Coal Thumpers and Gathering Posts

[Saturn]

Does anyone know if there is a way to tie a gathering post to a particular coal thumper?

I have a steelworks, 2 coal thumpers, and 4 gathering posts all sharing one steam hub. But to get everything to fit I had to put one gathering post too close to the wrong coal thumper. Now 2 of my gathering posts keep getting starved out because the first coal pile is being depleted while the other coal pile is near maxed out.

I'm about to have to move the steam hub a third time to try to fix this, and it's costing me steel that I can barely afford to spend. It would be great if I could tell 2 of the gathering posts to just ♥♥♥♥ off of the first coal pile but I don't know of any way to do this.

I kind of doubt that this is possible but I think it should be. Just thought I'd ask and see if anyone had gone through a similar struggle.

[Bobywan]

Are you sure the gathering post is in range to the coal thumper you want to deplete ?
Because if I remember correctly, gathering post will gather from every ressources in range.

[Saturn]

It does gather from both, but it goes for the closer one (the wrong one) first. And the two gathering posts that are supposed to gather from that pile get starved out because that is the only pile those two can reach.

Part of the problem is that I'm playing on the Rifts map, and the little "island" this specific area is on limits my freedom somewhat as far as building placement.

[amordron]

Gathering posts dont pick closer or further first thats not how they work. Other than on a per worker side but that hardly changes the rate of per pile resource gathering speed.

Gathering posts gather exactly equally from all piles in range. They will send one working to the closest pile next worker to the next closest next worker to the next closest till out of piles than repeats till out of workers. When the first returns will than send to the next pile on the list till the end of the work day.

The reason the other two get starved is since they cant hit all piles and only those ones so you have a extra post hitting the other piles depleating faster.

You can turn your coal thumpers when placing them to allow for better placement quite often. Place the piles so they are on the outer ends with the other ends of the thumpers touching for example (short ends touch in this example) to allow max room by each pile for your posts. Or put one droping north one droping south if touching on the long side (short sides facing north in this example). With the N S way you get again max area to spread out posts of as you dont need 4 piles on the same side for 8 posts to hit you can flip one and increase the area you are able to reach from by a large amount.

You can also understaff the gathering posts you dont need to have them full constantly. That as the pile near the thumpers reach max coal staff with more people. Alt place the thumpers on exteneded shifts not the posts. This causes the piles to get a headstart each day before the posts kick in. This all depends on your level of coal need at the time obv. The later helps with discontent as a bonus.


You also have the option of using sawmills + kilns on rifts as you need to get sawmills anyways as you wont have access to a drill spot till after 2nd bridge as need to get steal first. This makes kilns in many ways better than thumpers for coal production as you will have a wall drill up before your sawmills run out of wood to gather. Than you will be able to keep using sawmills till your drill ranks up this is more labor effective than thumpers and not subject to hazards screwing you.

[Saturn]

You can rotate buildings?!?!?! How??

Idk about the sawmills thing though, I ran out of trees with just barely enough to get the bridge to the wall drill spot.

Of course soon after that my dumbass people kicked me out of office because their houses were cold even though no one was dying, we had ample food, and everyone had access to medical care..... -_-

[snuggleform]

middle mouse button rotates buildings, not sure on console. This is NOT listed in the options menu for whatever reason.

[Saturn]

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. That pretty much solves my problem lol thank you

[Mr. Goblin]

Ya, I never knew about the rotate button either until my 13 year old kid told me... yesterday. Lol.

[Saturn]

Nice hahaha idk why the game isn't more up front about telling you

[Mr. Goblin]

Well, the tutorial is very well done in my opinion. All the basic stuff.
When it comes to 'how to best utilise' all that stuff; there in lay the non-disclosure!
Why? because it makes personalised strategumes more interesting and fun.
As well challenging.

No worries man, it will feel more fun while you trial error through it, and especially when you figure out that one of your "personal strategies" actually works well regarding survival!

Every player has different ways of doing the same relative things to survive. Often times failing, yes. But other times they figure something clever out and share it here (for spoils).

I try not to look for spoil tactics here, unless I am almost about to give up.

But some of the players here have found rather creative ways to tactic about survival with what they can work with.