How do you keep track of things in a 100+h save file ?

[kgmi]

After my campaign reaches a specific size, I find it more and more impossible to keep track of every single component of supply chains.

Adding a few investor districts to get more influence, i have to remember to check if every single item consumed is still producing enough on all my production islands and my ships still delivering goods in-time so I wont slowly bottleneck and run out.

Now this is all not too bad until I took a 2 month break from my 200h long save file and had no idea wth I was even doing there anymore.
I feel like at a certain point I have to keep playing every single day, checking needs and production on dozens of islands, calculating cargo times and dock import / export.
I found out it to be literally impossible to continue my run because i couldnt remember the plans i had made when i logged off the last time i played.

How do you always know what to do when you come back to your really late game saves? I am considering writing down notes on a .txt next time, in case I take a longer break from the game.
Its ironic because this is the only major problem i have with this game, the longer i play a save the more i feel compelled to keep playing every single day just so i dont forget I m making -0.5t of jewelry and half my high end production is shutting down from employment shortage.

I always feel the urge to just start a new run when i havent played in 3 days, help!

[Chaosium]

No help here; I suffer from the Skyrim syndrom and delete my save every few days just to start a new game, it's an endless cycle

[SeaBee]

You can use the production tab to check if item production is meeting demand, either on one island, a select few islands or all islands. It's always a good way to start off when you get back into a game that you haven't played for a while.

[Hundinger]

The statistic screen helps a lot. Grouping trade routes by region and/or type also helps.

I don't know how well you know how to read the statistics, so just in case:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBtYG3S17Ik&t=703s

[General Malaise]

I picked up a game from 3 years ago, with 130,000 people, and went into Land of Lions. Wasn't really a problem.

I do often leave a couple of notes though, when I leave off a session - like more Iron Ore and Chocolate. Without the notes though, I'd soon work out that's what I need.

[Mudkest]

Originally posted by General Malaise:

I picked up a game from 3 years ago, with 130,000 people, and went into Land of Lions. Wasn't really a problem.

I do often leave a couple of notes though, when I leave off a session - like more Iron Ore and Chocolate. Without the notes though, I'd soon work out that's what I need.

Can you keep notes in game? Or do you keep notes external and hope you don't lose them?

[olympe]

It's simple: I don't.
What I do instead is take one thing I want to work on - one new production line for a product used in one session. Or one island where I want to increase the population (just one tier). (I usually switch between both goals.) Or maybe one part of a quest. And then I fiddle with that until everything is stable - especially supply, demand and transportation. Whenever I added to my population, I once again check that supply, demand and transportation (=trade routes) work out. Eventually, I will have to add (and build) new ships to a trade route, or add to the production or - rarely - reduce production of lower-tier goods.
And when everything is stable once again - and only then - I'll tackle the next item.

[kgmi]

Originally posted by Mudkest:

Originally posted by General Malaise:

I picked up a game from 3 years ago, with 130,000 people, and went into Land of Lions. Wasn't really a problem.

I do often leave a couple of notes though, when I leave off a session - like more Iron Ore and Chocolate. Without the notes though, I'd soon work out that's what I need.

Can you keep notes in game? Or do you keep notes external and hope you don't lose them?

I think some in-game note special UI section you can customise yourself to tag all the most important things would be QoL

[pemmons1]

> I am considering writing down notes on a .txt next time, in case I take a longer break from the game.

Of course. I do that regularly even without taking a break; but then, I have two computers running side by side, which make it easier. (Once you're used to playing on two keyboards, you're half way to becoming an organist! ;-) The micromanagement is challenging (and the way I play, I make it even more so than it needs to be). So if I notice something rather important that needs to be done without being an emergency, like supply more rum to an island or equip a ship or a harbormaster with an item, it might be half an hour before I can take all the steps to doing it. Without notes, I'd probably forget all about it.

>I suffer from the Skyrim syndrom and delete my save every few days

I'm just the opposite: have played away at the same Skyrim game for over a year, just to get a little richer and more powerful. What is that syndrome called?