Hi guys, Welcome to our Foxhole 1.0 Guide 2022, In this Foxhole 1.0 Guide 2022, we will tell you about Universal Railroad Best Practices. Foxhole is a massively multiplayer game where you will work with hundreds of players to shape the outcome of a persistent online war. This is the ultimate game of collaborative strategy and tactics. Every action you take can have a powerful effect across a world in a state of war.
A lot of players, including myself, are excited to tinker with the new logistics tools being added to the game in 1.0. But trains, by their nature, can be really frustrating to get working efficiently. Here are some basic best practices to get your trains running on time.
Foxhole 1.0 Guide 2022 – Foxhole 1.0 Universal Railroad Best Practices
TLDR
Look at picture examples
KISS Rule
Build yard leads
Keep loco at head end of train (except armored trains)
Don’t foul the main
Don’t Highball in the yard
In the end, players will need to figure their own best practices for what is feasible in the game. But hopefully the following info will help streamline some of the headaches of managing a railroad in an mmo. (Isn’t that a first?)
Railyard Purpose
Railyards are logistical mid and end points where cargo is dispatched and distributed, and setting them up effectively is critical to mitigating traffic jams. How we set them up is dependent on the needs of the industry being served.
Typically, railyards will service inbound and outbound trains with a switcher/shunter locomotive. This locomotive crew’s job is to move traincars within the yard they are assigned, and not to take trains out on the mainline. This job is critical to free up mainline crews from having to do it themselves, and they can head out with the next consist.
Switchers are also tasked with building consists in preparation for the next train, so it is critical to have cars available in “storage”, similar to maintaining a stock of open containers at scrapyards in the current game.
Runaround Yard
It is easy when designing a yard to over-complicate things, but depending on its purpose it can be as simple as 2 tracks: A loading/unloading track, and a runaround.
When the train enters the yard, it positions its consist in between the switches on either end, and decouples. Cargo is loaded or unloaded, depending on function, and the locomotive pulls forward to the end of track. With the switch flipped, the locomotive runs around the consist and couples to the other end, placing the locomotive at the “front” of the consist in preparation for departure.
It is critical that the length of track between the switches is long enough to fit the consist. If it fouls the switches, the locomotive will not be able to run around. The length of track on the far end only needs to be long enough to fit the locomotive and tender (coal car).
This style of yard is perfect for loading raw resources, or for simple passenger stations to drop troops off near the front. Although it is typically a terminal station (at the end of a line), it can also be used for through stations, allowing trains to stop and interact with cargo while not blocking the mainline for other traffic.
Industrial Yards
We can expand the operating capacity of a railyard by increasing trackage, but just throwing down track is asking for congestion. The following features will be critical for building effective yards.
The Mainline is the through track that connects various destinations. It is critical that the yards we build do not interfere, or foul, the main. This way, other trains can continue to pass while work is taking place.
In order to free the main, trains stopping in a yard need an inbound/outbound track. As mentioned previously, this track allows a road locomotive to decouple from its consist, and pick up a new one and depart. It is critical that the inbound/outbound track be kept open by the switcher crew, so that trains aren’t stuck waiting on the main for another consist. If space allows, consider separating the inbound and outbound to different tracks, so that ready consists are prepared and can depart immediately.
The Yard Lead is possibly the most critical track when building an effective yard. It must be built on the opposite end of all other yard tracks, and the switcher locomotive typically operates from the yard lead end to avoid getting stuck behind consists. The yard lead allows us to switch yards without fouling the main. It must be as long as the longest consist being shunted. For example, if an inbound train is to be shunted to a storage track, and it is 10 cars long, if the yard lead is shorter than 10 cars + locomotive, you will have to split the consist, which will take much longer.
Storage tracks are necessary to provide room for cars to be staged in preparation for work. It is ill advised, however, to spam tons of storage tracks, as it takes up significant real estate and complicates the yard. You only need as many storage tracks as traffic to maintain throughput.
Industrial spurs/sidings are tracks that branch off of your yard ladder to interact with specific loading/unloading docks. These can be as simple as a track next to a crane, allowing the crane to load/unload containers of flatbed cars. What is critical is to make sure these industrial sidings branch off of the yard lead, so cars can be taken directly from staging to the industry and back by switchers.
If your yards have terminating sidings at both ends, then a runaround track becomes necessary. This allows the switcher to run around the consist to keep it from getting trapped.
The yard ladder is a set of adjoined switches that integrate all the tracks in your yard like a spine. You can build one at either end, or on one end, of a set of tracks. Note in the diagram that yard ladders are straight along their “spine” and curve into the yard tracks. You do not want, for example, to build a left hand switch, then a curve, then another left hand, and so on. This will take up valuable real estate.
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