Overview
The guide describe the basic mechanics of cargo and how to use the information given.
Introduction
Transport Fever have a brand new, different cargo mechanics than of Train Fever. The new cargo system is more complex, but also more rewarding when properly utilized.
You will find various information in this guide about the different aspects of cargo management and how to understand the information presented to your advantage.
The cargo system is straight forward. You need to deliver the resources to be processed for consumption by the cities. The more cargo the cities receive, the faster they will grow.
Industries
The industries work as individuals, not in a chain like in Train Fever. Industries will start producing output once they receive something in the input. Raw resources industries will instantly start to produce raw materials when you start the game. They will continue to produce raw materials until their output inventory is filled up.
Intermediate or end industries will start producing once you put something in their input inventory, irrespectively of you connected them to the town or not. They will produce until their output inventory is full and can’t get rid of the goods.
To complete the system, you need to transport the finished goods to the cities for consumption and as time progresses, the industries will ramp up their production.
Understanding cargo information
When pressing on each production building, an information window will open about the condition of the production building as well charts to examine the items transported over a certain period.
When click on a production building, the first information you will see is the overview of the production building and what it produces.
The requirements is the items the production building will ask for. Usually it is the intermediate industry which need requirements to process the raw resources to usable products. Some industries will require 2 or more items. The | sign is an OR sign for input and you can choose which resources you want to provide, or both.
The products is what the production building will deliver when provided the required resources. The | sign is an OR sign for output. This means the production building will deliver oil or fuel from the crude oil, depending on the demand.
The production is the rate at which items is produced through a period of 1 year. You will see it increase and decrease, depending on arrival of raw resources and delivery of finished products.
The limit is the maximum production rate of the industry. If the production reaches the limit, the industry will try to upgrade in a certain period.
The line usage is a indicator to show if the industry uses your line. It will show Yes when the industry is able to transfer the finished products to your cargo line for delivery of the products to the next industry or city.
This will show you whether the industry is upgrading or not when the production limit is reached and when the upgrade will commence.
The details tab will show you more advance info of the production building and can be used to determine how much items is required, what is in the inventory and any additional info.
This show all the items which is required by the production building to produce the materials.
This show all the finished items the industry will produce.
The stored info is what is stored in the production buildings input/output inventory. Try to always keep the input inventory full and output inventory empty for maximum production.
The potential information is the extremely important information, because this shows what the industry is capable of processing. The potential of the requirements is determined by the transportation system delivering the required items and will increase if you provide more transportation. The potential for the products is determined by the other production buildings requiring the products or cities. The higher the potential of the products, the more products the industry can produce.
Always check your potential to analyze your transportation network and to determine if you deliver enough resources to the production building. It also help showing how much items the industry is capable of producing to the connected cities and industries.
This show a short message on what prevents the production building from not reaching full potential. The message will change frequently, depending on the situation.
Charts is used to analyze your production rate over the years.
Delivery of cargo
The whole industry chain exist only for 1 reason. To provide materials for the cities consumption. It can be said the transportation chain starts from the raw resources and end in cities. And it is your duty to provide the transportation system, efficiently and effectively.
You can connect industries with different kind of transportation like truck, train and ship. To connect the production building, you need to build a form of station closely enough for the products to transfer between the industry and station.
When building a station, you will see a catchment area. Try to get the industry inside the catchment area for best results.
Try to build the station in the town as close to the industry and commercial area for best coverage and delivery of finished goods to the city.
Sometimes you need to build more than 1 station in the city, as the city grows. You can build a Hub station which can be used as a distribution point.
Productivity is the number of items you produce in a period of time. Hence productivity=items produced/time.
To increase productivity, try to deliver more resources and transporting the finished products. The more trucks, trains and boat you provide, the higher the productivity. Sometimes the production becomes saturated, because if satisfied demand. Then you must try to connect more towns to the production building to increase its potential for more production, which will require more trains, trucks and boats. It is a cyclic process.
The production rate will go up and down, but generally you want it go to up and to do so, you have to read the details tab of the production building and see what kind of problems is the industry experiencing.
Potential is what will start the industry to produce. If there is no potential, the industry will idle. You can increase potential by connecting more cities and industries. The more interconnected your network is, the higher the potential will become. Higher potential will result in increased productivity, which requires more transportation.
Cargo chain
Courtesy of Gwinda (creator of diagram):