Truck Station

Truck Station
Either sends or receives resources to vehicles. Has an inventory with 48 slots. Transfers up to 120 stacks per minute to/from docked vehicles. Always refuels vehicles if it has access to a matching fuel type.
Unlocked by	Tier 3 - Vehicular Transport
Class name	Desc_TruckStation_C
Building
Power usage	20 MW
Overclock­able	No
Conveyorinputs	3
Conveyoroutputs	2
Dimensions
Width	16 m
Length	22 m
Height	12 m
Area	352 m2
Ingre­dients
15 ×  Modular Frame
20 ×  Rotor
50 ×  Cable

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. It transfers 2 stacks of items per second (120 stacks per minute) to or from a docked vehicle.

If maximum efficiency is important then using only 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.

Usage

UI

The Truck Station UI has a similar look and feel to the train Freight Platform UI, and depending on if the Truck Station is set to LOAD or UNLOAD will include information about:

• Max Transfer Rate (Load and Unload)
• Outgoing Transfer Rate (Load Only)
• Incoming Transfer Rate (Unload Only)

Additionally the Truck Station UI will show the Fuel Consumption per Minute used by all Vehicles on a connected automated vehicle Path / Route.

There is NO OPTION to have Truck Stations do both Loading and Unloading in one cycle.

The Truck Station is set to LOAD by default. Just toggle the button to set it to UNLOAD (or vice versa).

• 

  Update 5 - Example of Truck Station UI

Ports

The Truck Station has three Conveyor Belt inputs and two Conveyor Belt 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.

The dual center inputs and dual right outputs are used for moving cargo into/out of the Truck Station.

• 

  Update 5 - Truck Station Ports

Refueling

Refueling occurs always as long as the Truck Station has fuel to refuel and it is the same fuel that the vehicle stopped at the Truck Station already has. Vehicles only receive enough fuel to do a full roundtrip using the current recorded path. Truck Stations do not completely refuel the vehicle.

Loading and unloading

Whether the Station loads or unloads can be configured in the UI (see above).

In order for a vehicle to dock, the Truck Station has to be powered and the vehicle has to be within the building hitbox of the Station.

The loading / unloading animation takes about 5 to 9 seconds (same as vehicle refuel wait time).

During docking, 2 stacks of items (regardless of whether it is a full or partial stack) are transfered between the docked vehicle and the station every second.

The docking process starts the moment a vehicle is within the interaction range of the station (indicated by the building hitbox).

Power usage

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.

Automation

Automated Vehicles have to be instructed to stop at the Truck Station while recording, which is indicated by a "pause" node. The duration of the stop can be adjusted.

• See Also: Vehicle Automation

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).

Example setups

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.

Gallery

• 

  A Truck Station in the E3 2018 presentation, along with a Lookout Tower and Oil Refineries

• 

  A closer up shot of the Truck Station in the E3 2018 presentation

• 

  Update 5 - Truck Station New Look

History

• Patch 0.6.0.10: Names should save properly now
• Patch 0.6.0.4: Fixed Truck Station UI requiring multiple presses of E or ESC to be closed after selecting Load or Unload
• Patch 0.6.0.2: Fixed Truck Station inventories not being visible
• Patch 0.6.0.1
  • Fixed a crash when Multiplayer Clients and Dedicated Servers Clients would place a second Truck Station
  • Fixed the Truck Stations UI not showing up properly for Multiplayer Clients and Dedicated Servers Clients
  • Fixed a debug icon showing up on the Truck Station inventory when accessed for a second time by Multiplayer Clients and Dedicated Servers Clients
• Patch 0.5.2.1: Fixed Truck Stations displaying at the center of the map
• Patch 0.5.1.12: Fixed an issue with vehicle path recording inside factories sometimes recording docking to Truck Station on floors above the vehicle
• Patch 0.5.1.7: Fixed bug where Vehicles weren’t placeable in the Truck Station docking area
• Patch 0.5.1.1
  • Made Vehicles take available fuel for as long as they are docked
  • Fixed the fuel consumption metrics in the Truck Stations not accounting for pauses and docking times in the path time
• Patch 0.5.0.13
  • Fixed an issue where Vehicles would not receive fuel from a Truck Station]] if their fuel inventory was empty
  • Fixed an issue where Vehicle Paths were not updated after a Truck Station was built over them
  • Fixed issues with Vehicles getting out of sync with their Vehicle Stations after loading a game
• Patch 0.5.0.9
  • Fixed a bug where vehicles could get stuck docking until their inventories were full
  • You can now press F to manually dock a vehicle on a Truck Station
  • Added tooltips to Vehicle Truck Station elements (Hover over)
• Patch 0.5.0.8: Manually driven Vehicles now take Fuel from Truck Stations
• 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