Warehouses: understanding how storage works

[valenti_scott]

Hello-
I have a warehouse with quite a bit of product stored, but I'm not sure why it is stored and not being delivered to a market. Right now the storage tab says slot capacity 74 units, and 2 grapes, 10 hops, 23 olives and 20 oranges.

For a while I thought it might be because of a traffic jam outside the warehouse, but the traffic jam has cleared up, and the items are still in storage. I also thought that maybe the market didn't want these goods, but the market does in fact want them, for example the grapes say (at the market) zero in storage and fully demanded. The oranges say 1 stored and partially supplied.

I also checked that the correct market is listed in the warehouse's outgoing products. Besides, some items are being delivered to the market. For some reason the warehouse is sending some goods but not others, apparently at random.
-Scott

Edit: Maybe the warehouse is waiting for empty trucks to return from the market?

I was also thinking, maybe I'm using warehouses incorrectly? I'm using a warehouse to collect all the fresh produce from its AoE, and then deliver it to a farmers market.

[OOR | Bender Rodriguez]

Are you setting up manual destinations for warehouse products or allowing the shops to take products from your warehouse automatically? The former can be done from the 3rd tab in the warehouse panel, the latter occurs only if your warehouse is within range of shops' collection radius and there is a roadway for the shop to send collection trucks.

[valenti_scott]

Hello and thanks for the reply. I've been doing "auto" destinations for my warehouses; i.e., going to the farmers market automatically.

I figured it was easier than (without warehouses) having to specify the farmers market on all my farms. But then there is the cost of the warehouse, and the realization that the warehouse itself can be a bottleneck.

It seems there is a limit to the number of trucks available to a warehouse, but I'm not sure what that number is. Maybe using warehouses in this way is not such a good idea.

[OOR | Bender Rodriguez]

Personally I think inputting manual destinations for all products is more efficient and allows you to dictate when/where/how much of all your products are moving. You'd be surprised at how much you can have going in & out of a single warehouse efficiently.

Edit: https://imgur.com/9hIEqM3

There's 3 warehouses in that picture and probably 40-50 factories and gatherers, along with trains and airships transporting products there and then those warehouse sending it out to shops/factories. It's not pretty and there's probably more efficient ways to manage it but it gets the job done.

[DBT85]

Valenti it could be a few things. First off, a storage of 74 just means per item. So a warehouse can store 60 Oranges, 40 Wool, 55 Mutton etc all at the same time.

From your use of the words "partially supplied" while also having plenty of stock I think your issue is distance to market.

Every 15 days a shop sells all of a product it has (up to the amount demanded) and then requests more from the warehouse. Now, in your case, the market is sending out trucks to collect goods and restock. If that restock of say 8 Oranges per 15 days hasn't been finished before the next 15 days have elapsed, the shop will sell all that it has and you get the words "partially supplied". The restock wasn't complete because the trip from shop to WH and back is taking too long. That could be because you are using dirt roads, or traffic, or simply the distance.

So what can you do? Get your warehouse closer to your shop and in my case also turn off Auto to shops. Shop trucks only collect 1 unit per truck. Manually setting a warehouse to deliver to a shop and to "meet demand" will send 2 units per truck to start with.

In my games I might have 2 Olive farms next to a warehouse. They will produce 20 Olives per month which will be delivered to Farm Warehouse. I will then set a manual destination from Farm Warehouse to City Warehouse (just a warehouse close to the shops, sometimes several on different sides). This then moves my Olives in batches of 2 the majority of the distance between my farms and my shops. At City Warehouse, I then set a manual destination of Farmers Market and set it to Meet Demand and Do Not Wait Until full.

Provided you are producing enough, you'll soon be meeting demand every single month.

The warehouse upkeep is minimal and not worth worrying about in my opinion, and if you've got it set up correctly it shouldn't be a bottleneck. I've run one with 45 factories on that was only just struggling to keep up. Had I laid it out better it would have been fine.

Pop into the discord!

[valenti_scott]

OOR, great screenshot; I'm still working with the more basic farms and gatherers; haven't even gotten into factories or rails. Well, maybe a bit when I played some about a year ago.

DBT, thanks for the reply. That's a great explanation of how shops sell and resupply every 15 days. I was a bit confused about how this works.

It sounds like WH trucks carry two items, but if you go direct from farms or gatherers to shops, the trucks only carry one item? I see how that would reduce the cost of trucking from the WH, and reduce traffic.

If my farms or gatherers don't quite meet the demand of a market, I've been debating whether it makes sense to build another farm or gatherer. I could build one without the max fields or harvesters, but then I guess it wouldn't be as efficient, say to run a farm with only one field. But with three fields, then I'd be producing more than the demand...

I'll experiment more with WHs and turning off auto to shops, set to meet demand, "do not wait until full," etc. I'm logging into the Discord now!

Can you recommend any good YouTubes? A lot of them seem to be made by first-time players "trying" the game. I don't know how helpful that is. Some of the videos are probably obsolete, too.
-Scott

[DBT85]

I personally build enough to meet demand even if its not as efficient. I leave space around the farm to grow it a demand goes up.

There are lots of older youtube videos but many are pre 2.0 and so have things in that are no longer there like Truck Depots. I too was looking for something but can;t really find something I like from someone who KNOWs what they are doing.

I did try recording one myself but without a mic I'm left to use the one on my laptop and its not great!

[valenti_scott]

Maybe when I get better at the game I'll make a vid!