Help with supply chains

[Kazmeister]

So I have two craftsman’s huts side by side. One gets ore and processes to iron, the other produces weapon hilts and daggers. I’m using “adhere to storage rules” aka automation.

The issue I’m having is that the one producing daggers will not get iron from the hut next door. They’ll only source from the market. Even if I put the iron in the front room of the iron producer for 80% cost, they’ll still go to the market (which is further away) and buy it at full price.

Same for the one procuring ore. They won’t go to the mine and buy it cheap, they’ll go to the market and pay market rates.

If I set up manual trade routes, they’ll continue to pick up goods even if the business is at maximum storage and then they’ll stop running the route because they’re full up on say ore, and they won’t get past that step and transport any more iron to the dagger business because their inventory is full of ore.

So I’m having to manually move goods around with my character and that’s a pain with even just two businesses, it’ll be impossible with 10 or 15 businesses.

Why are the trade routes so complicated? Manual trade routes just don’t work and could be scrapped entirely. I like the “adhere to storage” because it’s infinitely better but it really sucks that they’ll only source from the market, because then there’s no point in building your own supply chains.

Each item should have some options like “procure at closest source”, “procure at cheapest source”, or “procure only from businesses I own”. Then you could do away with manual trade routes entirely and it would really simplify things.

[theo20185]

Automatic production chains and transport are awful. As you have seen, automatic transports put a heavy emphasis on the market as the point of procurement and sale. I have seen my transporters use my other businesses on occasion. The other business has to be on the same path the transporter would use to get to market, or else the transporter will not consider it.

This exposes another problem with the game. It's impossible to keep up with market demand for any product. As a craftsman, it takes forever to produce tier 3 and tier 4 goods. I have two T4 tailors, two T4 carpenters, one T4 stonemason and one T4 blacksmith. Each shop has 7 workers and 4 transporters, all employees are level 3+. They cannot keep up with local demand, let alone flood any market. Any cart produced is immediately consumed by NPCs out of my storefront. Same with any item of clothing. The market is not flooded, but starving. this shouldn't be the case with 2 T4 businesses operating at full capacity at the local level.

There is no challenge to businesses. They simply exist to make money, and just about all production chains will make a profit. Even sourcing from the market (which should be one of the most expensive options to source due to middlemen) any business will just bring in a constant source of income with no thought involved. Just hire a bunch of workers, set the transporter to auto, and forget about it. The business will keep churning out its most profitable product. It may switch depending on prices, it may not. You never have to worry about flooding the market, where your supplies come from, etc. The only thing I have not solved is keeping the storefront stocked with T3 and T4 goods as it take SO LONG to craft and the populace is so starved that they immediately buy out my stock.

[markelphoenix]

Originally posted by theo20185:

Automatic production chains and transport are awful. As you have seen, automatic transports put a heavy emphasis on the market as the point of procurement and sale. I have seen my transporters use my other businesses on occasion. The other business has to be on the same path the transporter would use to get to market, or else the transporter will not consider it.

This exposes another problem with the game. It's impossible to keep up with market demand for any product. As a craftsman, it takes forever to produce tier 3 and tier 4 goods. I have two T4 tailors, two T4 carpenters, one T4 stonemason and one T4 blacksmith. Each shop has 7 workers and 4 transporters, all employees are level 3+. They cannot keep up with local demand, let alone flood any market. Any cart produced is immediately consumed by NPCs out of my storefront. Same with any item of clothing. The market is not flooded, but starving. this shouldn't be the case with 2 T4 businesses operating at full capacity at the local level.

There is no challenge to businesses. They simply exist to make money, and just about all production chains will make a profit. Even sourcing from the market (which should be one of the most expensive options to source due to middlemen) any business will just bring in a constant source of income with no thought involved. Just hire a bunch of workers, set the transporter to auto, and forget about it. The business will keep churning out its most profitable product. It may switch depending on prices, it may not. You never have to worry about flooding the market, where your supplies come from, etc. The only thing I have not solved is keeping the storefront stocked with T3 and T4 goods as it take SO LONG to craft and the populace is so starved that they immediately buy out my stock.

Is it possible the markets are used due to it them being nominal cheaper due to other suppliers flooding lower tier resources? I.E. multiple sources other than player feed into market T1 and T2 resources. Also, are there competitors with T3 and T4 resource/good production? If player is only producer, then would be interesting to find out how many T3/T4 businesses of a certain type are required to finally tip over that demand, shifting to a surplus.

[Annoxium]

I know it's been a few years since this was posted, but the game now features warehouses and storage barns. Your businesses will stock it, and will also procure resources from there now.

[Wolf68]

Originally posted by Annoxium:

I know it's been a few years since this was posted, but the game now features warehouses and storage barns. Your businesses will stock it, and will also procure resources from there now.

If you have your businesses set to auto, will this work? Like will they automatically stock the storage and take from it as well?

[Vote Quimby]

Originally posted by Wolf68:

If you have your businesses set to auto, will this work? Like will they automatically stock the storage and take from it as well?

yes, but you must properly set storage rules. for example max/min amount, uncheck sell-to-market, etc.