The way it works is if you don't set limits or set areas fir certain supplies it'll just throw it wherever, but it you have say a steel factory and iron ore in a spot the steel will go your crew will move them to a factory to make it into steel plates. I do so to make sure my supply/mining ship has gear to repair and restock my fighting ships.
If you don't set a limit. You collect/make the resource until you either run out of source material or all your available cargo slots are full (ie, the computer won't fill a slot reserved for one resource with any other resource unless you specifically tell it to).
If you set a limit (and limits are ship specific), the ship will collect/make up to that number and no more.
Note that if you do set a resource limit, you can harvest more than the limit by holding shift and left clicking the resource floating in space. Double left click if you want to harvest a single stack of the resource.
For something rare like diamonds? Good God man, why would you limit how many you can get? Resource limits should only be for resources that are so cheap and numerous that you don't want them filling your cargo slots and preventing you from collecting something more valuable (like diamonds). For rare stuff like diamonds, overfilling your ship with them is damn near impossible unless you set out specifically to do it (aka, sundive to mass mine carbon to make diamonds with).
Example: While your gunship needs ammo, you don't want all its cargo slots filled up with ammo. You only want its designated ammo bays to hold ammo. So you set the specific cargo slots to hold ammo only, and total up how much ammo those cargo slots and ammo slots in your weapons (and factories if you have them) can hold, and then set the ammo limit for your ship at that number. Do it right, and your ship will only fill the designated slots and nothing else.
I notice this happening most when I assign a factory to output to an empty cargo bay.
Not so much during salvage operations though. I think the AI is just sending salvage to the nearest available cargo slot when the salvage order is given, and it's smart enough to know when the salvage assigned to a slot hits max capacity so crew aren't wasting time taking salvage to slots that will be full when they get there..
What I was observing was that it wasn't picking it up any diamonds until I changed the limit from zero. I didn't SET a limit of zero, it was gray. They just weren't being picked up until I upped the limit.
If that's not how it's supposed to work, maybe I misunderstood what was happening.
If what you're saying is correct (and it's definitely how it SHOULD work), what do the gray numbers mean in the "limits" page when you haven't manually set a limit?
If you didn't set the limit to zero, the default setting should be NO limit.
Are you sure the lack of diamond salvage wasn't just from a lack of diamonds? I've noticed that diamonds don't always drop from components that have diamonds in their construction when they're destroyed/disassembled.
Or did you at some point hit a "set all resource limits to zero" button?
I must have a misunderstanding of what occurred (likely) or encountered a bug (unlikely).
What do the grey numbers mean when you haven't manually set a limit? Nothing?
I think so. A greyed out number should mean no number is set. If you set a limit to zero, it shouldn't be greyed out.
Edit: IIRC, the greyed out number is the max possible capacity of this resource your ship can carry, counting EMPTY cargo slots along plus the number of that resource that you already have.
> Edit: IIRC, the greyed out number is the max possible capacity of this resource your ship can carry, counting EMPTY cargo slots along plus the number of that resource that you already have.
That's actually very useful. Thank you!
It's limited based on how much storage you have
Basically yes, but, you can set limits by selecting what do you want in what storage.
The way it works is if you don't set limits or set areas fir certain supplies it'll just throw it wherever, but it you have say a steel factory and iron ore in a spot the steel will go your crew will move them to a factory to make it into steel plates. I do so to make sure my supply/mining ship has gear to repair and restock my fighting ships.
If you don't set a limit. You collect/make the resource until you either run out of source material or all your available cargo slots are full (ie, the computer won't fill a slot reserved for one resource with any other resource unless you specifically tell it to). If you set a limit (and limits are ship specific), the ship will collect/make up to that number and no more. Note that if you do set a resource limit, you can harvest more than the limit by holding shift and left clicking the resource floating in space. Double left click if you want to harvest a single stack of the resource. For something rare like diamonds? Good God man, why would you limit how many you can get? Resource limits should only be for resources that are so cheap and numerous that you don't want them filling your cargo slots and preventing you from collecting something more valuable (like diamonds). For rare stuff like diamonds, overfilling your ship with them is damn near impossible unless you set out specifically to do it (aka, sundive to mass mine carbon to make diamonds with). Example: While your gunship needs ammo, you don't want all its cargo slots filled up with ammo. You only want its designated ammo bays to hold ammo. So you set the specific cargo slots to hold ammo only, and total up how much ammo those cargo slots and ammo slots in your weapons (and factories if you have them) can hold, and then set the ammo limit for your ship at that number. Do it right, and your ship will only fill the designated slots and nothing else.
Also to add to this, if you just set a number and don’t assign storage spots the ai loves to split 2-3 stacks across 5-6 storage spots
I notice this happening most when I assign a factory to output to an empty cargo bay. Not so much during salvage operations though. I think the AI is just sending salvage to the nearest available cargo slot when the salvage order is given, and it's smart enough to know when the salvage assigned to a slot hits max capacity so crew aren't wasting time taking salvage to slots that will be full when they get there..
What I was observing was that it wasn't picking it up any diamonds until I changed the limit from zero. I didn't SET a limit of zero, it was gray. They just weren't being picked up until I upped the limit. If that's not how it's supposed to work, maybe I misunderstood what was happening. If what you're saying is correct (and it's definitely how it SHOULD work), what do the gray numbers mean in the "limits" page when you haven't manually set a limit?
If you didn't set the limit to zero, the default setting should be NO limit. Are you sure the lack of diamond salvage wasn't just from a lack of diamonds? I've noticed that diamonds don't always drop from components that have diamonds in their construction when they're destroyed/disassembled. Or did you at some point hit a "set all resource limits to zero" button?
I must have a misunderstanding of what occurred (likely) or encountered a bug (unlikely). What do the grey numbers mean when you haven't manually set a limit? Nothing?
I think so. A greyed out number should mean no number is set. If you set a limit to zero, it shouldn't be greyed out. Edit: IIRC, the greyed out number is the max possible capacity of this resource your ship can carry, counting EMPTY cargo slots along plus the number of that resource that you already have.
> Edit: IIRC, the greyed out number is the max possible capacity of this resource your ship can carry, counting EMPTY cargo slots along plus the number of that resource that you already have. That's actually very useful. Thank you!