Erlkönig: Outpost Supply

Contents

The Pull and Push models of supply

The game implements a pull model, where you're supposed to:

1. realize you need something
2. go to the connected supply pad
3. have a supply ship deliver resources
4. use the subset you need
5. manually dispose of the rest

Try to do anything much beyond this and grief awaits you.

The game gives you nothing you need for a push model, where

1. your outpost is continuously fed heterogeneous supplies
2. these are sorted into resource-specific storage

To have a push model you need either of

• a feedback system to prevent outpost from sending specific things you don't need - since outpost often supply multiple resources (OR)
• a discard system to get rid of things you're going to receive, but are already full of

I personally prefer the discard system because it doesn't require as much programming overhead and potential bugs as a feedback system

The mod I'm currently using is (which I'm not saying is the best solution, just that it's the one I'm using currently):

• Magnus the Magnate's Outpost Production Shenanigans (MtMOPS)
• https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/6753

....which provides solutions for your Everything Here outpost

• segregating incoming resources into resource-specific chains
• keeping a certain amount of each resource on hand
• discarding/selling excess of each resource you don't need

Achieving the keep-some / sell-the-rest for each resource takes a bit of creative combining, but essentially solves the problem - and the problem of supplying all the manufacturing you set up there. Keeping the result tidy.... is a different problem. Enjoy :-)

Automated Resupply in the Pull Model

Debugging cargo links is the shining job of Starfield Outpost construction, letting you investigate and solve problems of off-balance resource shipping ratios into your manufacturing, problems caused by the player extracting resources into Inventory and vice-versa, and Outpost attackers sabotaging your power, extraction, farming, and husbandry systems, throwing things off balance or entirely halting He-3 supply to your shuttle pads. 😄

• Pay attention to the risk that having too much He-3 in the shuttles can cause them to have no space for anything else - you may need to yank all the He-3 out and destroy it yourself to restore operations
• A few stellar bodies have atmospheric He-3

He-3 Management - Inverted He-3 Supply (one approach)

• Produce all your He-3 at one site, ideally as your main Outpost
• If you're intending to build an Outpost for all resources to reach, consider sites you must have due to specific unique resource,
• A planet where you can polymine and polyfarm extravagantly, even without a unique, is still a great choice, and worth importing He-3 from elsewhere
• Send all that He-3 to your main Outpost if they're different
• No other Outpost should ever send He-3 towards the main Outpost
• Your main Outpost should direct the He-3 into some local storage, and all the intersystem cargo pads, both the fueling connection and the outgoing connections. This keeps the local cargo pad functional and sends He-3 to its distant, paired partner
• Deliver all He-3 outgoing from your main Outpost, which prevents it from getting in the way of resources being sent to your main Outpost, and prevents He-3 from ever causing a shuttle jam itself
• Later, expanding the He-3 Outpost to send to some other Outposts is fine, but the new cargo pad you build at each of those other Outposts should only connect to cargo pad fuel points and He-3 storage, never to the outgoing links that lead back to the main Outpost

Incoming Supply Segregation

• You can split incoming resources into resource categories based on the target container type. So if another Outpost is sending only one resource per category, than the receiving Outpost can perfectly split them into distinct resources predictable based on the sender
• However, in the core game, there is a limit of six (6) cargo links per outpost (assuming an NG+ bug doesn't limit one to three), translating to a limit of 24 perfectly identified incoming resources plus whatever can be produced locally
• This makes it literally impossible to automatically sort any greater number of resources into per-resource specific containers
• This can be changed by adding a mod with the ability to identify specific resources, like MtMOPS

Implementing the Push Model

That mod, MtMOPS ("Shenanigans") is useful specifically to have parts for filtering and discarding/selling of excess resources. For example, a primary Outpost can be made the target of, or itself produce some of, all automatically produceable resources (i.e. not fabricated), retaining one container load of each resource on hand, and converting the overflow into a mod-specific currency to sell (though cheaply). One can also build Fabricators to pull from those to keep a chest full of each of their products. Crafting is well-supported at such Outposts.

Another key QoL improvement from these is that one can build a number of structures using ship and Outpost cargo, then deconstruct them all with the resources going to Inventory, then enter a Rover and Fast Travel to a new Outpost elsewhere, and easily rebuild all the same things without ever needing to manually transfer resources between anything.