Guedez
commented
5 years ago Just use workbenches as storage space Queue jobs that can never complete, due to for instance, the workbench not being grounded You can easily store 5000 anything on workbench projects (since it only takes 4 stockpiles to cancel the project
Edit: The research bench is specially good at that, considering the huge amount of different items it can store, even lumber and bricks
naed21
Right now I see a lot of inventory management issues stemming from a large number of stockpiles being used in small areas. While it isn't currently game-breakingly bad, I feel like it could be improved by adding higher-tier stockpiles that increase the stack size limit. Making a stockpile out of logs can remain how it is, but making one out of Hewn Logs or Mortared stone might give allow double the stack size, while making one out of Lumber or Brick might triple it, and so forth until you land at something like 5-6x at the highest tier. All that WITHOUT changing their footprint (max 5x5x5). Not enough to make storage completely trivial, but enough to allow the amount of material you manipulate to feel like it is growing. Of course, these materials aren't cheap, so large stockyards could still be a thing for those with flat land who are simply getting rock/dirt out of the way. As a bonus, stockpiles t1+ could have a thin "frame" that can be walked on and built around, making stacked stockpiles feel more natural without necessarily putting e.g. hewn log cubes in between.
As it stands I find most of my organization woes come from having a much larger number of stockpiles to act as buffers for basic things, which in turn makes it very difficult to manage inventory as the UI explodes in size very quickly with extra stockpiles (as well as storage management, such as which stockpiles a store or workbench can use). Having more slots wouldn't help much as it would still make the UI much larger, but having the same number with a larger stack size would help a lot. In general it feels strange that your best options for storage come out of the first workbench and the first tier of materials.
Anything below the current "large" stockpile is simply too small to be useful except in niche cases as they simply take up too much UI space and time when managing storage.
A similar tiering system could also be used for chests, though that's not as necessary, so perhaps fewer tiers need be used there (e.g. skipping hewn logs and having t2 be the *2 bonus tier).
Interestingly, the space allowance in carts feels fine to me. Though they are much higher density than stockpiles, so perhaps that's why.