Cumbersome micromanagement to get rid of: floodgates and warehouses

[dth]

Most of the game mechanics work really well for me, what I think should be improved to avoid micromanagement are two features:

- warehouses: it should be possible to set a maximum for a certain good to be stored. If product A needs to be stored, everything above maximum should be kicked out until at least the desired amount of A has been stored.
Currently, you can end up filling your warehouses with something you produce too much of and then you cannot store something else. I had shortages of fried potatoes at some point, because I just could not store potatoes anymore as I had thousands of units of weed in my storage houses.

- floodgates: a good strategy to manage droughts when having larger demand of water later in the game is to build some large body of water somewhere and release it via flood gates. During a drought this means however to regularly check water levels and open and close flood gates. It would be great to be able to open and close flood gates automatically until a certain water level is reached somewhere. Also, it might be good to have gates that allow a certain flow not a certain level, like you would do it with real dams. Real dams usually have an outlet somewhere near the bottom to release water in a controlled way when it is needed. Floodgates are used in case of emergencies to avoid overflowing.
It would be great to be able to supply a system of channels automatically from a water reservoir.

[BumpInTheNight]

I really do wish the warehouse values were absolute roofs, like any other logistics management game. That or give us a smaller warehouse option so we can isolate goods that are slightly over-produced from monopolizing the storage space we want to devote to others.

[The Undead Watcher]

The Warehouses i can agree with, there should be a way to tell what how many you want there to be at all times and the maximum. Kinda like the District Limits for the Distribution Centers.
Nothing is more annoying than having to micro manage storage space, especially since you right now can't tell them where to put/move specific goods once they're stored.

The Second one i don't care because i think this is a very specific and rare usecase.
However, i could see an interaction point between the Depth Marker and the Floodgates, like a simple if system. If Water level beyond the floodgate is at specific level than lower/open the floodgates. Maybe this could be even a special type of Floodgate itself that acts as a control unit in your dam.

[Sav]

Originally posted by dth:

I had thousands of units of weed in my storage houses

Annnd I have been playing this game wrong the whole time

[Dravkwn]

I just dedicated different warehouses entirely to specific items and I tend to have those specific items be something that is produced nearby. Sure helped remove a lost of wasted walking time.

[dth]

Originally posted by Dravkwn:

I just dedicated different warehouses entirely to specific items and I tend to have those specific items be something that is produced nearby. Sure helped remove a lost of wasted walking time.

That makes the huge warehouses useless and takes up a lot of space. Of course it is a workaround, but there shouldn't be need for that.

[dth]

Originally posted by The Undead Watcher:

The Second one i don't care because i think this is a very specific and rare usecase.

I doubt it is rare. It would be in other games, but here, water management is a central element of the game and probably will grow in complexity in the future. A condition between marker and gate is what I'm thinking of. Can't be too simplistic though. The depth fluctuates quite a bit in the game when you open a gate.

[Dravkwn]

Originally posted by dth:

Originally posted by Dravkwn:

I just dedicated different warehouses entirely to specific items and I tend to have those specific items be something that is produced nearby. Sure helped remove a lost of wasted walking time.

That makes the huge warehouses useless and takes up a lot of space. Of course it is a workaround, but there shouldn't be need for that.

Not even slightly useless. Large warehouses are awesome for stocking up the storage for those long droughts. Stick em under your farmhouses or other production facilities and only go further!

[dth]

Originally posted by Dravkwn:

Not even slightly useless. Large warehouses are awesome for stocking up the storage for those long droughts. Stick em under your farmhouses or other production facilities and only go further!

Ok, maybe there is a use case for that, at least for the large warehouses, not sure about that underground warehouse with 2000 units or something. But even then, warehouses are clearly intended to manage multiple kinds of items, so that should be possible to do.

[Dravkwn]

Originally posted by dth:

Originally posted by Dravkwn:

Not even slightly useless. Large warehouses are awesome for stocking up the storage for those long droughts. Stick em under your farmhouses or other production facilities and only go further!

Ok, maybe there is a use case for that, at least for the large warehouses, not sure about that underground warehouse with 2000 units or something. But even then, warehouses are clearly intended to manage multiple kinds of items, so that should be possible to do.

The underground one for the Folks is interesting. If you don't include stacking of buildings it's got a crazy storage capacity and that's 4,000. Being able to store that much in one spot without using lots of stairs which increases travel times is nice, but in the end it's a choice we make on our Aesthetics.

[Prometheus]

Yes to all the options for managing storage. However if that is hard to implement I'd be happy with an option to set the default for storages to allow nothing as in the current state my default is "I only want one thing here and nothing else".

[di eshor ribly]

Originally posted by dth:

Originally posted by Dravkwn:

Not even slightly useless. Large warehouses are awesome for stocking up the storage for those long droughts. Stick em under your farmhouses or other production facilities and only go further!

Ok, maybe there is a use case for that, at least for the large warehouses, not sure about that underground warehouse with 2000 units or something. But even then, warehouses are clearly intended to manage multiple kinds of items, so that should be possible to do.

The system I use that seems to work out very well is small warehouses for Wheat, Potatoes, Flour, and Berries (if you're playing Irontooth - otherwise ignore the berry warehouse), large warehouses for everything else, and if I'm playing Folktails I use the underground warehouse for Carrots, Grilled Potatoes, and Bread. One item per warehouse as others have said. You can build extra warehouses to fit your colony as needed.

You won't need a massive stockpile of berries even if you're playing IT unless you go crazy building breeding pods. Cooking supplies don't take up much room either unless you're stockpiling for the super long droughts. Industrial items work in the 1000-item range with comfort. I tried underground warehouses for Planks and Gears and such, but it felt like wasted space as I never had more than 2000 or so of anything because of construction.

[Controller Hog]

Originally posted by The Undead Watcher:

The Second one i don't care because i think this is a very specific and rare use case.
However, i could see an interaction point between the Depth Marker and the Floodgates, like a simple if system. If Water level beyond the floodgate is at specific level than lower/open the floodgates. Maybe this could be even a special type of Floodgate itself that acts as a control unit in your dam.

I have this very case happening in my game right now: I created a retention pool where I have water pumps in there to pump water out for the population to drink. When it gets too low (below about 1.15 or so) I open the floodgate blocking it and let water in until it gets to around 1.9 and then close the floodgate. I would love another building called a gatekeeper (require 1 worker) or something that linked with a floodgate and a depth marker, and you could set the floodgate to each of its depths based on different values from the depth marker.