This small guide will help you to make your first steps in industrial management simulation strategy game Captain of Industry.
Tip 1
It is desirable to plan an industrial zone next to a coal deposit. This is the main resource for most of the game. The second most consumed resource is iron ore. The rest are consumed in much smaller quantities.
Tip 2
Leave at least one square between buildings or small clusters: it will be useful for laying new connections. Pipes are the easiest to lay, so plan the placement of everything else first.
Tip 3
For truck passing, you need a square with dimensions of at least 3 by 3 tile and a pipe height of at least 2 (there are 4 levels of height in the game). The road crossing building is 6 cells wide.
Tip 4
Pipes and conveyor belts can be laid one above the other on the same cage. Always pay attention to how many types of resources are required for production. If 3 or more, leave more space around for conveyors.
Tip 5
It is not necessary to have access roads for industrial buildings if you deliver and export goods from there by belts. But you must leave access to warehouses at least from one side, because some goods are needed outside of production (for example, for trade or repair ). Trucks can receive or deliver goods, even if there is a conveyor line along the wall of the building.
Tip 6
Every stage of production needs a warehouse! For example, you have a production chain whose goal is to turn copper ore into laboratory equipment. It includes a foundry, a smelter, an enrichment workshop, an electronics workshop, and a laboratory equipment workshop. So, after each link of this chain (except for the foundry, since liquid metal cannot be stored), there must also be a warehouse! In the warehouses of factories that produce several types of products, it is advisable to include an alert that the warehouse is empty or full: this is more options in case of a sudden stop of any production site. In addition, it is much easier to build new delivery routes from warehouses.
Tip 7
ALWAYS consider entry and exit for goods and waste! For example, one foundry allows you to supply metal to two smelters, but you always need to be able to dump goods in an emergency. The air separator produces oxygen and nitrogen. Even if you have calculated the requirements on a one-for-one basis, one of the chains may suddenly stop or work more slowly (for example, there will be a shortage of ore), and if the warehouse overflows because of this, all production will stop until you dump the surplus! Therefore, the warehouse must have a pipe to discharge excess gas or liquids. You can use one pipe for all gases or liquids, the main thing is not to get confused in the connections.
Tip 8
Use a planner! Pre-set mock-ups of the necessary buildings and connected communications will greatly save your nerves from thinking about where to put another workshop and what to do with the need to build a new kilometer-long conveyor. Take a look at the research tree and resource guide for information on what to produce and for what, which allows you to immediately figure out how to place docking buildings efficiently. For example, the production of electronics will require rubber and copper, so it is desirable that their production chains end near the planned workshop.
Tip 9
Research techs of conveyor belts and warehouses for finished products and bulk materials as early as possible. This will allow you to create the necessary supply of resources, simplify construction planning and drastically reduce the number of truck trips.
Tip 10
Don’t neglect smart pipe connectors! Because it often happens that it is necessary, for example, to remove excess water from the turbine and your pipe is connected to a common pipe, but your pumps already pump moisture through it so that water from the factory does not fit there stupidly, because they stop producing electricity. Or, for example, you have a fuel boiler. It runs on everything from heavy fuel to gas, but the storage of these resources is filled unevenly and they are needed for other production. So, if you burned all the naphtha, then fuck you and not rubber. On the other hand, if the storage of heavy oil is suddenly full, then your refinery has stopped and it must be urgently burned. Therefore, bringing all the pipes to one connector and prioritizing them there makes life much easier.
Good luck! Don’t worry if the first playthrough is a bit tricky, like the second one, but I hope this guide will help you save at least the third one.