Truck to Port to Port to Truck

[al.y]

I've perused the guide and meandered through the discussions some and still have what may be a typical new user question. What is the key to make a transfers across stops with valid lines and using different transport modes?

For instance:
I have a Chemical Plant where I feed Oil from rail and trucks. Easy. So then I have it feed a Good Factory via truck and rail, those work great.

There is a far away Good Factory I want to use a supply chain of trucks and ships.

I use the existing truck stop to load the plastics by adding a new line. The new line is a truck route to a port.

The port has a line to another port which is next to an interim Goods plant.

Then that plant I have loading to the same port but another ship line is to take to a third port which has a truck stop next to it and it changes color so I know the truck and port communicate.

Then the truck stop sends the Goods to the city.

The original Chem plant won't load the trucks at the first stop. Nothing shows disconnected. Lines look good.

Where I am still ignorant is how to ensure the Chem plant knows the Good Factory down the river is the plastics destination. Where I am unsure is how the truck-to-port handoff is made. What did I miss or is there a matrix/chart I need to check?

Seems logical, but I fear the Chem plant is not seeing the handoffs to the Goods Factory.

I found two videos close to this, but no discussion or showing that handoff in detail.

[Vimpster]

There is no trick. If no mistakes were made than it just works. If you click on the chem factory and then on the consumers tab it will show how many it is trying to ship to connected consumers. If the goods factory is not showing as one of the consumers than the link is broken due to some mistake made. And it indicates that the breakage is between these two factories and not between the goods factory to the town (though there could be a breakage there as well, but you won't know about that till the goods are being made).

[Tsubame ⭐]

There is no connection limit. The only limit is a time travel one, that applies to passengers.

If you set up the line properly, and there are no other faster and convenient routes connecting the same two points, then the line should work.

By properly, every station needs to be within the catchment area and connected to other stations, in the case of hubs, or the industry they are serving, and all lines need vehicles that can carry the desired cargo. You also need to supply the plastics factory with all the required raw materials.

[Gregorovitch]

Originally posted by al.y:

The original Chem plant won't load the trucks at the first stop. Nothing shows disconnected. Lines look good.

Where I am still ignorant is how to ensure the Chem plant knows the Good Factory down the river is the plastics destination.

This means that the chem plant cannot "see" the new goods factory you want to send the plastics to. If it could it would send plastics there (i.e. load the trucks) even if only a small amount in some circumstances. You can check this by looking at the chem plants customer demand list.

The most common reason for this is a break in the lines involved (which can happen for many reasons especially with rail routes). The second most common reason is that the vehicles used on one or more legs of the route are of the wrong type for the cargo in question. The third most common is that you added your new vehicles to the wrong line by mistake.

Note that just because line manager says a route is good does not necessarily mean it can carry the specific goods you want to the destination you want. Note also that you do not have to tell a factory to send goods to a connected customer, in fact you can't - it will do that on it's own providing you establish a working connection.

[larry_roberts]

The catchment area is the key.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2810866275

[RadiKyle]

Hi, also make sure you're not trying to use an industry building as a "bridge" between 2 unconnected stations. That only works for materials going into the factory, and then finished products going out the other side. But it doesn't work for unrelated cargo that is just passing through. The 2 stations needs to be connected to each other.

Adding a piece of road around the factory to connect the 2 stations is usually enough.

[larry_roberts]

Radikyle:

That's a very good point.

[al.y]

Thank you all. I'm going to keep digging into online guides as I am missing something critical about ships everyone else must know.

Sounds like from some of the above that I needed to put the vehicles in the lines. Since I am apparently ship skill lacking at this point; leading to no ships then this won't work by association. Too bad, I had a nice setup, just no function.

I'll rig trains and trucks then until I get more educated on the waters. Funny thing is that I barked about not able to use large ships even though it said it sees the path. Get small ships or docks. I have large docks/landings on both so not sure. That's another video/doc to find.

Thanks again, sorry for the narrow mind I had on this I assume due to city building and such games where I can control the supply chain - micro mgt.

[Autocoach]

FWIW no line is considered without a vehicle on it.

[RadiKyle]

Originally posted by larry_roberts:

That's a very good point.

Haha yeah I still catch myself trying that sometimes without realizing it! 🤦‍♂️ The existing lines in/out of a factory are running great and then I throw in some thru-cargo and wonder why it doesn't work lol. There were a few good head-scratchers posted here this year that had that issue.

[RadiKyle]

Originally posted by al.y:

Thank you all. I'm going to keep digging into online guides as I am missing something critical about ships everyone else must know.

Share your savegame and someone can take a look at it.

Ship lines work the same way as the other vehicles lines, same rules. Make sure you're using the correct ship type for the cargo. For example a tanker ship can't carry non-liquid cargo.

[al.y]

Hi all. Sorry for the delay. I had finally made it work. I tested the runs with the trains and trucks as mentioned and they worked handing off the cargo. So I thought it was my lack of ships, but then what someone said earlier and I had seen noted somewhere way back was that the vehicles had to be in service with the proper lines.

I believe that was the problem and now I have ships and even cargo air. My money has gone from in the red last week to 3 billion. Got kind of addicted once I knew what the heck I was doing. It's kind of sandbox ugly, but willing to share if you like. No artistic talent for now.

See they have an annual contest, but do they have a place to showcase or vote? I'm not expecting much, but feedback is always welcome. Laughing is not prohibited as I do it myself and shake my head on some stuff I do.

Thanks again.

[RadiKyle]

Originally posted by al.y:

So I thought it was my lack of ships, but then what someone said earlier and I had seen noted somewhere way back was that the vehicles had to be in service with the proper lines.

Glad got it sorted out! Yes it's addictive haha!

Yup nothing is produced until the Consumers can see the Supplier to "place orders". Your network needs to connect them. That connection requires the stations with proper coverage, and a line with vehicles on it.

Once that's in place, they can see each other and the Consumers will order cargo from the Suppliers, and the Suppliers (industries) will start producing that cargo and put it in your stations for you to transport to the correct Consumers. Each cargo unit is unique and has one specific destination, it cannot go anywhere else.

It's very similar for passengers.

[al.y]

It's no excuse, but I was used to other simulations where you did not have to install the entire line to get it to work. Meaning yes you had to have at least the first piece or any two locations. Yes it doesn't make sense because if any part of said line is not feeding either way, what is the use. Most games I could sandbox play with minimal starting instructions. I graduated to the elite level eh?

Sometimes it is more fun to dive in, get lost and find you way reading the stuff piecemeal. Like Cities Skylines, SimCity(dating myself). Found that was funny to do with Supermarket Simulator, when after how many hours I found the storage area and stopped looking for the locked door to open. LOL.

One thing I find odd is even though the cities are far in most cases, taking commercial jet airliners is, how to say, too quick. Like puddlejumpers. Guess not many 747 or 787 planes are called for.

I'll check out the mods, Cities Skylines had a great library to pick from, I assume this will too. Just haven't had them show up yet, but part of the fun is finding it. Then you have to sneak in to discussions like I had to send a MayDay. Enjoy all.

[RadiKyle]

Yeah the maps in TpF2 are really too small for aircraft, or even trains (especially the high-speed trains). It's best for map corner-to-corner routes.

[Tsubame ⭐]

Airplanes can be profitable as long as you can, like other vehicles, make use of their maximum speed.

Best suited for long routes with little competition from fast trains, because a convenient train station tends to kill traffic out of airports that are farther away from town.

transportfever.net has plenty of airplane mods that are not available in the Steam Workshop.