What's the point of crates?

[Traslo]

Hey folks,
Can someone explain the benefits of a crate to me? Can they be moved somewhere after filling up or something or what? otherwise it seems like it's just offsetting when you have to spend time shipping resources. The tutorial didn't really explain minecarts or wagons or crates etc

[Nelly]

i've just started, but it seems like the main point is to have more storage before a building stops producing if its crafting faster than you can sell, and to put at the end of conveyers so your carts have a shorter trip than going all the way to a building.

[SGreenwell]

Originally posted by Nelly:

i've just started, but it seems like the main point is to have more storage before a building stops producing if its crafting faster than you can sell, and to put at the end of conveyers so your carts have a shorter trip than going all the way to a building.

This is mostly how I used them as well - They can allow for better inventory management or production, if you don't want to just build a Barn instead. Also, later on you get access to cargo ships - I think their default hull is 50 or 100, so you can send them across the map to ferry things faster and simpler than some other ways. (Obviously, belts are always an option, but sometimes you don't want to create 100s of them, or, to construct a bizarro railroad 20 feet over the water.)

[pat]

Originally posted by SGreenwell:

Also, later on you get access to cargo ships - I think their default hull is 50 or 100, so you can send them across the map to ferry things faster and simpler than some other ways.

I've played a lot of transportation games back since Sid Meiers's Railroad Tycoon, and it always seemed like ships were added just to round off the transportation offerings. But they were never an efficient method. IRL, ships are useful because although they're dreadfully slow, they have massive cargo capacities and they're relatively cheap. But in all sim games, other faster methods are always a better choice. I kind of wish there was a current game where ships were the only viable option for specific transport needs. e.g. if air wasn't available and building a railroad bridge across a few thousand miles of ocean was as ludicrous in the game as it is in the real world.

[SGreenwell]

Originally posted by pat:

Originally posted by SGreenwell:

Also, later on you get access to cargo ships - I think their default hull is 50 or 100, so you can send them across the map to ferry things faster and simpler than some other ways.

I've played a lot of transportation games back since Sid Meiers's Railroad Tycoon, and it always seemed like ships were added just to round off the transportation offerings. But they were never an efficient method. IRL, ships are useful because although they're dreadfully slow, they have massive cargo capacities and they're relatively cheap. But in all sim games, other faster methods are always a better choice. I kind of wish there was a current game where ships were the only viable option for specific transport needs. e.g. if air wasn't available and building a railroad bridge across a few thousand miles of ocean was as ludicrous in the game as it is in the real world.

Ha, I agree with you! Have you tried the Port Royale series? That game is kind of like the old Uncharted Waters series, and focused much more on sea trading, although in the 1600s to 1800s IIRC.

[Erik Asmussen]

One big early use of Crates: Wagons can not harvest, but they can pick up from Crates. So it's much more efficient to have your workers harvest their resources and drop off into a nearby Crate, and then have a Wagon pick up from the Crate and deliver to the longer-distance destination.

[weldon26]

Waiting for your new Factory town game first quarter of 2023 Erick