andythenorth wrote:1- players assume that supplies are required to get any primary production, so they don't use FIRS on this basis
2- players expect the amount of supplies delivered to affect chance of production increase, e.g. more delivered = higher chance of production increase
3- players expect the requirement for supplies to vary with primary production
4- players would like to be able to stockpile supplies so they don't have to deliver monthly
5- players don't want a storage limit on stockpiles because they don't like storage limits
6- players do want a storage limit on stockpiles to prevent dumping
7- players don't like these 3-tile feeders that some players are choosing to use to deliver supplies
8- players don't want to have to deliver supplies frequently, or in small amounts because they can't use giant trains to do this
9- players do want to have to deliver supplies frequently in small amounts because it makes the network more interesting than using giant trains everywhere
10- players report that FIRS is too complex. Removing supplies would remove two cargos and four industries, making FIRS simpler
11- supplies just don't work as designed in a YACD game (possibly same in cargodist)
I'm impressed by the amount of reasons to remove supplies
But anyways:
1, 2 and 3 can be solved by a little education.
4, 5 and 6: well, you can't have everything. Players 4 are clearly not up for a bit of challenge; they can be ignored. Also, you don't have to deliver monthly (that is often the case in my games). It just takes a bit longer for production to increase, so this could be solved by a little education as well.
I'm not sure how easy it would be to influence the stockpile limit by means of a parameter. If that's not too complicated, it could prove a solution for 5 and 6.
7: No need to. I run trucks straight from the production facilities or from a transfer train station.
8: Those players should stick to the default industries and have 20 coal mines next to each other and run cargo in far too many very short maglev trains.
9: Yes, players want that.
10: I thought that is what the "economies" feature was supposed to be for. There could very well be an economy without the supplies.
11: This I have no experience with. I only tried one game of YACD so far and that was passengers-only, so unfortunately I cannot comment on this. However, I'm certain that some kind of cargo destinations feature will come to trunk in due time, and FIRS should work with that. I will investigate this in my next game.
All in all FIRS is an industry set (IMO) for the more advanced OpenTTD player who got bored by the default industries and are annoyed by stockpile limits enforced by the other two major industry sets. I'm sure you are aware that you can't make an industry set that pleases every single OpenTTD player, and that's no shame. But I'm certain that removing supplies will result in losing more customers than you get back.
Instinct tells me that the YACD issue is probably key. Summer holidays are due shortly and I'm certain there will be some time for me to investigate this and hopefully come up with a solution that both can keep the supplies and solve the YACD issue. Don't start holding your breath on that now, as I have to play a YACD+FIRS game first (which will take a couple of weeks to do properly).