[GAMEPLAY] Stockpile

[TheDukeOfRockford]

Hi,

I enjoyed Factorio very much. However, there is one oddity I noticed here.... there in no such a thing as stockpile to be found outside the buildings. The only way you can store raw materials that had been mined right now is through chests, some certain vehicles, etc.

Yet, in Banished game I played, I can store logs, stone, iron, coal, and firewood in a stockpile, which I can define size of and can place it more than once. Unlike Factorio, however, I cannot store them inside a building (although I think some certain buildings can store firewood among the others). But I think it is just as plausible to store them either inside a building or outside.

It is common to see these raw materials to be stored outside in stacks or piles before processing in real world, as well. It would seem strange that the character would not have thought of storing materials outside before sending them somewhere for processing, at least before building a structure like chests to store them.

Thus, my suggestion is to allow players to create a stockpile whose size can be defined by simply drawing an area, up to a limit or something. Warehouses would also be good to have (there is already a mod for this, however). Each tile of a stockpile can only hold up to a maximum limit, while warehouse can store more.

In conjunction with implementing stockpiles and warehouse, I would also recommend changing it so chests cannot store raw materials anymore (at same time, though, it will continue to store them in savegames made prior to this change but will not accept input of such objects any further). It should also not accept input of large objects like inserters or even a steam engine. I just find the idea of chests holding a large quantity of large and heavy objects highly implausible. For that reason, chests should be restricted in what kind of objects it can accept for storage.

[ssilk]

Did I understand you right:
You want a stockpile, because items can only be stored "outside"?

If yes, then I have some questions:
- What is the game-value of this?
- Why don't you use the input-stacks of the devices for storing things "insde". You can use all slots of all devices for storing stuff in them.
- viewtopic.php?f=80&t=23008 Warehouse / Depot / Storage / Stock (and related)

[TheDukeOfRockford]

Did I understand you right:
You want a stockpile, because items can only be stored "outside"?

If yes, then I have some questions:
- What is the game-value of this?
- Why don't you use the input-stacks of the devices for storing things "insde". :) You can use all slots of all devices for storing stuff in them.
- viewtopic.php?f=80&t=23008 Warehouse / Depot / Storage / Stock (and related)

In terms of game-value....:

PRO:
-Stockpile does not cost anything to build, because you are merely designating an area of a defined size to store raw materials at. Great for very early game and maybe still useful in late game.
-You can define area size of a stockpile in width and length measured in tiles like 5x7 or 8x8 or even 3x2, perhaps with a maximum limit set. Chests and warehouses, on the other hand, requires resources to build them and are fixed in a size.
-If chests were to be changed so it does not accept storing of raw materials, then stockpile becomes even more viable as a place of storing raw materials.

CON:
-Each tile of a stockpile would have a lower limit on how many units of a given raw materials it can store, while a warehouse might have a higher stored units of a given resource per a tile it takes up.
-A stockpile, because of lower units-per-tile, would require more tiles to match a warehouse, making it a less efficient means of storing raw materials late-game. Hence, warehouse would come to replace stockpile.
-Stockpile cannot store finished products (except for things like stone bricks and whatever that makes sense for a stockpile).

As it stands, I think there could be a tradeoff to be made between stockpile, chests, and warehouse. And, quite frankly, do we even still use chests in real world industrial settings? :P

[ssilk]

Good points to make things easier for the player, but for gameplay I don't see a good increase. The chests as they are are part of the puzzle, a warehouse described like here includes no deep difficulties.

[daniel34]

I think what you really want is a Banished like stockpile (a visual representation of the items within):

factorio-stockpile.png (68.71 KiB) Viewed 5254 times

The problem here is that the dev team would have to come up with a way to stack different items into a stockpile (and support for modded entities), which isn't planned right now and probably never will be. Banished has been written with that idea in mind, to place arbitrary amounts of an item into a stockpile, but the Factorio engine doesn't have that capability, it just draws one set of sprites upon another set of sprites. Making stockpiles of items (as in Banished) would require a lot of resources dedicated to rendering items in a stack pile and just isn't feasible at this stage of development.

Furthermore, each tile in that screenshot represents one stack in Factorio, so the area used would probably be better spent on a chest in Factorio, as it can hold several stacks within one tile.

[BenSeidel]

Yes, factorio is missing some form of mass storage. Does the stockpile from banished work? Not really.

Banished is about survival, Factorio is about logistics. The issue with the stockpile from banished (excluding all the previously mentioned reasons) is that it's one big storage "chest". This would allow the instant teleportation of goods from one side of the stockpile to the other. If you were able to specify even a 2x20 area, then it would remove the need for belts. I realise that the teleporty chest behaviour could be overcome by having a single point of interaction, eg an input and output tile.

The current mods are also lacking as well. So far the best one that I have seen is the "compression chest": infinite storage, but uses power. Unfortunately it does not work with steam. Other warehousing mods increase the size of the building but don't really increase the storage capacity of the area, most actually get less storage compared to standard chests or work out to be extremely similar.

Anyway, agree with the issue.

[kyfirefly]

I understand this is old but my two cents for game play just as a visual effect of seeing a stockpile to say hey i have stuff there i can use also to have stuff from a location be stored so i can maybe use for building later instead of just running a belts from far off or distances that are too short for a train really or too long for a belt, but also to clear a possible build area for later. that being said yes you can do the same thing with belts and chests but it kind of makes more sense to visually see it in a stockpile (ore, coal, the like) raw materials not made things. now i know about the problems from the other posts but could you not make it work like a chest but look graphically different like a stockpile. it would add to the feel of factory setting like a concrete plant. just my two cents worth, new or interesting or not thank you. by the way new too factorio, just letting you know

[eradicator]

You can already drop items on the ground. You just need someone with a really good idea to make it usable somehow.

stockpile.jpg (126.48 KiB) Viewed 4739 times

stockpile2.jpg (42.59 KiB) Viewed 4739 times

[Jap2.0]

You can already drop items on the ground. You just need someone with a really good idea to make it usable somehow.

stockpile.jpg

stockpile2.jpg

The only way I can think of is recursive blueprints and a lot of circuit magic - and it's still far less efficient than a steel chest.

[eradicator]

You can already drop items on the ground. You just need someone with a really good idea to make it usable somehow.

stockpile.jpg

stockpile2.jpg

The only way I can think of is recursive blueprints and a lot of circuit magic - and it's still far less efficient than a steel chest.

I was talking of moddability. And i actually had a pretty good idea how to do it after posting that ;). Ofc it's not gonna be more efficient than a simple chest. But i think it at least won't eat UPS for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

[Engimage]

Iron chest is dirt cheap. You can create a wooden chest for early game. I can see no problems with storage at all.
Can't see any benefits from having low volume low quality storage.

[eradicator]

It looks somewhat visually pleasing.

stockpile.gif (5.58 MiB) Viewed 4635 times