Building - Rail System
The Rail System is an automated logistics network that uses drones to transport items between buildings.
Key features
The system features multiple speed tiers. Higher tiers transport more items per minute.
You can instantly upgrade existing rails to a higher tier by selecting the higher-tier rail from the Building Menu and looking directly at the existing rail.
Rails also conduct electricity in the same way Platforms do.
A single stretch of rail has a specified maximum length limit, so you will need to use Rail Supports as waypoints. Supports act as structural endpoints or transitions, allowing you to organize your rail layouts across the base.
“Pull” Logic & Distribution
Drone Rail does not operate continuously - the pathfinding and the system work as follows:
The Drone Rail System is an automated, "pull-based" logistics network that uses drones to transport items seamlessly between buildings across your base. Instead of blindly pushing items down the line, machines actively request resources with according priority, and drones only travel when a call is made.
Drones don’t always take the shortest physical route; they calculate the fastest possible route to reach the destination.
Drones are transported when two conditions are met: an item is available in a source building, and there is an active request for that item from a connected destination building.
Drones will stop delivering items to a building when it reaches maximum capacity. The system dynamically tracks how many drones are currently in transit with that specific item to prevent unnecessary queuing and traffic jams at the destination.
You have the option to manually set a Drone Request Priority level for the buildings. Higher-priority buildings will always receive items before lower-priority buildings.
If several buildings were set to the same priority, by default the drones will service items alternately with one drone each.
Input/Output
Each building has an Input, Output, or both, where you can connect the Rails - those are always highlighted on the construction ghost in such order:
Yellow highlights indicate input
Green highlights always indicate output
Please remember that the Rail connections are one-way. You must always build the rail from a green Output to a yellow Input. The rails will not be connected in reverse.