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Popup when served industry stops producing?

Started by AP, March 03, 2012, 09:37:15 PM

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AP

So, I was happily playing along in my fairly complex game, expanding my empire, and suddenly my revenue falls off a cliff. I spent ages tweaking my latest new line, thinking "I know the signals need fixing, things keep getting stuck, but surely it can't be losing money that fast..." I go bankrupt, logoff, and have a cup of tea. Then I get a niggling thought... ...sure enough, an innocuous looking coal mine on the far side of the network, supplying a profitable little bit of extra cargo to my passenger ships, has stopped producing. @!#@**! :o 
In the interest of player sanity, is there any way we could get a big yellow popup when an industry goes idle? ;D



Combuijs

Idle in the sense that it will start producing again in the near future when some factory needs coal? I think I would go crazy reading those messages every time a factory stops producing. (And I think you would want one if it started producing again...)

Or idle in the sense that the factory will never produce anymore because it has become obsolete? I think Simutrans Experimental does this, but I can't imagine they would not give a message?
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ӔO

I think it's more of a problem with how the supply chain works.

Producer A sends out everything, endlessly, to consumer B, until consumer B becomes backlogged. Then producer A stops sending out anything at all. What would then happen is the chain will surge as consumer B goes in and out of backlogged to accepting.

Now, this isn't a problem with short distances, but if it is long, then producer A will constantly send out more supplies than consumer B can accept in a month. When the convoys finally deliver their goods they overload the consumer, because the goods were delivered in massive bulk.



It might be better if consumers only demanded X amount of goods each month, instead of producers sending out infinite goods until the consumer finally receives the goods and cancels requests. Like what many online stores tell you not to do. "please don't click 'complete' twice, because you may be billed twice"
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Isaac Eiland-Hall

So, you're suggesting that the producing factory only produce each month what's in the contract with the receiving factory? This sounds... realistic, and a good idea. Very good idea.

MagnusA

I have always thought to find a balance between the demand and the actually delivered cargo was one of the main goals with this game (depending on play style of course). I do not think we have to push a "hard limit" monthly limit onto the player.

Personally I try to calculate how much raw material (coal, iron ore, oil, ...) is needed to meet the demand of consumer product (e.g. cars) and then not deliver more than that (well, a little bit more in order to compensate for traffic, train/platform usage and so on). The mines and factories are not always producing at max level, but the shops are not overloaded with stuff they cannot sell. The demand from the markets can often be boosted by electricty (but a book shop with a big transformer looks very strange) and/or passengers/consumers. After boosting I can deliver more from the mines and factories.

AP

Quote from: Isaac.Eiland-Hall on March 04, 2012, 03:30:39 AM
So, you're suggesting that the producing factory only produce each month what's in the contract with the receiving factory? This sounds... realistic, and a good idea. Very good idea.

Do you know, I had always assumed they already were!

The issue in question did arise over a very long route, and was further complicated because the freight in question was not the primary traffic. The number of ships sailing the river was defined by the required passenger capacity, the fact that they have cargo space too was just incidental, but since the capacity was there, I engineered some materials to fill them. But there was consequentially far more cargo capacity than strictly necessary.