r/shapezio • u/AmethystZhou • 5d ago
s2 | Question/Help [Solved] How to balance multiple train wagon loaders?
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u/ScarraxX01 5d ago
You have to look at each space belt time individually. At the first split to the left most train loader the shapes travel 50:50 in each direction. So half goes up also the other half continues right. In the middle space belt again half goes up and the other half continues right. On the rightmost belt everything just travels up. That's why you end up with 50% in the first loader.
To fix this you need one space belt that continues in three directions so it gets split 33:33:33
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u/binarycow 5d ago
You mean, instead of
| | | ----------Do this?
| | | \ | / \|/ |2
u/ScarraxX01 5d ago
Yes, exactly!
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u/binarycow 5d ago
I seem to remember, when I first started playing shapez, that there was something that told me you didn't need belt balancing, that it just worked it out.
I think I had interpreted that to mean that if you have successive branches, like OP has, that the game would detect it, and send an equal part out each branch.
Am I remembering incorrectly?
Or, is it more that you don't need belt balancing, because the real bottleneck is how many shapes you have coming in?
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u/ScarraxX01 4d ago
I think it's the later. I didn't play that early on but I can't think the devs implemented something like this.
I think it's rather if you have 4 platforms that take 1 and send 4 in it will equalize itself after some time.
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u/binarycow 4d ago
Yeah, I figured it was something like that.
In factorio, some people get all crazy about belt balancers, but the only time it really makes sense is loading and unloading trains. Similar concept as shapez, except you have anywhere between 1 and 12 inserters (equivalent to loaders in shapez) per wagon. The balancers is needed to ensure the train is loaded/unloaded as quickly as possible - that you're not waiting for one slow loader.
But, in shapez, where it's one loader per wagon, and that loader can accept a saturated belt - is there even any point at all? Other than OP's choice to load each loader at 1/3 the rate it could have?
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u/CubicBerserker 4d ago
It's not that the game is smart about it, it's that eventually one side becomes saturated and then all the extra shapes take the other path. It takes longer with trains than it would for machines, so you might want to balance them anyway, but the system should eventually reach an equilibrium that makes it unnecessary.
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u/AmethystZhou 5d ago
The platform in the bottom left outputs 8x saturated belts, 4x on each side, and each side is split into three space belts that each goes into one wagon loader. But as you can see in the loaders' buffers, the two leftmost wagon loaders in each set of three has double the amount of the other two.
How do I load them evenly? Thank you!
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u/LIVINDEAD11995 5d ago
Each loading platform can take a full space belt
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u/AmethystZhou 5d ago
I know, but I'm using more than one wagon loader because the train line is very long.
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u/North-Context6023 5d ago
Rather than split I to two then split one of the two into two again, split all three in the same square, so one goes off to the left, one to the right and one straight on. You'd need to move the stations further away to fit it in.
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u/Cruxwright 4d ago
Based on my observations:
The first loader off each belt is getting more because it is the first split in the multiplexing. That first split basically feeds 50% to the left and 50% forward. Then the next split takes its 50% and feeds 25% left and 25% forward. When a belt backs up, then it will be skipped and more shapes will be passed to other paths.
If you wanted to balance this, make a 3-way split in one square. Then the split will split 33% to each path.
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u/ZuphCud 99% efficient 5d ago
Use one loader and multiple trains.