Hi, Charles, one other thing that could be added is the 24 hour supply cycle that (in the production screen) says you need 1 supply unit at one part of the day and 52 supply units at another part of the day - would be nice to have an explanation of which number to take notice of, and when e.g. is the number at 00 the only number that matters? I was previously told that the time to worry about your supply figure was 20:00 but the wiki seems to be saying it is 00:00. This is important because you can't automatically set your supply production, so you have to move the slider every day.
I'm not quite sure I understand what you are referring to, but let me give it a shot. The only time of day supply need is calculated, or recalculated if you will, is at 00:00. I do not know where the 2000 hours comes from, but it's wrong. Other than this you seem to be describing the point when the capital supply depot reaches and/or partially exceeds the programmed desired level (e.g., for Germany it is around 35k). At this point supply
production need will go to near zero and, if the sliders are automated, supply production will be reduced to this level. [Please note - the production need fell, not the need for supplies.] This also occurs at 00:00.
It took until FTM for PI to get this right. Before this the supply stockpile would grow without limits, reach 99,999, and
still produce supplies. These excess supplies were dumped overboard, wasting valuable IC. They went through Semper Fi and FTM playing with it to get to the point where the sliders would function without wasting our IC. You can go to manual control, set supply production to the desired level and lock it, but you cannot revert to slider AI without the number being changed, thus you are right - you are stuck using manual slider control, whether it be for supply or for all of the other categories. Since PI did a good enough job with the fix I am almost always on slider AI, using manual daily control only as a last resort.
Is this along the lines of what you are talking about? If it is, then IMO it is best left to the Production section of the Wiki. As to the 00:00 calculation of supply, I will make a point to emphasize this when I go in to make my next (and almost final) edits.