What happens when the Claws arrive demanding payment, and all your Gold is sitting idle in in the mining camp? You need it in your Central Warehouse to make your tax bill. You spent the time finding the Gold Ore vein, and your Whiskers put the work into mining it, yet poor logistics risks turning an easy tax ship into ruin.
Resource Flow
In Whiskerwood, goods start as basic resources. In the early game you’ll see Wood, Flax, Berries, and standard Ores. Over time you’ll unlock crops and find rarer Ores.
At the start of an island, these resources might be close to your town. But as you mine, harvest, and chop your way through these easily accessible sources, you’ll find yourself going further and further afield.
Even when distance does not challenge your logistics, timing will. Several times in playtesting, I have experienced the agony of knowing I have the Gold Ore to pay off the Claws, yet finding it sitting in the Mining Camp. For times like these, we added an emergency early delivery action for all buildings. Tax ships and Pirates will give you several hours of in-world time to collect the payment -- so when you find yourself short, consider forcing an early delivery.
As your game progresses, you'll want to optimize your logistics with automation so you can avoid emergency deliveries entirely. More on that later.
Production Chains
Any good more complex than a base resource requires processing. This might be straightforward, like the Sawmill making Planks from Wood. Or it might be more involved, like the Shipyard which consumes a vast array of goods that also require multiple steps of processing themselves.
Each production stage consumes not only work time and resources, but also space and a slot within your logistics design. So you want to be intentional in how you set these chains up to avoid headaches later. In special cases, additional considerations might need to be made. A certain industry might be highly polluting, and thus need to be kept away from Housing, Services, and Farms.
With careful design, your town can flow resources through your production chains smoothly.
Automation
When complexity grows beyond what clever design can manage -- when the forests have been chased up the mountain, or the mines are dug far into the earth -- you'll need to turn to automation to serve your needs. Automation allows you to optimize logistics to avoid consuming work time. The work time of your Whiskers is limited, and as path logistics expand, their walking time will consume a greater and greater portion of potential work.
As in life, automation doesn't necessarily mean total elimination of work effort. Even with Paths, there are chances to optimize. Slides allow Whiskers to travel downhill fast, and powered elevators do the inverse for climbs.
When path optimization is not enough, you can turn to conveyor belts and railroads.
Conveyor belts connect Adder Boxes to warehouses and only carry Goods. By default, Whiskers will bring resources to any nearby Warehouse, Shed, or Adder Box. In the early game, they will deliver everything to the central Warehouse directly, as it happens to be the only storage option that's close to all outputs. But that won't be sustainable for long.
As you grow your automations, you may need to further optimize them by designating specific destinations for your outputs. To designate a specific designation for any output, open the details panel of any building. This is a handy trick if, for example, you want to keep certain resources more local, or split up conveyor traffic.
In the late game, railroads will connect stations and carry both your Whiskers and the Goods they happen to carry. These railroads function both above ground and underground, and Whiskerwood's pathing algorithm is smart enough to identify when taking a railroad can save time over walking.
When in Mines, railroads can quickly cover distance deep underground, getting your Whiskers back to work. When above ground, they allow you to connect islands effectively without building a full town -- useful for mining or farming islands.
Thanks for reading!
Daniel Dressler
Lead Programmer on Whiskerwood
More Whiskerwood Dev Diaries
In case you missed them, be sure to check out our other dev diaries for Whiskerwood:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/2489330/announcements/detail/658207707628569428
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2489330/view/515221043692962197
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