I can't make Conveyor Belts work

[Memoria]

Hi!

No matter how much I try, no matter how much I sit and try to connect the dots, automatically or by my own hand, I can't make anyone go and pick things up from a conveyor belt.

Even if I put the end of the conveyor belt right next to the shelf the item needs to go on, nobody wants to pick it up and put it there.

What am I doing wrong? Thanks in advanced.

[Duck1098]

Have you tried the Automated Storage System thingy ?

[Memoria]

Originally posted by 76561198009030954:

Have you tried the Automated Storage System thingy ?

I think there is a bugg. Sometimes, after I log off and then go back in, it works fine, but sometimes it doesn't. It is really weird. Ty for your help though, but I should bugg report this.

[EvilBob]

Bluntly, the conveyor belts are way too buggy and hard to use in their current format. I get that its a logistics game, but there is a practical limit to how much effort is required for a system before it gets annoying. This system needs simplified somewhat. It should be no more complicated than the basic logistics system.

[Stryderunknown]

If you want to make sure a good is placed on a shelf, make sure you click the Arrow down "Sink" button in the shelf window. If you are making an intermediary and want it transported somewhere else make sure you click the "Source" button in the shelf window.

While most of the time it can automatically work out the products path, sometimes overriding it in this way will make sure the good is where you want it and made available to the logistics network.

One note, placing a "Source" will attempt to make sure there is space made available for all components (and make those components "sink" automatically) that make that product. So only use it one a shelf that has enough free space for that product and it's components.

Also make sure you've selected what good you want transported on the belt from the first square of the belt if you aren't using autoloaders.

[Peach Jelly]

So I'm on the fourth level, "Merry-go-round," and I'm having trouble with conveyor belts too. I've placed a shelf at the end of the conveyor, but logistics employees will only take things off the conveyor and put them on the shelf if I set the shelf slots to "sink." However, if I do this, employees will not take things off that shelf and bring them to station shelves, even if I also set the station shelves to "sink". The goods will just sit on the shelf next to the conveyor forever unless I manually pick them up and move them myself. And if I don't set it to sink, employees won't even use it at all, and things get backed-up on the conveyor.
Thoughts?

[Peach Jelly]

As a follow-up, after sinking a lot of hours into this "Merry-go-round" level, I have decided that conveyor belts as they are now are horribly inefficient. :(
I've had to do a lot of babysitting and constant manual moving of materials to and from certain places in order for things to work correctly.
Suggestion to the devs: Please either fine-tune how logisitics employees move items from conveyor belts to nearby shelves and then to work station shelves, and/or allow us to use couriers and the logistics override mode in that particular level.

[OldPopsy]

I am having the same issue (On the same level); if I don't set a shelf to sink, they won't unload the conveyor and things back up and grind to a halt. If I set it to source, they will only ever take things from there, and never refill that slot. I've also tried not using either sink or source and again, belt backs all the way up and the second zone never gets anything built.

Currently attempting one set of shelves as sink and the same product on another nearby shelf as source to see what happens. I almost have to keep turning the sink or source on and off to get anything done, this doesn't seem right.

Are we talking a bug problem here or just me not understanding how the belts / sink / source system works?

[XrystalBelle]

I actually stopped playing it for a few weeks as it annoyed me as it just refuses to do what makes sense.

I just tried it again and remembered why I stopped. Same level .. same problem. If there is a way to how this works it needs to be in the in game book help

[XrystalBelle]

Aha .. think I got them working autonomously.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2442038132

Pick up Point of conveyer belts set to source ( increase to allow more on belt at both ends)
Shelves used as input for workers set as sink for items coming from belt ( increase as needed on shelf)

The carrier guys will prioritise their tasks.
1. Grab from output shelf to sales pallet
2. Grab from output shelf to input shelf
3. Grab from output shelf to sink shelf
4. Grab from conveyer belt to sales pallet
5. Grab from conveyer belt to input shelf
6. Grab from conveyer belt to sink shelf

There doesn't seem to be a priority over which sink shelf it will use so as long as the sink shelves are also input shelves will make sure those that need them will get them.

However ... after some more play through .. they will only grab off the conveyer belt if that item has a destination ... sales, input, sink .. so having a storage only shelf that then becomes input when full may be a necessary evil or, at worst you grab the item needed from the sink shelf or move the conveyer belt item to get to the item they will move themselves.

Or, have the conveyer belt only deal with one item rather than moving multiple items from A to B on the same conveyer belt.

So .. you could have one conveyer belt going from building A to building B and then have smaller individual conveyer belts to separate the input. They will move them from the end to the start if no one wants them.

[XrystalBelle]

Yes, definitely needs more planning as it works better with one or two items per belt and direct transfer to the input shelf / sales pallet. Also, transferring bought items is a no no as it quickly bankcrupts you due to moving them off the purchase pallet. That could be why there are multiple buildings with sales/purchase zones.

[Peach Jelly]

Originally posted by XrystalBelle:

so having a storage only shelf that then becomes input when full may be a necessary evil or, at worst you grab the item needed from the sink shelf or move the conveyer belt item to get to the item they will move themselves.

This is mostly the biggest problem. It seems to be impossible to have a sort of "landing" shelf where logistics workers can unload conveyor items onto and then later grab items from to bring over to worker stations. You can't seem to set a shelf as a sink and a source concurrently. (You can with manual logistics in later levels, but not in this level, which is frustrating the ever-living snot out of me. lol.)

[XrystalBelle]

Unfortunately, reading the explanation of the tutorial, it sounds like the idea is, that it is the way you do it .. use it as a sink .. those items that aren't immediately needed will be moved to the sink storage while those immediately needed will go to their respective shelves - I'll have to monitor it some more in case there is a bug to the process. I cheated a little by making all my input shelves for these items sinks for that item so that even if nothing is needed immediately it will fill to the maximum needed for the shelf. Or have multiple sink shelves that hold all items so that once one is full it can be set to source while the others can stay sink mode. Rinse and repeat. I am assuming this campaign is the tutorial for the conveyer belts usage.

What I have figured out so far is that those items made using components only can be placed in a building without a delivery area with conveyer belts distributing the items around the various buildings. Those components made with one or more purchased items need to be crafted in a building with a delivery area. Those finished items can be moved to any buildings that need those end products.

With this campaign also requiring research and analysis to move on to cleaning bot creation I suspect the pattern is along the following lines ..

First building - with delivery area - makes conveyer belt items and the green components. These green components are distributed to the next building -with a delivery area- where the purple components are created. These components can then be conveyed out to the last or first building - with a delivery area - where the final product is created and sold.

The first building - without a delivery area - can then be used to do analysis and research on the components made in one of the other buildings which is shipped to them via the conveyer belt.

The second building - without a delivery area - could be used as simply a transfer building. Have a conveyer belt go from the analysis building to the transfer building and have the reverse go back. The idea being that the components used for analysis will be moved back and forth and taken as needed for analysis. There can then be another belt that shifts the excess to the last building that has a delivery area for either using in a final product for sale or for sale itself. And then another conveyer belt back to the transfer building to shift the items around as needed.

Unfortunately I haven't managed to get to the point of making the cleaning bot, so I suspect that will be made in that last delivery area building and any item they need that is already being made can get passed that way as needed.

Hopefully with computers, calculators and cleaning bots being made and sold they will be enough to complete the final step of paying that persons bill back.

Will let you know how well this idea works out.

[XrystalBelle]

Lasted a while longer this time .. but was 30 days from bankcruptcy and still 5 points away from unlocking the bot industry. But did have the 2 component parts being built ..

What I had where .. (default colouring )

Blue Zone South == conveyer belts + components + assembly == buy/sell of excess
Grey Zone East == modules == buy/sell of excess
Cream Zone West == research
Blue Zone West == Not used
Pink Zone North == Not used

However I kept running out of components and no room to make them but then I also had 2 tables making each module and I might not need that many.

Next playthrough ... will try the following

Blue Zone South == conveyer belts + components A == buy/sell of excess
Grey Zone East == modules == buy/sell of excess == transfer to analysis and assembly
Cream Zone West == research and analysis== transfer excess to and from assembly
Blue Zone West == assembly
Pink Zone North == components B == buy/sell of excess and final products

Components A
Rod + Gear for Conveyer Belt production cycle
Circuit Board + Plastic Parts for Computer and Calculator production cycle
Transfer circuit boards and plastic parts to south part of grey zone

Components B
Rod + Gear for Cleaning Bot production cycle
Mechanical and Plastic Parts for Cleaning Bot production cycle
Metal and Plastic Sundries for Cleaning Bot production cycle
Transfer necessary elements to north part of grey zone

There may be other parts for the cleaning bot and of course the computer/calculator components may be slightly different if a different setup is used. But I found the same modules work in both computer and calculator

I didn't have any special sink shelves or conveyer belt circles ( like at the airport ) but I had a return conveyer belt to keep the components moving between blue and grey zones if input shelves that were sink points, transfer conveyer belts that were sink points and selling pallet didn't need them.

Selling of Excess
Every component and module had 1 slot reserved for them on a sales pallet in any building it was traversing through.

Input Shelves
Only 1 slot reserved per item per desk using it

Conveyer Belts
Only 1 slot reserved per item. But in theory the number of slots distributes the boxes along the conveyer belt, allowing more to be stored on there before it stops. But it doesn't appear to take effect until it is emptied. Or I could be completely mistaken.

[XrystalBelle]

I slipped up and put computer and calculator assembly in the first building .. so wasted time and money moving things around to their planned locations ( I did pause to do the actual moving).. I still went bankcrupt but I did manage to get to researching and building the cleaning bot before the last day of debt arrived.

However, short of employing tons of logistics workers to move things around ( raising costs ). I still ended up moving modules from output shelves to the conveyer belt.


I was thinking creating multiple zones would help. Unfortunately a shelf/conveyer belt can only be in one zone at a time. So can't set up zones to restrict logisitic access to a smaller area unless the shelves and conveyer belts and pallets can be all placed in the same zone. Something to look into.

I ended up with 2 conveyer belts transporting circuit boards and plastic parts to the computer/calculator module zone. It didn't matter if they were sitting there waiting .. unless the logisitics workers didn't move them when needed or quick enough .. so I helped out there as well.

I then had a conveyer belt moving the modules into the assembly building with another going into the analysis and research building and another going into the second component building where the assembled items would be sold. However, I think the analysis guy will have to be manually instructed to analyze one or two items at a time that are in excess at the time so that assembly isn't affected which ended up being the case for me and I had to temporarily fire the 2 analysts I had. But alas too late ..

What was learnt ...
Possibly take your time before worrying about research and analysis and the cleaning bot so that modules are initially sold to build the cash flow and grow the community task points. I noticed the computer and calculator market didn't grow well but then I didn't really adjust and grow their models. I just used the easiest modules for the most part.

The cleaning bot takes many of the same items the computer and calculator does so having a good supply of those items ready to use in the assembly building may be a good idea .. So, sink shelves in the assembly room for each of those items maybe useful so that the logisitics worker can move them off the conveyer belt

There are only 2 maybe 3 modules extra to be made for the cleaning bot so allow space for that in the north section of module building.

I'll also have to make a tally of what components are needed to complete each module so that the right number of components are available. There is plenty of space to make tons of components so that should never be a problem. And selling those may also help keep the cash flowing while you wait for the module sales cash flowing. I double the number of component and module tables but that just drained the money quicker. So, maybe wait until they start complaining about supplies .

[XrystalBelle]

Hmm, delaying seems to have helped .. but I think there is a glitch if you mess about with the zoning as it caused the logistics people from moving some of the components about despite hiring 5 of them for that zone and watching what they were doing.

I also noticed that it is very easy to close off the blue western zone from access by new employees after the conveyer belts have been placed in there.

Delaying helped make a profit by the end of year 1 .. but by the time you were half way through year 2 and the ability to work with the bot stuff and start assembling stuff for sale the bankcruptcy kicked back in .. but it could be connected to the extra module tables I placed as well.

Back to the drawing board.