Logistics inprovement

A picture tells a thousant words.


Picture detailing different logistics systems. With designated workers, I mean workers who have only one job enabled in the hearthling menu. (although they could also be separate professions.)

For a long time in stonehearth, the logistics worked like what the picture calls simple logistics. You carry whatever you produce to/from storage, wherever that may be. We know that this doesn’t scale well with town size. The new input and output bins seem to hint at evolved logistics system being a thing in the game, but I don’t think it quite is at it, yet.

It makes sense that you have evolved logistics if you have a large society. If I want to send a letter, I’m not going to physically make the letter go where it needs to go, as in simple logistics. I go out, put it in the mailbox, and someone else takes care of it.
Similarly, if i want the info from some book, I don’t go out to the writer of that book to get it, instead I go to the library, and hope they’ve got it.
In both cases, I still do some hauling, but not more than over short range distances.

What would have to change:
As I said, I don’t believe stonehearth is quite there yet when it comes to letting the player develop evolved logistics. Here is what needs to change:

  • If this isn’t already done. Builders and miners need to have some hauling jobs, but only short-range ones to put stuff into input bins, and get stuff from output bins, or nearby storage. Mid-range distances however should only be in the hauling category.
  • Have more bins than only for the crafters, you’d need ones for building sites, buffet tables for the dining halls. ones for animal foods, mines, forestry, name it.
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I’m absolutely not up-to-date on how storage systems work these days, but three years ago - just before chests/bins became a thing I believe - it was very limited, and due to the AI involved any meaningful kind of logistics was difficult to achieve. I had to do major hacks, and lots of pathfinding madness, to get conveyors to work.

But technically, if you just want to move stuff from A to B, I guess conveyors could still work. Nowadays, you might be even able to make dedicated chests that the conveyors pull/push items into. Back then, I think I made the API in a way that the latter could be somewhat easily achieved - however, conveyor overflows could happen, and I didn’t find a proper solution for that.

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It’s been too long since I’ve seen one of your video names. Those conveyor belts were great for the month or so that they worked.

Yes, bad timing I guess. The new update broke it for reasons that I couldn’t figure out, and there was nobody that would, or could, help with that issue.

It’s a shame, because I think @Froggy’s models and animations are really, really nice. I had big things planned for Zulser, including pumps and what not, but after the update broke the conveyors I wasn’t exactly feeling like modding anymore.

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I’m gonna repeat a thing I suggested in the thread for the DT about the new in and out bins (I think).
Temporary stockpiles.
When making a new mining zone or order the chopping of trees you have the option to also assign a temporary stockpile. It work like an output bin so haulers try to empty it. It’s linked to that work order so when the work is done and the stockpile is empty it is automatically removed.
It could work the same way for buildings, though as an input bin.

I like the thought of lots of different bins but a temporary stockpile is easier to set up (and implement… probably) and in my mind makes more sense for building materials and stuff like that.

Having all these bins and temporary stockpiles also mean that it gets a lot more common to move a lot of stuff from one place to another. This would be an excellent reason to introduce something like a wheelbarrow that a hearthling only takes when it’s about to move a lot of things at once. That way the hearthling wont run around with a wheelbarrow all the time, as if it was an upgraded backpack.
Of course, the terrain of stonehearth isn’t really suited for wheelbarrows so we should probably try to think of something else. Maybe a big crate with wheels that the hearthling can carry on it’s back while climbing ladders.

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I talked about this before, so I’ll link that here

this project:
What is Your Ideal Town Layout?
brought about this idea: