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Something's not right with the logistics system since the expansion. I'm having shortages that I should not. I find mining bases full, yet the colonies demand's aren't being filled. Fuel being a particular problem. My colonies are constantly out of it, yet my mining bases are full of fuels....
[:(]

ORIGINAL: PaulP

A simple hub and spoke system would solve the issue. Just have each system pick the largest space port in the system (or largest colony population if two planets have the same sized space ports) and have that port act as the local hub. All the mining stations and planets within that system and in nearby systems without space ports would ship their goods to the closest hub. Each hub would be linked to nearby hubs. Every so often the game would compare the resources between the hubs and make bulk trades where gaps exist. This way resources would be exported in bulk across the map from hub to hub until everyone has a big stock. Then the current system of small scale demand trading where it sends a few hundred at a time as needed could be used for transporting resources from the hub to the planets and other resource users (star bases, construction ships, etc). This way players would have some control over their economy - building space ports in central locations to ease the transport network, and building space ports on borders with other empires in order to trade with them.

See this is how I thought it was supposed to work. Systems already link to the nearest spacedock, and spacedocks link to each other. I thought these lines represented the hub and spoke shipping system in place, where a mining station would ship to the nearest world with a spacedock and from there it would be shipped either to one of its spokes which has a demand or to another spacedock with a spoke which demands it. Seems simple enough to me.

Spokes report demand to their hub, hub aggregates the demand and places large 'orders' for material. Nearby hubs compare their own surplus with the hub's orders and organize the shipping.

I agree with Aures

An abstaction is required. Currently it's just not quite working.
A detailed modelling of external logistics on a ship by ship - consumer by consumer - supplier by supplier basis is really not even required. The results can be completely opaque - they just need to be realistic. I think this is probably how it was done before the expansion. Simple demand and supply variables on a ship by ship basis rahter than some over arching "super being" that knows exactly what the demand is everywhere at every time. I mean in the real world this is very hard to achieve.

That's why (for example) manufacturers of car parts needed line-side and in quantity often have the following days delivery sat in a layby overnight. To avoid the £30,000 per half hour "late delivery" tarrif if they fail to hit their 15 minute delivery window.

The vehicle manufacturer believes it is operating a J.I.T system - when in fact they have a hidden storage (that they are indirectly paying for) in the presence of an 18 wheeler stuffed full of the next days delivery sat in a layby 2 miles down the road. (HGV drivers cost a lot essp when you are paying for them to sleep overnight in their cab, and an 18 wheeler needs to gross the best part of £100,000 per year to pay for itself)

An imperfect solution to a very old problem - but everyone does it.

(My Phd thesis was "Re-Engineering MRPII for a Repetitive Manufacturing Environment" - you can pick up one of the 9 or 10 copies should you ever pop into the Bodlean)

I imagine it will be a very quick fix.


Scritty

ORIGINAL: VarekRaith

Something's not right with the logistics system since the expansion. I'm having shortages that I should not. I find mining bases full, yet the colonies demand's aren't being filled. Fuel being a particular problem. My colonies are constantly out of it, yet my mining bases are full of fuels....
[:(]

I've some problems also. Especially with luxury rescources. I got lucky in my game and found each of three super rare luxuries close to my territory in early-mid game. As time passed, I didn't seem to get bonuses from my goods neither did my allies that I've allowed to trade these goods. For some reason luxries don't even seem to get reserved for trade ot transportation.
Seems like some kind of bug. I hope Erik and the lads are reading this.

Darn it - now I've spotted this (and it seems to be occuring in every game with every colony) It's sort of dulled my interest in the game. I like to set up a good network "early doors" It's my favoured strategy (yes - in RTS's I'm a turtler and in FPS's I'm a sniper/camper)

Hope it gets fixed soon - sort of unbalances the whole game in quite a big way.

Scritty

You guys might want to put this in the tech support forum, make sure Elliot knows about it, especially if you have it narrowed down.

Thanks for the heads-up guys. I'll investigate this.