OverstockReturn Released

Reverse logistics for Big Ambitions: lower or remove a logistics target and the excess stock goes back to its warehouse. Standard Returns are free; an Urgent Return gets it back sooner for a fee.

OverstockReturn adds reverse logistics to Big Ambitions. Lower or remove a logistics target and the stock a store holds above its new target goes back to the warehouse that supplies it, without you carrying a single box.

Standard Returns are free. The truck that already serves the store collects the excess from the store's back-room storage at the next warehouse restock, and the stock is available in the warehouse about 11 game hours later.

Need it back sooner? Call Logistics Alerts from Contacts and request an Urgent Return for a product. The offer shows the quantity, its estimated retail value, the time saved and the maximum fee before you confirm. Pickup is one game hour later, and the stock is in the warehouse one game hour after that. The fee is charged at pickup and is never higher than the amount you confirmed.

Active Urgent Returns are shown in a small tracker under Objectives, and the mod has its own pages in the game's Help. OverstockReturn needs no other mod.

Standard Returns

A Standard Return is free. All you do is change the target.

• Lower a product's logistics target for a store, or remove the product from the store's targets. The excess is marked for return. Nothing leaves the store yet.
• At the next warehouse restock, the truck that already serves the store collects the excess from the store's storage.
• The quantity is worked out at pickup. If the store sells some first, less goes back, and if you change the target again the latest target counts.
• The stock is available in the warehouse about 11 game hours after pickup. With the usual 02:00 restock, that is around 13:00 the same day.

Remove a product or set its target to 0 and the store is drained of it over the following restocks, until it holds none or you set a target again.

Urgent Returns

Contacts → Logistics Alerts → Call → Request an Urgent Return

Logistics Alerts is in your Contacts as soon as your city has loaded. It does not need to have sent a message first.

An Urgent Return collects one product within about an hour, for a fee. Each product that can go urgently is offered in turn, and each offer shows the estimated quantity, its estimated retail value, when it would arrive as a Standard Return, the time saved and the maximum fee.

• Pickup is one game hour after you confirm. The stock is available in the warehouse one game hour after pickup.
• The fee is a maximum. It is charged at pickup, it can be lower, and it is never higher than you confirmed.
• If the pickup cannot go ahead, nothing is charged and the product stays on its Standard Return.
• An Urgent Return is offered only when it would be faster than the Standard Return, and only when the warehouse has a vehicle with a driver.

Tracking and cancelling

While an Urgent Return is active, a small Urgent Returns tracker sits under Objectives. Before pickup it shows the maximum fee and a countdown to pickup; after pickup it shows the fee charged and a countdown to arrival. It pages through several returns and tucks away to a tab at the edge of the screen, like Objectives.

Cancel from the same call with Manage Urgent Returns. Cancelling is free before pickup, and a cancelled product simply stays on its Standard Return. Logistics Alerts texts you when an Urgent Return is scheduled, cancelled, picked up and delivered.

Good to know

• For Big Ambitions build 3682. No other mods are required.
• With ImportFirst installed, Standard Returns follow its restock time.
• The mod has its own pages in the game's Help: press F1 and open OverstockReturn.
• If a game update ever makes the call or the tracker unavailable, returns keep working, and Settings → Mods → OverstockReturn has the same request and cancel actions.

Known limitations

• Returns are taken from back-room storage only. Products on display are never pulled off the sales floor; they sell down normally.
• Stores to warehouses only. Factories are not included.
• If the same product in the same store is supplied from more than one warehouse, it is skipped rather than guessed.
• Stock that was already above its target when you install the mod is left alone until you change that target.
• Stock on the road is not in the warehouse yet, so it cannot be sent on to another store until it arrives.
• On an import day, an import order that tops the warehouse up does not count a return that is still on the road, and can order that amount again. It evens out at the next import.

Release notes

0.1.1

• Logistics Alerts now appears in Contacts automatically while OverstockReturn is active. It no longer needs a logistics message first.
• A one-time welcome message from Logistics Alerts explains how to use the mod.
• The welcome message adapts to whether you already have a warehouse.
• Existing saves are supported.
• The welcome message is available in French.

0.1.0

The first release.

• Free Standard Returns when a logistics target is lowered or removed.
• Paid Urgent Returns, per product, with a confirmed maximum fee charged at pickup.
• A call on the Logistics Alerts contact to request, manage and cancel Urgent Returns.
• An Urgent Returns tracker under Objectives.
• In-game Help.

Support

If OverstockReturn is misbehaving, open a ticket. No account is needed, and nothing you send is published.

Report a problem with OverstockReturn