Link to: General Treatment of Hauling below. (I can't seem to get this to work anymore in 46B, they just pick up one at a time from the stack...) Hey, you remember this blog post? Fixing The Economy Without conveyor belts or the like, I was thinking about how to most efficiently move things. Ideally items move from where you get them to where you need them as directly as possible. And items you don't need can sit wherever (I'm thinking of a mine's grab-bag of goodies). Some workshops can be used to "pull" materials, and of course only pull what they need. An example: I have a mine which produces iron ore, clay and sand. Two options come to mind: The miners drag everything they mine to town. Even stuff I don't need. There's a stockpile right outside the mine, so everything gets dumped there. I pull what I need over, when I need it. I need a lot of iron. Let's say I don't need the clay or sand for now. ======================================================================================== ======================================================================================== Setup: "Processing metalworks" which contains a number of (brick) charcoal kilns and (iron) smelting crucibles. "Mine output stockpile" just outside the mine. "Charcoal & Ingot output stockpile just outside the metalworks. ======================================================================================== ======================================================================================== Colonist actions: Miner, simple. They go to work, mine, drop the output at the door, then mine etc... I set up the following order for my metalworker (Let's say we only have 1 person, and to complicate things, no coal): Minimum 10 iron ingots Minimum 10 charcoal If we start with nothing, our worker can't smelt any iron, so they will run up and grab a log then stick it in the charcoal kiln. If there's a second worker etc, they still can't smelt any iron, but there's an order for more charcoal and an open kiln, so they run up and grab a log and stick it in kiln #2. etc etc Suppose job #1 is done. They will then grab the charcoal and run outside and drop it off. Now they can smelt iron!They have to move the charcoal back inside to the crucible as well as find and iron ore and bring it over. ======================================================================================== ======================================================================================== You see here, the hauling is all very direct, from source to kiln/crucible no wasted time or effort. You can probably see how the hauling works in this case. It's always (start at metalworks -> do directly to item -> back to metalworks -> ). No more of your iron ore was hauled to the wrong side of town and now you haul it back over, covering the same ground twice. The only thing is it can't beat tricks that allow you to move a stack of 22 or 100 items at once. Since you now need a module for each worker, I would recommend perhaps 3 charcoal kilns and 3 smelting crucibles. ======================================================================================== ======================================================================================== This works with other workshops, as the workers have to pull inputs and then push the outputs to a stockpile when done. While kitchens can pull from the fields directly, I tend not to like this as they are most productive when the raw stuff is at their door. Also, everyone seems to immediately want to haul raw food (and stack stuff) as it's probably the closest haul job possible. ======================================================================================== ======================================================================================== This is building up to an idea of flexibly attainable long-run growth. Part 1, here, is on obtaining resources. Mostly because you can get most of what you need except you will need either stone (for stone ovens) or brick & iron (for iron ovens). Iron mines are likely easier to get/find than stone mines, and stone cannot be "pulled". Ideally we want our bricks and iron parts to be as close to the kitchen as possible to minimize repair disruptions. You could even have a second metalworks near the kitchen with just a smithing forge, that will "pull" iron ingots over to produce the iron plate/pipes and drop them just outside the kitchen! If you split your metalworks (and have another smithing forge at the processor) then you can ensure only three slots are used up in the kitchen stockpile. Iron plates, iron pipes, bricks. This avoids having all the ingots, cogs, copper bits etc in the kitchen stockpile. ======================================================================================== ======================================================================================== Oh the list of things I think you need is basically... food, cloth, wood, iron and (a little) clay. With enough of these you should be able to run forever... Note that though you might have a ton of crucibles etc, the maintenance scales with actual use, I don't think modules degrade over time if unused. So if you're using an iron ingot's worth every other day, you won't be paying more with 3 crucibles vs 10. Actually building the modules is a fixed cost that isn't that important if you're paying iron to maintain 5 iron ovens which are cranking out food like mad. More on sustaining the long-run case later. I've been thinking, if you actually somehow "moved" so you were on top of an iron (and you usually get clay in there) mine, it would be pretty perfect huh. Edit: Oh snap, actually if you start off, save the game then explore for a surface deposit of iron ore, you could then reload back to the beginning and simply build your colony on or very near it. Alternatively, at some point it really doesn't seem like it would hurt to move over, you'll have to rebuild a bunch of things (most notably building another bunkhouse of hellish pleasure would be quite expensive, but you can take it...) ======================================================================================== ======================================================================================== P.S. This trick is essentially allowing you to give a priority for your haulers. For example, if I'm low on iron ingots, my metalworkers will 100% go and pick up iron ore, they won't be distracted by stacking Bread. As long as you allow the workcrew to haul, they will do that, but only if they can't fill an order (which involves the directed hauling, no chance of them getting it wrong) For something like the ceramics workshop, you can make it so they first grab sand (for glass) and if not they grab clay (for bricks) and if not, then they default to the usual hauling AI. By the way, glass panes are very good for trading.
On Mining "Rough Stone Blocks" As I was experimenting, it seems Stone is like clay/sand, which may also show up on mines in otherwise empty (un-pipped) ground. I've also seen Stone come with its own "golden pip" but that is very rare. However, looking about and sweeping with mineshafts suggests that it's not common to be able to get Rough Stone ============================= On mining in general Miners are still bad and will wander around town before putting down their ore and going back to mine some more...
I consider hauling jobs based on two characteristics: Job-specific vs General Job-specific: Hauling is done as part of a job (eg: Make Planks, Cook Basic Food) General: Hauling is done by workers not doing anything else (Workshop job, Foraging, Mining etc) Pushing vs Pulling Pushing: Pushing moves the item from the source to the nearest stockpile that will accept it (destination) Pulling: Pulling takes the nearest eligible item (source) from the destination (eg: A Carpentry Workbench) Some examples (there's not really a General Pulling job) Example 1: A Bushel of Maize (item) is lying in a field (source). A general hauler picks it up and moves it to the nearest food-accepting stockpile (destination). This is a General Pushing job. . Example 2: A carpenter needs a log (item) to make planks at their Carpentry Workbench (destination). This specific carpenter must go to the nearest log (source) and bring it back to their work module. This is a Job-Specific Pulling job. . Example 3: A miner has extracted an iron ore (item) from a mineshaft module (source). This specific miner will bring the ore to the nearest raw material-accepting stockpile (destination). This is a Job-Specific Pushing job. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- With this in mind there's a few strategies I usually employ when planning. Workshops are near a single stockpile which accepts raw materials, building materials and processed goods. This means that as far as possible, raw materials are pushed by general haulers to the stockpile, and the job-specific pulling of input and pushing of input is minimized. This is important as many jobs need a module, and I prefer to spend on less modules early on. Later on, you may be trying to get your 5-man metalworks to be as productive as possible, so again less job-specific hauling they need to do the better/ Kitchen(s) are near a single stockpile which accepts food, as are the farms. For the cooks, see the above (the kitchen is a workshop dealing in food). For the farms, similarly, the raw food is ideally moved by general haulers. It's always good to have less hauling regardless, and you get to decide where the farm is. While having two stockpiles of the same type (eg: food) next to one another can be fine, I try to avoid having multiple stockpile (eg: raw material) scattered about. If my carpentry is in a particular spot, I would like all logs to be pushed here by my general haulers. One easy way to get this effect is to have only one raw material stockpile. For this reason, my mines (if some distance away from the workshop stockpile) either need to be filled with mineshaft modules, or if the distance is just ridiculous from the colony in general, I would think of relocating. As it is, a large open distance means your miners are in danger of being owned by passing hostiles (eg: fishpeople in particular now). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- You may see in the bigger post up top, I talk about directed hauling. This is because jobs that push can potentially pick various stockpiles, not necessarily the best one. BUT, if the only stockpiles are right next to the workshops anyway, this problem is solved. And yes, you can fit Carpentry, Textiles, Ceramics and Metalworks around a single 7x7 stockpile rather neatly.
