About the orbital trade beacon stockpile

[Gold♥Shield]

I frequently get traders that want insect jelly, insect meat, and a myriad of other things that are stored elsewhere, but when I change the stockpile allowances around, my colonists refuse to haul the items to the orbital stockpile. It just says that there is no place configured to store it, so I'm guessing it's a temperature issue.

So, do I need to keep my orbital beacon stockpile in a freezer or am I missing something here? Also, is there any way to extend the stockpile zone to overlap my other zones so I can just offer all my extra textiles without swapping the allowances on the fly?

[Stormsong]

Yes, more beacons is one viable solution, in fact for this particular base I do have beacons in my freezer.

As for changing allowances, beyond just ensuring your checkmarks are correct you also have to make sure the new zone is even more important than the last, if they are the same or lesser the colonists will see no reason to move it.

I don't understand your last question, but I'll say that getting everything to show up during space trade is going to require more beacons if you've simply got too much stuff too spread out.

[Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia]

You can stick trade beacons everywhere so long as items are inside the range of the beacon they can be traded.

So stick a beacon in the freezer or general storage or wherever you have goods and keep one outside to act as a receiver beacon where the drop pods will come down.

[TwoTonGamer]

As above, the desired stockpile must be set at a higher priority level than the stockpile the item is currently in.

Otherwise, the colonists see no reason to move it since it is already in a stockpile it belongs in.

[Gold♥Shield]

Now I see the priority level. Never used that before. Also didn't know I could have multiple trade beacons. That seems a lot easier than trying to change everything around.

One more question. Does armor degredation do anything other than cause sadness? My soldiers are wearing Masterwork shield belts that are around 30% but I can't see any major difference between those two at 30% and a new one at 100%. Also, in that same regard, can I set my orbital trade beacon to only accept apparel below 50%? I know you can assign the outfits to make your pawns only wear apparel above a certain percentage, but I was wondering if you can somehow zone it to apply to stockpiles as well (ie. move all the degraded apparel near a stockpile beacon while keeping my new apparel stockpile free of degraded equipment).

[AlP]

You can reinstall a trade beacon to another stockpile, that's generally faster than trying to haul things t a different stockpile. Or just use multiple beacons.

Armor degradation affects its armor percentage. Stockpiles have the same hitpoint sliders that you use in outfits, you can set a stockpile to accept items with any specific quality or hitpoints.

[Astasia]

Just to be clear, a beacon is not a stockpile. If you click the create stockpile button in it it just creates a normal stockpile within the area. You can place a beacon in an existing stockpile area, or between multiple stockpiles. The only thing that matters is whether the stuff is within the displayed radius around that beacon. So for example I create my storage rooms first, and then later on I place beacons in all of them to get the most coverage.

Equipment durability has no effect on the stats other than value. It used to in previous versions, which is why you will see some conflicting information out there, but that mechanic was removed before release.

[Gold♥Shield]

I'm guessing there's no way to increase a beacon's radius, is there?

As for the armor durability, I'm getting the impression that a shield belt at 10% still protects the same amount as a shield belt at 100%. The small hit to their mood for wearing a tattered shield belt isn't worth wasting the materials or money trying to get new ones ever so often.

[Astasia]

Originally posted by Gold♥Shield:

I'm guessing there's no way to increase a beacon's radius, is there?

No. Not without mods anyway.

[Gold♥Shield]

No worries. I just built enough beacons to cover the vast majority of my stockpiles.

Thanks for the answers.