Please help with logistics

[Pilzquadrat]

Please help, I'm retarded. I played a lot of tropico and though it'd work out the same, mechanic wise, but I seem to go wrong very early.

I started the game, and it has 2 coca farms and a lab in close proximity.Those farms produce hella slow, and the lab gets dried coca out once every minute.

So I've built additional 4 coca farms and a closeby warehouse in better efficiency area, and set the remote lab as additional destination for the new warehouse.
But the warehouse and the coca farms are filled to the max and stuff stacks up tinted red there.
If a truck finds its way to the lab, it then brings dried coca back to this filled up warehouse, and I think it goes to waste?

I also built some vegetable farms and a warehouse in another area, and the vegetables get transported to the airfield just fine by my warehouse (additional location: airfield). But then money goes back to the warehouse, and I got no idea how to get it to the bank. There is only one additional location per warehouse right? I ended up losing by bankuptcy, cause all I had was dirty money.

Also it said I'd need to pack the dried coca into the vegetables to make it legal? How does this all work out with warehouses if you can just add one destination?

Another thing: My lieutenant can deliver coca/dried coca, but he never seems to drop it off at e.g. lab/airfield when I order him to do it?

I'm lost with logistics.

[Haako]

No problem mate, here are short answers. If you want to know more, keep asking.

Originally posted by Pilzquadrat:

Please help, I'm retarded. I played a lot of tropico and though it'd work out the same, mechanic wise, but I seem to go wrong very early.

I started the game, and it has 2 coca farms and a lab in close proximity.Those farms produce hella slow, and the lab gets dried coca out once every minute.

So I've built additional 4 coca farms and a closeby warehouse in better efficiency area, and set the remote lab as additional destination for the new warehouse.
But the warehouse and the coca farms are filled to the max and stuff stacks up tinted red there.
If a truck finds its way to the lab, it then brings dried coca back to this filled up warehouse, and I think it goes to waste?

The division of jobs for trucks and whorehouses are a bit weird, but I observed a one fundamental rule: Only one truck can go to a point at the same time, but when first truck will start driving back, another truck can go to the same place. Exception: returning truck to their base. You can do a little test: a warehouse at level one has three trucks. Build a farm, let it fill with product and then connect. In most games all trucks would set off, but in Cartel Tycoon only one will go to farm at the same time (the other two will wait for "clear route").
So, setting a lab as destination for two warehouses is a smart solution. But if one is far away than other, the closer one will almost always send their trucks first to transport raw product and your distant warehouse will only send a truck for finished product.
You can overstock products, but it will rise attention of the police later on.
Money can't be overstocked - you will lose some and rise your terror level.

Solution - build second warehouse close to the lab or build another production chain independently (3-4 farms-warehouse-lab).

Originally posted by Pilzquadrat:

I also built some vegetable farms and a warehouse in another area, and the vegetables get transported to the airfield just fine by my warehouse (additional location: airfield). But then money goes back to the warehouse, and I got no idea how to get it to the bank. There is only one additional location per warehouse right? I ended up losing by bankuptcy, cause all I had was dirty money.

Legal goods (in your example vegetables) are sold and give you directly legal money. But I think that airport will sell illegal goods first. Also, selling legal goods is not a good idea (too low income). But you will use it for other purposes (smuggling;)).
Each level of warehouses will give you more additional destinations (one for each level).
You need to transport your money to the bank. Just change the destination or use your characters. Later on you will build residences, which focuses solely on transporting money.

Originally posted by Pilzquadrat:

Also it said I'd need to pack the dried coca into the vegetables to make it legal? How does this all work out with warehouses if you can just add one destination?

Yes, you are correct. After a few quest, you will get access to research lab. There, get the workshop tech. It will allow you to build workshop. There you will choose which drugs you want to pack/smuggle in legal goods. Also, in that way you can transport and sell more units of drugs. In example, a one unit of packed vegetables can fit 3 units of any drug. Also, workshop trucks can deliver its cargo, but they will not collect money from airports and other location; workshop trucks just deliver goods.

Originally posted by Pilzquadrat:

Another thing: My lieutenant can deliver coca/dried coca, but he never seems to drop it off at e.g. lab/airfield when I order him to do it?

If you can choose to transport goods, he/she will deliver it to given location. You will see his/her cargo as goods icon with number of units above a car. If you can't see goods at destination - it means, that location instantly used transported goods. In other case, most locations can hold and stock goods (even money). If could say more about that issue, I would be more helpful.

Originally posted by Pilzquadrat:

I'm lost with logistics.

You are not first ;) I hope they will improve some things in full game, but it seems from videos that current idea and mechanics for logistic are a complete part.

Ps. In early game use your characters to deliver dirty money from airports/warehouses to bank in the city! In that way, you will slowly turn it into legal money. It is also a 3rd or 4th quest of tutorial.

[Pilzquadrat]

Thanks a lot for your detailed reply. Helped a lot, though I still am a bit confused. In general, it seems I need to play it slower and stick to the tutorial step by step.I just experimented and was wondering for example where to research, as almost everything required research, but it probably is just still locked due to the tutorial aspect.

Originally posted by Haako:

The division of jobs for trucks and whorehouses are a bit weird, but I observed a one fundamental rule: Only one truck can go to a point at the same time, but when first truck will start driving back, another truck can go to the same place. Exception: returning truck to their base. You can do a little test: a warehouse at level one has three trucks. Build a farm, let it fill with product and then connect. In most games all trucks would set off, but in Cartel Tycoon only one will go to farm at the same time (the other two will wait for "clear route").
So, setting a lab as destination for two warehouses is a smart solution. But if one is far away than other, the closer one will almost always send their trucks first to transport raw product and your distant warehouse will only send a truck for finished product.

Ooh, the "one truck can only head for a destination at once" rule is probably what bogged me down the most. For my understanding, would a workaround be to build those 4 coca farms + warehouse as I did, and then just build another warehouse close to the existing lab and add that as an additional location for the first warehouse instead of the lab itself? (later on it probably is best tol just do what you say in the quote below this:

Edit: Damn I just tried, and it seems you can not add warehouses as destinations for other warehouses.

Originally posted by Haako:

Solution - build second warehouse close to the lab or build another production chain independently (3-4 farms-warehouse-lab).

Alright, once I am allowed to research I will try this.

Originally posted by Haako:

Originally posted by Pilzquadrat:

Another thing: My lieutenant can deliver coca/dried coca, but he never seems to drop it off at e.g. lab/airfield when I order him to do it?

If can choose to transport goods, he/she will deliver it to given location. You will see his/her cargo as goods icon with numbers above a car. If you can't see goods at destination - it means, that location instantly used transported goods. In other case, most locations can hold and stock goods (even money).

Originally posted by Haako:

Ps. In early game use your characters to deliver dirty money from airports/warehouses to bank in the city! In that way, you will slowly turn it into legal money. It is also a 3rd or 4th quest of tutorial.

How exactly do I do this? For example, my guy is at a warehouse. I select him, then select his "Deliver items". A kind of inventory shows left of his portrait, which e.g. says "coca 3/12", which I can select with my mouse. I assumed this is "available quanitiy/maximum carry capacity". Correct?

[Pilzquadrat]

I've been experimenting a bit more and now got 2x 4 coca farms/lab/warehouse operational. They bring dried coca to the airfield, money to the warehouse, and the lieutenant grabs the money and brings it to the bank. Nice to see it work out :-)

[Don Vincenzoo 57]

i think all this logistic system is not good ..... and not really fun in the end . i have to take my lieutenement and micro manage them all along to lundry some money . if i want to stock tons of illegal cash to bribe police who ask 100.000 in the first place.
i need minimum 10 warehouse !! 10k per warehouse !

OMG / it is so annoying ! you need to create a route from warehouse to any buildings or farm you need to go / not allow to do one road that deserve all the spot !
OMG !

management of the money is quickly annoying / i try to create a house but it did nothing even if i set destination to the bank . so i destroy it and construct in the aera of the bank but money doesn't automaticaly landry .... so it need to be in warehouse radius too ? in all of them

i like the concept of the game but this logistics system is pretty annoying !

[Haako]

Originally posted by Don Vincenzoo 57:

i think all this logistic system is not good ..... and not really fun in the end . i have to take my lieutenement and micro manage them all along to lundry some money . if i want to stock tons of illegal cash to bribe police who ask 100.000 in the first place.
i need minimum 10 warehouse !! 10k per warehouse !

First of all, you need 100k legal money, which is not stored in any building.
Instead of warehouses, use residences (houses as you mentioned). The residence truck can carry 4 times more money than a warehouse truck and it is faster. As you will pass the first few quests, you will unlock another character. He has a 2 attack power, which can be used to take the nearby residence. Use it to deliver money from the airport to a bank.

Originally posted by Don Vincenzoo 57:

OMG / it is so annoying ! you need to create a route from warehouse to any buildings or farm you need to go / not allow to do one road that deserve all the spot !
OMG !

Yes, but you quickly get access to research - get the workshop tech level 1. Workshop gather resources, and turn legal ones into an illegal with higher volume of drugs. Airport can only take between 10-15 units of any cargo. Packed vegetables can hide 3 units of drags, so 10 units of packed vegetables can sell 30 units of drugs.

Originally posted by Don Vincenzoo 57:

management of the money is quickly annoying / i try to create a house but it did nothing even if i set destination to the bank . so i destroy it and construct in the aera of the bank but money doesn't automaticaly landry .... so it need to be in warehouse radius too ? in all of them

First... have you turn it on? That was a problem for me in the first play ;) Each conquered building have to be turn on. Also, you need to set the bank AND the airport as a destination. truck will go for money and then it will deliver disrty money to the bank.

[Poulpiche]

I come first of all a surprising bug. I set up a depot so that it sends goods to the airfield a little further, the goods leave well, on the other hand, the trucks bring back the dirty money to the depot, in spite of the fact that I have a residence right next to the airfield (and thus in its perimeter). and I had to put another residence next to the depot, the dirty money stayed at the depot and no truck was going to get the money from the depot (and I checked that all the settings were good). I have the impression that when destinations are set for buildings, it blocks the destination for the other buildings. it's a BIG problem for a management game.

[Haako]

Originally posted by Poulpiche:

I come first of all a surprising bug. I set up a depot so that it sends goods to the airfield a little further, the goods leave well, on the other hand, the trucks bring back the dirty money to the depot, in spite of the fact that I have a residence right next to the airfield (and thus in its perimeter). and I had to put another residence next to the depot, the dirty money stayed at the depot and no truck was going to get the money from the depot (and I checked that all the settings were good). I have the impression that when destinations are set for buildings, it blocks the destination for the other buildings. it's a BIG problem for a management game.

Yes, you are right about one truck-one destination. I'm interested how dev are going to stand on that matter.

Few pointers to help you out.
1. To most destination only one truck can set off. So, if you have few warehouses and you set all of them to the same spot, then only one can go to the destiantion. Other truck will wait for "free line", just like trains in any tycoon game.
2. ... to add to point 1, if all truck would set of all at once, you would quickly end up with overstocked warehouse. Most truck will deliver goods only to max limit or will deliver just to break that limit.
3. But... Warehouse truck transport goods and money (and they will deliver mony, even if warhouse is full), but workshop trucks only deliver their product - they do not bring anything back. Use workshops to deliver drugs, and residences to collect money.
4. In most cases, build a residence in between the city and airport/port and upgrade to level 2. In that way, always one truck will go for money to the airport and other will deliver mony from residence to the bank.

[Pokeking]

Honestly, early game it feels very difficult to make sure that your warehouse doesn't fill up while making sure that you're still saving cash by using better farmland.

If only it were possible for me to just connect a warehouse to a lab and have that warehouse be the only one to transport goods from the lab to the aerodome and return with the cash, instead of being forced to use that same warehouse that is connected to the farms be the one to transport goods. ie, main road, warehouse, lab, warehouse, farms, instead of main road, warehouse, everything else.

Also, truck AI may need a bit of work as I had an issue where the trucks weren't properly depositing mats (cannabis) from warehouses as they were overflowing with raw mats because the trucks were too occupied with transporting a mere third of their maximum load to the airport (ie they were moving 3 at at ime, instead of 10).

I had 2 warehouses with three 60-85% farms each moving a decent distance to the starter aerodome, but the trucks were only moving 3 units of dried canabis per run to the aerodome and the trucks weren't moving much product to the one lab from the ether warehouse. Then again, the quests weren't properly popping up ether.

[Poulpiche]

Originally posted by Haako:

Few pointers to help you out.

Thanks, but I'don't need help. I have progressed and taken control of many other areas and have unblocked level 3 of most buildings. the problem remains the same.

the principle of the game lies in precise production and stock management, there is NO interface to precisely control the behavior of the production and storage areas and the trucks. there is no possibility, for example, to destroy superfluous stock or to block or even slow down a production or block the arrival of trucks if the destination stock is full, for example with a 1 to 5 star gauge for example (like the buildings at Tropico) and even less to be able to do so on a summary interface. this is all the more problematic as ALL buildings have a stock limit, even the bank.

it's a pretty good idea that a badly managed stock can attract the attention of the police or even worse, but it's a big flaw in the gameplay to not be able to manage it otherwise than by opening more buildings or closing others, especially since you have to reparameterize these buildings and connect them to the others each time. the game also allows you to burn down a compromised building. this is a pretty good idea but it clearly lacks the possibility to rebuild the same building with the parameters and relationships. at the beginning, it is manageable but on several regions it is tiring, especially since when a police alert is triggered, we don't know where their target is but it is still indicated on the map, which forces us to search the whole map with the time slowed down to anticipate the intervention of the police. I really don't see the point of having chosen a postulate between warning us but not completely, apart from wasting our time, even more so when we manage several regions.

in the same vein, i find that the fact that buildings have a circular perimeter is a misguided idea and should be removed. on the one hand, because distances can vary according to the layout of roads (and therefore no longer follow a circular logic) and on the other hand, because a building that is far from its supplier or destinations is ALREADY at a disadvantage and slows down the whole chain. Tropico works like this and avoids having to do micro-management, unlike Cartel Tycoon.

and like Pokeking said, Trucks IA need improvement

in short, that's it for me. the game has a huge potential but as it stands there is still too much to correct to convince me

[Don Vincenzoo 57]

i have the same opinion than you . game idea is awesome but management part of stock / building range / money / truck / connect tons of route etc ... is not for me and not well done in the end actualy

[clayog123]

logistics suck, plain and simple. No good way to learn a balance other than trial and error. Game is way early, so I expected issues. Like being told to take regions, then I go and do that and instantly the military and police go bat crap crazy on me, terror is at 5 stars. Bribes do nothing to help.....will wait and watch for improvements. Overall I like to concept, glad for the demo...

[Ric]

Originally posted by clayog123:

logistics suck, plain and simple. No good way to learn a balance other than trial and error. Game is way early, so I expected issues. Like being told to take regions, then I go and do that and instantly the military and police go bat crap crazy on me, terror is at 5 stars. Bribes do nothing to help.....will wait and watch for improvements. Overall I like to concept, glad for the demo...

Did you take everything straight after each other or something. Heat goes down after a while so you can keep your stars much lower. I've played through the demo about 5 times, and haven't gone higher than 2 so you must have rushed or something...lol..

I definitely think the logistics need a bit of work, but I think it's unfair to say they suck. Once residences/workshops are unlocked, things are way more manageable. I just need more ways to launder money (which I know the full version will have).

Hopefully the devs will take note of some of the feedback in the forums and rejig to make the game logistics a little smarter, or give us more control to manage it ourselves

Great potential overall :)

[mikeydsc]

My one big complaint is having to make 3 or 4 clicks to just move. Select the toon, right click on a new destination and go. If you want to load up something sure use the list.

Its true that the 1 truck 1 destination policy is doomed to failure. Either up the capacity or lower the production. In a couple few days, my inventories are mostly full waiting to be moved by a truck. Im constantly using my lieutenants to move stuff around that is over produced to keep heat down. Problem is the airfield does not move enough goods fast enough. Farms on fertile ground just balloon your storage to having suspicions rise.

1 point above tho seems to be off. I have 3 warehouses and all 3 can send 1 truck at the same time. Usually I have 4 (3 wh and 1 lieutenant) cars rolling to airfield until its full. Then the backup starts all over my businesses.

[Wingtip]

the problems i had were that warehouses are useless.... the trucks pass through them but dont fill them. My materials come from the farm, the truck takes it through the warehouse and straight to the factory or lab... Once the lab gets full and starts drawing attention the trucks just keep shoving ♥♥♥♥ in there instead of filling up my warehouse which is sitting there empty...

Also the workshops and residence's are wonky... sometimes they just wont make deliveries at all... i tear them down rebuild them, reload the game and they just wont deliver the final product. You also cant place a workshop to close to your warehouse... it has to be outside the circle of the warehouse even though the circle of the workshop itself is Fing huge.

Other things id like is the ability to stop a move command and change destination.
As others have stated, the move command is to many clicks and should be more like age of empires and games like that where you just left click the unit, then right click somewhere on the map.
id especially like the option when i go to move materials out of a building (cause it wont fill my warehouse and stuffs a lab full) that i can select how much to move or even just an option for half. Currently when using lieutenants they move the full amount.