How does plantation storage work?

[Vector]

I am in the cold war and have a sugar contract with the allies, but after YEARS I am shipping zero sugar. Each plantain is different but one will be 764/3450 another will be 1200/3450. I have 9 plantations of sugar and only 2 Rum distilleries. I know the rum adsorbs some of my sugar crop but I don't get why I am shipping nothing on my contracts? Do they all have to be at 3450 to ship anything? Do they only ship when the first one becomes full? I am confused why this isn't shipping sugar as it is processed. Thanks.

[jlking3rd]

If you have enough teamsters they should pick up the sugar even if the plantation is far from full. They also have a habit of delivering tiny loads to rum distilleries, and move on to visit other buildings before coming back to your sugar plantations. So, my guess is that by the time they get back to the sugar plantation, the sugar supply at the rum distillery has dropped just enough to accept another tiny shipment. You might have to temporary shut down production at the rum distilleries, or at least reduce the work force. Or give up on the contract.

[Jet City Gambler]

They won't bring the sugar to the docks until your rum storage is completely full. That's why it's usually not a good idea to accept contracts for raw materials you're developing. Your best bet is to cancel the contract and use the slot for something profitable.

[DeLastOne]

My problem is that my rum is not delivered to contract... no idea where it goes

[jlking3rd]

Originally posted by DeLastOne:

My problem is that my rum is not delivered to contract... no idea where it goes

Everything you manufacture is being exported even if you do not have a contract. It is simply exported at the default price. Well of course not everything, somethings like can goods go for internal consumption at places like the grocery store too. But your rum is being exported, just at the default price.

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by DeLastOne:

My problem is that my rum is not delivered to contract... no idea where it goes

Well you are going to send 150 rum to every grocery and mall you own. Then the excess goes to the dock.

[SlamifiedBuddafied]

Okay, at default when you manufacture rum, the Distillery uses two units of sugar to produce one unit of rum. Dunder stills help with this a wee bit. But even if you have six sugar plantations and only two distilleries, it's still unlikely that any sugar will make it to your docks for export. And note, even if sugar does end up at the docks, it doesn't mean it will be exported. It's possible, depending on the consumption rate of your distillery and efficiency, for sugar to be redirected back to the distillery.

In short, once you have some kind of advanced industry which processes raw goods, it becomes pointless to export low level raw resources, as they never will make it to export.

My advice is to check the available export contracts every few months or longer. I'm not sure what the intervals are on contract changes. But in doing so, always try and pick up contracts for the highest level of manufactured items you can produce.

So if you produce logs=planks=boats, don't bother ever trying to export logs or planks. Same for iron-coal=steel-nickel=weapons, contracts for exporting anything lower than the highest will typically result in not exporting the lower grade materials. However, this isn't always true. If you've a substantial amount of low material producing buildings, lets say a ton of coal mines at max efficiency: even with four steel mills up and running at normal or 4/5 efficiency, it's likely an excess of coal will make it to export, but still has a chance to be redirected back to higher production.

[Vector]

Thanks to all for the answers. The game should have management windows which helps you control the flow of raw and finished goods and more information on how the teamsters work. I still don't get how many teamsters I should have based on all the buildings I have.

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by Vector:

I still don't get how many teamsters I should have based on all the buildings I have.

Neither do I and I got hundreds and hundreds of hours played. The way I do it is look at my buildings and see how much crap aint moved, if it is too high of an amount I add another teamster building.

[Vector]

good suggestion thanks, that is a little more micro management than I want in a game. The assistant should make suggestions, like "goods moving slow, build a new teamster office." Stuff like that. I thought this would be more like a simcity and not so much directed activity. I am the dictator after all! LOL

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by Vector:

good suggestion thanks, that is a little more micro management than I want in a game.

Well the easiest way to know when to look is when your export ships vary in the amount of exported goods. If you watch liek 3-4 ships and they are exporting like 20-50k then you have a transport issue, if you have a 40-50k export range then you have enough transports moving everything around quick enough.

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by Bored Peon:

Originally posted by Vector:

I still don't get how many teamsters I should have based on all the buildings I have.

Neither do I and I got hundreds and hundreds of hours played. The way I do it is look at my buildings and see how much crap aint moved, if it is too high of an amount I add another teamster building.

I default to 2 teamsters per building that needs product moved. So if you have 4 plantations and 2 industry buildings, thats 6 buildings that need product moved, 12 total teamsters needed. That's 1 full upgraded teamster office with 12 workers (or 2 non-upgraded with 6 each)

If you need to stop gap while industry is ramping up, switch them to loose loads and they can handle 50% more, but I prefer not to lose product and switch them back once I have enough teamsters to keep everything flowing

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by Kunovega:

Originally posted by Bored Peon:

Neither do I and I got hundreds and hundreds of hours played. The way I do it is look at my buildings and see how much crap aint moved, if it is too high of an amount I add another teamster building.

I default to 2 teamsters per building that needs product moved.

Yeah that works great for most people. However I suck and lose count. So I go by the "Why the @#$% aint my @#$% in port method."

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by Bored Peon:

Originally posted by Kunovega:

I default to 2 teamsters per building that needs product moved.

Yeah that works great for most people. However I suck and lose count. So I go by the "Why the @#$% aint my @#$% in port method."

You have a buildings list in the almanac. It tells you a total of: production buildings and industry buildings, simply add them together and double it

If your almanac lists 10 production buildings and 2 industry you have 12 buildings that need product moved, you need 24-ish teamsters. Now simply look at the total number of teamster buildings (also listed with a total number) in the almanac

24 teamsters is 2 upgraded buildings, not sure if they are upgraded? select one of them from the list, change to the upgrade tab and then use the arrows (on the building details window) and scroll to the others and see if they are upgraded

No need to remember anything other than how to open the almanac, even with islands over 100+ teamsters I can check my balancing act in seconds

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by Kunovega:

No need to remember anything other than how to open the almanac, even with islands over 100+ teamsters I can check my balancing act in seconds

Ok, yeah I see now, that makes sense.