Topic: Empire Blockhouse

mxb2001 Topic Opener Joined: 2019-05-20, 18:49 Posts: 303 OS: Linux Version: 1.2 Tribe Member Location: The land of the thirsty spider	Posted at: 2022-03-05, 03:58 I just played Borneo with the Empire and won. I never made a blockhouse. It costs 2 planks instead of 1 plank and 1 stone for the Sentry and that robs you of precious planks for your wooden spears. Why does it exist? For some weird map with no stone? P.S. I did search and found a 2016 thread about this too but it seems to have been forgotten. -- To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before Top Quote

Nordfriese Joined: 2017-01-17, 18:07 Posts: 2057 OS: Debian Testing Version: Latest master One Elder of Players Location: 0x55555d3a34c0	Posted at: 2022-03-05, 08:19 The question "Why does it exist?" has been asked before about various building types, and the answer is: It is useful in some circumstances, and if you don't find it useful just don't use it. I build the blockhouse when I have lots of wood but few stones; and recently I played Grand Land 1 as Empire where most of my quarried stone is close to my HQ but I can grow wood anywhere, so wood arrives at remote constructionsites much faster, allowing a blockhouse to be completed in a minute while a sentry may need to wait north of ten minutes (which could be mitigated by micromanaging warehouse policies better, but still, when wood is readily available it is often cheaper and more efficient than stone). Top Quote

mxb2001 Topic Opener Joined: 2019-05-20, 18:49 Posts: 303 OS: Linux Version: 1.2 Tribe Member Location: The land of the thirsty spider	Posted at: 2022-03-07, 20:18 OK, I guess it is for cases where stone is missing/low. That does raise another question about transport though. I've had dreadful cases where you have two islands each with a complete production setup but as long as you permit ships to sail between the two ports they will sometimes crazily send a ware via ship. On that Borneo map the ships had to sail for ages... Just how does it decide where a ware comes from? Randomly or does it seek the closest? -- To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before Top Quote

Nordfriese Joined: 2017-01-17, 18:07 Posts: 2057 OS: Debian Testing Version: Latest master One Elder of Players Location: 0x55555d3a34c0	Posted at: 2022-03-07, 21:06 When there are more supplies than requests, the closest available one is picked. Unfortunately it happens occasionally that the closest supply is a long distance away. If a new supply becomes available closer nearby, there is no swapping though. You can often trigger a swapping manually by cancelling and reopening the request in question. Automatic swapping won't be implemented though because it would be extremely performance-hungry. When there are more requests than supplies, supplies are assigned to requests based on a number of factors mainly related to urgency, with distance only a minor factor. Top Quote

mxb2001 Topic Opener Joined: 2019-05-20, 18:49 Posts: 303 OS: Linux Version: 1.2 Tribe Member Location: The land of the thirsty spider	Posted at: 2022-03-08, 17:27 Nordfriese wrote: When there are more supplies than requests, the closest available one is picked. Unfortunately it happens occasionally that the closest supply is a long distance away. If a new supply becomes available closer nearby, there is no swapping though. You can often trigger a swapping manually by cancelling and reopening the request in question. Automatic swapping won't be implemented though because it would be extremely performance-hungry. When there are more requests than supplies, supplies are assigned to requests based on a number of factors mainly related to urgency, with distance only a minor factor. Thanks, I guess that reinforces the importance of always having a surplus. When I started playing WL I thought the best way was to do everything "Just In Time" and "As Needed". No wonder I usually lost. I'm starting to come around to the idea (reluctantly) that surplus is not waste. At least in this simulation. Followup question: Does distance also matter for workers? Does a worker come from the nearest HQ/Port/WH too? Only if available of course. Hmm I just had an idea... sometimes e.g. the geologists are all on one island after exploring there and when you call them to another island they need to take ship but maybe one could send the geos on a local wild goose chase and once all are out of the port you make new ones on the island where they are needed... Convoluted and tricky but assuming you have the tools where needed it should work. -- To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before Top Quote

Nordfriese Joined: 2017-01-17, 18:07 Posts: 2057 OS: Debian Testing Version: Latest master One Elder of Players Location: 0x55555d3a34c0	Posted at: 2022-03-08, 17:57 Followup question: Does distance also matter for workers? Does a worker come from the nearest HQ/Port/WH too? Only if available of course. When workers are already available in a warehouse their distribution works exactly the same way as wares. (The routing algorithm works on the abstract concepts of requests and supplies, it's not specific to wares.) When a worker has to be newly created there's a known bug which effects that new workers are often created at the HQ and not the nearest warehouse. Ideally they should be created at the nearest warehouse that has the required tools. Top Quote

mxb2001 Topic Opener Joined: 2019-05-20, 18:49 Posts: 303 OS: Linux Version: 1.2 Tribe Member Location: The land of the thirsty spider	Posted at: 2022-03-09, 16:52 Ooh, thanks for the tip about the bug. I guess one will have to accept the geologists making all those trips. Study geology and see the world is their recruiting slogan! -- To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before Top Quote