Distribution centres

[bradigorMHG]

I know the game doesn't have default distribution centres but was wondering if I could use a truck shop or cargo station to be a central distribution to many cities.

So for example.

I have four cities that need a mix of food materials and tools. They are spread in the north east, North West and West of the map.

Instead of shipping all the requirements to each city from each factory. Could a use a train line to a central location and then use trucks from there to the individual cities?

Would that be effeciant? Or an I being overly complicated?

[Metacritical]

it can be done, but it's not as efficient as point-to-point.

[bradigorMHG]

Ah that's a shame. Trying to find ways to have less traffic on the go in loads of different directions. Especially as it seems I need my tools fling through city A to get to city B.

Might have a rethink.

[coenvijge]

Originally posted by Metacritical:

it can be done, but it's not as efficient as point-to-point.

But it's fun to build it that way and make it work.

[Tsubame ⭐]

Distribution hubs do work in game. For trucks, it would be best if the cities are clustered rather close together around the hub, given the vehicles' slow speeds.

[bradigorMHG]

Ah thank you. I'll experiment

[Old Knotty]

Hubs work for me when the supply routes are long. I can run full trains over the main route then have short routes for local delivery. I can put the powerful (and expensive) locos on long freight trains and cheaper locos on the trip freights.

[RadiKyle]

Originally posted by bradigorMHG:

I know the game doesn't have default distribution centres but was wondering if I could use a truck shop or cargo station to be a central distribution to many cities.

Hi, yes you can use any station type as a hub. As long as you have chains of lines connected from source to destination, cargo (and passengers) will move through them.

Hubs (with mainlines and spokes) work well and there's some articles about them in the Guides. Personally I see 3 main advantages.

They greatly reduce the amount of routes I need to build on the map (which would increase exponentially if I point-to-point everything).

They quickly produce very(!!) busy mainline corridors which are very immersive / realistic, and challenging.

And they can increase net income. You are paid for distance covered, straight line from station to station. So hauling cargo across the map to a hub, and then on a different line back across to a destination, earns more than money than going direct on a short distance. Plus you should have less stopping/loading time per year so your line efficiency is higher. You are also more likely to have vehicles running with loads in both directions (instead of dead-heading one way), which is essential to break even at higher difficulty levels (income on Very Hard is only 40%).

Cheers

[lemming3k]

Efficiency depends on the map and distribution. For example a 1:5 map provides a good way to build a long central mainline with distribution centres along the length in each "region", you can then deliver to local cities from each. Whilst being less direct, it can still be more efficient by virtue of using less overall infrastructure and vehicles through the shared usage.

If you try to shoehorn them in all over the place then they will most likely suck (but look cool).

[Overlord]

Check the in depth guide for this game in "guides" it will give you answers and ideas how to do it :)

[CashonWheels]

It depends on your map layout. Square RNG maps are not hub friendly. Every other kind you can work them in nicely. If I have no cost on I do a bunch of cargo filtering on my lines. If no cost is off then I do less filtering.

[HellDuke]

Shipping from factory to the city alone is an early game thing and stops happening midway through if you know what you are doing. You don't even do it intentionally, it should happen naturally.

You start off with let's say a farm going to a food processor and then to the close by city A. Then you might get a train or ship to send it off to a far away city B. Then along the way you might get construction materials for city A, but you also need it for city C. So you would obviously not set up a route to go from construction materials to city A, you would instead go from construction materials to your food processor since trucks already go to the town. You then get a line to city C where trucks also distribute it into the city itself.

Well, now maybe both B and C also need fuel as well. Well only logical that any fuel chain you come up will always go to the food processor even if City A does not need it, because the infrastructure is there for both B and C.

It's just more efficient and logical. You might get a few places like that and the game changes from creating supply chains to cities and instead just linking things into your centers. Obviously you need to be careful not to overload particular transport types. You don't want to have a cargo ship with 1 or 2 containers dealing with a line that might have 4 or more different types of goods. Heck you will even notice that you will start supplying cities that you weren't even planning to, because some line already established can transport that type as is.