LOGistICAL - Sublime Logistical Strategy Puzzling

Carlbear, a ship can provide goods to a port without that port being opened. It's generally how you break into some new countries. Open the port from the sea and then either buy a truck there, or use Ocean Floaties to send one across the sealanes.

And there's no harm in just *trying* it, other than the cost of the trip.

Robear wrote:

Carlbear, a ship can provide goods to a port without that port being opened. It's generally how you break into some new countries. Open the port from the sea and then either buy a truck there, or use Ocean Floaties to send one across the sealanes.

And there's no harm in just *trying* it, other than the cost of the trip. :-)

Haha, well I just *tried* buying a ship when I was stuck and it cost me $1.2M logi-bucks. Took me a lot of grinding to get the funds back to build industry.

Now of course Australia is challenging me. I'm sure I've missed a red circle or a road fix somewhere, but I damn well have most of SE Australia visible. I completed some towns and I *thought* I could build some raw material industry in those towns to help unlock the next thing, but its padlocked and says "complete towns/business that require this industry". Not sure how I'm supposed to complete a town with wood if I don't have wood... am I reading that right?

EDIT: nm, found what I was looking for and unlocks have begun

hint:

Spoiler:

CHOO CHOO!

And that would have been my question.

One thing to remember is that many unlocks won't be made until long after you expected them to be done. And that's normal. It'll keep you digging for more ways to get things done, more resources, more areas to open.

Spoiler:

Have you opened Botany Bay yet? If not, that's a definite priority. (And there is wood in Australia, you just have to open some more roads.)

Wow. Came back to the game after a short break due to frustration, and the answer to my problem just popped into my head. Almost no effort, like 10 minutes to put the solution into play, and I'm on my way again! Up over 1400 cities done now.

How is everyone doing with this head-smasher of a game?

The funny thing is that once I solve the puzzle, the actual completion of the next steps holds me back. I'm in Australia and trying to complete the Port, I know how to do it, I have what I need to do it, but I also know it'll take a long time with some level of micromanagement to actually do it, and I really don't want to spend the time to do it I have 6x speed, so maybe 8x is right around the corner, but if you're not solving the puzzle, the actual "regular" city/business completion kind of gets boring.

Maybe I should skip to other countries just to get it going? not so sure.

Well, you can skip a bit, but eventually, you're gonna have to do it. If you use all your trucks at once, you'll only need to swap cargos. Once you've made sure you have enough cargo available, of each type... Have you bought your limit for trucks in NZ, and maybe got rid of smaller ones in favor of larger? 20t is ideal for most of stuff you need to do, but if you've been holding off buying trucks, well, now you have a reason to invest lol.

This is part of the gameplay cycle, so not something you can escape. That said, once you get some museums and other small circles going, the trucks that did it will have lots of bonuses and will be zipping around the map like crazy, reducing the tedium quite a bit.

Oh, and... think about how you dump the goods off... Minor spoiler.

Spoiler:

Remember, use the autodump when you're doing a town or supplying an industry, as it will allow you to dump one load more than the capacity of the site, which either adds more raw materials, or pushes you further into the green for filling the city.

Yeah, I do all of that. For Australia specifically, I only have enough for 3 trucks. the roads I'm working on now take like 100+ commodity to complete but the supply is so far away :). I suppose the answer is get rid of small truck A to replace with larger truck, but of course I'm looking at ships / trains as well and if I want to save for another one of those or more trucks.

Planes, trains, ships, Tuk Tuks and mining trucks (200t behemoths) don't count against the global vehicle limit, nor do parked trucks, so you should be able to wedge a few more in if your depot(s) support it. Every thousand towns increases your active truck limit globally, and every 2000 businesses increases the truck type limits.

In general, for larger countries, you want 20t or (eventually) 40t trucks. If you want to go bigger, you'll need to expand roads (like for road trains) to accommodate the larger loads. (And remember, an empty truck can use any road, but once it is filled, it's weight has increased.)

The exception is when you are exploring; an 8t or a Tuk Tuk will do that job at less cost than a larger truck.

I've been lurking in this thread a little and put Logistical: Earth on my wish list but I'm still a bit confused about what a good starting point with the series is. (skimmed back a few pages to see if this was already asked and answered)

I see that Earth has a demo, grab that and then buy.... what if I like it? Earth? (would make sense )

Yes. Short version, start with Logistical 3: Earth Demo and buy that game if you like it.

Long version - The game has been in development for years, and so there were a lot of different modules released for 1 and 2. Many of them varied the essential challenge in ways that might or might not be interesting to you. Some of those variant mechanics made it into Earth, some didn't.

Since the base game rules were back-ported as the major upgrades occurred, you can still play, for example, Logistical 1 Australia or Logistical 2 Belgium and have a good time. However - and this is why you should start with 3 - the earlier games may have you learning mechanics that don't exist in 3 anymore.

So better to learn the latest version and then if you love the game enough, buy into earlier ones that look like a challenge.

Earth is not yet finished, although you can burn hundreds of hours or more in this version. More countries are opened up every month or so; we just got China, but I'm around a hundred hours in and still nowhere near able to get there. But likewise, there is a ton of stuff available that I have not yet puzzled up.

And don't forget to look at the stickied Steam Discussions and sign up at the Discord. Great folks and you can search the discussions, which means help at any hour of the day.

This is the most challenging yet achievable puzzle game I've ever played.

Is there a setting to only show the trucks in your current country? I only have like 16 or so vehicles, and I already see a UI mess with another 14 vehicles before hitting the max. While Martinique isn't "Done" I've completed all the towns, and only some shipping stuff is yet to complete but I don't have any shipping available in that part of the world yet. Is it better to just sell them all to clean up your "workspace"?

Oh no, don't sell unless you have no other alternative (like to upgrade in size). Underneath the Vehicles button in the upper left of the truck menu is an artist's palette. Click that and you can change the color of a truck, and also move it up or down in the list. I group countries and regions together, and color by country (with repeats where they can't cross into another territory). Then I put trains adjacent to the country where they originated (or are rehomed lol).

That said, for Martinique as a starter area, you can simply park the trucks when you are done there. Only sell if needed.

Had fun with the demo tonight. A few things are clicking now. I'll get the full version in the morning. Question though. Can I leave this running all day and noodle on it or is there a real time element I haven't noticed? I've noted something about consumption by towns until you make the meters green but is the consumption based on time or like 'moves'?

Consumption is based on time and population, but only for locations with a listed population in the description (all large circles and some small ones, generally with larger resource requirements). For museums and most small circles, consumption is not a factor. You can just drop stuff off whenever and when they are full, they finish. (Large circles are towns/cities; small ones are "mailboxes" - like rural communities or villages - as well as museums, schools, tourist sites and so forth. Small boxes increase the left-hand number in the center top bar; large ones increase the right.)

The game is pauseable "real time", not turn-based in any sense. You can leave it all day if you want. I just tend to hit pause when I do that, but mostly that's just in case I forget something that's running and losing money, say. But even the consequences for going negative in money are that you can't buy anything new. The game doesn't stop and it doesn't shut down your trucks if you go below zero. (Thanks to DonDGT who selflessly tested this out.)

polypusher wrote:

Can I leave this running all day and noodle on it

This is exactly what I do.

EDIT: Actually, to add to this, if you minimize the game, it pauses itself, in my experience.

So I grabbed the full version and I still started on Martinique, can I get any of what I built up there to NZ? Also Auckland Trucks seems to be completely locked and Im not sure how to unlock it. I feel like Im doing two tutorials at once having upgraded from the demo to the game. So like I've 'discovered' sand but its on an island halfway around the world!

Once you get far enough into Martinique, a contract completion should open NZ. I think that’s how they have it set up. Martinique is easy and self-contained; you won’t be able to finish absolutely everything, but what you can’t, you’ll need ships for and that comes much later.

You absolutely do not need to send anything from Martinique to NZ or vice versa in the early game, or ever, really, if you don’t want to. So don’t worry about that. There’s more sand in the world than just in Martinique.

Oh, and I think doing ten cities/towns (large circles) will get you an extra truck slot from the depot. This is true everywhere. You can keep adding trucks that way until the depot capacity is hit. So use your initial trucks to open up more trucks.,

If it were truck slots, I wouldnt be able to buy a truck in either Martinique or Auckland, but I can in Martinique. Something else is locking the truck shop.

Unless it must be local towns complete?

Every country has its own truck limit. You're maxed out on Trucks in New Zealand. Every 10 towns in that country, you can increase the # of trucks in that country by one. It will take a while before you get your 2nd truck. If memory serves, when you click the truck stop in NZ it will read 1/1/6. Which basically says you have 1 truck in NZ out of your current country maximum of 1 truck, with a total country maximum of 6 trucks once you open up towns (or maybe its 2/2/6, either way you're maxed). So regardless of how many trucks you have on Martinique it has no impact on your max in New Zealand, other than the global 30 max (which you wont' get close to for a while).

The UI is quite basic... if you "can't" buy something, because of lack of funds, lack of capacity, or whatever other reason it kind of all looks the same.

Unlike Martinique, where you can basically open every location except the port and airport with what is available on the island pretty easily, the other countries do not behave that way. It is not possible to complete everything on NZ as you find it. Some will require resources that won't be unlocked until you run around the island a bit, some will require even more complex steps. Eventually you'll need to move away from NZ and start on another country and get back to NZ, so if you're a completionist that has to 100% something before moving on, you'll have to get that out of your head very quickly.

The initial "opening" of NZ isn't too bad, but if you're like me, you'll probably run into what seems like a significant road block after a bit. You can read above to see how it gets resolved, but bang your head against the wall a bit like I did, as that will probably open up a few more things you didn't find the first time, then once your at your wits end, consider opening up my spoiler that I posted on the previous page.

As Robear has stated, your best bet is to explore the island, open roads, and look for towns/businesses you actually can complete and complete those. Ultimately you'll get truck speed/loading upgrades, as well as overall gamespeed increases.

Can I force a truck down a road where I can't see any points of interest? There's a long road at the northern tip of New Zealand. There's probably something down there but the closest POI doesnt reveal anything.

I'm sure Robear knows an easier way, but you click and hold on a truck, either in the truck list or on the map and drag around, you should see some open red circles. Those are sort of where your current line of sight ends so you can try to drag a truck to those spots to open up the map.

If you click-hold-drag and don't see circles there are two things you can do, a) zoom in/out a few times with the mousewheel (while click-hold-dragging) or hit b) shift-m (again also while click-hold dragging), and you should see them pop up. Its a bit awkward, but either of those methods should force the red circles to show up.

That particular road goes nowhere at the moment, Polypusher. It could be that it's there for completeness, or maybe there will be a good type introduced later that will have a source there? I dunno. You could ask in the Discord, I guess. (Those folks are really helpful.)

TIL that if you max out the bonuses on all the trucks in one location, new ones earned by them will cascade over to other trucks in the region.

Yeah I asked in Discord about the start in Australia and the general advise was to max out your trucks in NZ so the bonuses spill over to Australia. You have to move the truck you want to receive the bonuses to the top of your list, otherwise whatever's above it with room for a bonus will get it first. This seems to work regardless of where the truck is. I learned about the truck order thing since some of my Martinique trucks were stealing the bonuses.

That did allow a single truck to serve 60 tons each of 2 materials to a hungry town without the effort being sysiphusian.

Robear wrote:

TIL that if you max out the bonuses on all the trucks in one location, new ones earned by them will cascade over to other trucks in the region. :-)

Wait what? I thought the bonus is earned by the actual truck that completes the town/business? I did that first challenging step in Australia by completing one or two businesses there and giving whatever minimal bonuses that was to that truck. I had no idea order of trucks in your inventory matters.. I've kept the Martinique trucks on top of my list just because that's where they always were :/

It was a pain getting out of the capital region, but once out, plenty of room to run.

I just uncovered the last resource I need to open up the road to rubber. Only 255 hours in!

I bought a ship because it seemed like a good idea and now it seems like a mistake. I can't buy the industries I need to make progress in NZ's south island! I havent figured out how to use the ship at all though, maybe I can get around the quarantine with one? I cant figure out how to get goods on/off the ship. Tried buying a 'single store' in a port city but that doesn't seem to help.

Edit: Oh, I haven't completed the south island port, and I cant because I need the ship to do it (or make another expensive industry)

polypusher wrote:

I bought a ship because it seemed like a good idea and now it seems like a mistake. I can't buy the industries I need to make progress in NZ's south island! I havent figured out how to use the ship at all though, maybe I can get around the quarantine with one? I cant figure out how to get goods on/off the ship. Tried buying a 'single store' in a port city but that doesn't seem to help.

Edit: Oh, I haven't completed the south island port, and I cant because I need the ship to do it (or make another expensive industry)

If it makes you feel better, I made the same mistake you made and bought the ship before I should have thinking it would solve my problem. You will have to grind the money back completing towns/businesses. I actually went back to martinique and got everyone filling out the small towns/business there to help.

I did too. No big deal, as Carlbear noted, just make the money back. Hopefully you didn't sell it. Ships don't count against your global vehicle total.

When you have a depot in a port ("single store"), you use trucks to put goods in it. Then, you use the ship to take the commodity to another port just like you would with a truck. So when you are ready, you can use the ship to help complete the South Island port, or one in Australia, or Japan. Just to name a few. Hint hint...

Heh I make so many little mistakes I figure I'll post some "be careful" tips.

1. Parking a truck is beneficial but is expensive. I have 5 trucks on Martinique, I figured I'd just park them all. Says it costs 10K to park.. ok, whatever.. not paying attention I park trucks 2-5 as well. The catch, each additional truck parked costs an incremental 10K, so to park my 5 trucks cost 10+20+30+40+50 = 160K! Where I was that's still a significant chunk of change.

2. Don't forget the Floaties! I wanted to upgrade 2 of my smaller trucks on NZ so I can work on Christchurch to unlock South Korea. Sell 2 8-tonners buy 2 20-tonners. Want to move goods from north to south island, get a "blocked" warning. Qurantine is green, but I can't figure it out.. I stupidly think "is the road too small from the supply"? Having used 8t trucks for a while I thought maybe by coincidence I always used 8t trucks on this route? So I then sell one of the 20t trucks at a substantial loss and buy the 8t... and that doesn't work, then it finally dawns on me... FLOATIES!. so I move the other new 20t truck to the truckstop, upgrade to floatie, sell the small truck (at yet another loss), buy the 20t truck back... NOT ENOUGH MONEY LEFT FOR FLOATIES!

Anyways... read carefully the cost of things... when money is short, and you blow it like I did, you just set yourself up for more grinding to earn it back. Good news is that I haven't been "stuck" and not sure if I ever will be.

Also South Korea seems like a breeze compared to Australia. Maybe because I did quite a bit with Australia I've basically applied that knowledge and things go faster, but I'm really enjoying the easier pace of KOR.

Ships are becoming infuriating. So I have a ship, what can it reach as far as the loading or selling of goods? Only a box with an anchor? I bought a ship in Tauranga NZ and I have the City of Tauranga but not the Port of Tauranga. I cant tell if I can get goods to a ship in this setup. Do I have to have the port completed?

If that's the case I'm humped because Bottles, because Sand input is locked, because I can't get wheat to the bottle factory's town (and I cant unlock wheat because Steel is quarantined (which makes no sense) and I cant build steel in the south island because its too expensive.) I've done the towns I think I can do, which are the only things that seem to give reasonable cash. I completed Martinique, Im stuck in Australia.... really shouldn't have bought this f'ing ship!