Five goods ran short at once: which one is the real cause the player could not fix?

In a game with production chains, one missing material drags others down, and the log shows all of them short together. Blaming the loudest one sends you fixing the wrong thing. This entry shows how to find the shortage that started it, even when the chain loops back.

Why this works

In a chain, a missing item drags down everything that needs it, so the loudest warning is usually a symptom. Fixing what a player could really fix means following the needs back to goods whose own ingredients are fine. A circle of goods that wait on each other counts as one cause.

When not to use it

Do not use it when shortages are independent, or when the cause is not a missing good at all but a bad layout, slow transport or a rule the player misread. Then the chain shows nothing; watch the player's route instead.

In the full entry

• What to build, step by step
• Starting values and the reason for each
• 3 common mistakes and the fix
• 30 lines of example code with 4 checks that pass
• How your AI shows you that it works

Say this to your AI

Use the Spielerando entry "Five goods ran short at once: which one is the real cause the player could not fix?" (read_entry root-shortage-in-supply-chain) in my game. Build it step by step, and show me how you checked that it works.

Or skip this and connect the MCP: your AI then finds all of this by itself.Connect the MCP