Just figured out coal thumpers. I'm special

[Blind]

So I just noticed that there is a pile of coal produced next to the building which can also be worked separately. Hope this helps if you're struggling to figure out why the thumpers aren't giving you coal. I assume this is why the gathering post is important :3

[Elitewrecker PT]

It's not "can also", it's "they have to". If you don't use gathering posts (several) and/or manually man the pile, you won't get any resources and the people in the thumper won't be doing anything because the pile is full.

[Blind]

Originally posted by Elitewrecker PT:

It's not "can also", it's "they have to". If you don't use gathering posts (several) and/or manually man the pile, you won't get any resources and the people in the thumper won't be doing anything because the pile is full.

Yeah the pile reaching capacity is what tipped me off. I think my grammar is fine considering sometimes you might be fine with the gathering post cleaning up the piles and other times you may want additional manpower to pick up coal for the day. I'm actually pretty happy with this discovery.

[Elitewrecker PT]

Yes the gathering post is preferable because the workers will have better heating and work faster, and a regular thumper requires two posts IIRC, to be collected efficiently. What I meant is that, if it was "can also" it could imply the thumper already harvests it by itself slowly, but it doesn't.

[Blind]

Can the thumper coal pile be collected in addition to harvesting coal from the ground at the same time?

[Elitewrecker PT]

Assuming by harvesting you mean the thumper producing the pile yes. You build a thumper, crew it, then build a couple gathering posts near it and crew them. And that's all, no need to do anything more.
As the thumper extracts the coal and grows the pile, the gathering posts will be collecting the coal from the pile.

[Blind]

Originally posted by Elitewrecker PT:

Assuming by harvesting you mean the thumper producing the pile yes. You build a thumper, crew it, then build a couple gathering posts near it and crew them. And that's all, no need to do anything more.
As the thumper extracts the coal and grows the pile, the gathering posts will be collecting the coal from the pile.

But with your example you "can also" assign more manpower to the pile itself, right?

[Elitewrecker PT]

Yes, if you for some reason don't have space for gathering posts in range of the thumper, and/or want to gather the existing pile faster.

[Bobywan]

You should use 2 gathering posts per coal thumper and 4 gathering posts per steam coal thumper for max efficiency.

Originally posted by Blind:

Can the thumper coal pile be collected in addition to harvesting coal from the ground at the same time?

Yes you can but it is not advisable to do so because of a lower temperature. You may do so with an automaton which doesnt fear frostbites.

[Amanoob105]

Originally posted by Blind:

Can the thumper coal pile be collected in addition to harvesting coal from the ground at the same time?

If you mean can you harvest the pile directly as well as having some gathering posts also taking from it?
Yes, yes you can. Just expect the number of sick people to go up sharply as the temp drops.
Those piles don't come with ways to heat them, at least not enough to stop people from freezing to death.

[EnemigoDeLaMafia]

The coal thumper is designed to be used in conjunction with gathering post. It'll produce a pile that can cover 2 full gathering posts. An upgraded one can cover up to 4. This is the best way to use them (i.e: with gathering posts) as they'll keep your people warm and limit the disease factor.

Collecting from the pile directly will go from pretty difficult to undoable because of temperature. So use the posts and have that industry set up for the rest of the game.

[Lord Dem]

Originally posted by Blind:

Can the thumper coal pile be collected in addition to harvesting coal from the ground at the same time?

Yes you can harvest them separately if you want with Automatons and keep the gathering posts extra with people which are more heated

[Amanoob105]

Originally posted by Blind:

Can the thumper coal pile be collected in addition to harvesting coal from the ground at the same time?

Oh, one thing I forgot to bring up the first time.
A pile of resources (coal or any other) can be gathered up faster with a gathering post than if you put people on it directly, yes even if an Automaton is the one doing the gathering.
If you want to gather the coal faster you get better results from placing another gathering post, on top of the ones already there, and sticking the Automaton on top of that than sending the Automaton to the pile itself.

Another thing to not when first starting out when in a new game and you have yet to have enough people for every job that needs doing.
If you don't have enough people to fill all of the posts for any one thumper (2 for the normal and 4 for the steam) then you don't need a full staff in the thumper to be able to make enough coal to keep up with the gathering rate.
Fractions. Turns out they do have a use outside of trying to pass school math test papers .

[Shining Hector]

Yeah, the only time I've ever really significantly gathered from Coal Piles directly after the first couple of days with Automatons is in The Arks, with the two Coal Piles somewhat distant from the camp in the south often aren't really worth the trouble of putting up a Gathering Post just to collect them alone.

On Normal difficulty with a 100% Efficiency Automaton, you'd be looking at 24 Coal/hour produced from the Gathering Post vs. 18 Coal/hour from direct gathering, so if you're going to the trouble of making the Thumpers in the first place, it's usually going to be worth it to put up a Gathering Post even if you're using Automatons.