Stockpile Categories

Discussion in 'Clockwork Empires General' started by Cornuthaum, Oct 4, 2016.

  1. Cornuthaum

    Cornuthaum Member

    I need more control over my stockpiles. I desperately want to be able to put the booze stockpile next to the Pub so I can minimize travel time for the pub workcrew - who, even with the new patch, *cannot* keep up with demand :(

    And I'd love to be able to have better control over my raw goods (ores, logs) vs refined goods (bars, planks)

    And over my food, too (no, Chemical Works, I don't want you to dump the Sulfur Tonic in the food stockpile next to the chowder and the beer, I want you to dump it in the small stockpile near the Barbershop.)

    I'm not sure how hard it would be to implement this from the backend, but I think you've done the lions share of the work with the item tag system already.

    Is this a thing that could be done?
     
  2. Kaldo

    Kaldo Member

    Agreed... I'd even go a step further and suggest they draw inspiration from other city builders that have advanced stockpile priorities or even automated transfers, for example - being able to have a main, big, high priority stockpile with food, and then a smaller lower priority stockpile that "pulls" food from it to a remote location. I understand that colonies falling due to lack of proper bureaucracy and organization seems thematically correct for CE but still... if the devs want us to have colonies with more than 30-40 colonists, we need better way to manage them so production can run smoothly.
     
  3. jotwebe

    jotwebe Gained the People's Ovation and Fame Forever

    They do have the design goal of keeping down the micromanagement. On the one hand, elaborate systems of stockpiles might run counter to that, on the other hand, once they're set up properly, they help make things run smoother.

    The main problems I see is that it'd need to be hidden from beginners - you need to know that a ceramics workshop might want to stockpile gunpowder before you'd think to enable it on a stockpile for it. And, obviously, a giant list of all possible commodities would be rather intimidating.

    Hmm... say we'd have an "advanced" stockpile customization (enabled by checkbox?) where, if you click on the category, you'd get a list of goods within that category. Say, you click on raw, and you get logs, sand, clay cubes, etc.

    Second problem is with https://www.gaslampgames.com/2016/09/14/the-skill-reward-gap/

    I do like the idea of putting systems where an advanced player can use their skills to the max into the mid- and endgame. So maybe advanced stockpiles could be tied to a building, or be a thing you need to research (there needs to be more research anyway).
     
  4. Kaldo

    Kaldo Member

    I might be projecting my wishes on a game that doesn't want it but I'm always for increased complexity and bigger skill gap. Newbies can always just put stockpiles on "accept all" and have them work in the exact same way as now. A good middle ground might be to add specialized stockpiles with some general limitations, like a Granary for food products, a Warehouse for fragile items (glass, furniture, explosives) and an open Stockpile for raw goods (stone, wood, ore, sand). But I'd personally still want the option of forbidding/allowing some individual goods on them.
     
  5. jotwebe

    jotwebe Gained the People's Ovation and Fame Forever

    The problem then becomes with balancing the game. Make it too easy and with optimized stockpile you'll burn down your colony from boredom on day 20. Make it to difficult and setting your stockpiles to "accept all" is the sure path to starvation misery.
     
  6. Alavaria

    Alavaria Member

    I don't really think super-optimization of stockpiles will be that much of a "bonus".

    As it is, right now, unified large stockpiles (think 4 large stockpiles in 2x2) are already pretty good in that it minimizes the walking. If you're using very specialized stockpiles but making your people walk more, it will be less efficient that a large unified stockpile.

    (It makes sense to have food seperate as that's a pretty clear type which mostly used by farm/kitchen/public house.)