What's the point of warehouses?

[Monkbel]

Warehouses serve a few purposes but mostly from a logistics standpoint. Not all companies or orgs have their own distribution capability. Logistic companies can do this for them but simply loading on to trucks from factory to final destination is not practical. You want to fill maximum capacity of transportation with maximum efficiency in routing. Logistic divisions or companies use warehouses to accomplish this...

It's the first time I hear about logistics companies or logistic divisions being in the game. Or are you trying to explain how warehouses work IRL? I know how they work IRL, thank you. This forum is about Cities:Skylines, and this thread is about warehouses in the game.

 

[Monkbel]

when all your trucks suddenly feel like driving off the map to export crops and you don't have any alvailable?

interesting. I would have expected trucks to prefer internal consumers over external, unfortunate if it's not true, but hopefully easily moddable.

Won't the same problem apply to warehouses - I mean, trucks exporting crops instead of putting them into warehouses? Also, even if the warehouses are full - if the external consumers are preferred, then I guess that goods from warehouses would be driven off the map as well instead of to internal customers.
So not sure if warehouse can change the status quo.

 

[Promethian]

interesting. I would have expected trucks to prefer internal consumers over external, unfortunate if it's not true, but hopefully easily moddable.

Won't the same problem apply to warehouses - I mean, trucks exporting crops instead of putting them into warehouses? Also, even if the warehouses are full - if the external consumers are preferred, then I guess that goods from warehouses would be driven off the map as well instead of to internal customers.
So not sure if warehouse can change the status quo.

Its just very easy to make more than internal customers can use. In case of crops you actually need this because 3 or 4 of the unique factories use crops. Plus good luck making consumption amounts add up exactly and obviously you want to be over producing (at a small profit) vs under producing (and lose profit at the refining buildings).

Incidentally the solution is simple. Make more/better storage. You'll get more trucks to move around materials.

 

[Monkbel]

Its just very easy to make more than internal customers can use. In case of crops you actually need this because 3 or 4 of the unique factories use crops. Plus good luck making consumption amounts add up exactly and obviously you want to be over producing (at a small profit) vs under producing (and lose profit at the refining buildings).

Incidentally the solution is simple. Make more/better storage. You'll get more trucks to move around materials.

so is main benefit of warehouses more trucks?

I don't see why making consumption and production add up exactly is important. If consumption is a bit higher - then all production will go to factories and the rest will be imported. If production is a bit higher - than consumption will all be from internal source and the rest will be exported. I don't see why warehouses are needed in this.

But IF there are not enough trucks to make it work, and warehouses is the only way to get more trucks, then I see why we need warehouses - but this is backwards. We should rather have a feature to have more trucks from producers and consumers.

 

[Promethian]

so is main benefit of warehouses more trucks?

I don't see why making consumption and production add up exactly is important. If consumption is a bit higher - then all production will go to factories and the rest will be imported. If production is a bit higher - than consumption will all be from internal source and the rest will be exported. I don't see why warehouses are needed in this.

But IF there are not enough trucks to make it work, and warehouses is the only way to get more trucks, then I see why we need warehouses - but this is backwards. We should rather have a feature to have more trucks from producers and consumers.

You definitely need more trucks. Also production and consumption rarely match up exactly time wise. If the producer's stock is full now and a consumer isn't going to order another load for 3 seconds, it exports. The opposite is also true. I regularly check my imports screen and if its anything other than purple it usually means I don't have enough trucks.

Side note: Always stay in a state of importing a little bit of purple if you are using unique factories. In a developed city (all but 1 unique factory made and running) I made a bunch of generic industry and it drowned out my local market. The unique products started exporting and the lost revenue put me permanently in the red.

 

[Joonnnyy]

so is main benefit of warehouses more trucks?

I don't see why making consumption and production add up exactly is important. If consumption is a bit higher - then all production will go to factories and the rest will be imported. If production is a bit higher - than consumption will all be from internal source and the rest will be exported. I don't see why warehouses are needed in this.

But IF there are not enough trucks to make it work, and warehouses is the only way to get more trucks, then I see why we need warehouses - but this is backwards. We should rather have a feature to have more trucks from producers and consumers.

warehouses add more trucks, buffer space and the ability to store somehwere outside your industrial parks
the outside storage is currently working less then optimal, due to consumers ordering from ANY wahrehouse, not just the closest, the more trucks and buffer space is left

consumers curently can store ~14t of resources for unique industrys and up to ~21t for processor buildings which seem to last ~3-4 weeks
producers and consumers store varying amounts of products(between ~14 and 64 depending on type) while warehouses store severeal hundred and producers seem to export when they reach ~75% full, and filling the next truck will only take a week or two, meanwhile driving to the edge can take like 10 weeks or more without traffic, wich leaves only a small window of opertunity to order and get the resources localy, even with mostly balanced setups

since the edge to export to is random you cant build close enough to the edge, wich means your producers will fill up with products but all trucks may be used for export already or your consumers are importing while your producers are exporting the very same resource for even more traffic, since no trucks will be available
and no trains/ships/planes wont help much as the new delivery trucks seem to avoid those often in favor of roads

so warehouses allow you to buffer some resources and increase the amount of trucks so that some trucks are always idle
its mostly for the trucks though and the fact that the amount of resources needed is set on a per building base, and is not displayed in game outside the asset editor

and while small amounts of import are possible for raw resources, it does not work for intermediate products like plastics, which cant be impoorted, but generate the important revenue from unique industrys

 

[safe-keeper]

I watched a YouTuber review Industries and he pointed out that with today's "just in time" economy, warehouses are obsolete and thus shouldn't even be in the game. Dunno how accurate this is, but it made sense to me.

 

[StormbringerGT]

Can confirm. Amazon still uses warehouses. A lot of them in fact.