New player question - Unpacking

[deMangler]

I am new, mostly I have been running salvage to refineries, mats to depots and fuel to mines while I find out how to be useful.
I thought I would try making something in a factory so I made a crate of 5 radios, but I can't unpack them. I thought it would be the same way as a crate of bmats or something,
I can unpack other crates, bmats and fuel but there is no option to unpack the radios at the factory or at a storage depot, public or private.
How do I do that?

[Bobucles]

Soldier equipment gets cracked open by submitting them to a spawn point.

[deMangler]

Originally posted by Bobucles:

Soldier equipment gets cracked open by submitting them to a spawn point.

Thanks :)

[HEX: SOLO QUEUE]

Originally posted by Bobucles:

Soldier equipment gets cracked open by submitting them to a spawn point.

Originally posted by deMangler:

Originally posted by Bobucles:

Soldier equipment gets cracked open by submitting them to a spawn point.

Thanks :)

And conversely, you cannot take flatbeds full of crates to submit at spawn points, only seaports and storage depots - so it works (or rather, doesn't work) both ways.

[Eagle_of_Fire]

There is one particular concept that I've seen so many noobs fall for that it has to be mentioned here.

What would happen is that the new guy in question (no rank or private, usually) would want let's say a hauler. Look into private, there is none. Then click around and think "man, I missed this hauler earlier when I was looking" but he is in fact looking at crated vehicles at that moment. The guy click on it and get so confused by the fact that instead of a hauler he got a crate that he usually leave the crate on the pad. Mainly, I supposed, because they don't really understand what to do with that crate either since they are that new.

So if you are new or found yourself in such a situation, do yourself a favor and listen: there is two tabs for vehicles. One tab has a small box at the bottom right, the other one is simply the icon of a vehicle. Both are identical except for that one icon with the crate at the bottom right. So if you ever want a vehicle in that tab with the icon with the vehicle with a crate, you need to right click on the item you want and select the option to send it to the public stockpile. Once you do the game will automagically switch your tab to the next one (the vehicle icon without a crate) and you'll see that there is now three vehicles of the type that you wanted to pull out waiting for you.

Because this is what it is: the crate with vehicle has been made in a mass factory and each crate represent three vehicles in one box. And they have to be "unpacked" at a depot before they turn into their normal, usable form. There is two reasons why people build vehicles at a mass factory: first the cost decrease in such a factory with increased amount of the same product built at the same time, for greatly increased production time. Second reason is because you can load such a crate containing 3 vehicles on a flatbed and move it to another depot (usually the point would be that it is closer to the front) and deploy said vehicle there. Experienced logistic players commonly do this with hauler crates so they can deliver crates of items to a depot closer to the front with a shipping container (which can contain up to 60 boxes at a time, which is 4 hauler trips worth) then unpack the hauler directly to the new depot for a faster transport time.

Why would there be crates of vehicles in the public depot in the first place, you might ask? Surely if players need to take extra steps and cost to produce them they'd keep them in their private stash in the depot, right? Two reasons: first, some people simply drown in bmats and it is pretty cheap for them to just dump a whole load into making vehicles once in a while. They produce said vehicle in public on purpose to provide new players (or anybody in a rush needing a vehicle) to be able to get one immediately without any fuss. The second reason would be that any private stash, just like the refinery, have a 2 day counter on it. If a player do not refresh it (or do not play) for two days then everything he has in private turn into the public stash at that moment.

That's a hefty wall of text but hopefully it will be useful for a new player out there. :)

Edit: fixing tags and typos.