What is up with the stockpile mechanic?

[baekdal]

So... We all love Rimworld and have done some pretty crazy things with it (like building Echo Base on Hoth: http://imgur.com/uX1zaTO or the Enterprise NX-01: http://imgur.com/CHEonDN)... but what on Rimworld is up with the storage mechanism?   

I can't remember what update it was, but a while back the colonist started completely randomly filling up storage zones, as if they had no sense of organization whatsoever. Here is a picture of my stone block zone. I'm telling you, if this was real life, I would fire the worker who randomly placed stone block this way. It's just such a mess.



The way I have been working around this lately is to place smaller storage zones in strips, each one with a slightly higher priority rating than the next one. This way I can force my colonist to fill up the storage zone from the front (which is far more efficient), instead in this totally random way which forces them to have to walk much further than needed.

This kind of work, but it's a terrible workaround to a problem that shouldn't exist to begin with.

No real-life warehouse would be organized randomly. As human beings, we just don't operate that way. So, please Tynan. I love this game, but for the love of all that's Rimwordly, bring back the old storage mechanism where it would fill up from the front. 

[baekdal]

BTW: Here is what it looks like with multiple stockpiles set with different priorities. Much, much nicer!

[RickyMartini]

I think when colonists register the pathway they only calculate the distance radius, and not the actual pathway they have to take around walls etc.

It's similar with every other thing they haul/use.

[Akyla]

I think when colonists register the pathway they only calculate the distance radius, and not the actual pathway they have to take around walls etc.

It's similar with every other thing they haul/use.

Not as far as I noticed.

Even if they come from the right direction, half the time my colonists will still decide to walk all the way to the other side.

[skullywag]

No ive seen pawns carry stuff to the back of a room eveb though the front is deffo closer in terms of path and distance. Ill dig the code out if i can at lunch and have a nose...

[Silvador]

I fail to see how this is a problem, unless you have OCD.

Stockpiles aren't typically so huge that moving an extra couple of squares to store or retrieve something gets in the way of the larger work flow. And with the list on the left side of the screen, one doesn't need to stare at their stockpile and do a bunch of math to work out how much of something they have. Short of visual appeal, there really is no point to having everything so organised.

[Akyla]

@Silvador

I was about to argue, but then couldn't think of any situation it would indeed be a problem.
In fact, filling up storage space from the front may be more problematic, since the back becomes blocked off.

[Demoulius]

it could be an issues for colonists who got lower % walk speed due to peg legs, bad backs or other injuries. Ive got a colonist (one of those free ones) with only 30% speed.... Sometimes walking a few tiles extra means she gets exhausted pretty fast. Specialy if she also has to back track and do the same thing several times a day...

[baekdal]

Two reasons:
1. aesthetics ... it just looks incredibly messy. I like my Rimworld bases to have a bit of style to them, which is also why, when I'm making clothes, I create a room that looks like a fashion store where t-shirts is in one place and pants in another. It's just more fun that way than to simply dump everything in one big pile. You will see your colonist walk into this big room, walk over to the shelf with the pants, and replace it right there. And with the new stockpile management system, the crappy clothes are then removed from the 'store' to a separate room... just like in real-life. (i will post a screenshot later)

But most of all, it's stupid. Why would the colonist place items at random tiles? 

2. Speed. For some of my large bases, my stockpiles are 25x2, with each item in separate strips. In the past this worked wonderful, because I would always have access to everything because it was stacking them from the front. Now, items are randomly placed, meaning some items might be 25 tiles further away.  For some tasks, it can mean the difference between getting 3 crafting jobs done, or just one. The speed difference is massive, especially now that the colonists constantly procrastinate. 

It's even worse with a single item hauling (like rock chunks). With the new stockpile mechanic, it can take days to clear out a room of rock chunks, whereas before it could be done a lot faster.

Do I have OCD? Nah... I don't think so I just don't care for illogical chaos. It just doesn't make sense that it works this way.

[Silvador]

Two reasons:
1. aesthetics ... it just looks incredibly messy. I like my Rimworld bases to have a bit of style to them, which is also why, when I'm making clothes, I create a room that looks like a fashion store where t-shirts is in one place and pants in another. It's just more fun that way than to simply dump everything in one big pile. You will see your colonist walk into this big room, walk over to the shelf with the pants, and replace it right there. And with the new stockpile management system, the crappy clothes are then removed from the 'store' to a separate room... just like in real-life. (i will post a screenshot later)

But most of all, it's stupid. Why would the colonist place items at random tiles? 

2. Speed. For some of my large bases, my stockpiles are 25x2, with each item in separate strips. In the past this worked wonderful, because I would always have access to everything because it was stacking them from the front. Now, items are randomly placed, meaning some items might be 25 tiles further away.  For some tasks, it can mean the difference between getting 3 crafting jobs done, or just one. The speed difference is massive, especially now that the colonists constantly procrastinate. 

It's even worse with a single item hauling (like rock chunks). With the new stockpile mechanic, it can take days to clear out a room of rock chunks, whereas before it could be done a lot faster.

Do I have OCD? Nah... I don't think so I just don't care for illogical chaos. It just doesn't make sense that it works this way.

1. That's just your personal preference and doesn't have any real effect on gameplay. Personally? I don't see it as all that messy. It just doesn't bother me.

2. 25x2?! ... Quite frankly, I'm at a loss for words at that. The only thing that I can think of is... well, that's more your choice in design rather than game mechanics. So, you're literally making your own bed, there. Lie in it?


Sure, having a slower pawn might cause a hindrance. But how often do you have a colonist with even 2/3 speed, let alone half or lower. It's unlikely that someone is going to have more than 2 out of 10 colonists with a vital job that requires constant hauling who has reduced walking speed.

Typically, people don't design a colony around one or two colonists that are of poorer quality than the rest. The colony is designed with the majority in mind, in which case, it falls to poor designing. I haven't been playing Rimworld for nearly as long as some people on this forum, but I've started many colonies in my short time playing and already I've learned how to best design my colonies to get efficient storage access without having to consider whether or not a pawn will have to walk too far or not to collect the materials they need.

[RemingtonRyder]

I think the idea is to kind of not clog up the floor under the stockpile with items, that a pawn can retrieve items from the stockpile as quickly as they can put them in there. But I really don't know.

[lewinthistle]

This is not just OCD. Efficiency matters.

[Darth Fool]

There was definitely a mention by Tynan about this somewhere.  If this was a real problem, I think the thing to do would be to add a fill direction option to stockpiles, which by default would be random, but could be set to fill a stock pile starting from the chosen direction.  Thus people who want to have as many items near the door as possible can do that, while those who want to have their colonists not walking over any unnecessary items could do that.  Personally, I would find it most useful for dumping stockpiles when making kill zones and wanting the rubble piles to be lined up on one side.  On the other hand, I don't see this as a big deal breaker.

[Tynan]

It was actually a code optimization at first. They don't have to check every single cell in the stockpile to find one to store in. They just check them in random order and store in the first good one.

It has the bonus of actually improving your pawn move times, quite often. In the old days they'd store the item in the closest cell. This meant that the front of the stockpile was always full first. Result? To get to the back of the stockpile, they always had to slowly climb over piles of stuff at the front. Now, with random gaps, they can almost always find a path without having to climb over items.

I also think it looks more natural. If you tell people "drop the stones in that area", this is a bit closer to what they do IRL.

[board]

I'm just wondering why my cook will leave piles of *1* fine meal sitting right next to each other.