a 4 or more hour track may be ineffecent, those things are probably best to do with air transports, baring a challenge run

other issue i have with these trains is that transports and drones will fill them up with crates behond their desired amount, like food or metal, cloging them up, if the change this, it might be better to have a high and low value you can store, or have it not store an amount higher then your requested amount and the difference between were its sent

Not exactly a bug but still not intended behavior anymore. Try the patch mod Luke posted

Steam Workshop::Martian Express Patch

steamcommunity.com

until there is an official fix. It makes trains transport more in balance mode.

 

[benthevaporeon]

Not exactly a bug but still not intended behavior anymore. Try the patch mod Luke posted

Steam Workshop::Martian Express Patch

steamcommunity.com

until there is an official fix. It makes trains transport more in balance mode.

i will probably look at it, untill then i will go back to using 120 shuttles to make my entire map the same resource pile like i have done in past games
trains are still great for metal thats too far from your dome but not worth a full dome setup for 300 rare metals

i do not have the game from steam, i got the base game when epic gave it out for free, although still paid for expansion packs