LOGistICAL - Sublime Logistical Strategy Puzzling

Okay, so I think I got over the initial hump, and I keep coming back to this. It's definitely soothing to just drag stuff around. It is easier now that I'm trying to focus on one town/business/etc at a time, but my ADD keeps getting in the way. Some resource a town needs leads me on a chain backwards of "to get that, I need this, but to get this I need this other thing, oh, the factory for the other thing can get upgraded, let me just do that, so that upgrade needs this, which first needs that..." Or even more frequently, I start getting trucks filling up a resource at one town, then notice I have idle trucks, so start finding things for them to do, then forget what I was doing originally.

According to Steam, I've put almost six hours into L2, just doing the free scenarios. I think I did whatever the one marked Tutorial was, Isle of Man, and I'm working on the ABC islands now. Safe to say I'll probably pick up L3. Of course, I just missed a sale a few days ago.

Chaz wrote:

Okay, so I think I got over the initial hump, and I keep coming back to this. It's definitely soothing to just drag stuff around. It is easier now that I'm trying to focus on one town/business/etc at a time, but my ADD keeps getting in the way. Some resource a town needs leads me on a chain backwards of "to get that, I need this, but to get this I need this other thing, oh, the factory for the other thing can get upgraded, let me just do that, so that upgrade needs this, which first needs that..." Or even more frequently, I start getting trucks filling up a resource at one town, then notice I have idle trucks, so start finding things for them to do, then forget what I was doing originally.

Yeah, that totally sounds like the way I was playing this too. Distraction upon distraction upon distraction until I forgot what I was originally working on.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:
Chaz wrote:

Okay, so I think I got over the initial hump, and I keep coming back to this. It's definitely soothing to just drag stuff around. It is easier now that I'm trying to focus on one town/business/etc at a time, but my ADD keeps getting in the way. Some resource a town needs leads me on a chain backwards of "to get that, I need this, but to get this I need this other thing, oh, the factory for the other thing can get upgraded, let me just do that, so that upgrade needs this, which first needs that..." Or even more frequently, I start getting trucks filling up a resource at one town, then notice I have idle trucks, so start finding things for them to do, then forget what I was doing originally.

Yeah, that totally sounds like the way I was playing this too. Distraction upon distraction upon distraction until I forgot what I was originally working on.

Yeah the beautiful thing is, unless you're working on a town (and you're unlikely to forget this with timers going down) there's no penalty for getting distracted. You do you.

Is there an easy way to find out how many towns in a country have been completed? I know you can use the global map, but with no zoom function, its not so easy to click onto a specific country. I'm doing New Zealand and I know its every 10 towns for a truck, but I do like to know if I'm 2 towns or 8 towns away. Every so often something pops up to remind me where I am, but I would like to get that information "on demand".

Also at some point I assume something magical will unlock that will help me navigate the blockade in NZ? Town A resource Industry X, but Industry X needs fertilizer but fertilizer can't cross the quarantine, that's ok, there's another Industry on the south island that makes fertilizier but needs sorghum.. but sorghum can't cross the quarantine.

I'm unlocking a few more roads that hopefully unlocks the magic, and I know this "puzzle" is the point of the game, but it does get frustratring.

Spoiler:

If you get an industry to level 3, you can start building that type of industry in other towns you've completed. So if you can get a toehold by completing one or two towns that only require south island resources, you can usually build the thing you need to make progress on the south island, complete another town or two, and repeat. There are some resources you can't do this for like oil and gold) but for most of the stuff you can.

Also don't be a smart guy and figure you can build an industry in a town that produces something based on that resource (e.g., building a sand pit in a town with a glass factory). There doesn't seem to be any way to transfer resources within-town.

EDIT: Made it a spoiler because Robear made me feel bad about just saying it.

The map is zoomable with the mouse wheel (and I think there is a keyboard combo for it).

When you get to the middle levels - like 3 or 4 out from most detailed - a colored circle with a number in it will appear over each city/town region. Hover over it and you'll see how many things you have there to be done, and a + sign indicates that you have more to discover (I think). If you have completed everything in that area you get a rotating sun design.

As for the quarantine, that's one of the first puzzle types you have to undo. You can get around it. Remember, there's more than just ground vehicles in the game.

Robear wrote:

The map is zoomable with the mouse wheel (and I think there is a keyboard combo for it).

When you get to the middle levels - like 3 or 4 out from most detailed - a colored circle with a number in it will appear over each city/town region. Hover over it and you'll see how many things you have there to be done, and a + sign indicates that you have more to discover (I think). If you have completed everything in that area you get a rotating sun design.

As for the quarantine, that's one of the first puzzle types you have to undo. You can get around it. Remember, there's more than just ground vehicles in the game. :-)

If you mean ships or floaties.. the docks seem to require an incredible amount of supply, and floaties seem to only cross the small bodies of water no? Am I missing something obvious?

Carlbear95 wrote:

Also at some point I assume something magical will unlock that will help me navigate the blockade in NZ? Town A resource Industry X, but Industry X needs fertilizer but fertilizer can't cross the quarantine, that's ok, there's another Industry on the south island that makes fertilizier but needs sorghum.. but sorghum can't cross the quarantine.

I'd recommend looking inside aspect's spoiler.

Floaties are useful to carry stuff that's not prohibited by the quarantine. That's the "ferries" that the game uses in road names across water.

The docks are entirely doable, and they don't usually have a timer... Also, keep an eye on your missions, at least one is relevant to this situation.

OK thanks. I figured Aspect's hint would be important at some point... just not this early I admit I probably don't look carefully enough at each location, but more often than not I see a 0 where you could actually add an industry. In fact I don't think I've actually seen anything other than a 0 there... but I also don't have any industry at level 3.

I'll also look carefully at missions... you get such a deluge of popups on missions/contracts that I tend to ignore them...

Clearly my general impatience with text and UI is not helping me in this game Just give me a big yellow exclamation mark and call it a day!

Well, the locations that can hold depots are *always* zero... Until you fill them. Then they get depot slots in proportion to their size, plus 1 I think for building a train station.

Also, you can filter the mission list by four or five categories. That helps.

I felt like the industry thing was hard to figure out without a sledgehammer. I had to Google around for quite a while before getting a whiff of what to do, and even with that it took me a good while before I understood how to get it to work out right.

Even with the explanations put up earlier in the thread? I mean... I tried lol.

Robear wrote:

Even with the explanations put up earlier in the thread? I mean... I tried lol.

Oh, sorry! Yes, you were a huge part of understanding what to do. My bad. I've gotten so much help from you with this game that I think I just think of you as Google for Logistical.

I spent a few years learning the game. But now there is the Discord (just search for "LOGistICAL") and there are channels for the different games as well as bugs and announcements and general help and discussion.

I think I'm going to need a bit more of a hint here or I've missed something obvious.

I think the lynchpin is Glass.. but my glassmaking industry has a lock on the sand, and in order to unlock it I need wheat, which is on the wrong side of the quarantine.

Real, actual, true spoilers follow, in order of egregiousness:

Spoiler:

Have you done the Port of Tauranga?

Spoiler:

Do you have a ship?

Spoiler:

Have you found the port you can access on the South Island?

Spoiler:

Once you get those set up, you can build a Wheat depot in each port and ship Wheat from South Island to North Island. Which is also how you can set up other ports. Oh, and ports can be filled from the sea side even before they are opened, you are not limited to trucking for that.

Per your first spolier.. that is the location that requires Glass... Glass requires that "town" to be completed as the sand input is behind a padlock... that town requires wheat... wheat is on the wrong side of the quarantine.. that is the root of my problem. Unless I've totally misinterpreted how to remove the padlock. I've removed padlocks on Australia already... so I'm pretty sure I have the mechanic right.. it requires 0.78 tons of wheat.. unfortunlatey there is zero wheat on the northern island.

I absolutely know that i have to do everything you outlined... All the locations you outlined are unlocked and I know the requirements.. heck I even did you step 2 before step 1 is completed... I can't figure out how to do step one.

Have you fully explored as far as you can go on the islands? I know I got that port opened up, but I don't remember how. Was there a second glass factory maybe?

merphle wrote:

Have you fully explored as far as you can go on the islands? I know I got that port opened up, but I don't remember how. Was there a second glass factory maybe?

As far as I know I have... I don't see any red circles.. I have a few blocked roads but that's because it requires materials that aren't on the island or behind the quarantine (what's in the clay that prevents it from crossing a bridge?!). Every location can be reached even if it has to take a long way around.

Here is the lynchpin... 0.58 wheat.. that's all i need and everything cascades the way I know its supposed to. Is there some other way to unlock that sand? The first location in Robear's spoilers requires like 150 glass and bottles... circular mess unless I've missed a wheat industry on the north island but I've checked everywhere.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/c8I5QVm.png)

So, the real problem is the wheat.

Spoiler:

You could build up industry in the South Island, get your Wheat farm to 3 stars (upgrade twice), and then build one in the North Island somewhere. This is another common use mechanic, which is why I spoilered it.

Robear wrote:

So, the real problem is the wheat.

Spoiler:

You could build up industry in the South Island, get your Wheat farm to 3 stars (upgrade twice), and then build one in the North Island somewhere. This is another common use mechanic, which is why I spoilered it.

Two problems with that...

Spoiler:

Upgrading the Wheat farm requires Steel.. which is blocked by quarantine. Also requires fertizlier to make wheat to get it on the upgrade patch, which is blocked by quarantine.

I know I can work backwards from those to try to solve them the same way per your spoiler on the south island so I'll start to do that. I admit I thought that was what I was supposed to do, but I ran into some blocks there.. though I admitedly only tried one or two instead of *all* options

Ah right, that's what I did.

Spoiler:

Build a Steel factory on the south island, and there should be something already on the south island that produces fertilizer as a byproduct? Otherwise, build one of those too.

Yep. This is not a *simple* puzzle game. It runs along quite nicely like this, and the wham! Right in the face with a seemingly insoluble puzzle.

haha.. well this is what I did and I thought I was there...

Objective - Get wheat production on North Island.

Spoiler:

in order to do this I need to upgrade wheat to level 3, which means I need to "use" wheat. In order to use wheat, I need fertilizer to make more wheat. The only fertilizer maker on south island is the Cattle farm.. which requires sorghum, which is also on the wrong side of the Quarantine.

1. Build up sorghum farm on top island to level 3 and build on south island [done]
2. Transport sorghum to cattle farm to make fertilizer [done]
3. move fertilizer to wheat field to make more wheat [done]
4. Move wheat to somewhere to start using it and I can upgrade [done]
5. Need steel to upgrade wheat. [done]
6. Upgrade steel on north island to level 3 and build on south island [done]
7. Upgrade wheat from 0 star to 1 star [done]
8. use wheat so I can unlock upgrade to 2 star [done]
9. upgrade wheat to 2 star [done]
10. use wheat to unlock upgrade to 3 star [done]
11. WTF 3-star needs wood and that on the wrong side of Quarantine!!! I thought wood can't be "built" but I'll find out in a bit

What made it more challenging is I bought a ship before opening the port thinking I missed something so I have a cash issue and building the industry now requires me to do a lot of grinding to get the requisite cash.

So I'm stuck again, but I'll see if I can work through it before coming back for help.

EDIT:

And short answer, spoiler bullet point #11 above is possible.. so now its just a matter of time... lol thanks everyone for your help. Good news I was on the right track, just needed confirmation that I wasn't just missing something fundamental.

I finished the ABC Islands in L2, and I mostly think I've got my head wrapped around it. However, I'm still not clear on building industries.

I know it's supposed to be you get the industry up to three stars, then you can build in a town (?) that you've completed. I needed to get glass past a quarantine to the western island, and was able to do that by building a glass factory over there, so I know it's possible. What threw me was that on the central island, I can't seem to build anything. I have the island totally completed, and I have towns that have a 1 in the top-right box of their window. Clicking that opens the industry window, but there's nothing in there. I tried all the filter options, and it's just blank.

What am I missing? I was able to build a bunch of different industries over on the western island, but none on the middle one. What got me looking to do that was the town with the wire factory needed wire, and I couldn't figure out a way to deliver the wire to the town from...itself. I was going to put up a second wire factory next door temporarily, but wound up having to do it on the western island. Which also seems dumb and wrong.

Sometimes you need a bit of a hint, yeah. Congrats!

Chaz, there are limits on building in some areas (and others in Earth are actually more permissive).

In Logistical, there are some industries that can’t be built at all. They are either regional specialties, or are tied to physical locations (like diamond mines). Of the ones that can, you need to get them to 3 stars, and then you can check to see if they can be built.

When you look, if the industry is not in the list at all, it can’t be built there. Try another approach. If it has a lock with a “2” and an “8”, then you have to fulfill that need at towns and factories that use that good to open it up. See the game popup info for more precise instructions (mostly because I forget which is 8 and which is 2 lol).

It’s just more of the challenge. Sometimes it seems like the easy approach is actually not permitted, and that’s the breaks.

That's what's throwing me; I was able to build a wire factory, just not on the center island, and I couldn't find any towns or whatever on that island that would let me build any industries at all, while I had at least a half dozen that I could build on the western island. If there's some kind of popup or tooltip telling me why I wasn't able to build, I couldn't see it.

Was I missing something about towns requiring a good that they themselves produce, and having to get that from elsewhere? It seems strange that the residents of the town with the wire factory would be desperate for wire, but snobby enough that they aren't willing to settle for wire from their town.

And if it's a difficulty thing, that's fine too. But the UI for this is janky enough that it's hard to tell what's intentionally hard and what's just obscured and poorly explained.

All right, now to start thinking about Australia... can a ship move goods stored from a finished port to an unfinished port to for construction? ie. Completed Port A has a single storage for plastic. Port B is incomplete but requires Plastic. Can the ship fulfil that or is it just a means of transport from one storage to another?

Well, it's a shipping game, and there's no shipping from point A to point A. So if you stack industries and depots in one town, you need another depot nearby to take a good and hold it, so you can send it back if needed for upgrades or production. So if you produce wood in a town, and planks, and furniture, then you need a second town to also have a wood depot. You fill that up and then draw from it back to the first town.

It's a slight additional challenge in planning, that's all. You'll get to know the upgrade materials pretty quickly (and they are listed in the building list, too, since some industries have more than one set of upgrade materials).

The UI is loaded with information and is built around the ease of assigning trucks to tasks. Everything else is secondary to that drag and find function. The different map levels, for example, show different types of info that are generally appropriate to finding something useful at that zoom level. Once you get used to it, the information just pops off the screen, and while there are a lot of repeated motions, the UI reduces them as much as possible, while keeping as much information available as possible. Every little element in the UI has meaning. Over time you'll find it's actually quite effective.

But it is a very hard puzzle game.