Storage and Belts

Basics

Warehouses and Conveyor Belts are the backbone of your resource logistics. How fast you can move resources, where you store them, and how many you store are vital to your success.

You will need enough warehouse space to store the goods The Claws require and Pirates demand, plus more to run your daily operations.

You should carefully plan out where you locate Warehouses, what you store in them, and how you're moving resources around your colony.

Warehouses

Warehouses come in various sizes, starting at the very small Storage Shed and ending at the massive Giant Warehouse. What size warehouses you use and where you locate them is up to you, but will be driven by which you have researched so far.

As Warehouses grow both in size and expense, it may not make sense to use just one size throughout your colony. A Medium Warehouse next to an Ore Furnace is likely sufficient to shorten supply lines without running out of storage.

There are numerous controls you can manage to help oversee your storage. You can set storage limits on Warehouses, production limits on resources, and control the logistics of Factories to set where they pickup and drop off resources. You may not need to use every setting, especially right away, but these tools can really help manage a logistically complex mid to late game colony.

Do not forget that if you run out of storage, your resource gatherers and factories can idle waiting on more space to become available. Make sure you are managing your storage space effectively, so that you don't waste valuable production time. If you're routinely running into this issue, make sure you're not overproducing goods by setting production limits and/or making sure your factories can keep up with processing raw materials. Lastly, take advantage of ships visiting your ports and sell your goods for gold ore better tax rewards. You're encouraged not to hoard too much in this game. Idle resources are not helping you succeed.

Conveyor Belts

Conveyor belts provide you with an opportunity to slowly move goods to waiting Warehouses without requiring your Whiskers to make the same trip to drop off those resources. This can keep Whiskers processing goods for a greater proportion of the day.

Conveyor belts consist of the Flat Belt, Up-Lift Stairs and Down-Drop Slide. All three of these components can be combined to create a continuous conveyor system that leads to a Warehouse. You can currently merge lines such as having a Down-Drop Slide place goods onto an existing Flat Belt lines. You cannot currently split lines.

Goods are placed onto the line via an Input Hopper. Make sure to face the black spout onto the line. You may place multiple Input Hoppers on a single conveyor belt system, but be aware that lines can become backed up if there is not enough space to deposit goods on the line. The Input Hopper will store the materials until space becomes available on the line. You cannot recover these materials stuck in the Input Hopper by destroying it. You may have to wait until the night, so the line can clear while the Whiskers sleep.

Whiskers will consider Input Hoppers as a free-for-all drop off point if you do not put filters on it. You can choose to only allow it to accept certain materials and also control which facilities can deposit goods in it. Whether you set filters or not, remember that conveyor belts deposit their goods in a warehouse amd do not respect its allowable goods list.

This feature can be helpful because you can use a Logistics Hub to move materials out of the receiving warehouse and into appropriately filtered Warehouses. This is done by setting the receiving warehouse to ship out its goods and rejecting all goods for storage (prevents Whiskers from filling it up and backing up thr conveyor line).

There are a lot of creative logistics solutions using conveyor belts, but do keep in mind that lengthy setups will delay access to the goods on the belt until they are deposited. Currently, the belt has just one speed - very slow. It cannot be sped up using steam or further research. If your Whiskers are running low on vital resources, you may wish to avoid allowing those on your conveyor belts until the shortage is resolved.

Also, conveyors must end at a Warehouse to recover goods on it. If it does not, Whiskers can still deposit goods on it via an Input Hopper, but they still just magically stop moving at the end of the line until the situation is resolved. Conveyor belts will not drop goods on the ground for later recovery or disposal into the sea.

Logistics Hub

The Logistics Hub is a place where up to three Whiskers can be stationed to move goods from warehouse to warehouse. They do not help move goods to and from any other location. In fact, they only do their job when you've set a a warehouse to empty its contents. Once set, these Whiskers will busily move these goods to another warehouse that can store them.

How many Logistics Hubs you need is based on how frequently you're moving goods between Warehouses and how many goods need to be moved. You may not even need to keep the Logistics Hub staffed until you need goods moved.

In the Conveyor Belts section, there is mention of setting up warehouses that receive all goods but then have Logistics Hub sort out the mess into other Warehouses. In this scenario, you may need multiple continuously staffed Logistics Hubs to keep up with these setups; however, this is not an early game concern.

It is unlikely you will need a Logistics Hub early in the game unless your Central Warehouse becomes overwhelmed, and you need to move the goods to other warehouses. It is a good idea to set your Central Warehouse to empty its contents and post a Logistics Hub nearby. It is a catch-all when resources do not have anywhere else to go.