Cargo transport priority

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All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> Distant Worlds 1 Series >> Tech Support >> Cargo transport priority

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Cargo transport priority - 4/14/2010 6:00:30 AM

korenzel

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Joined: 4/14/2010
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I have been playing the game since last week and it's been alternatively great and frustrating, and my last game was the latter. After breaking the economy many times with +3Million income after a dozen of years, I tried a game with very scarce resources : 100 stars, lots of pirates and monsters, 10 empires starting on harsh worlds, independent populations set to very rare, low tech and slow research for everyone. Getting money was actually tough, and lack of chromium threw most of my designs away.

When I discovered a planet with Zentabia Fluid, I thought : Jackpot ! Finally money issues are over. Except, despite having more than 5000 units in the mine, it never got distributed to any of my planets. I waited 10 years for a freighter to show up and pick up some. None did. I had one system in the same sector with two colonies : they never got any. I checked the mine, it was working fine, and was even receiving fuel deliveries. I checked the request pool in the colonies and found a couple of them with very low requests, amounts between 10 or 20 units, while I could have easily supplied 1000 to each of my worlds. These requests were not present in the mine : there was not one unit of Zentabia Fluid reserved. Instead of being filthy rich, I ended up bankrupt with my stockpiles of expensive fluid in the mine

I suppose the low amounts were very low priority for the freighters to transport, but since we're not given any control over what colonies request for luxury or strategic resources, what freighters transport and from where to where, or even the possibility for the state to do a simple delivery, there was no way to fix that. It's nice that cargo transport is fully automated, but at least let the player be able to control a cargo ship when the AI doesn't do its job. I hate when a game is supposed to handle things for me, fails, and there's no way for me to take over.

Post #: 1

RE: Cargo transport priority - 4/14/2010 6:33:00 AM

Sigh

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Joined: 4/12/2010
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Thats one of my main complaints also. That the game is designed around automation (which is nice actually) but just cant handle the things its supposed to do.

Personally i dont think one should have any control over the private sector.. its an interesting concept that should be kept the way it is (well unless maybe in a dictatorship or such ;) ). Its just that the AI needs some drastic work.

If they manage to get the AI working then the whole automation thing will be pretty awesome

(in reply to korenzel)

Post #: 2

RE: Cargo transport priority - 4/14/2010 10:33:26 AM

korenzel

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Joined: 4/14/2010
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I'm not asking to control the private sector directly, but instead to allow the state to take over some of its missions when it fails. Doing a simple delivery job, from a mine to a couple of planets, shouldn't be reserved to uncontrollable AI, especially if it can mean win or lose the game.

Let's face it, supply lines is a very important part of strategy, yet as it is you can only control one resource : fuel, and in a very limited manner. Want to send a heavy freighter, possibly armed, filled with all the materials to build a heavy spaceport for a disputed colony ? You can't. Want to get some needed materials to your construction ship stalled on its project for years because of lack of it ? You can't. Want to fill up the stock of your colonies in anticipation for bigger needs, like switching to a new fuel source ? You can't. I don't expect the AI to handle more that daily transport, and even that fails sometimes.

(in reply to Sigh)

Post #: 3

RE: Cargo transport priority - 4/14/2010 10:37:44 AM

Sigh

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Thats why i said the AI needs work. It wouldnt be the private sector if the state had its hands in it.

(in reply to korenzel)

Post #: 4

RE: Cargo transport priority - 4/14/2010 10:59:33 AM

korenzel

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I guess this is where we disagree then. I wouldn't handle critical missions that can make you win or lose a game to an AI you have no control over. Even with all the work in the world, it just couldn't guess my bigger plans. In a real world, state and private sectors have this little thing called "communication" when it's time to decide what needs to be done. In this game, you can't communicate with the private sector.

The state should have some way to incite the private sector into doing something it considers top priority, make it require money or whatever, like giving a substantial bonus to a freighter that does what the state considers a critical job.

(in reply to Sigh)

Post #: 5

RE: Cargo transport priority - 4/14/2010 11:09:03 AM

Sigh

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Its called subsidizing :P

And id go with that. I am (again just my opinion) against direct control of freighters but subsidizing things would be a great compromise and fun.

It seems like a pretty big change in the overall design philosophy/mechanics though so i wouldnt be surprised if it never gets implemented

(in reply to korenzel)

Post #: 6

RE: Cargo transport priority - 4/14/2010 2:51:52 PM

Erik Rutins

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Joined: 3/28/2000
From: Vermont, USA
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Korenzel,

Thanks for the report. Do you have a save that shows this Zentabia Fluid distribution problem? I've seen these ultra-rare resources get distributed, so I'm curious to see what's causing the issue here.

In general, allowing the State to build a military cargo ship of some kind is not a bad suggestion, but I'd like to see what caused this issue first.

Regards,

- Erik

_____________________________

Erik Rutins
CEO, Matrix Games LLC

For official support, please use our Help Desk: http://www.matrixgames.com/helpdesk/

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(in reply to Sigh)

Post #: 7

RE: Cargo transport priority - 4/14/2010 3:20:40 PM

Fishman

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Joined: 4/1/2010
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quote:

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Thanks for the report. Do you have a save that shows this Zentabia Fluid distribution problem? I've seen these ultra-rare resources get distributed, so I'm curious to see what's causing the issue here.

Ultra-rares DO get distributed, but often not with the aggressiveness that it deserves: Freighters will transport small batches of the stuff numbering in the low hundreds, if that, to distant worlds. This is fine if the supply line can be maintained consistently, but often it is not, and the system does not adapt to situations where the stuff starts to pile up on the docks as the player attempts to aggressively increase production to meet supply shortfalls, only to have freighters fail to capitalize on this glut and fly half-empty to the destination. The small-batch transporting is smart when supplies are very low and having it sit in a stockpile on a distant world is a suboptimal behavior, but not when supplies of a resource are high and it is best to distribute it in full-ship doses. This issue is often analogous to the way Ambrosia is supplied in Anacreon: A player-run convoy would tend to oversupply a target because the consequences of shortfall are grave, but an AI convoy would "more efficiently" ship smaller, more precisely matched batches...and thus inefficiently manage future stockpiles, selling the future for the present.

(in reply to Erik Rutins)

Post #: 8

RE: Cargo transport priority - 4/14/2010 5:14:25 PM

korenzel

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I uploaded a save with the view centered on the mine. Its name is "[Korenzel] Zentabia_Fluid_not_delivered.dwg". You can wait and see that no cargo never gets picked up from it, despite it working flawlessly, having full stocks ready for pickup, and 3 or 4 colonies demanding some. I suspect it might be due to my worlds being too small (less than 1billion people) for the AI to notice their request of super rare resources.

A player controlled cargo ship would greatly expand the strategic options, I hope it makes it in the game.

(in reply to Fishman)

Post #: 9

RE: Cargo transport priority - 4/14/2010 6:26:29 PM

Cheet4h

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Joined: 3/20/2010
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I don't like the idea of a player controlled cargo ship. I was thinking of giving specific ressources high priority. Anyone played settlers 2? You got a window in which you could control the transport priority. So that that more or less useless can of water is not transported before the gold coin which is much needed at the frontline to grade your troops. Maybe this could be added also. The default would be that ressources with the highest demand would be transported first. But you can change these. Maybe by altering the price of transport by subsidy, so that the private sector gets an income boost for transport of high priority cargo?

In addition i would give the player the option to order a specific amount of a ressource at a specific point, maybe even the option to hold a specific amount, for example for refuel bases in deep space or refuel chains. But this does cost money. Upon arrival of a cargo ship with these ressources the player gets the current price * x% charged at his account.

(in reply to korenzel)

Post #: 10

RE: Cargo transport priority - 4/14/2010 7:09:24 PM

Fishman

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Cheet4h

I don't like the idea of a player controlled cargo ship.

What's not to like about it? Such things technically sort of exist already, but only for CERTAIN resources, in a kind of backwards, roundabout way. If you don't like it...don't buy one, and save on maintenance?

(in reply to Cheet4h)

Post #: 11

RE: Cargo transport priority - 4/14/2010 9:04:42 PM

Cheet4h

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I don't like it, cause i hate moving my citizen in SE V manually, because the AI always sucks at this. I would like to just click at a construction site, go into the cargolist and order a high priority on a ressource. This would allow a freighter to bring the ressource in stante pede. Should have the same effect, but you won't have to wait if one of your freighters is on the other side of the universe.

Just now i don't like that i have to search a fleet to give them an order to attack at some specific point. I would like to click at a target and have an option "Attack-> Order nearest fleet to attack", building stations like this or sending explorers to specific locations with this kind of interaction. In the current state you have to look for the nearest ship yourself, which can become quite a hassle in lategame when there are dots everywhere....

(in reply to Fishman)

Post #: 12