Dumb question #51: Longterm storage strategy

[E Man]

I have a lot of storage bins, about 95 of them, actually. Most of them are completely full. I am at a “lame mid-game” stage. I imagine that this approach I am using (building more and more storage bins) may become unscalable at some point. It’s already taking up a lot of space, and the décor is crappy. Is there a different approach to storage I should be taking?

I’m not really asking about automation (eventually I will tackle that hill), but whether storage bins themselves are viable for the long game. How many storage bins does one have in the late game?

Side (dumb) question: My dups are kinda stupid. Every so often, I use the décor overlay and I see that they have dumped a whole bunch of crap at the base of the storage bins. I can direct them to sweep it up, but this seems totally unintuitive. Why would they walk over to the storage bin and then just drop something on the floor?

[Bokonon]

Couple of thoughts. I don't use much storage personally. I don't worry about decor outside my base so I rarely sweep up outside my base. Also, with potential building material, it's not really efficient to dig an area, sweep it all into storage (possibly nowhere nearby) then go grab it from storage, bring it back and build with it. When I build something I'll look around the local area and see what's (literally) lying around and use that.

Dupes are dumb and also lazy, things are usually dropped because work time ended and the dupe ran off to take a shower or eat something. They need babying but as you get more familiar with the game you'll find ways of avoiding or minimizing the fallout of their stupidity.

[Xilo The Odd]

1 central location where ALL my loaders on a conveyor network end at a conveyor chute it then sits in a big megaton pile in a 2x1 room. long term space wise it is by far the most efficient.

beyond that i got rooms stocked with specific items in bins that room will require like fertalizer, filtration medium, etc.

[Angelo Dante]

Originally posted by Bokonon:

Couple of thoughts. I don't use much storage personally. I don't worry about decor outside my base so I rarely sweep up outside my base. Also, with potential building material, it's not really efficient to dig an area, sweep it all into storage (possibly nowhere nearby) then go grab it from storage, bring it back and build with it. When I build something I'll look around the local area and see what's (literally) lying around and use that.

Dupes are dumb and also lazy, things are usually dropped because work time ended and the dupe ran off to take a shower or eat something. They need babying but as you get more familiar with the game you'll find ways of avoiding or minimizing the fallout of their stupidity.

Bokonon, I think its more like real-life than we'd like to admit. When a shift ends at a lot of job sites, stores, or facilities, people pretty much cut and run the minute their shift is up. Dupes do the same.

[Hedning]

When you are digging out an area and want everything swept, place some storage bins where you are digging. Like others have pointed out it is a benefit having the materials spread out. But unless you actually need the materials you often don't have to dig out an entire biome. It's often good enough to just dig for the metals or other valuables. If you don't dig you won't get any debris to store. To be clear always dig a lot early game, but later you can rein it in and focus on building instead.

If you have storage bins with room for more material and have not set them to "sweep only" your dupes will automatically sweep with the priority set by the bin.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Hedning:

But unless you actually need the materials you often don't have to dig out an entire biome.

Says you. I go on a crusade against nature and destroy everything except for the handful of tiles needed to make a nature reserve near the mess hall or bathroom.

[Bokonon]

Originally posted by Angelo Dante:

Bokonon, I think its more like real-life than we'd like to admit. When a shift ends at a lot of job sites, stores, or facilities, people pretty much cut and run the minute their shift is up. Dupes do the same.

Yes, the lazy crack was a (bad) joke. Look at my avatar, I'm definitely on the worker's side IRL.

To OP, I want to add:

I do "strategic" storage in addition to what I said previously. Meaning, I put storage for things I need where I need them, set them to one or two material types. For example I put coal only storage near my coal gens. I put wolframite and fossil storage near my rock crusher.

[E Man]

Wow, it's amazing how tunnelvision I got on storage. I didn't even think about ex-base storage right where I am excavating, or for that matter, leaving it where it is. I think in my early base development I saw how it was affecting decor and then just adopted a gotta-sweep-everything dogma.

Now what I'm gonna do with the existing 95 bins, I gotta think about. ;)

[Bokonon]

That's the great thing (one of ...) with ONI, you have to think!

A lot of people disagree and to each his own but this is one thing I like about watching ONI on YouTube, the constant "why didn't I thin of that" along with the "you idiot, don't do it that way" is fun for me and helps me think outside my box.

[CushyCrux]

The human brain can get very fixed on a strategie to "solve" a problem. I mean ....like....we use things like cars.

I like the idea on 1x1 megaton storage. Better then 95 of the boxed ones. Doesn't this kill performance?

[Elenda86]

@CrushyCrux when you drop materials into a single tile pile, the smaller item drops combine into one big item for each material, equalising heat, as such it improves performance, because the game then only calculates 1 item instead of hundreds ...

[CushyCrux]

Originally posted by Elenda86:

@CrushyCrux when you drop materials into a single tile pile, the smaller item drops combine into one big item for each material, equalising heat, as such it improves performance, because the game then only calculates 1 item instead of hundreds ...

Thanks Elenda. But there will be the problem with autosweep things and not creating a job task loop. We would need a kind of chute, that can request Items needed to build things, so a locked off central storage could delilver automatic requested materials. Also food and so on. Modders?

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Bokonon:

I put wolframite near my rock crusher.

Noooo don't crush wolframite! Tungsten is useful and in quite limited supply. Better to refine it.
It's not like Copper where you have plenty and oh well you lose half of it.

[Angelo Dante]

Originally posted by CushyCrux:

Originally posted by Elenda86:

@CrushyCrux when you drop materials into a single tile pile, the smaller item drops combine into one big item for each material, equalising heat, as such it improves performance, because the game then only calculates 1 item instead of hundreds ...

Thanks Elenda. But there will be the problem with autosweep things and not creating a job task loop. We would need a kind of chute, that can request Items needed to build things, so a locked off central storage could delilver automatic requested materials. Also food and so on. Modders?

Try setting up a loader and an autosweeper in your central storage going to a nearby drop spot, so if you do need mats, just toggle the loader to take those mats. The sweeper will load it up and off it goes for your dupes to have.

[CushyCrux]

Originally posted by Angelo Dante:

Originally posted by CushyCrux:

Thanks Elenda. But there will be the problem with autosweep things and not creating a job task loop. We would need a kind of chute, that can request Items needed to build things, so a locked off central storage could delilver automatic requested materials. Also food and so on. Modders?

Try setting up a loader and an autosweeper in your central storage going to a nearby drop spot, so if you do need mats, just toggle the loader to take those mats. The sweeper will load it up and off it goes for your dupes to have.

Sure, but a function for the dupes to know what they need (is allready working) and then let the dupe request it from a computer console, so a a cute can deliver from a programable loader would be so magic, and so AI: ;)

ps. It could be a "data cable" instead of automation. Will also help for transfering information like Temp and stuff.

[Aranador]

You can in fact, more or less set up the 'quantum pile, but dupes can not get at it, but can get what they need' thing. You drop everything into a pit that duplicants cant reach, then have an autosweeper move from that pile into bins that they can reach. When the bins are full, no more stuff moves. Set the bins to a higher priority than the dump, so that the dupes will not move stuff from the bin to the dump. Voila.