It would be great if there were a way to configure the truck's dumping option—for example:
Let's say I have a truck with a total load capacity of 250.
It’s carrying 249 units of rock and 1 unit of dirt (or any other resource). Instead of the truck having to go all the way to the separator, I’d like to be able to just dump that specific resource.
And, of course, be able to set the threshold for when the truck should dump it.
@RedSkyFire [ideas]
But the way you put it, is everything that gets collected going to be thrown away?
Currently if you have dumping area accepting all resources inside that vehicle (in this case rock and dirt) that vehicle can dump it right away without sorting.
Maybe you have settings enabled on ore sorter that trucks must always go there even when carrying one type of material?
Actually, I’d like it to just dump the load when the truck is carrying only one unit of material (like a mix of iron, soil, or rock, for example), but if the load is greater than that, it should go to the sorting area to be separated.
I know it sounds silly, but sometimes I want to pick up some soil... but the truck ends up with 99% rock and 1% soil... so it goes to the sorting area to separate it. I wish there were something like... the truck only goes to the sorting area if it has 80% rock and 20% soil... otherwise, it could just dump the load somewhere else.
Honestly, dumping 1 specific resource out of a mix sounds like a bad idea and would make absolutely no sense in context with the game, unless your have ore sorting turned off. I mean, how would you even separate the rocks from the dirt when its all mixed in the back of the truck?
I’m not talking about separating out one specific product inside the truck; I mean that if there’s just one such product in there, I’d want to throw everything away. But if it contains a specific quantity—say, 10—I’d want to take it to the sorting area to separate them.
I don't think I'm explaining myself very well... my English is poor and I'm using a translator.
But I was thinking about something:
If a truck is loaded with 90% stone and 10% of a different resource, it goes to the sorting area to separate them.
But if it has, say, 99% stone and 1% of another resource, it could just dump the load anywhere.
I'm saying there could be an option to dump just a small part of the load...
Because it might happen that you have 99% of an important resource and 1% of a useless one, and the truck would dump the whole thing—which wouldn't be ideal.
So in other words, the ability to sacrifice some resource gathering efficiency for greater vehicle efficiency.
For instance, add a setting for "load sorting dump tolerance", allow the user to specify that tolerance, say in 10% increments. With a setting of 10%, all component loads less than 10% of the total carry could be dumped in the majority component's dumping designation.
So for the vehicle carrying 250 units, say 230 rock, 15 dirt and 5 waste, all would be dumped in a rock-accepting designation as all of the non-majority components (dirt and waste) comprise less than 10% of the total of 250. Whereas a load of 200 rock, 35 dirt, 14 waste and 1 quartz would require a trip to the sorter as the amount of one of those components (dirt) is greater than 10% of the load.
This would likely global override of the control towers' allowable dumping materials if set, in which case a toggle to "do not override" should be added to those towers you specifically do want to keep "pure".
Take the example of the photos: I could simply discard one and take the other to the sorting plant.