Topic: Minimum amount of goods in a port

I like the idea of ports and try to use them as much as possible, because I think they are fun. One problem however, is the transport between ports and the 'way' boats seem to handle goods.

I think everybody has been in a situation where only one brick is needed to finish a building, and all surrounding ports seem to have enough bricks, but the AI insists on sending an empty ship from Amsterdam to Hong Kong to pick up the brick and transport it to London, while the Antwerp port is literally choking on stone.

One solution could be to fill ports with a minimum amount of goods and to try to maintain that minimum: for instance minimum 50 stones, 10 marble, 30 wood, 3 gold, etc... (to be individually adjusted per port and per 'goods').

So if you start building on an island, the goods needed would be taken from the stock in the nearest port... and then the AI can bring the stock back to normal. A side effect is that there is a difference in approach between warehouses and ports that way as well.

(Sorry if this idea has been put here before, couldn't find it.)

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I've thought about the idea of having warehouses distribute goods if there's a shortage somewhere, but that runs the risk of clogging the roads, especially on a map with narrow chokepoints (such as Sun of Fire).

It also feels a bit odd that although advanced roads have both a worker and a donkey/horse/ox, the flags next to them can only hold the same 8 items that flags by normal roads can hold. Maybe that should be raised to 12 when they're next to a major road?

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I had seriour problems yesterday with wares being in the wrong place.

I was working on a long narrow map, the supply route was in places very constricted and busy as iron ore was at one end and coal at the other. I managed to squeze a warehouse in the centre at one at the east and west ends to minimise transport of raw goods I had also set up food and beer supplies at each end.

I knew the coal supply would soon run out in the West so set up several lumberjacks abd charcoal burners in the east, near the iron mines and built smelters and axe workshops nearby, all so that goods would be stored localally and only finished goods would need to be transported.

Some time later I noticed that iron production had stopped due to shortage of coal, the coal mine had finally run out as expected, the charcoal burners were not working though due to lack of timber, despite the being next to lumberjacks who where operating at 100%, a check of total wares showed I had over 600 timber, further searching found over 500 in the west warehouse the others had none. Most of the timber harvested in the east was being transported to the furtherest warehouse in the west. I issed a command to remove timber from the west warehouse but after an hour there was still a stock of over 300 timber there, the first supplies were just getting to the charcoal burners and timber was still arriving at the west warehouse.

I think it would be somewhat better is warehouses tried to distribute goods evenly between themselves, over ridden as required by the do not store this ware here button. I am not sure if increasing the falg stockpile from 8 to 12 would help much where there are 2 carriers on each side of the flag, the input/output rates should be similar with the same distance and slopes, the problem comes where a link has only one carrier or where two routes converge and all it would do is leave more stuff lying on the roadside instead of being safely in a building. I cannot coment on the working of ports as I cannot get them to do anything. I have a port, I have started an expedition and built a ship next to the port but nothing happens.

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Most of the timber harvested in the east was being transported to the furtherest warehouse in the west.

This sounds strange. When the warehouses have no priority, I observed that the wares are transported to the nearest warehouse. If you have a replay and you are sure that this is the case, could you please file a bug report (the bug tracker is https://launchpad.net/widelands). It sounds like something is going wrong, and sending the wares to the nearest warehouse should not be too hard.

I issed a command to remove timber from the west warehouse but after an hour there was still a stock of over 300 timber there, the first supplies were just getting to the charcoal burners and timber was still arriving at the west warehouse.

Did you set "Do not store" (the red cross) or "Remove wares" (the red arrow). In both cases, no new logs should arrive. In the latter case, the logs should be carried out of the warehouse. Note that this might take some time because they have to be transported away. You could also try to give your eastern warehouse a priority ("Store here", the green arrow) for logs.

I think it would be somewhat better is warehouses tried to distribute goods evenly between themselves

I do not think so. Imagine I build mills, wells and bakeries next to each other for short ways, and a warehouse to store superfluous wares. If I produce too much flour, it will be distributed all over the map, causing traffic. When I decide to build more bakeries, it will be transported back, again causing traffic. To avoid this, I would have to avoid storage of ALL wares (except the ones I need) in ALL warehouses I will ever build, which is definitely too much micro-management.
Instead, with the minimum storage feature, you can control where your wares go, and not where they shall not go (i.e. you need less clicks). I you do not care where the produced wares are, they will go to the closest warehouse, and not be transported over the whole map.

I have found a bug report https://bugs.launchpad.net/widelands/+bug/1153684, but it has not been discussed further. I also did not find similar bug reports or blueprints. When someone has a good idea for the UI (more buttons will be needed), it would be nice to revive that report.

I cannot coment on the working of ports as I cannot get them to do anything. I have a port, I have started an expedition and built a ship next to the port but nothing happens.

You need two ports and at least one ship to transport wares between them. The ships work like carriers on a road: When wares need to be transported from one port to another, they will do this, otherwise, they will do nothing. The first port has to be constructed like a normal building, the other ports can also be constructed via an expedition: Your expedition ship sails somewhere (you can control it) and when it find a suitable place, you can decide to build a port there.
Would you please tell me which of these steps was not clear to you? I am working on a tutorial to explain seafaring and would like to see what has to be included.

"Only few people know how much one has to know in order to know how little one knows." - Werner Heisenberg

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As I understand it the destination of a product is first set at the time of production so perhaps the logs still arriving at the west end had also been travelling for an hour?

This is possible.

Or can the destination of wares be changed on route as can happen with soldiers?

When a ware is transported to a warehouse because it is not needed elsewhere and then a building suddenly requests it, I think the destination changes. Else, you can destroy all the roads between the log and their destination. Since there is no way, the look for a new destination, e.g. the warehouse with preference for logs.

Expedition: In the port, there should be a new (fifth?) tab giving you an overview about the materials. Present ones are colored, needed ones are grey. A builder (not listed) is also needed. When everything is ready, a ship drives to the port and sends you a message that you can start exploring now. Maybe you lack gold?

Warehouses that autocollect wares needed by the surrounding buildings: Since Widelands focuses on managing you economy, I doubt that this will be implemented. It takes away freedom from the player making gameplay too easy and too boring.

Advanced button: Ideally, everything in Widelands is so simple that beginners do not get confused by it. And having two options means more code to test and more bugs to occur.

"Only few people know how much one has to know in order to know how little one knows." - Werner Heisenberg

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