Offshore Unused Rares

[Commander666]

Quite suddenly Germany (circa 1945) lost its huge daily rares surplus.

Investigating I see there is 114.83 "Offshore Unused Rares" which fits very well to what went abruptly "missing".

Checking the convoy details this fact has support.
The "Convoyed In 2.03" is accounted with 0.8 rares from Port-Au-Prince and 1.3 from Colon.

But checking the resource depots is indeed strange. Obviously, "Offshore Unused Rares" is pertaining to the 64 rares on the map of my holdings in eastern USA. However that depot (Boston) - for the first time - has zero rares in it while there is much energy and metals. And the convoy supports that with stating it ships daily 943.0 energy, 943.0 metal, and nil rares.

All the details support each other, but the obvious question is why have all the rares on the map in USA suddenly gone "unused". The Boston resource depot was impossible to get to show a zero display even with 500 merchantmen. But all of a sudden the rares are zero, and now it states they are "offshore unused".

What gives? Thanks!

The only thing I did was give away about 100 provinces in China. That caused a huge increase in resources in my Rangoon stockpile as is expected. Strangely, that massive amount disappeared overnight and Rangoon went back to its usual performance. That would be a small amount of energy, metal and 10 rares in the depot always which no amount of convoys can extract (quite normal). So a convoy of ideal size is serving that depot to get the smallest amount of resources remaining in Rangoon, and the convoy supports that by stating it ships nothing each day (quite normal given that some depots can never be zeroed).

BUT THERE CAN NOT BE ANY ASSOCIATION between N. America and my giving provinces away in Asia, AFAIK. The only reason I am currently "green on rares" is because I cancelled some export trades.

 

[Pang Bingxun]

But checking the resource depots is indeed strange. Obviously, "Offshore Unused Rares" is pertaining to the 64 rares on the map of my holdings in eastern USA. However that depot (Boston) - for the first time - has zero rares in it while there is much energy and metals. And the convoy supports that with stating it ships daily 943.0 energy, 943.0 metal, and nil rares.

All the details support each other, but the obvious question is why have all the rares on the map in USA suddenly gone "unused". The Boston resource depot was impossible to get to show a zero display even with 500 merchantmen. But all of a sudden the rares are zero, and now it states they are "offshore unused".

It states offshore used. That is the opposite of unused. Offshore usage describes that a good portion of your rares from overseas is used up overseas because your factories overseas use them.

The reason your daily blance in the main depot in the capital changed is that your merchants have gradually reduced the rares in your oversea depot in Boston. Now you have reached a steady state.

 

[Commander666]

Thanks. Understand the good explanation but what does not fit is the suddenness of this occurring. It is tied with me going from a ~100 positive daily on rares to ~50 negative nearly overnight; and several of my puppets started giving me huge free trades, and they did so together. But I guess that is what happens when the last untaken rares in depot are taken.

It is also strange that 64 rares showing on map are not enough to give a daily surplus considering how few factories I got there since I only get about a 1/3 of the original. I need to add it up. Did that. OK, the factories in eastern USA add up to 124.87 IC

So - if there are 64 rares on the map - should I not get some change? I guess it is fractions and, all in all, there are not enough rares in my part of USA to satisfy the factories there.

What should I do? Convoy rares to North America? Maybe look for some provinces rich in rares that I gave to puppet (cause it had poor IC) and take it back.? Or I guess I could build infra in North America where there is many rares to satisfy the factories there? Does it even matter? I'm still getting the IC on those factories, right? But maybe not all the IC I could?

Considering thru further on this rare occurrence (pun intended), I just DOWed my ex-puppet Texas (to connect my north and south Americas) and I see Roswell has 34 rares. That may help (or only be enough to feed the new factories I also get in ex-Texas).

And checking I see that all places that have resources are already at 200 infra. I can't improve that. So should I convoy rares to USA? That is nuts!

OTHER RELATED QUESTION: If a puppet is showing 0-0-0-0 on their daily resources, then there is no point setting up a resource convoy on them, right? But just how is it that huge California is showing precisely … … …. oh my Lord …this is shocking! Well they always used to be about zero on everything (normal).

But today (they got to conquer a few provinces of western Texas which they need repair) they show this:

What on earth is happening? Will need to watch a couple days and report further. No way I can help with that shortage. Maybe my game caught the "Argentina Disease"?

 

[Commander666]

A few days later all is back to normal with California. Their home depot is showing totally normal levels.

I guess the only question remaining is - seriously - should I be convoying rares to North America? I never heard of such a seemingly silly thing, but makes sense ( I suppose) if I will get maximum IC from the factories there. Or have I got that wrong?

As regards California, today it is just fine (just like every other time I ever looked EXCEPT the one time that it was as per above): BTW, I do look at all the puppets thoroughly every time I achieve a new tech. I always scan their resources then. Never seen anything like what California was.

I managed to rescue the original when California had bad day (below):

 

[Commander666]

Sorry to be a bore but every time I look I see more evidence of extremely weird resource behavior. Now I am over 500 rares positive daily. Not a single change has occurred since I was suddenly negative; and 2 puppets gave me free to make me very slightly positive.

But look at today. This s the normal situation how it has been for past 2 years until it suddenly went negative a week or so ago. I re-iterate - no trades done at all since problem noticed (when I saw Boston depot empty of rares) and absolutely no change to production, ministers, nothing. What did change is that I occupied Roswell on June 20th. But it is only repaired 175% and map rares show as nil. However, I think Roswell was the relocated capital. And what might matter is I took Texas' original capital of Houston on June 17. Maybe that is causing drastic fluctuation in depot rares (and I missed seeing that with fighting a war and all)?

Or can you explain it? And - at this moment - there are 3 rares in Boston depot. I dread tomorrow coming and discover whatever might happen then.

PS: There is one more re-located capitol to seize. This time I will check what happens at the Boston depot.

UPDATE; Took last re-located capitol at El Paso on afternoon of June 23rd. That midnight Boston depot showed 1307.88 rares. So that's it; and will give me huge positive as I had for past 2 years. But once my merchantmen remove the last rare, I will have deficit.

OK, I know how to remedy that.... TURN DOWN THE DAMNED CONVOY!

Thanks Pang for explaining about the US factories needing more rares than the conquered USA produces. Interesting, I never had this experience before (at least not that I noticed).

 

[Commander666]

Problem Solved, thanks! Turned down Boston resource convoy to minimum (14 merchantmen) which results in the current depot with 1,011 rares (from last capitol captured) drawing down at the rate of 1 rare/day. So I'm good for nearly 3 years!

On the convoy it states "shipping 5.0 rares" (which must be "1" as regards the rares count in the depot).

Anyway, this convoy is contributing to give me a net daily rares production figure of +19.7 rares/day which includes the emergency freebies my puppets gave me.

If I ever need more rares (cause I giving to someone in need) then I just increase my merchantmen, but the depot will expire quicker, and then I would go negative rares. However, just giving a province to California for them to partisan control will flood the depot with new rares to so start over on a drawdown schedule.

The whole change in convoy results in me now having 439 more merchantmen than before the "problem" started. Neat!

 

[Pang Bingxun]

What should I do? Convoy rares to North America?

Of course not. There simply is nothing you need to do about it. Just let your resource convoy take your energy, metal, rares and possibly oil(this is tricky because of units needing oil) and ship them home. The best resource depot is an empty resource depot. You should not believe that the depot serves any other purpose than letting the resources await being shipped home.

Königsberg does not have the resources its needs to feed its factories. But still the factory will run at full capacity as long as your main depot in the capital does suffice.

In other words: Factories oversea mitigate the amount of resources your convoys need to ship home, but per default those factories will take their resource consumption from the main depot in the capital. There really is nothing to worry about, the posite is true becaue you will need less convoys thanks to this mechanism.

Considering thru further on this rare occurrence (pun intended), I just DOWed my ex-puppet Texas (to connect my north and south Americas) and I see Roswell has 34 rares. That may help (or only be enough to feed the new factories I also get in ex-Texas).

Keeping Texas as your loyal puppet means that Texas will give you the full rares. It is best to keep it as you puppet.

OTHER RELATED QUESTION: If a puppet is showing 0-0-0-0 on their daily resources, then there is no point setting up a resource convoy on them, right?

If a puppet has no positive daily balance this is often because the maximum of 1000 per resource has been reached and everthing exceeding needs a resource convoy to ship it home. If the puppet is adjacent to provinces you control the resources will occur in those provinces or rather the depot of the landmass those provinces are a part of. It is possible that Texas and California let their excess resources occur at your local depot in say Boston.

On the convoy it states "shipping 5.0 rares" (which must be "1" as regards the rares count in the depot).

No. It is 5.0. This includes the net resource production of the current day. The best resource depot is an empty resource depot.