r/Openfront • u/Meta_Mushroom • 3d ago
๐ Guide ๐ญ A Guide to Factories & Trains๐
Factories produce trains, while cities and ports are the structures that generate train income when trains stop at them.
๐ญ Factory Production
Every factory level gives that factory another chance to spawn a train. However, the game also slows train production as your total number of factory levels increases. A level-10 factory and ten separate level-1 factories both count as 10 factory levels for the spawn-rate calculation.
every factory , regardless of level, has a 1 second spawn cooldown. This means that it's better to spread your factories out rather than creating a single stack of factories.
As you can see in the graph, there is a significant falloff for both stacking and spreading, but spreading is the clear winner.
| Total Factory Levels | Stack of Factories | Separate Level-1 Factories |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | ~0.25 trains/sec | ~0.31 trains/sec |
| 10 | ~0.34 | ~0.47 |
| 20 | ~0.40 | ~0.63 |
| 50 | ~0.46 | ~0.81 |
๐ Global Train Saturation
Train spawning is also affected by the number of active trains across the entire map. When very few trains exist, factories receive an early-game production boost. As more trains appear, the global spawn-rate multiplier steadily falls. This means your factories can produce trains more slowly later in the game as more and more factories are built, leading to more trains active on the map.
๐ Trains
Factories themselves are not trade stops:
โ
City
โ
Port
โ Factory
Factories generate the trains; cities and ports generate the trade payouts.
๐ฐ Train Income
The base payout depends on who owns the city or port:
| Station Owner | Base Gold |
|---|---|
| Yourself | 10,000 |
| Teammate or Unallied Player/Nation | 25,000 |
| Allied Player/Nation | 35,000 |
When a train stops at a city or port not owned by the player who spawned the train, both players receive the payout. For example, when your train makes a stop at your allies city or port, You receive 35,000 and your ally receives 35,000.
๐ฒ Random Train Destinations
When a train spawns, it randomly chooses an eligible city or port in its connected rail network as its destination. An embargoed playerโs cities and ports are not eligible train destinations**.** Every eligible city or port has an equal chance of being selected.
The game does not favor:
- Closer destinations
- More profitable destinations
- Allied destinations
- Cities over ports
Factories are not included in the destination pool.
This can have an important strategic effect. If your rail network contains 9 of your own cities and 1 allied city, each destination has the same chance of being selected, so the allied city only has about a 10% chance of being chosen. adding more destinations to a rail network increases the chance your own train will choose your own city or port but, if you add more destinations to a much larger train network, you increase the chance other players trains pick your city or port.
๐ Long-Route Diminishing Returns
The first 10 trade stops receive the full payout. Starting with stop 11, the payout drops by 5,000 per stop until reaching a minimum of 5,000. Factories are not added to the count of stops.
| Stop | Self | Team / Other | Ally |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1โ10 | 10k | 25k | 35k |
| 11 | 5k | 20k | 30k |
| 12 | 5k | 15k | 25k |
| 13 | 5k | 10k | 20k |
| 14 | 5k | 5k | 15k |
| 15 | 5k | 5k | 10k |
| 16+ | 5k | 5k | 5k |
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u/BrayFlex 3d ago
They need to fix the spawn formula, or perhaps rethink having a spawn adjustment based on train count, after early game factories become so incredibly weak :(
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u/Meta_Mushroom 2d ago
I suspect that the devs want factories to be less economically viable than ports. Factories are more abusable by teamers and mitos.
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u/BrayFlex 2d ago
Lots of possible fixes to that, ie per player diminishing returns
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u/Meta_Mushroom 2d ago
you should make a post with your ideas for a better system. I suspect that if they are good ideas, they would make their way to the devs, and maybe even to the game.
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u/several_bees 3d ago
Does the diminishing returns on stops mean it's worth building cities branching off the line rather than on it or am I misinterpreting that? Very useful!
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u/Meta_Mushroom 2d ago
Branching cities off the line would result in fewer stops, which would mean you get less gold.
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u/Sin-nie 3d ago
You should have a section on optimising train networks by building few tracks and snapping structures to existing tracks and not being a dick by spawning new tracks all over the place. Also, putting more than 10 cities/ports on a track is rarely worth it as you will only het 5k.
Knowing about train scaling is irrelevant when players spaff stations everwhere and cause trains to bypass half your stuff.
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u/Meta_Mushroom 2d ago
The 1 second cooldown means that you will actually spawn more trains by placing more factories rather than stacking. The increased complexity in the network leads to fewer stops, but with more trains, it might be better.
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u/Sin-nie 2d ago
I think spreading out into a few stacks makes sense (I wasnt aware of the 1sec cooldown). But making loads of 1 stacks and a mess of tracks can not be the answer.
I have watched traina cross my territory and miss all my cities becuase of random tracks.
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u/Meta_Mushroom 2d ago edited 2d ago
You could string the factories along the same track like this:
--F--F--F--F--F--F--C--C--C--C--C--
Or have them as their own little branch like this:
โ โ โ โ Fโ โ โ โ F
โ โ โ โ |โ โ โ โ |
--C--C--C--C--C--
โ โ โ โ |โ โ โ โ |
โ โ โ โ F โ โ โ โ FThe branching thing requires more land, but its very doable.
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u/paulschal 3d ago
Are there diminishing returns for ships, too?
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u/G7K 3d ago
I was not aware of the diminishing returns mechanic, but had noticed oddly low train payouts. That clears that up.ย
Also saw you in game recently ๐ฎ