How should I put my storage bins?

[Lennard]

I'm kinda bad at this game and I'm not sure how to place my storage bins. Since I started playing I always placed them in a single storage room. I started to realize this is sort of bad. How should I place them? Near things I need? (Like coal near coal generator or dirt near farms and research station). I also saw some people put them in long corridors between rooms. It looks weird. Is it good?

[DonDegow]

The best way is YOUR way. However like you said, having storage compactors storing a specific ressource near a building needing that is usually a good practice; coal for gen, algae near oxidizer, sand near water sieve, dirt near mealwood... the list goes on.

Now for other resources you have in huge quantities and no immediate use, I recommend using an automatic dispenser set on sweep only in order to store everything you sweep on one single tile (careful with temperature of materials you bring in though); this effectively is an infinite size storage, on the downside, it uses a tiny bit of power and provides -120 decor in close proximity. This technique is also useful late game in order to improve game performance as it lowers the number of calculations made for temperature updates (a chunk of 25t is way better than 250 chunks of 100kg).

If you don't have the technology yet of dispenser you can always fill one storage compactor set to sweep only and dump its content on the ground when full, rinse and repeat.

[Soulwind]

I use a container or two near the building that needs a specific resource (like coal gens), set to only that resource and priority 5. Then I have my general storage warehouse with lots of containers that take anything (except stuff that offgasses or melts) with priority 4.

 

[psusi]

1 hour ago, DonDegow said:

on the downside, it uses a tiny bit of power

There is no reason to power the dispenser.

 

[DonDegow]

I didn't know that, does it drop way slower when unpowered? I thought it wouldn't drop anything if not powered.

[psusi]

1 hour ago, DonDegow said:

I didn't know that, does it drop way slower when unpowered? I thought it wouldn't drop anything if not powered.

Other way around.. it needs power to HOLD things when given an automation signal.

[suxkar]

1 hour ago, DonDegow said:

I didn't know that, does it drop way slower when unpowered? I thought it wouldn't drop anything if not powered.

You need power only if you want to make use of the automation, that is, if you want to have the dispenser keep the resources inside and drop them once it receives a green signal.

Also, there is no real effective cap to decor, both positive or negative.

As for the rest, very good advice

[JesusOnEez]

I used to play the same way to be honest...big room chock full of storage compactors. As mentioned above, I have specific storage (not set on sweep only) for coal near generators, dirt near farms and so on, then one or two in my base set to sweep all...I use these to keep my base tidy (and empty them when they're full).

Outside of the base...generally everything gets left where it is for building material in that area, although slime/bleach will be bought back quickly for storage in water to prevent off-gassing, and ore I tend to store in smallish quantities near my refinery...the remainder being left where it is, again for local building material.

[bobucles]

When in doubt, stuff everything into a gigantic room. Duplicants tend to look in random spots when they need resources, so it's hard to organize storage in a useful way. If everything is in a central location, at least they'll know where to look. There are a few situations where it helps to pay more attention:

- Avoid germs flying all over the place by never having more than 1 slime storage. 0 slime storage is also effective.

- Store ingredients near consumers, for example clay near a kiln or coal near a coal generator. 

- Automate it if you can. Picking up and putting things down doesn't give any skill points for dupes. An autosweeper can pull items from storage and automatically refill nearby machines. A locked room with storage, kilns and autosweeper will save a ton of dupe labor.

[goboking]

There's nothing wrong with form over function.  If aesthetics are you thing, then lean into it and make the best looking, centrally located warehouse/storeroom you can make.  Of course there's nothing wrong with function over form either, so if efficiency is what you're after then strategically placed storage compactors near buildings that consume specific materials is a good way to go.  Doubly so if you can use shipping and automation effectively.

[KittenIsAGeek]

On 1/28/2020 at 10:35 AM, bobucles said:

 Duplicants tend to look in random spots when they need resources,

When a job needs resources,  it flags a dupe.  That dupe then looks for the closest resource that solves the problem.  "Closest" as in "Closest to the dupe that is looking," not "closest" as in "the least travel necessary to complete the task."

This can create new and exciting ways of breaking your base.  For example, your mushroom farm has a nice little bin with some slime in it.  Your dupe wakes up in their bed from a nap and sees that the mushrooms need slime.  Instead of running down to the farm, then grabbing the slime that is close to the farm.. Mi-Ma instead sees the nearby slime biome that is through a water-sealed vacuum tunnel and is marginally closer to her than the storage bin in the farm.  So they happily run through the tunnel, into the slime biome, grab some, and run back into the base.. the slime off-gasses, destroying the vacuum, but Mi-ma doesn't care!    They've got the slime they need and they're on their way to the farm!  Yay! Mushrooms!