Questions about the thumper, and how to utilise it at its best

[QueenPixxa]

Hello everyone, I started playing a few days ago and loving this game. I can't believe it sat on my library for such a long time before I decided to pick it up!
I have completed the fist two scenarios. A New Home, first run, ended up with my city surviving the storm, but the game informed me that "we" went too far... I was gutted! I was so careful not killing anyone or enforcing fascist laws, and still... but that's ok, I am learning.
I am trying again, this time on the Faith path. And, just like the first time, I am having loads of problems with the thumpers.

Right now I have an upgraded thumper, surrounded by 4 gathering huts and two small upgraded resources depots. I also have one automaton assigned to the thumper's coal piles.
And still, the thumper gets full every so often: it works for a minute, then stops for two or three, then starts again and so on, making it difficult to stockpile.
There is still a lot of room in the depots, so I can't understand why this is happening.

I have watched a lot of YT videos, hoping to understand where I do wrong, but I had no luck: those YT thumpers work flawlessly, and the configuration seems identical to mine (minus the automaton, but without that, things are even worse)!

Can somebody please point me out in the right direction?
I have thousands of other questions, but this coal problem is the most important right now.

[Bobywan]

2 gathering posts for a regular thumper and 4 for an steam one is optimal.
Are the gathering posts operating at 100% ? If you get sick workers, or worker going to build, you won't have optimal gathering, you can dismiss sick worker and replace them if healthy workers are available.
Also, if somehow they don't gather enough and you require more coal, you might want to research the laws to get +10% gathering speed and also use the 6-20h shifts.

[DemainaNyx]

You probably have 10 people working in the thumper and probably like 35 in the gathering posts due to sickness.
Or, if could be you have the thumper set to 6-20 while the posts are on the standard work shift.
Or, if you researched the Coal Thumper Optimization thing at the bottom of that research chain, your thumper might just be spitting out more coal than your people can keep up with.
Or, if you went Faith, you might have a Shrine in range of the thumper but not the gathering posts.
Or, you assigned an automaton to the thumper who works throughout the night thus throwing off the balance.

If possible, can you send a few pictures of your setup? Hard to guess what's wrong without seeing what's going on.

Honestly though, it shouldn't be a problem having it back up unless you are starving for coal. I just did two runs on Hard to get the Iron Survivor achievement and had 90K coal in reserves after the storm. If you have the manpower just put down another gathering post in range to help out. You'll eventually eat through that pile and you can assign that automaton to some place where you don't have heat nearby.

[General Idea]

The Thumper makes its own stockpile and your gatherers take from that to fill up the store supplies in the dedicated resource depots. The Thumper cannot overfill and will stop working until the stockpile is reduced enough for it to continue. That's why you get a stop and start. Reducing the number of people working on the Thumper reduces the amount contributed to the stockpile. Manage the people correctly and you will have a smooth operation with no stop and starting.

[Elitewrecker PT]

Or just build another gathering post if 4 aren't enough.

[General Idea]

Alternatively you can employ less people in the Mines and forget about Thumpers, but it will cost you valuable steam cores. Initially the Mine will be producing less coal than the Thumper, but after all improvements will produce more. Each have their own strengths and weaknesses that you must decide upon but bear in mind neither stops the other from being used, they can supplement one another. I like choices.

[QueenPixxa]

Thank you all for the suggestions. I was always careful to balance the shifts.
I think I overpowered the thumper through updates, without keeping up with the gathering upgrades; this is the only thing that makes sense to me. I didn't even think of it! I should have upgraded the gathering way before the machine; instead I did it at the end, and only because I had completed all the rest.

This was the setup in the first game, and at that point I was still having the problem
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2469671469
As one of you said, that the technology tree wasn't progressing in a balanced way
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2469670662

Unfortunately I didn't take any screenshots of the second game until I read your replies, the thumpers were working fine at that point, with the technology tree completed. These were the two thumpers' setups
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2469651707
and
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2469675258

If you see a different problem, please let me know, because the upgrades being the culprit is only my assumption, and I know too little about the game to be sure.

[Elitewrecker PT]

Note that resource depots don't need to be near resource sources. They can all be piled together at the edge of the map. If you have all the gathering post techs and it's not enough, just make another gathering hut, plenty of manpower.

[QueenPixxa]

At the beginning I wasn't sure... then I got so desperate I built a constellation of small depots around the thumper. I really made a mess of that map, and lost loads of resources in the process. Then I built the coal mine too early, but it's true, at the beginning that mine is good for nothing! It took ages before I started seeing some serious return.
I was following some very stupid reasoning, about the depots, about the importance of the gatherers, and who knows how many others. I didn't give people sawdust for dinner, but I was tempted to try and see what happens.

I have one more question about the thumper, please: once you build it, will it ever run out of coal? like the sawmill? Or it is infinite?

[General Idea]

The Food Additives law allows you to convert 2 Raw Food into 6 Food Rations, at the cost of your citizens getting sick, whereas, Soup law allows you to convert 2 Raw Food into 5 Food rations, at the cost of discontent.

The Coal Thumper has an infinite supply of coal.

[QueenPixxa]

Originally posted by General Idea:

The Food Additives law allows you to convert 2 Raw Food into 6 Food Rations, at the cost of your citizens getting sick, whereas, Soup law allows you to convert 2 Raw Food into 5 Food rations, at the cost of discontent.

The Coal Thumper has an infinite supply of coal.

this is great news! If I got it right, I can put the thumper near those piles we find at the beginning, right? they are 5 or 6, so I can plop as many thumpers down. Or they go near the mines? I can't remember. I will find out in a minute when I try the 3rd scenario.
Thank you very much.

[Elitewrecker PT]

You can put the thumpers wherever you want it doens't matter.

[Lord Dem]

Originally posted by QueenPixxa:

Thank you all for the suggestions. I was always careful to balance the shifts.
I think I overpowered the thumper through updates, without keeping up with the gathering upgrades; this is the only thing that makes sense to me. I didn't even think of it! I should have upgraded the gathering way before the machine; instead I did it at the end, and only because I had completed all the rest.

This was the setup in the first game, and at that point I was still having the problem
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2469671469
As one of you said, that the technology tree wasn't progressing in a balanced way
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2469670662

Unfortunately I didn't take any screenshots of the second game until I read your replies, the thumpers were working fine at that point, with the technology tree completed. These were the two thumpers' setups
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2469651707
and
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2469675258

If you see a different problem, please let me know, because the upgrades being the culprit is only my assumption, and I know too little about the game to be sure.

The picture of your gathering posts is not space efficient although they work as well like that.

There are 2 ways to go about this depends if you locate the coal thumpers vertical or horizontal. Horizontal is very efficient on the Rifts map but lets talk about your vertical location.

If you draw 2 road lines at the each side of the coal thumper downwards by 4 spaces, you will see that you can fit perfectly 4 gathering posts and they will readjust themselves within the limit.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2469942491

For Horizontal is a bit complicated to explain how to find the correct vertical location to do but if you place it vertical and do again 2 roads extending either side 2 up and 2 down you will see you are able to fit 2 gathering posts on top and 2 gathering posts at the bottom.

[DemainaNyx]

Originally posted by Lord Dem:

If you draw 2 road lines at the each side of the coal thumper downwards by 4 spaces, you will see that you can fit perfectly 4 gathering posts and they will readjust themselves within the limit.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2469942491

Highly recommend this as well. Not only is it a nice design but you can stick a steam hub in the center to warm everything on the first range setting so you aren't wasting coal on heaters (just set it to work hours). If you go the Faith Route as well, you can stick a shrine in the center as well to hit all 10 buildings for a nice boost to your effeciency.

Also, make sure to rotate your thumpers so that the coal is output near the gathering posts. It's hard to see it in the image provided but that's what they did there. Generally it isn't a problem as the posts have a big range, but it's just best to direct the coal towards your gathering posts so that if you want to throw on a few more posts that they can still reach the coal. Had a problem one time where my one gathering post only reached if the thumper pile was full, otherwise it didn't.

[Lord Dem]

So I am doing an extereme run on Rifts but here is also the horizontal placement of thumpers/gathering posts

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2470033412

[General Idea]

Originally posted by QueenPixxa:

Originally posted by General Idea:

The Food Additives law allows you to convert 2 Raw Food into 6 Food Rations, at the cost of your citizens getting sick, whereas, Soup law allows you to convert 2 Raw Food into 5 Food rations, at the cost of discontent.

The Coal Thumper has an infinite supply of coal.

this is great news! If I got it right, I can put the thumper near those piles we find at the beginning, right? they are 5 or 6, so I can plop as many thumpers down. Or they go near the mines? I can't remember. I will find out in a minute when I try the 3rd scenario.
Thank you very much.

Lord Dem has demonstrated how you can place your Coal Thumpers more efficiently, but for the optimum New Home city layout I eventually consulted Crystal Dazz on YouTube. Faith and Order differ slightly in road planning.

I prefer the Mines over the Coal Thumper but utilise both. With three Mines and four Coal Thumpers the stockpiles of coal can reach over 200,000 before the storm depending on the difficulty setting.

The resource depots increase your stockpile limit and once you've reached the limit you've set for yourself then you can either switch the stored product or dismantle the depots and still keep the produce in excess of your new lower limit. You don't lose anything other than to consumption and gain space for something else.