Truck Station

The Truck Station is a vehicle building used to automatically move cargo to/from motor vehicles and refuel them. It is mostly used paired with automated vehicle routes, although it can operate standalone, such as for the purposes of quick refueling.

Usage
The Truck Station has three conveyor inputs and two outputs. Facing the ports side of the station, the leftmost input port (leading into visual fuel tanks in the structure) is used for filling the Truck Station's fuel slot only, while the center inputs and right outputs are used for moving cargo into/from the Truck Station.

Whether the Station loads or unloads can be configured in the UI, with the yellow button being the selected option. Refueling occurs always as long as the Station has fuel to refuel and it is the same fuel as the vehicle already has. Vehicles only receive enough fuel to do a full roundtrip using the current path. Truck Stations do not completely refuel the vehicle.

In order for loading to occur, the Truck Station has to be powered and the vehicle has to be within the building hitbox of the Station. Power will be consumed while any vehicle is in range, even while no items are being moved. Once all vehicles are clear of the truck station, power usage drops to the standard 0.1 MW standby. Automated trucks have to be instructed to stop while recording, which is indicated by a "pause" node. The duration of the stop can be adjusted.

If maximum efficiency is important then Conveyor Belts are best since they require neither power nor fuel. However, laying kilometers of belts is tedious and vehicles moving about are rather satisfying.

Bottlenecks
The following examples apply to an n-station setup with only one unloading station.

The tractor can only carry 25 stacks of whatever it is you're loading onto it. A bottleneck would obviously occur if you're expecting more than e.g. 25 stacks of Iron Ore per roundtrip (as the tractor can only carry 25). Another bottleneck would occur if you're mining 120 Iron Ore/min but unloading 240/min (the unloading station will empty before the tractor returns), regardless of the length of the trip. Conversely, if you're mining 240/min and unloading 120/min the unloading station will fill up before it has a chance to empty, meaning there is a waste of materials. Clearly the total amount loaded should ideally equal the amount unloaded (per min) as long as you don't produce more than the tractor can carry – in this case multiple tractors will be needed.

Assuming the truck starts its trip at point A and it takes 8 minutes exactly to go from A -> B -> C -> ... -> A then it will also take 8 minutes exactly (assuming any pauses are equal) to go from C -> ... -> A -> B -> C. This means if you're mining 240 Iron Ore per minute at C and the truck takes 8 minutes to go from A back to A again, the miner at C will have produced 8 * 240 = 1920 Iron Ore by the time the truck comes back to C (assuming it's not the first trip ever).

Assuming mining rate equals output rate: if the total route time in minutes (for any roundtrip starting at any point along the way) is greater than the maximum item count per trip divided by the output rate (in items/minute) at the unloading station then you might encounter a bottleneck as the truck will take too long to do its full trip – the miners will produce more than the truck can carry and the unloading station will empty before the truck comes back.

An example:


 * The tractor can carry a maximum of 2500 Iron Ore (25 * 100).
 * The unloading station is connected to two Mk.1 Conveyor Belts for a total output rate of 120 items/minute.
 * We're mining a total of 120 Iron Ore per minute.

It will therefore take the unloading station 2500 / 120 = 20.83 minutes to unload everything. If the total roundtrip time for the tractor takes more than 20.83 minutes, the miners will have produced more than the tractor can carry (e.g. 21 minutes * 120 = 2520 Iron Ore) and the unloading station will have emptied before the tractor comes back (there will be a gap of 20 Iron Ore in the production line).

Two stations

 * Input: a miner on a pure coal node producing 120 units/min
 * Build a station near the coal node and connect fuel and one input
 * Build a second station near your base or a water source. Set this station to "Unload". Connect one output to your factory or coal generators.
 * Build a tractor and record a round trip path

Four stations

 * Input: overclocked or multiple miners producing 240 units/min of coal and a maximum of tier 2 belts (120 units/min)
 * Repeat the two station setup, but double the stations at each end. Make sure the single tractor visits all four. Only use multiple tractors if the distance is causing throughput issues.

Three stations

 * Inputs:
 * A miner on a impure coal node producing 30 units/min
 * A miner on a pure quartz node producing 120 units/min
 * Build a truck station near the coal node. Set it to "Load". Leave it empty though, only connect the fueling portion to the coal miner.
 * Build a second truck station near the quartz node. Set this one to "Load" and connect one input to the quartz.
 * Build a third truck stop near your factory and connect one output. Set this one to "Unload".
 * Build a tractor and record a round trip that visits all three stations at least once.

Dedicated fueling stations

 * Input: A miner on a impure coal node producing 30 units/min
 * Build a truck station near the coal node. Set it to "Load" and connect both inputs.
 * For each truck station pair that lacks its own fuel source, build a dedicated station to receive coal. Set this station to "Unload" and connect one output to the fueling port of the other station.
 * Build a tractor and record a round trip that visits all the dedicated fueling stations.

Trivia

 * Factory Carts work with Truck Stations, which may occassionally prove useful given they consume no fuel and are relatively fast. This also allows them to be refueled, which provides no benefit over providing no fuel. Fuel is consumed as fast as in a Cyber Wagon.

History

 * Patch 0.6.0.10: Names should save properly now
 * Patch 0.5.0.0:
 * Updated appearance and UI
 * Now has two input and two output Conveyor ports beside the fuel input
 * Now can be renamed
 * Patch 0.3.6.10: Fixed distance field update settings on the Truck Station
 * Patch 0.3.5.3: Fuel inventory in Truck Stations no longer breaks after a client player interacts with the building
 * Patch 0.3: Fixed issue with clients being able to resources other than energy sources into the fuel slot of the Truck Station
 * Patch 0.2.1.4: Added to the Map
 * Patch 0.1.15: Changed Sending/Receiving back to Unloading/Loading for clarity
 * Patch 0.1: Fixed vehicles getting stuck in the Truck Station

Lkw-Station Gare routière Грузовая станция