[DUP][#5369][Bug] Build storage requesting excess wares

[elijahgalador]

I am still experiencing a bug in 9.0 that was also present in the beta phase and reported with 9.0 Beta 4 (see here: viewtopic.php?p=5312965).

[Steps to reproduce]
I started a fresh game with 9.0 (final) and since I did not yet own/could not afford/rep too low for equipment blueprints I build my first stations with defence modules but with an empty loadout. Later in the game, after acquiring the blueprints, I added turrets and shields to the already built defence modules and storage/production modules.

[Possible bug]
It looks like the above process still leads to the build storage requesting excess wares; i.e. advanced electronics, turret components and energy cells. (interestingly, I could not find an example for shield components; but maybe this is due to my stations providing them automatically). Therefore, after all turrets and shields have been constucted I "need to" grab the excess wares with a freighter and redistribute them (or lose some profffiitzzzz ) Note: The build storage still shows (wanted) wares (value in brackets) in the "transfer wares with build storage"-menu, but all turrets/shields have been constucted.

[save game --- just in case]
In case you want to look into it, I added a fresh save file: https://limewire.com/d/r62Nm#C9tTFQcR5Y
You can observe my freighter "[Hauler] Malign Mass - Heron E (LUA-779)" getting the excess wares from the build storage of my energy cell production "Federation Core Energy (ZTU-657)" in The Reach.

Hopefully this is somewhat useful.

[CBJ]

I've moved this over to Tech Support for you, since it seems to contain enough information for it to be investigated.

[elijahgalador]

Adding an obviously related bug/observation, that I am witnessing in my current playthrough (9.0, unmodded, fresh start)...

The freighters I use to transfer (collect) the excess wares from the build storages after all defenses have been constructed sometimes get stuck in an infinite loop, trying to dock at the build storages. This affects L freighters as well as M freighters. I will add a save where the ship "HQ Transport ä#03 - Vulture SE (LTV-273)" is forever trying to gather the excess storage from "Silent Silicon (YIR-467)". Once you have a more complex universe. those bugs are really hard to see. Maybe those ferighters have been trying to dock at the build storages for hours now But once zou are aware of the helpless freighters, deleting all orders and issuing them all again fixes this for now.

Save: https://limewire.com/d/pdQq6#5LYEzgREIk

[Alan Phipps]

Please don't add different issues to an existing thread with a specific issue title as the right devs won't see the additions, please start a different thread for a different issue.

On the original build storage overstocking, I'm a bit confused.

I loaded your save and the Federation Core Energy station you mentioned is the only one with a full complement of surface elements and the build storage has no buy offers as expected. All of your other stations are missing some or all surface elements and so their build storages have buy offers and some have reserved incoming resource deliveries. Although the situation is rather dynamic and hence confusing, the buy offers on the face of it seem very reasonable.

Take your Federation Farm and Meds Station; it is missing 55 PAR M Blast Mortar and 60 PAR L Mass Driver Turrets. Construction will not start until all 3 needed resources are available (ie awaiting Advanced Electronics). The build storage buy offers are for the exact requirements for those turrets and while some of some resources are already held and some amounts are reserved and in the process of being delivered, the offers seem appropriate. Look also at the Energy Cells requirement for those missing turrets and the build storage is holding exactly the right amount and with no build storage buy offers nor deliveries for them. Hence there will be no surplus.

If you also deliver stuff yourself by direct transfer without allowing for reserved deliveries that would largely meet the needs being already on the way then that can lead to surpluses in stock.

[elijahgalador]

Please don't add different issues

Sry, I really thought these are two sides of the same coin, so I added it here to suport the case, but I will refrain from doing so in the future; especially with a (potential) bug that has a workaround.

FWIW, I get your confusion as I am puzzled as well. Saves are a point in time, whereas the issue seems to be somewhat more tricky... To elaborate, my expectation would be the following:

Step 1: I add loadout to already constructed defense modules of a station (no builder needed)
Step 2: I check "Trade Offers (Build Storage)" to see what resources are requested; thus countering manual over-delivery since this menu should only display (wanted) wares.
Step 3: I manually deliver the requested resources to the build storage, again via "Trade Offers"-menu until the buy request drops to zero; in fact, in contrast to "Transfer Wares" this way I would not know how to forcefully deliver too much since the slider stops on zero.

Expected Result:
I would expect the Build Storage to have 0 wares after all turrets/shields are constructed.

Reality:
After everything is constructed there is a seemingly random assortment of excess wares (ECells, Turret & Shield Components and Field Coils) in the build storage that I can either leave there for future upgrades or have to reclaim manually. Maybe I should add that I tend to queue a lot of orders to just be done with the wares delivery. So having 3-5+ trips per freither is common for me and maybe an additional cause for problems. (btw, you could check these excess wares in the second save I added).

Note, I will not add an additional report since I can live with the workaround but felt this may affect other players as well.

[Alan Phipps]

Step 2 is incomplete though. It should probably read more like:

Step 2: I check "Trade Offers (Build Storage)" to see what resources are shown as still needed. I then reduce that by the amount of wares reserved by deliveries already in progress in the Build Plan on the assumption that they will indeed arrive and be transferred in at some point.

Explanation: The reserved ware deliveries have not yet been deducted from the needed figure and buy offers as there is no guarantee that the relevant ship(s) will (all) arrive (eg because of hostile action, the player changing player ship orders, or the relationship of involved NPC faction traders to the player decreasing). If you have already manually transferred in extras and the reserved deliveries still happen then that would lead to holding more towards the needed total than the offers anticipated, and maybe even a surplus.

The Build Plan is often a better and more reactive guide to outstanding needs than the related trade offers. It quickly does most of the calculations for you and forecasts when things *should* arrive.

[elijahgalador]

Thx, will try and base deliveries on the numbers in the build plan next time. I just thought the "Trade Offers/Trade with Build Storage"-way would make it more convenient by doing "the math" for me. Challenge is, that I now have already set up all relevent resource stations and just spit out the build plans and wait for my economy to auto-deliver everything. (Exception is claytronics, which are somewhat abundant in my 9.0 universe for the time being and thus still deliverd with a few Heron E trips). So I am not sure when I can really try this out.

But what still "feels" not completely correct (read: without having thoroughly tested it myself) is the "reserved ware deliveries have not yet been deducted from the needed figure"-part. (#1) I do all this without giving the manager constuction budget, to explicitly prevent other factions from delivering. So it is my freighers only that bring the resources. (#2) I would also notice, at least that early in the game, if one of my beloved freighters would get lost en route. (#3) The moment I add the delivery via "Trade with Build Storage" menu, the slider/the amount goes down and the next delivery continues exactly at this reduced amount. So doing it this manually, it looks like the deliveries should indeed be accounted for since the next request is reduced by the corresponding amount (and not constant until the wares are actually delivered). But - it may be that I just did not look close enough.

Long story short: Will just try the build planner aproach next time and see if this works better for me. Thx again!