Issues distributing coal?

[Cannon Fodder]

I'm curious is anyone else has been experiencing this issue.
As my game has progressed and Coal gets used in more and more places, I have used advanced logistics to designate a dedicated truck for everywhere that coal is needed.
For example, a coal powered boiler for power has one specific truck. A coal powered boiler for desalinating water has one truck. And on, and on.
I also use the priority system, and push coal storage for power as "1" which is top priority, as I understand it?

Maybe the simple solution is that 1 is the "LOWEST" priority and i've been misunderstanding.

But Coal is not making it where it needs! Especially to the highest priority areas. Assigned trucks just...sit at the destination, never going to pickup coal (and there IS coal to pick up).

Even weirder, is when setting these dedicated trucks up, the very second I would assign a single truck, it's like it kicked the entire idle force into action and suddenly A DOZEN trucks would show up and say "OH RIGHT HERE IS SOME COAL!".

I don't know what's wrong, if it's on me, or if it's on the game logistics, but it's to a point where my island is crippling and I don't know how to fix it.

[Billy_Bligh]

The answer is belts. You should move to belts as soon as possible for moving things like coal. Relying on trucks is the issue - they're too slow and they're incapable of delivering a constant/reliable supply.

Priority 1 is the highest priority. Have you set a min/max amount of coal in any of the storages, because that can halt deliveries.

[Cannon Fodder]

Originally posted by Billy_Bligh:

The answer is belts. You should move to belts as soon as possible for moving things like coal. Relying on trucks is the issue - they're too slow and they're incapable of delivering a constant/reliable supply.

Priority 1 is the highest priority. Have you set a min/max amount of coal in any of the storages, because that can halt deliveries.

But the amount of places that need coal would have a DOZEN belt lines... I belt anywhere close to the quarries that pull coal, but creating island long chains of belts? No thank you.

moreover the issue isn't bandwidth or throughput, the truck assigned to pick up of coal from one place and bring it to another just *DOES NOT* do so. Granted, I havent tried again since shutting the game off...it may just be a "restart the game issue"

And yes, the requesting storages all have min/max's set to demand coal brought in from the quarry storage.

[Rümmler]

You have three key factors which will drastically alter how your logistic network performs, especially with volume-heavy loads like coal:

1) Placement
2) Volume
3) Art of Transport

And these points should influence your plannings. I will give an example:

Playing Armageddon right now, recently started with Cement production. As ressources are scarce in the beginning, I don't have the luxury to conveyor up everything (which is the ultimate goal).

My Concrete production is close to the crater below the copper ore, above the iron ore and left of the coal.
My cement is being produced far left of it at the limestone deposit. I choose that location because trucking in coal is very truck-friendly (it's 1,5 coal / 60) whereas trucking limestone would be 9/60. The kiln has a limestone storage first, and will get coal storage later. Again, I choose so because I need more limestone than coal. So the placement was done with the idea of "How can I reduce the truck loads as much as possible?"

Cement is very truck-friendly, because it's 1,5 per 60 on T1. That means one truckload of cement will last 15 minutes, whereas a truckload of limestone barely lasts a bit more than 2 minutes. Eventually, I will have a coal storage for the kiln and most likely no conveyor for the coal later, since I can later pipe in gas.


My preference is to conveyor up my first power plant close to the coal mine. Actually, every coal dump from the trucks will be passing that power plant and then hitting the other belt line for the furnaces - power is so important, it has to be in that placement for me. Later on in the game, when I have the really good power tech, I choose a designated power plant spot to use for gas.

So, my coal setup is:
Being dumped into the sorter/main storage at the pit
Going to the power plant which is close
Being belted into the furnace area
All trucks grab it from the main storage

All other productions are later in midgame or so consumer friendly that it doesn't matter in the late early game to be conveyored. I do not use dedicated trucks at all - maybe I will later with hauling trucks but in my experience running free trucks is the better option.

[Billy_Bligh]

Originally posted by Cannon Fodder:

But the amount of places that need coal would have a DOZEN belt lines... I belt anywhere close to the quarries that pull coal, but creating island long chains of belts?

That's what you need. Create a central store and it's the most efficient way of doing it. Place consumers close to each other. Belt it out to secondary storage if you need to, near power, refineries etc and use splitters. The amount of coal you get through as you expand, you can't rely on trucks to deliver it for ever.

As for trucks not shifting it, yeah it happens the demands on trucks are high, and they will deliver it, but they won't keep up with it. You can force mines to deliver to specific storage, then assign trucks to target storages so they're dedicated to a particular storage bin and won't do anything else - that'll keep you afloat for a while, but you'll use more diesel and eventually you won't keep up with demand. Belts are simply more efficient, even if you don't want to build a central/main bus of conveyors.

[Cannon Fodder]

Originally posted by Billy_Bligh:

You can force mines to deliver to specific storage, then assign trucks to target storages so they're dedicated to a particular storage bin and won't do anything else - that'll keep you afloat for a while

no, this is the exact point of my post, and the issue that im having; I have a dedicated truck assigned to a coal storage for my power plant who is ordered to pull from the quarry that dumps all the ♥♥♥♥ into the debris sorter. That sorter dumps coal into a storage unit that several satellite storages are ordered to pull from (power included), and despite it being FULL the one for power, set to priority 1, ordered to fill his storage doesn't just not get the coal, he doesn't even move at all. If I unassign him he'll go elsewhere, so getting to aand from isn't an issue.

[Captain Zuff]

Originally posted by Cannon Fodder:

Originally posted by Billy_Bligh:

You can force mines to deliver to specific storage, then assign trucks to target storages so they're dedicated to a particular storage bin and won't do anything else - that'll keep you afloat for a while

no, this is the exact point of my post, and the issue that im having; I have a dedicated truck assigned to a coal storage for my power plant who is ordered to pull from the quarry that dumps all the ♥♥♥♥ into the debris sorter. That sorter dumps coal into a storage unit that several satellite storages are ordered to pull from (power included), and despite it being FULL the one for power, set to priority 1, ordered to fill his storage doesn't just not get the coal, he doesn't even move at all. If I unassign him he'll go elsewhere, so getting to aand from isn't an issue.

If you could send me a save file for this playthrough to [e-mail] I'll gladly take a look and see what's going on. There very well might be a logistics issue we need to take a look at.

[MetalSpaceDust]

I have never had issues with trucks until update 2.

Now getting some real funky logistics issues.

Like today. Loose storage full of slag. Set to keep empty. Dumping zone set. Three trucks sat next to it with state idle. Does not get emptied. Assign a truck to it and a fourth turns up and starts to empty. The other three burst into life and also start to empty.

[Cannon Fodder]

Originally posted by Captain Zuff:

Originally posted by Cannon Fodder:

no, this is the exact point of my post, and the issue that im having; I have a dedicated truck assigned to a coal storage for my power plant who is ordered to pull from the quarry that dumps all the ♥♥♥♥ into the debris sorter. That sorter dumps coal into a storage unit that several satellite storages are ordered to pull from (power included), and despite it being FULL the one for power, set to priority 1, ordered to fill his storage doesn't just not get the coal, he doesn't even move at all. If I unassign him he'll go elsewhere, so getting to aand from isn't an issue.

If you could send me a save file for this playthrough to [e-mail] I'll gladly take a look and see what's going on. There very well might be a logistics issue we need to take a look at.

Thanks for replying, I sent an email with a save file and screenshot of the issue.

[Muladas]

For me, if I have storage A at the coal mine and storage B at the power plant and use the advanced logistics send coal from A to B, the truck has to be assigned to storage A. A truck assigned to storage B will just sit idle, which seems to be what you are describing.

[Peter34]

I try to avoid assigning vehicles. Instead I use storages set to Keep (Nearly) Full and Keep (Almost) Empty, and I rely on a large "logistics fleet" of unassigned Pick-Ups or Trucks to handle things on an as-needed basis.

I only assign to Mind Control Towers, Fuel Stations, and Tree Harvesters.

Important stuff like Debt Payments get Priority 1, Maintenance gets 3, re-fuel Ships (if I don't do that via Pipes) might get 4, Coal to Oil Refining and Electricity might get 5, Ore stuff might get 7 (including Keep-Nearly-Empty for Slag/Rock/Dirt).

I usually link production of MechP and El1 directly to Iron/Steel and Copper production, but otherwise they'd get high Priority too.

And then it's huge input buffers, and usually small intermediate buffers too.

[Keranik]

Originally posted by Peter34:

I try to avoid assigning vehicles. Instead I use storages set to Keep (Nearly) Full and Keep (Almost) Empty, and I rely on a large "logistics fleet" of unassigned Pick-Ups or Trucks to handle things on an as-needed basis.

I only assign to Mind Control Towers, Fuel Stations, and Tree Harvesters.

Important stuff like Debt Payments get Priority 1, Maintenance gets 3, re-fuel Ships (if I don't do that via Pipes) might get 4, Coal to Oil Refining and Electricity might get 5, Ore stuff might get 7 (including Keep-Nearly-Empty for Slag/Rock/Dirt).

I usually link production of MechP and El1 directly to Iron/Steel and Copper production, but otherwise they'd get high Priority too.

And then it's huge input buffers, and usually small intermediate buffers too.

Why "Nearly" full and "Almost" empty?