How truck stations connect to each other

[jpwrunyan]

I have a simple scenario and I want to understand what happens in the game:

Consider you have a road extending from your starting city with the normal truck station inside of it. It pushes logistics points out along this single road for a given range. All things being equal (ie terrain and no branches), there's a final hex on that road that gets an anemic amount of final logistics points (LIS). Let's say it's like 10 hexes (I know it can be more). So your city is on hex 0, 0 and your last logistics points on the road ends at 10, 0 (that's still a Manhattan distance of 10 hexes).

What happens now if I build another truck station at 21, 0? Assume the road also ends there. The idea is that the final hex of logistics points runs out on hex 11, 0. For visual clarity, the city at 0, 0 pushes logistics east and the truck station at 21, 0 pushes logistics west. Are these two logistics stations connected??? Or would they both have to share the same terminal hex in the middle (ie 10, 0).

And assuming they are connected, what does this mean for the transport of goods from city to station and vice-versa? Let's say there's a farm also the rural station's hex. Is the maximum amount of food transportable to the city limited by the anemic logistics points value at the center (10, 0)?

I know that it's impossible to build a station beyond the logistics range of the city, but this scenario is still possible if they AI spawned a city at that location and you conquered it. And that's not the point anyway.

If someone can explain to me what happens in this scenario it will do wonders to help me understand how the logistics system works in this game.

What I currently understand is the simplest one-direction scenario where the SHQ city "pushes" LIS to a resource and then that magically teleports the resource back to the SHQ, based on the percentage of the required LIS points of that resource. What I have immense trouble understanding is how resources flow between cities where city B has LIS to a resource from its truck station (often same hex), but needs to move it back to SHQ. Like which truck station (at SHQ or at city B) matters? Surely there's a "meet in the middle" mechanic, but if there is, I'm totally clueless how it actually works. In real life, two trucks could drive out with half their fuel, meet, exchange cargo, and then drive back to their origin. But I know that's not how the logistics system works here.

Any help or explanation is much appreciated. I've watched all the videos and I still don't get it. And my games always end in logistic failures.

[Clux]

Take my comment with a grain of salt, but when you select the option of "projected logistic points" you can see what station sends how many Logistic points on what direction and how many points are used. And as far as I have tested, in order to get the logistics to A (0,0) from B (0,20) you need a logistic base on 0,10 so the trucks are able to go all the way from A to B and from B to A, if they cant return you won't get the resources from B.

Also, use the preview of Logistic Points and use traffic signs to diverge the logistics points where you need them, if you have a road than goes to a mine and that mine only needs 100 logistic points, try to increase the amount of supply points blocked in that direction using traffic signs so you get more supply points in another direction were you really need them. If you need an explanation about this I can take several pictures explaining how important its to use traffic signs.

I hope than I explained myself well enough XD.

[jpwrunyan]

Yeah, I want to avoid thinking about traffic signs at the moment and just understand how to get resources back and forth from A to B and vice versa with the logistics points system. Like how do you connect two points. What happens when two logistical radius touch? What happens when they start to overlap? The actual distance number in my example is arbitrary.

[Jdane]

In my limited understanding, having only a trickle of logistics points from Truck Station A and Truck Station B at (10, 0) will create a bottleneck limiting the actual amount of Items going through. If A and B logistics points overlap more, the better since it means more points and thus a greater potential to move Items.

You didn't mention the Action Points system in your scenario. Those are I believe important. Such as for truck points, you get the maximum logistical points potential up until the hex your trucks have to spend more than 100 APs (assuming there's no Supply Depot to stick to the simplest scenario which is a good idea). Truck Stations can project logistical points beyond this hex but with diminishing returns.
(Which is why converting dirt roads into sealed roads improves your logistics points projection since it halves the Action Points cost of moving them through a hex.)

It seems a little abstract to me. In most systems, you'd have a maximum radius and a binary hex in supply / hex not in supply scenario. But here it looks very much like there's a hex somewhat in supply status. (I imagine the trucks load less cargo and more fuel to extend their range for example. So in your scenario, trucks from stations A and B could meet up halfway, but would only exchange very little cargo since they had to load up to 80 % of their capacity with jerrycans to replenish their fuel tanks and make the long trek back home.)

At any rate, what's really important, I believe, is the starting logistical points total flowing through an hex at the beginning of the turn resolution, which limits the amount that can be spent actually moving Items or Replacements through. The total of points depending on the amount of truck (or train but definitely let's keep it simple) points being projected using Action Points from any Station in range.

(LIS is life, LIS is grand, LIS is our saviour.)

I'm sorry if I sound like I'm incoherently rambling but I'm trying to grok this too.

[jpwrunyan]

ORIGINAL: Jdane
You didn't mention the Action Points system in your scenario. Those are I believe important. Such as for truck points, you get the maximum logistical points potential up until the hex your trucks have to spend more than 100 APs (assuming there's no Supply Depot to stick to the simplest scenario which is a good idea). Truck Stations can project logistical points beyond this hex but with diminishing returns.

You're right. I've tried to re-post with a little more clarity that also incorporates the AP range. Like I'm trying to think of LIS from truck stops flowing on a road like a line with a gradient. The line length represents max AP, the gradient represents the amount of LIS on a point in that line.

I'm thinking like you that the minimum value of LIS between two points on a road determines the bottleneck exactly like the real-life example you gave. So even if A has 100% required LIS and B has 100% LIS at their origins, the bottle neck will be the x% LIS at their weakest midpoint.

Anyway, I'll see if my post with the picture helps.

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4829063