Cities: Skylines (Steam) - Warehouses not delivering cargo to unique factories

[gafrad]

Description
Warehouses not delivering cargo to unique factories

What is your game version?
1.11.0-f3

What expansions do you have installed?
All of the above

Please explain your issue is in as much detail as possible.
EDIT: I have tested this in a 100% vanilla game and this is TL;DR of my comment down below in the thread:

• if the warehouse is set to balanced, it will not send out deliveries unless having more than 50% of storage full. Even then it is inconsisent and is often not preferred by the unique factory (although it provides the shortest route to it)
• on fill, it doesn't send out trucks at all.
  
• on empty, it just focuses on exporting again not making the deliveries to unique factory consistent.

So the biggest issue I'm reporting is that warehouses are not preffered for deliveries based on proximity and resource availability no matter what.

373 lain in waste.

Log and dxdiag in the thread.
__
This is old report before the test:
No matter the warehouse setting, it seems that any warehouse with the correct cargo type will not even try delivering the cargo to unique factories, even if it provides the shortest route to the factory.
I have a large warehouse with metal in it set on balanced (it is 70% full and has enough trucks available) right next to the Steel unique factory, and yet the factory constantly complains it doesn't have enough materials.The warehouse ignores it and happily exports its contents to nearby train station.

According to route view, the factory always has deliveries directly from a metal processing factory in an industry district across two tiles instead of the warehouse. The truck often has to use trains to transport it across the whole city, that's why the deliveries are late and the factory complains.
Adding more warehouses does not change anything. Changing to "Fill" doesn't make a difference. "Empty" would probably not do anything but sell all the stuff.

The warehouses should prioritize unique factories and supply them, not export only, which they currently seem to do.

Edit: I do not own any mod that changes traffic AI. Also spellcheck
Can you replicate the issue? If yes, please explain how you did it.
All other unique factories I have (Plastic furniture, Petrochemical plant, Electronics) have all the same issue while being closely surrounded by warehouses storaging the correct cargo set on balanced with enough trucks available. All other unique factories show that deliveries come directly from industrial processing factories.

Attachments

 

[Mylon]

Well first question is of course do you have any mods enabled?

It sounds like a rather odd issue, I am assuming you have a warehouse at your metal producer, and then another warehouse next to your steel plant. For this has worked for me on several different unique factories. Only had problems with one, and that time it was actually that it wasn't producing enough...

Also from what I read here on the forums, your steel plant puts out the request for metal, and whoever first responds gets it. (and yes sometimes this can be your metal producer if it can't get rid of its stock fast enough, hence why you plant a warehouse next to that too)

 

[gafrad]

I have only cosmetics mods enabled + Network extensions 2.
But I'll try getting a warehouse next to the producers, I did not do that. Thanks for the tip! I'll report if it helped

 

[gafrad]

I have experimented with multiple settings in 100% vanilla game. The issue is actually of slightly different case than I have previously reported.
So, I've created a city with ore industry at one place and a small town with a steel unique factory with a large warehouse (named A) right next to it, both areas quite far away from each other to test the AI preference of path based on distance.

I have found the following:

• right off, seemingly no mods that I use are the cause, however Advanced Vehicle Options seems to have a few issues, I unsubscribed from it.
  
• the biggest issue I see is that if the warehouse A is set on balanced and it stays at 50% or below, it will not send a truck to the steel plant, which is forced to take deliveries from metal producing plants. If it's above 50%, the steel factory will prefer to take deliveries from the warehouse A.
• once warehouse A gets too full, it will start exporting a lot, not enough trucks will be available for deliveries to the steel factory. I added warehouse C, but it only made the warehouses rebalance to 50% state in which they do not make deliveries.
  
• if the warehouse is set to fill, it will not deliver anywhere until it's 100% full. Then it sends a truck to the factory and goes down to 99%, after that it will not deliver yet again and will wait till a truck from metal factory reaches it, meaning the steel factory will not get delieveries from the warehouse in the meantime.
  
• if the warehouse A is set to empty, it will focus on exporting and probably won't have enough trucks (depends on amount of cargo being transported) to deliver to the factory, which makes this setting useless for my issue, because it also creates lot of traffic which delays normal deliveries.
  
• adding a warehouse B near the metal production plants only makes the plants prefer to use this close warehouse over the one near the steel factory, which means that warehouse B will get overloaded with cargo and it will focus on exporting, while warehouse A will stay 50% balanced and won't make deliveries. It will use some to deliver to warehouse A and also it will be preffered by the steel factory (delaying the deliveries by the distance) over the warehouse A, which is followed by issues with the balanced setting.
• setting warehouse B on fill only makes it a far-away 100% full storage for a delivery one a month to the steel factory. setting it on empty does the exact same as setting it on balanced, as the amount of cargo being stored and exported is big enough for the warehouse B to be essentially emptying.

SO, the actual issue is that warehouse A does not deliver to steel factory consistently unless it has more than 50% storage in only one setting (balanced). Once it reaches certain storage values it will get overloaded and won't have enough trucks to deliver to the steel factory, which would lead to adding another warehouse. However that does not help, as they will rebalance to 50% and will not send trucks consisently - this essentially repeats everytime you raise production values. All other settings do not help to prioritize deliveries to the steel factory.

Because it is vanilla, it is fair to say that all warehouses behave the same with the rest of the unique factories.

What needs to be implemented is that the deliveries AI will prefer the closest warehouse with the available cargo no matter what. So that a warehouse will make deliveries even if it's set to whatever setting, or is below 50% on balanced. It is in my opinion completely logical. Could someone have a look into this, perhaps @co_emmi ?

On a personal note, it's absolutely infuriating to see the steel factory complaining that it doesn't have special goods while a warehouse with exactly 50% storage of that required special goods sits right next to it refusing to export anywhere unless having above 50% of storage full. It's dumb.

 

[M5891]

I can completely confirm your observations. I have already built all unique factories in a city with about 70000 inhabitants and it is not possible to balance the warehouses with the given options. A solution could be to add export/import/local settings in combination with the existing settings and/or unique factories have to be prioritized over every other delivery (export & delivery to zoned factories). Furthermore bigger factory storages could solve the problem.

I really like the DLC, but I will wait for mods or even better an official update before I continue playing it.

 

[gafrad]

Here's a pic I took. You can see the warehouse having 373 tons for nothing, while the steel factory complains it doesn't have metals.

Im also adding dxdiag and output log if it helps...

 

[M5891]

And if you start raising the production of special goods it will export everything. -.- If there are 2 or 3 unique factories it can be handled, but after every factory is built it is not possible to find the perfect balance. It would take a workaround to make it work. Like cutting off the special industry and the unique factories from the rest of the map, so that they are forced to deliver everything to the unique factories. Then it would be possible to find the perfect balance. But that is something I am not willing to do.

p.s.: Maybe the easiest solution would be a setting like "unique factories only". That would do it I think.

 

[gafrad]

Like cutting off the special industry and the unique factories from the rest of the map

Im afraid unique factories require connection to your city for them to properly work, so the trucks would always find a route to them, making the deliveries even less effective.

I have to correct one of my findings, and that is if warehouses are set to fill, they won't deliver to anywhere at all even if at 100%. Just won't. Here's an image where you can see petroleum is delivered from a Refining plant rather than from a warehouse right next to it. (and yes I did a bit of editing so that I dont have to post two screens of selected warehouse and truck)

What's the point of having warehouses on fill when they just won't deliver?

 

[M5891]

Yes, of course it would be necessary to connect the unique factories to the city again. After the production is balanced.

I could imagine that some kind of production line could work. 4 streets to the factory area (one for each special industry without intersections until it has reached the factory zone). One street to the city. Buildings could be placed along the street in the following order: raw material -> storage -> processor -> warehouse -> unique factory. If the AI wants to export they have to go past all these buildings. So the owned factories would always be nearer than to export.

But thats not the way I want to play the game. I want to build realistic looking cities with working productions flow.

p.s.: Still love the game. Waiting for an update. ;-)

 

[M5891]

By the way. There is another bug too. https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...rating-no-income-from-industries-dlc.1125904/

I have reproduced it right now. Couldn`t believe it. Had to see it myself. Before and after I have deactivated export by ship and train (Explanation: I have a massive overproduction of plastic and petroleum, because unique factories were always complaining. Tried to solve it that way, but everything is exported and still I hadn`t made any money. Now oil production is the cash cow ;-) )

I would really recommend to wait for an update. ;-)

 

[JadedMrSoy]

What's the point of having warehouses on fill when they just won't deliver?

They do. If they aren't working correctly for you then there is either a mod interfering or you need to adjust your industrial production. Despite what some will tell you, multiple storage facilities for the same item set to Balanced is not the answer. You're better off adjusting your industry to the point where you are exporting only a little of the processed items. Use your Outside Connections tab to help adjustment. If you have 3 Sawmills and 2 are highlighted to indicate they are exporting, then remove one and continue monitoring. This is also true for Raw Material extraction. When you are producing a huge excess of materials(raw or processed) they will sometimes deliver them to the processors/Factory instead of exporting.
The ultimate issue is that the processor buildings and the Factories don't always pull from the storage/warehouses and don't do it based on proximity. Ideally this is how it should work but doesn't. You can limit this bad design by min/maxing your industry until a fix is implemented(which is not likely to happen).

 

[M5891]

They do. If they aren't working correctly for you then there is either a mod interfering or you need to adjust your industrial production. Despite what some will tell you, multiple storage facilities for the same item set to Balanced is not the answer. You're better off adjusting your industry to the point where you are exporting only a little of the processed items. Use your Outside Connections tab to help adjustment. If you have 3 Sawmills and 2 are highlighted to indicate they are exporting, then remove one and continue monitoring. This is also true for Raw Material extraction. When you are producing a huge excess of materials(raw or processed) they will sometimes deliver them to the processors/Factory instead of exporting.
The ultimate issue is that the processor buildings and the Factories don't always pull from the storage/warehouses and don't do it based on proximity. Ideally this is how it should work but doesn't. You can limit this bad design by min/maxing your industry until a fix is implemented(which is not likely to happen).

Do you use more than one warehouse per special product in your city (paper, plastic, etc.)?

Have you already built all unique factories?

I could manage it quite well with the first three unique factories. But especially the plastic demand is really high after you have built them all (5 factories need plastic). It is really hard to balance it. If there are long distances between the special industries it is nearly impossible.

 

[JadedMrSoy]

Do you use more than one warehouse per special product in your city (paper, plastic, etc.)?

Have you already built all unique factories?

I could manage it quite well with the first three unique factories. But especially the plastic demand is really high after you have built them all (5 factories need plastic). It is really hard to balance it. If there are long distances between the special industries it is nearly impossible.

I only have 1 warehouse for each processed item and only use 1 storage facility for each raw material. It's all about balancing your industry areas.

 

[M5891]

Ok, thank you. I will update my city and test your approach. I have already tried it in a quite similar way, but I haven`t considered that overproduction could be a problem when using the fill setting. I thought they will export the not needed products. Could live with if it works, because then zoning industry do not lose its purpose.

 

[M5891]

I have now updated my city. It works much better. Every factory is running with 150%. I have still sometimes a supply shortage when the delivery comes directly from one of the processors instead of the warehouse. One warehouse per special product with fill setting and balancing the exports seems to work best. Still I am a little bit disappointed as it really limits the DLC.

 

[gafrad]

They do. If they aren't working correctly for you then there is either a mod interfering

Ive already said I tested this in 100% vanilla city, there's no mod interfering. They did not send trucks if they were set to fill.

or you need to adjust your industrial production

Why should I try to have as few processing plants as possible? That doesn't make any sense whatsoever. I shouldn't be limited in how big my industries get, the goal here is to gain profit, and you do that by exporting the producted resources. Making just a tiny industry area for each industry just so that warehouses work is nonsense. That's why, as you say, the core issue is the delivery AI doesn't prefer warehouses based on resource ability and proximity, and it needs to be fixed.

 

[YHLeung]

I'm spamming a couple of Warehouse Yards (the smallest warehouse in game) around the factory and set them to balance, to increase the likelihood that it will order from a warehouse instead of processors.

 

[Bappe]

This is a real issue. It feels really wierd having stocked warehouses next to craving factories. Market economy 1:1, -Hey, I have goods. Oh, -I need goods

 

[HelloMyNameIsHuman]

Same exact issue for me. Factory is only ordering materials from a warehouse halfway across the map instead of the full warehouse next door. I'm playing an islands map with little space for multiple factories.

 

[gafrad]

Same exact issue for me. Factory is only ordering materials from a warehouse halfway across the map instead of the full warehouse next door. I'm playing an islands map with little space for multiple factories.

Just a question, what settings of the warehouse do you have or have you tried? I'm asking to confirm or bust my findings.