Early basic storage

[Crapgame]

This a totally subjective question which is dependent upon various factors but still something I'd like some input on from more experienced players.

In the early game, I almost always find a spot that I think will be the best spot for storage containers.  Invariably, that is NOT the perfect spot and I need to now move 5 compactors (100T!) of stuff to some other spot because I need that space for something else.

When you are first planning a base, where do you look for to make storage space?  Is that something you do at all?

If you do find yourself needing to relocate 100T of random stuff, how do you go about it?  Let's assume we are far from automation at this point.

Looking forward to your individual strategies for this since it is something that every game requires in one way or another.

[psusi]

I try to figure out where I want to put one or two ranches ( usually hatches early on ) and use a pneumatic door with a tile on top to restrict the hatches to one side where the drop off and grooming station are, and use the rest of the space for storage containers.  By the time those start to fill up, I find a spot for a quantum storage and set up an automatic dropper on top of a pneumatic door to drop a bunch of the things I have 100T of in there.  By that point I have at least at few dupes who have got the skill for +800kg of carrying capacity so it doesn't suck so much to move it.

[TheMule]

7 hours ago, Crapgame said:

This a totally subjective question which is dependent upon various factors but still something I'd like some input on from more experienced players.

In the early game, I almost always find a spot that I think will be the best spot for storage containers.  Invariably, that is NOT the perfect spot and I need to now move 5 compactors (100T!) of stuff to some other spot because I need that space for something else.

When you are first planning a base, where do you look for to make storage space?  Is that something you do at all?

If you do find yourself needing to relocate 100T of random stuff, how do you go about it?  Let's assume we are far from automation at this point.

Looking forward to your individual strategies for this since it is something that every game requires in one way or another.

I've use compactors in my first base ever. Then I stopped. I see no point in doing that.

I might use a dispenser later in the game but only to get rid of debris to improve decor. Early on? I don't care.

 

I do use bins, but like the opposite way. When building something I bring resources close by. The best example would be the bunker doors at the very top of the map. I build the ladder then a couple of doors then a few tiles and bins. Bins are set for steel and other materials I need up there. This way dups carry about 2t of stuff per trip. They fill the bins in almost no time. 

I see no point, in my case, to collect resources to a central location, and later move them away from it. I collect them only where and when I need them.

Of course there are special cases, like collecting all slime in a frozen biome for sanitation. Later in the game I might collect stuff in a few key points for performance reasons (I don't really care about ONE single point for that... one in the space biome, one in the oil biome and a few scattered around the map are fine performance wise). Early game? I see no point.

[Nedix]

I use dispensers as fast as possible. I use bins only for coal plants, ranches, farms and big builds otherwise it makes no sense to move them around.

[psusi]

3 hours ago, TheMule said:

I see no point, in my case, to collect resources to a central location, and later move them away from it. I collect them only where and when I need them.

When you set up a bin for a construction project, having dupes run all over the map picking up bits of material here and there takes a lot more of their time than having them go to the compactor that is already full of that material, and pick up their max capacity. 

[TheMule]

3 hours ago, psusi said:

When you set up a bin for a construction project, having dupes run all over the map picking up bits of material here and there takes a lot more of their time than having them go to the compactor that is already full of that material, and pick up their max capacity. 

Yes, but only because they've already done that to fill the compactor in the first place.

If stuff is scattered all over the map you can't avoid the collection phase. I collect only what I need only when I need it, and I don't move stuff twice. Huge win.

And anyway I don't believe in unbreakable rules either.

Sometimes I make a few bins just outside the oil biome, where the ladder + pole are, and I set them to collect lead and fossil or diamond. I've noticed that many dups pick up storing errands on the way back after they're done doing other stuff. I'm not sure if that's consistent or an optimization, but they often do. And I know in advance that most of that is going to be collected sooner or later, expecially fossil. I set the bins to prio 1.

Most of the time I make a gym for my dups, so that they never idle. Most of them end up there when they have nothing to do, but a few guys I set their personal prio to storing first, and they run all over the map to fill those prio-1 containers, when they'd be idle otherwise. No hard rules.