'load all minerals' should load some of each

[joeclark77 (OP)]

What's the algorithm for carrying out a "load all minerals" order?  My impression is that it fills the cargo with whatever's "first" (I'm not sure if that's duranium or something else) and then gets some other mineral if there's still room.  I would love it if there was an order which would instruct a freighter to try to load equal amounts of each mineral present (still limited by actual availability, reserve level, etc) instead of filling up in this manner.

One of the things I'm trying to do is have freighters constantly cycling between my two main shipbuilding worlds, with "load all minerals" and "unload all minerals" orders, the idea being that each planet's reserve levels will be met.  So if planet X is low on gallicite and planet Y is low on neutronium, these orders will eventually bring each planet up to its reserve level with minerals from the other planet.  That doesn't work, though, if the freighter fills up each time with duranium and never loads any neutronium or gallicite.

[Nibelung44]

If you specify a value in the lower box, it works like that.

[Theodidactus]

I'm with Joeclark on this one, unless I've been doing this wrong.

THe only way I can load up my mineral-less colonies is to dispatch supply ships with the order chain:
- load duranium 2,500 on colony earth
- load neutronium 2,500 on colony earth
- load corundium 2,500 on colony earth
...
- Unload all minerals on colony titan
- refuel from colony earth
[repeat]
and that all get tedious to type in.

At the very least a "load 1,000 of each type" would be nice.

[Paul M]

If you set your reserve level so that approximately 2500 resources are available then when you give the command to load only 2500 will be loaded.  The same is true for JoeClark...if you set your reserve levels so that about 1000 or so is available then they won't try to load all the minerals and it will do what you want as surplus resources will flow to the world without them.  You have to periodicaly adjust your reserve level admittedly but that is a lot quicker then adjusting orders.

[Jorgen_CAB]

If you select the "Load All Minerals" and then also set an amount, let's say 500. The task-group will load 500 of each mineral. Now just select an amount that will fill up the cargo hold in the task-group and it will transport an even amount of ore to the colony.

I tend to run relatively small ore transport ships back and forth between my colonies using repeat orders. By combining reserve levels and wait until X amount of a specific resource I can usually get a nice distribution of ore between my colonies with little fuss and no direct interference from me other than checking out the overall distribution once in a while.

My Ore ships are basically a 5000t commercial (maximum fuel efficiency) engine and one small cargo hold. These ships usually use extremely little fuel so if you are somewhat inefficient for the sake of automation you will not loose all that much time with the freighter because it is so cheap to build and upgrade.

Once I set up the routes I can manipulate their throughput by changing the speed on my ore transport ships.

[joeclark77 (OP)]

I'm with Joeclark on this one, unless I've been doing this wrong.

THe only way I can load up my mineral-less colonies is to dispatch supply ships with the order chain:
- load duranium 2,500 on colony earth
- load neutronium 2,500 on colony earth
- load corundium 2,500 on colony earth
...
- Unload all minerals on colony titan
- refuel from colony earth
[repeat]
and that all get tedious to type in.

At the very least a "load 1,000 of each type" would be nice.

The problem with this approach is that it breaks if any of the minerals is unavailable. IE it breaks and you have to re-issue the orders every time. (If you had a surplus of every mineral on both planets, there'd be no reason for the cargo route anyway.)

Sounds like the functionality I'm looking for is already in the game though, thanks to those who pointed it out!

[MarcAFK]

If you select the "Load All Minerals" and then also set an amount, let's say 500. The task-group will load 500 of each mineral. Now just select an amount that will fill up the cargo hold in the task-group and it will transport an even amount of ore to the colony.

I think this is exactly what the OP wanted to know, thanks for point it out as I had forgotten about this also, I think the wiki needs this entered somewhere also.