Production and Consumption Conflict

[Solar_Honie]

FYI: English is not my 1st language and my left elbow is recuperating from a heavy injury so I have to type slowly with my right hand.

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November 2024 and there is still a problem with supply chain (I read somewhere on this Steam community that people have experienced it since 2023 and earlier). When I ban all of my fancy drinks from being consumed, my products grow from 0 to 12k in a month, and then, when I allow consumption, these products was drained to 0 within a month. There is no sight of regaining their full stock while consumption is on, they even barely reach 100 for 2 months, and most of the time it's 0.

My population is approximately 1500 in total, I have 2 wineries and 2 teashops for each fancy drink, each production site is in the vicinity of a delivery station and has warehouses nearby. Workers live closed to these locations. My marketplaces all have full personnel and have warehouses nearby too. Raw materials are always sufficient. Raw materials like fruits and beans are planted nearby, only glass bottles are made from a distance (nearly half of a large map, 10 kiln workshops - full upgrades and full staffs). Road are all cut stones and obsidian. I also change the priority of these fancy drinks to 3 and 4.

I tried to fix the problem by putting 1 supply terminal within the reach of 2 marketplaces, and stock only a portion of these fancy drinks. But still, nothing change at all.

What is happening?
What should I do?

This is the most downfall of this game and actually can kill the game.

[Honeywell]

Your setup sounds really efficient but the simple answer is you're not producing enough. You need to add more wineries and tea shops and buy or produce more raw materials.

Exactly how many you'll need I don't know but keep adding 1 or 2 more at a time until you see a surplus with the drinks allowed. I'm playing on extreme with scarce production and I have 8 wineries and it's still not enough for my entire population.

P.S. The 12k stock is being stored in the houses when it's allowed. Also, hope you feel better!

[Solar_Honie]

Well, right after I created this discussion, I decided to split my Glass Bottle industry in half to move 5 Kiln workshops (plus 2 Sandpits, 3 Fuel factories and 1 mine) to the center of my map which is quite closed to the location of those fancy drink facilities. And then ... the chain works perfectly. But thank you for your answer, anyway.

However, a similar problem still persists in my lighting industry although I made the same change: Oil Lamps and Lantern take turns to fully fill stock and after some months they take turns to completely be drained out for a month. Only mines need Oil Lamps and Lanterns, right?

[Honeywell]

Nice! Glad you solved it. : )

Do you have cathedrals? If you do they consume lanterns.

Or maybe what you're noticing is workers holding onto what they produce until their inventory is full before releasing it into the supply? That can create a boom and bust cycle in your supply if you don't over produce to compensate.

[shadez]

i am not 100% sure the mechanics here but have observed this which is caused by non-warehouse storage. as far as i can tell, there are 3 causes

1. the moment you set an amount in your supply terminal or delivery stations, the workers will start moving the product from a warehouse and this will be considered 'demand' until the full amount is delivered.
2. this also happens to ppl collecting products to store in marketplaces and houses.
3. if the product is a raw material for another item (example: beer can be used as a drink or in gourmet shop for picnic/feast/delicacy...sorry cant remember which of this) . usage is also counted here.

you'd actually be surprised how low the demand is from actual consumption by the ppl.

the moment you place a consumption ban, the product from all houses are returned to warehouses so you'd see a boom in stock. you take it off and your population will start collecting the item back to houses for storage.

a 'solve' as you did is to improve efficiency. efficiency is keeping things close, using less resources and producing faster. taking tea as an example: have a nursery plant tea leaves. place a storage yard to only accept tea leaves. place a tea house near a storage yard and water source (well or reservoir). have people stay in houses near to their workplaces (use policy to achieve this)....alternatively, spam production buildings to increase output.

i wouldnt worry about this too much as long as you produce more than the demand. it will eventually smooth itself out and stock will slowly build up.

lastly on lanterns, as already mentioned above, places of worship and mines use lanterns. unlike mines, churches and mosques do not stock up on lanterns. they just consume a certain amount directly from warehouse each month.