Warehouses?

[mlsmith45]

How do warehouses work? I had two farms connected to a warehouse using direct connections. Then from there it was connected to a truck depot. It seemed to working fine until all of a sudden the crops stopped moving from the farm, to the warehouse to the trucks.

I had 5 or 6 trucks waiting. There was over 50 tonnes of crops in each of the farm storages, but nothing was moving. Every now and then randomly a truck would fill up, but then nothing for a long time. I eventually tore down the warehouse and used forklifts to directly connect the farms to the trucks. It is slow going, but at least it consistently fills the trucks.

[argent]

Please upload a screenshot with info boxes open.

[TheAmishStig]

It's working, what you've run into is the "Load Balancing" rule. Cargo doesn't 'push forward' in this game, any given load/unload/produce/consume "seeks its own level" with the source building and any directly-connected buildings.

The farms having 60 tons each means that at some point, the Warehouse had about 120 tons in it sitting unclaimed...that's about 50% of the capacity in both cases...and until the warehouse saw another 120-ish ton backlog, it would have gotten every gram, with no more going into the farms at all.

[mlsmith45]

hmm interesting. So probably better not to use a warehouse until you have production buildings filling up consistently?

[TheAmishStig]

It's situational. If your routes run frequently enough, you can largely but not completely do away with storage buildings on the output side of factories...but that might not be cost-effective because more vehicles = more spent on fuel. On the input side storage buildings are useful as a buffer, and that same 'load balancing' rule means the factory can draw from it when it runs dry.

Over 25-30 tons/day consumption, you really want to be bringing material in by train, pipe, connection, or conveyor. I've had trucks able to keep up with a single Distillery, but if you're running a pack of them then truck traffic starts choking the system. Especially if you have a central buffer storage [say, one silo that is then distributed to the whole complex] instead of factory-by-factory.

What I use warehouses for most often are as 'relay stations'. Then again, I like swarms of trucks buzzing around like worker ants, which is super inefficient in terms of fuel expenditure.

My one park, for example, each factory has an attached Road Cargo Station. Trucks run from that to the RCS attached to Warehouse 1 [stores product destined for other factories, distribution centers, or retail stores], then to the RCS attached to Warehouse 2 [product destined to be flung over the border for fun and profit, usually picked up by a train], before heading back to the factory for another load. Unload settings are 'unload 100%, do not wait' at both warehouses.

It sucks fuel like nobody's business, but looks cool and prevents getting into a situation where you have no [resource] for use inside your republic because the export train stole it.

[mlsmith45]

I'm still not quite sure of the way this works. Where did you learn about this? I wouldn't mind reading or watching some more about this.

If a production building is half full with 40 tonnes, a warehouse should start loading at what point? 20? My math skills are lacking. lol

[TheAmishStig]

I learned it by watching the game for about 100 hours in order to write a guide (that is, sadly, unfinished because 0.8 threw a big wrench in my works by introducing new methods of moving cargo around, fixed some bugs, and basically made me start over).

This is an oversimplification [as things like Forklifts change things], but...say we're talking about a Distillery connected to a Warehouse.

If the Distillery is 50% full, and the Warehouse is 5% full...then the warehouse will get everything.

If the Warehouse is 50% full and the Distillery is 5% full...then the distillery gets everything.

Once they're both at the same level...either by taking booze from the one that's more full, or giving booze to the one that's more empty...then they go up together, splitting the output so that both hit 51% at the same time, then both hit 52% at the same time, etc.

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So that's how the grain is in the farm but not the warehouse.

Why your trucks can't load from the Farm comes down to the 'area of effect' that comes out of that rule. A vehicle can only ever take from the building it's parked at, or buildings directly connected to the one it's parked at.

For a chain of Cargo Station <--> Warehouse <--> Distillery...

A truck parked at the Cargo Station has access to the Station and the Warehouse.
A truck parked at the Distillery has access to the Warehouse and the Distillery
A truck parked at the Warehouse has access to all three buildings.

[mlsmith45]

I haven't been online much so I didn't see your response until now. so thanks so much that really makes it clear. This doesn't seem like the most intuitive system. Maybe it would help to have some control over this.

[argent]

Many players find applied learning best, watch your play in-game.
If you are managing on a shoestring budget and cannot afford mistakes, then maybe set up a sandpit new game with unlimited funds (but full complexity), and experiment. Keep it, you will probably want to use it again (and some prebuilt stuff is handy).
It can also be fun way to learn, rather than a passive YT approach.

[TheAmishStig]

Originally posted by mlsmith45:

I haven't been online much so I didn't see your response until now. so thanks so much that really makes it clear. This doesn't seem like the most intuitive system. Maybe it would help to have some control over this.

I won't disagree with the 'not very intuitive'. It's a really powerful system capable of some really cool things, but that power also means it breaks genre conventions. Something a lot of new players run into is coming in expecting it to work like [insert competing game here]...at which point you don't just have to learn how this game works you have to unlearn everything you know from the other game.

I came from Transport Fever, back in the days before Chain Signals and Waypoints existed, so railroads were my bugbear for a good long time. There are ways the system can be improved, but after getting used to it I can honestly say I don't want to go back to the TPF system of signaling. I'm spoiled on the ability to dynamically re-route trains based on traffic.