Alloy import bug

[Caldwsp057 0]

I don't know if this is the same bug other users are experiencing, but after unsuccesfully trying to import alloy for my processor factory, I finally pinned down where the problem is.
My city has four trade depots: One for the coal mining/exporting industry in this city, one for importing plastic, one for importing alloy, and one for exporting processors.

I use seperate trade depots for each import and each export because Simcity does not allow buying more trucks to import/export goods, only trucks for delivering goods within your city. That's something that you might fix in a patch too.

Anyway, when I turn on importing alloy at the alloy trade depot, I see the alloy truck come from a neighboring city, drive to the trade depot, park, and then leave again, still holding the alloy it came in with. I am still charged money for the alloy, but I don't get any.

The trade depot is not full. It's empty.

The trade depots are all on a street that connects directly to the highway at the entrance to the city, and there is little traffic on this street, so it's not likely to be traffic issue.

Importing plastic to the depot adjacent to the alloy depot works fine, so the bug seems to be alloy specific.

I can provide more details or pictures if you like.

 

On a seperate note, why does signing in with facebook require giving simtropolis permission to post to facebook on my behalf? I tried denying it permission and it refused to finish the sign up process until I tried again and agreed to give it permission that time.

[Caldwsp057 0]

Update: The same bug occurs in another city with processors as well! Here's a picture for proof:

Truck still has a full inventory, storage is empty, and yet it returns to the processor factory!

Update: MORE strange behavior! This time the truck leaves the processor factory, displaying "Returning to processor factory", drives to the trade depot EMPTY, then goes back to the factory, at which point the number of processors in the factory goes down by 1000. Image:

[rmjohnson144 42]

First, the import/export trucks come from the regional AI player only, and not from other cities..  Your depot trucks are for delivering to your factories.  Since your factories have processor proves they are indeed importing and delivering just fine.  Maybe they just go to the factory immediately upon delivery?

 

also, all trade delivery trucks are universal.  When one comes out of a garage, it turns into the truck type (processor/coal/ore/oil, etc.).  With this method, it can borrow another buildings trucks instead of sending its own truck a longer distance.  this way deliveries are faster.

 

Maybe they're just too fast.

 

But assuming your factories are using processor just fine means they are being delivered promptly.

 

remember, a trade building that exports only doesn't need any trucks at all thereby saving you money by not needing garages built.  you can even bulldoze the free one to free up some more money if you wish.  But they can be useful to help other trade buildings as they can borrow your unused trucks in emergencies.  This looks like what is happening in the lower picture.  I see both of your depots have only 1 delivery truck, so it probably borrowed a truck from the factory for its purposes and it's returning it.  You may want to stock your importing depots with more delivery trucks.

[Caldwsp057 0]

You might be right that the truck in picture 2 is simply being returned to the factory's posession, though it certainly has an odd way of doing it, since that particular truck came from the factory before hitting the trade depot and returning to the factory.

 

Under what circumstances would a truck full of processors go back to the processor factory without unloading? The first picture shows a truck full of processors right next to the trade depot it was supposed to unload at, and as you can see, the trade depot's storage lot is empty, but it's "Returning to delivery truck garage" (The factory's!).
The processor factory is working because of alloy deliveries from the recycling center in the city, which I set up as a partial workaround for the lack of being able to import alloy. The needed plastic is imported and that is working just fine.

[rmjohnson144 42]

It's hard to tell what's going on without watching it live.

 

I know the the trade system is broken in places and can be triggered when a factory becomes overfull and stops delivery and won't start back up again.

 

Try bulldozing the processor factory and rebuilding it again and see if it starts back up.  That's the only way I've been able to get this to start back up.

 

add more trucks to each building.  also, don't let your trade buildings get full or they may backup your factories.  If exporting is slow, then move it nearer the freeway exit.  or add a second exporting depot.  

 

be sure to not mix different bins in a single depot.  It makes it easier to spot issues.

 

First, maybe try plopping a new depot to export processors to see if it picks them up.  maybe the depot is borked?

[MagicChicken19 43]

You might not even need to delete the whole factory, just the truck depot itself. Not sure though.

[rmjohnson144 42]

It may be worth trying, but deleting garages is usually for missing trucks.

 

I think his issue may be more related to the old recycling center bug in that when the recycling center trash reached 100% full it would stop processing garbage and stop picking up recycling garbage.

 

I've had semi-repeatable issues of the the processor factories becoming overfull of processors, then stop deliveries.  I was able to bulldoze the factory only to get it working again.

 

It happened when I was trying to level up the HQ to unlock trade port bins.  I was importing a bunch of processors and when it filled up all of the depots, I was waiting until midnight to export so I could reach my daily profit numbers.  well, I left the processor factory running and it got overfull as I imported my maximum processors and after exporting and leveingl up my HQ I noticed the processor factory stopped working.  Nothing I tried would get it working until I bulldozed the whole processor factory.

 

It could be other issues we don't see.  It's hard to give advice with only part of the picture.