I've been relegated to my laptop now that family have arrived and claimed my office! It's a i7 ivy HQ something, with 8GB of RAM and a Nvidia 650M with a 720p screen.
It actually runs alright (well, 20 to 30fps on low, with graphics maxed out and the CPU hardly doing anything); this is a "very large" map sized but right at the start of the game. My CPU and GPU do run at 90c though! It maxes out the GPU and RAM and the only game that has made me want to upgrade the RAM on this. I've always run out of GPU power before I've hit a RAM ceiling in the past.
Anyway a couple of questions:
What determines how quickly raw materials get loaded onto a platform? I can have a simple Oil to Oil Refinery clain, with the platform connected directly to the oilfield and directly to the oil refinery, and it will only very slowly stockpile on the platform. At other sites, it will fill up on the platform faster than my 120m long trains can deliver it. What determines this speed because as far as I am aware all the "raw materials" produce 400 units (a month/year?)
Secondly, what does the image of the material to be shipped that flies above the platform actually mean? Sometimes I'll have one oil barrel and there is 20 units ready to be transported, and sometimes there'll be 4 barrels for 30 units ready to ship. Sometimes 2 barrels but there are 200 units ready to ship! It doesn't seem to correlate to train size as 1 barrel doesn't seem to nicely fit into one train and two barrels don't fit into two trains etc...
Finally, I know that the demand that can actually access the product at the end of a product chain determines how much is shipped from the factory, but does the location of the stations have any affect on how much is shipped, beyond how lit up the factory is? I just have a theory that a platform around the back of a factory, but connected directly to the factory (and therefore is lit up bright white) will fill up the platform slower than a platform right out front the factory, with all other factors being equal...