Warehouses, Transfer Station, Supply Station

[petrichor]

Hello,
Could anyone offer some tips on how these three exactly work together? As I understand it, the warehouse stores goods for anyone to take and put in. The Transfer Station and Supply Station I'm not so clear on.
As I understand it, the Transfer Station workers look OUTSIDE the range shown when placing the building for warehouses, and will bring to those warehouses and goods INSIDE the radius.
The Supply Station then gets goods to bring to nearby workers.

I'm wondering about the synergy of the three; obviously the warehouse has the most storage and needs no workers, but where does the transfer station come in? Do I have a transfer station near (i.e) the clay pit to bring clay to warehouses far away? If I'm doing this, why wouldn't I just put a supply station near the clay processing area and go and get the materials?

I'm a senior gamer and definitely missing something obvious, but would appreciate a breakdown of how best to use these buildings.

Thanks

[Lexi]

I do not understand the transfer station, so I can't wait to hear some replies.

The Supply Station is the building I put next to my production buildings.

For example, my Candy workshop has a supply station next to it.
In the supply station I put the items needed for candy (sugar, jam).
I guess that means the candy makers and stay close to the workshop, and not run all over the map.

[Mr.Hooker]

Transfer Station does exact the thing it sounds like. Transfer items that being put in. You can consider it as the opposite of Supply Station.

Supply station will get things for your industry complex to boost working efficiency by shorten the distance of getting materials.

Storage buildings boost working efficiency by shorten the distance of getting rid of processed items. Transfer Station is a type of storage building but with people in it to transfer item it stored to outside storage facilities.

Supply station is great with industry complex.

[Lady Jane]

Am too confused about this. I built transfer stations and supply stations in one of my industry complex area just to have it. But on my other industry complex areas, I didn't. I really haven't seen the difference in the results, but then again my settlement is very busy to notice.

[Honeywell]

A transfer station is a storage yard with workers who empty it so it never gets full.
A supply station is a storage building with workers who deliver resources to nearby workplaces.

Both buildings are a way to use additional labor to support your production chains and increase production/efficiency. oVioletValkyirex put together a nice video showing how they use them in their city if you'd be interested in watching a video: https://youtu.be/_Ps403VzC5c

[TrickyNick77]

Thank you for sharing that video, @honeywell, that did help me understand further.

[avie]

oh, thats very helpful indeed, next to the farm area a transfer station is awesome ! thank you for that video.

[rybikson]

Those things are confusing, mostly because of the ingame labels. The mechanics is simple.
Noone said that Delivery Center and Delivery Terminal are just the same, just different size. The descriptions are different with highlighted words as if its sth different. One says raw materials, the other says materials/items. Pff

Lets scrap the myths and stay with hard logic :D

All manned structures producing items always actively push to the nearest unrestricted storage. There is no internal storage for produced items.

All manned structures try to actively pull items they need from the nearest storage. There is an passive internal storage restricted to the items needed to craft.

All villagers gathering goods are actively pushing it to nearest storage.

All "Warehouse" submenu structures are passive unrestricted storages.

Logistic structures:

1) Transfer station:
> intake: unrestricted passive storage
< output: unrestricted passive storage and active push to nearest warehouse-like outside blue circle
Everyone can use it as passive storage (in/out) and the haulers are moving goods away

2) Supply depot:
> intake: restricted active-only pull
< output: unrestricted passive storage
<< requested output: active push to nearest warehouse-like (when you remove item type from wanted items)

This structure is actively gathering selected items with own workers. No workers, no way to use as storage for incoming goods. Anyone can take any items out.

When you modify the white list the structure try to get rid of unwanted or overloaded items. Like "stop storing wood" or "reduce the clay amount".

*bug: the initial storage yard is not a proper place to pull from until you build any other warehouse-like
**feature: if you destroy full storage and there is no place to put items, the items will appear in the freshly build Supply Depot even if its unmanned and got no white-list of allowed item types

[move-in] button sets the priority to pull. If turned off they will try to get rid of unwanted items (if any).

3) Delivery center (big) = Delivery terminal (small) its fkin the same just with confusing different description.
> intake: restricted active pull from any storage (it can pull from the marketplace)
< output: restricted active feed the crafting stations in blue circle range
<< requested output: active push to nearest warehouse-like (if you remove wanted item type or reduce amount)

This structure doenst allow others to push in. It uses own workers to actively pull from any warehouse-like and only the type and amount of item you set. Then it pushes items to any crafting station in the blue circle when theres free internal storage.

The whitelist and button works in same way as earlier. The structure is going to pull items if you set it, even if theres no crafting station in need of that item in range.

Trading structures:
1) Marketplace
> intake: active unrestricted pull (but looks like it prioritizes consumables a bit)
< output: passive until "Delivery" technology activated, then actively feed houses in range

2) Dock
> intake: restricted active pull
< output: none but merchant ship
<< requested output: active push to nearby warehouse-like (when you modify the witelist

This structure workers will try to gather items up to the whitelist, respecting amounts to store and leave for the people. Its useful when set to take only the abundance of usables. Goods stored inside cannot be used be villagers. The only way to take items out is to trade or remove from list.

Suggested setup, lets say for the soap:
You produce loads of soap, you want to let ppl use it. You also want to have it stored near the river and be able to caravan out, but there are loads so let the rest dont spam the city.

Setup the Depot near the river, let the dock keep 5000 soap, then set the Dock to save 5000 and stock own 5000. This way you will always have the 5000 in the depot for internal use and caravaning, but everything above will be docked.

The dock is perfect to keep the abundance of mass produced goods, but it locks it inside.

* Merchant ship doesnt carry any moneys! Its barter only - so dont get stuck with all valuables in the dock - because when the incoming merchang brings only sht, you got to remove your goods to be able to caravan it out. Use dock for what you really doesnt need. The decent value of docked goods is about 10-15k silver to be able to trade for 2 animals/blueprints or 4-6 trade-only building upgrades like toilets.

** trade ship doesnt restrict cargo weight ^^ its a nice way to sell obsolete sand/clay/wood for food in early game. Those thingys doesnt go easy on caravan because of the mass.

3) Trading Posts (caravan)
> intake: active restricted pull on demand (no way to have goods prepared inside)
< output: caravan trade
<< requested output: disband caravan before it start routing, you got goods back

On demand, means they only pull items when you form the caravan.

Your caravans can loop, but its a pain to wait until they gather goods. Its good to use the Depot near and have goods prepared nearby. Its better to have smaller amounts of different goods set up in looping caravan, because they are going to wait for all the goods befor start. Keep your caravan running efficiently without calculating overproduction. Sell what you can and let the abundance go to Dock or load it out using non-looping second caravan which sell whats left.

* I realised too late that every new Trading post is going to give me extra caravans :)

[Dirtweasle]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Honeywell:

A transfer station is a storage yard with workers who empty it so it never gets full. ...

[...] ... oVioletValkyirex put together a nice video showing how they use them in their city if you'd be interested in watching a video: https://youtu.be/_Ps403VzC5c

Well worth your time if you have trouble figuring out how they work.

[rybikson]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Dirtweasle:

Well worth your time if you have trouble figuring out how they work.

No need to quote what was published 2 posts before mine - and as you can see I dont have any trouble with understanding game mechanics. Moreover - the video doesnt explain every structure by its in-game name :3

[RS]

This is confusing AF. They need to be morphed into a single building that handles all in-out in a defined area. Keep it simple.

[Dietre]

warehouse and storage yard let me choose specific item. done. eg. Winery next to a warehouse that is selected for potatoes, farm on other side producing potatoes. nice and simple but right now all i can select is simple foods, so sure the 1st couple yrs the warehouse will get potatoes and runs smooth but soon after the fish and meat etc will start to end up at the warehouse and reduce the amount of potatoes there, then you need a build a delivery terminal to go and get the potatoes which should be right beside the winery but now its on the other side of the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ map because of the lack of ability to choose specific items in storage.

Maybe you can upgrade warehouses to have workers that will gather items from resource productions instead of the supply depot which is completely useless to me. Delivery terminals are working well tho, they are good options when your city starts to get bigger, but still , single item storage at yards would keep it very clean and efficient.

[rybikson]

Diposting pertama kali oleh RS:

This is confusing AF. They need to be morphed into a single building that handles all in-out in a defined area. Keep it simple.

Feel free to use just warehouse tab for all your needs.

The only confusing thing is the naminfg and description, the game mechanics works fine and is very useful.

Scenario 1)
My storages got clogged by fat and dung - and those 2 are the most easy materials to export in early game.

Solution:
a) Have any warehouse storage near fields to let farmers dump anything there and back to work, they are not haulers (in future they will not have horse/cart bonus)
b) Have Supply Depot actively sucking 1k fat and 1k dung near to unclog the storage space from bulk overloading materials, leave this storages for "fast moving consumer goods"
c) Set another supply depot near the trading structures to let caravans load faster. Set it to store 5k each
d) Set your Dock to preserve 5k in other storages and store own 10k

This way you will have tour cruicial workspace cleaned from fat&dung by 1st line Depo. Then the 2nd line depo will move overload closer to the final destination (because its set to store greater amount). Then your Dock will take everything above 5k from all village.

Finally you have 5k of 2 easy export resources near trading spcae and a structure taking everything above 5k. All ready to trade far away from the pastures.

Scenario 2)
I got a little space on remote resource district and just want to pass all to the city

Solution: Transfer stations. Ppl drop things and haulers from the stations just push it away outside circle.

Scenario 3)
I need my metal-district to be ultra effective.

Solution: Delivery center/ delivery terminal
I want my haulers not only pull things like Depot. I want them to actively feed craft stations to let my smiths just do their smithy-thingys not haul.

All manned logistic structures can use donkeys/horses/carts and 2 haulers form transfer structures can bring things from remote location and feed it to crafters.

Crafters gonna craft ;)

[rybikson]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Dietre:

instead of the supply depot which is completely useless to me

Depots are the most powerful structures in the mid game.
1) Theres no range mechanics, you dont have to put it precisely and be aware of which warehouses are in range or not. (thats why transfer stations ♥♥♥♥)
2) The PULL mechanics is much easier to handle. This storage will just move selected resource to a place u need it.
3) No output restrictions. No matter how u set it, everyone can still take the resources out.
4) Easy to get this technology early. Easy resources to build.

Example:
Important: I have set fish priority to 5 or ban it from consumption
Salt is on the coast, fish is on the coast, water trade is on the coast.
Coast line: fishers, salt makers, dock, water trade.
2nd line: Depot, Curing workshops, any common storage (yard, warehouse)
Depot set: 5k salt, 5k fish, 1k salted fish.

Pros:
a) my fishermen and salt gatherers will just drop fish and salt in the nearest place (yard/warehouse 4 tiles away) and get back to work, no need to haul it to the city
b) my depot is taking away fish and salt from the storage to unclog it
c) my fish salting ppl got resources 5 tiles away
d) my salted fish is also sucked from the yard
e) fish and salt overload is kept near the coast and ready to trade
f) everyone can use everything from the depot as if it was just a storage so theres no risk of ppl starving

Without Depot my storage would be clogged most of the time, salt will randomly go to marketplace and spread to other storages, fish/salt producers would try to fing remote storages to dump items and fish-satlers gonna have a bad day if the storage was spammed by any other random item.

[CrapGame]

So is the synergy of Supply Depot and Delivery Center the ideal scenario?

Because if I understand this correctly, the supply depot is gathering from everywhere and anyone can remove items. The DC would then pull from the SD and feed production in its AOE.

The limitation on the DC not being able to pull from distant storage is overcome by the SD who can just pull from everywhere.

This way you can have a production area being fed by the DC and an adjacent SD that is pulling the necessary raw materials from all over the map.

Does that sound right?

[Dietre]

Supply Depot ONLY PULLS FROM ANOTHER WAREHOUSE, not everywhere (eg, they will not take fat from a farm (was going to say butcher but they changed it lol)) Farm will put fat in storage yard/warehouse, supply depot will gather fat if that is whats selected.
Delivery centers from my experience are bugged but they can pull items from any storage building and will bring items to the production buildings, however, I have many delivery centers that have collected the items i want, will use them a couple times to production buildings then go slacking off for years while those production buildings go to ♥♥♥♥ from no resources, even tho the delivery terminal is full and there is production limit open to produce. A supply depot close to the whole district would help as a double coverage maybe, so if the delivery terminals piss off, then at least your production workers wont have to travel all over for the goods.

The transfer station is also bugged in that items will arrive at it from allll over the map , not just local , even with animal power unlocked they only move small amounts of items at a time so it just gets filled up rather quick and the workers will only move like 5 apples at a time or something else silly like that. happening on 4 different transfer stations set up now.
perhaps its a conflict with a mod since last update, I only use the faster grave stone mod and mine can be deleted, thats it.