Then and Now: Crate Warehouses

[Captain Yamamoto]

Added June 7, 2016, Crate Warehouses came out as a way to expand on freemode work and have more ways to make money for people that may not have had a team of 4 for Heists.

you get your CEO office, then buy a Warehouse or two. so you are already a minimum of 1,250,000 into the hole.

use the computer to source crates at oddly balanced prices, grab bitches get money, ECT.

the first real big money maker added in 2016, hasnt aged very well. with exception to @Crateman not many people run this business anymore.

its partially time investment versus money. and also has an issue related to Arena War. you cannot sell warehouse slots to empty them, and you cant downgrade warehouses in size.

 

as opposed to later additions like Nightclub and Biker Businesses, Crates are under performing.

i was really hoping the update would have helped a bit, but you pay 7,500 a warehouse for RNG 1-3 crates. while nice, doesnt fill the hole like how nightclub accrues products. (which is what i was hoping for, even if it was for a daily fee of 7,500+)

and as someone that likes organized menus and owning specifications, not being able to downgrade is a big no-no for me. actually, not being able to downgrade is the reason i dont buy DLC buildings on day 1 and wait to see quirks and specifics in places like Reddit and these wonderful forums. (shout out to only having the main floor of AW and not 2 floors i wouldnt be able to get rid of)


what about you fine folks? do you enjoy Crates even with the issues compared to later releases? maybe they will do another QoL update to change a few of these outdated mechanics? (please??)

also, anyone that wants to help with some of the monster math, to make the topic a lil more fleshed out would be appreciated

[Mexicola9302]

I still do crates, i bought more than 3000 already. Every once in a while i just make my 5 large warehouses full, and wait for a double money event, to sell them all for 22,22 million. I currently got 163m that would make my money go up to 185m that is not shabby.

 

The workers in the warehouses really help, it makes the sourcing of crates a little bit less time consuming, but it should have been always 3 regular crates or 1 special crate like minigun, russian egg etc. they could have just increased the sourcing price from 7500 to 20K if they always collect 3 regulars or 1 special one.

 

My warehouses are currently filled to 72% or something, soon they are full again, then i focus on other stuff again. It just feels good having 5 full large warehouses ready for a double event.

 

What pisses me off, is that we can't collect all 3 crates with one vehicle, like a van or something, that would be very helpful. No we still have to drive/fly back and forth 3 times like a caveman, if it's one of these annoying missions. If that would be possible to just use a van, it would change everything to the better. Then vans would have their use in the game, currently there is no reason at all to own any van in the game, this would change that. Everything that is considered a "Van" should be able to pick up all 3 crates and voila it would be fun to do these missions.

 

There are 29 vans in the game. I would love to use the Youga, Rumpo, Burrito, Pony, Speedo, Surfer or whatever van. Just a way to collect all 3 crates.

[SummerFreeze]

If you save them up for x2 events, crates are still a top money maker. Of course nothing beats Cayo at least before the nerf. But crates is the only business that allows you to save up for an event week. You could make $22+ million selling 5 full large warehouses.

[Captain Yamamoto]

multiple crates in a car you own is a great idea.

and what if i wanted to NOT have 5 large warehouses?

[Guest]

4 hours ago, Captain Yamamoto said:

multiple crates in a car you own is a great idea.

and what if i wanted to NOT have 5 large warehouses?

You really only need two (I also have 1 small specifically for special cargo).

[SummerFreeze]

5 hours ago, Captain Yamamoto said:

and what if i wanted to NOT have 5 large warehouses?

Then your ability to take advantage of x2 events is diminished. There's only so many crates you can collect in a week.

[ambi3nt]

3 hours ago, BumpyJohnson said:

You really only need two (I also have 1 small specifically for special cargo).

With 2 warehouses you will end up with cooldown on both quite a lot. Back when I still used to do cargo, I would fill 2 big warehouses and third one would go to at least half from all those extra sources in case of double cooldown. With some lucky spawns even 3 warehouses can get one at the same time.

[Pedinhuh]

I see the new crate warehouse workers as a nice way to make a low profile passive income along with the active income of the CEO Special Cargo business, it's not meant to be something done exclusively passive or otherwise you will wait forever until your business becomes profitable. 

 

In other words, this is a add-on to your active income, not a sole way of making money passively.

 

Although, I am doing just that: I bought 2 other medium warehouses + moved my three other warehouses to be closer to my other passive income businesses, all around the Strawberry/Davis neighborhoods, in order to send out my guys to get those crates while I'm "doing the rounds" collecting money from my other businesses(Nightclub, Agency, Arcade and complete Auto Shop vehicle orders)...I'm pretty much turning my warehouses into a passive businesses too, but I know this is not an optimal strategy to play the game, but I can afford to just do whatever I want anyway.

 

Now, the one thing that is not exactly clear to me, is that "export goods" sale we can do from our offices that involves the cargo we have in our warehouses, but somehow it doesn't deplete our stock upon completing the sales.

[BlackMilk]

Back in the day (huehuehue) I just did a couple of small sales and one large one. Filled up ten large warehouses and waited months for a double value event. Took quite a while to have two characters fill up five warehouses each fully.

Now coming back I don't know that I'll ever do much crate collecting myself if I bother with those warehouses again. Might do it at least once (5 or even 10 again) for an event.

 

While the update IS somewhat of an improvement, I personally dreamed of being CEO and literally not having to be involved with collecting cargo at all - for a price.*

The way I see the current state of it is that while it would take centuries to fill up any warehouse to full with JUST the crew collections, it's just a big time saver if you outsource a considerable lot of the work to this crew and only source crates yourself when you have any time and energy left for it. If they were faster I would let them get all of them, minimum profit would still be worth doing a sale for with the full fee for 111 individual crates.

 

*Ideally it would have been fully passive. I personally feel that at this rate of collection by the crew it should have been. But visiting each of your warehouses once just to press a button near an NPC still takes less time than any collection mission with individual crates that need to get picked up so it's still progress.

Edited August 1 by BlackMilk

[SM Grunge]

On 7/30/2022 at 12:33 AM, Mexicola9302 said:

I still do crates, i bought more than 3000 already. Every once in a while i just make my 5 large warehouses full, and wait for a double money event, to sell them all for 22,22 million. I currently got 163m that would make my money go up to 185m that is not shabby.

 

The workers in the warehouses really help, it makes the sourcing of crates a little bit less time consuming, but it should have been always 3 regular crates or 1 special crate like minigun, russian egg etc. they could have just increased the sourcing price from 7500 to 20K if they always collect 3 regulars or 1 special one.

 

My warehouses are currently filled to 72% or something, soon they are full again, then i focus on other stuff again. It just feels good having 5 full large warehouses ready for a double event.

 

What pisses me off, is that we can't collect all 3 crates with one vehicle, like a van or something, that would be very helpful. No we still have to drive/fly back and forth 3 times like a caveman, if it's one of these annoying missions. If that would be possible to just use a van, it would change everything to the better. Then vans would have their use in the game, currently there is no reason at all to own any van in the game, this would change that. Everything that is considered a "Van" should be able to pick up all 3 crates and voila it would be fun to do these missions.

 

There are 29 vans in the game. I would love to use the Youga, Rumpo, Burrito, Pony, Speedo, Surfer or whatever van. Just a way to collect all 3 crates.

Do you often get raided? Imagine that the next event about crates is in October for example, you are bound to register as a CEO sooner or later.

[Mexicola9302]

9 hours ago, SM Grunge said:

Do you often get raided? Imagine that the next event about crates is in October for example, you are bound to register as a CEO sooner or later.

As long as i don't stand around outside doing nothing, i should be fine. I did this often already, that i had all warehouses full for like a half year or something.

 

And because all my MC businesses are completly out of stock and supplies, i can just register as MC pres now if i have to do bunker or NC related stuff. It sucks that i have to pay 35K every ingame day as MC press, damn daily fees with all businesses running for the NC.

 

My warehouses are filled to 95% now, soon they are full.

[ambi3nt]

10 hours ago, SM Grunge said:

Do you often get raided? Imagine that the next event about crates is in October for example, you are bound to register as a CEO sooner or later.

If you change session when special cargo raid happens, it simply ends without any losses. And cargo raids are really rare compared to other businesses.

[SpaceBeagle]

You fill up large warehouse up to 77 crates and you are safe, no raids under 78 - I also have 2 large and one small (for special items), on both characters... I made second because of crates & CEO warehouses, even though I'm not a 'grinder' 

Who is ok with doing crate collecting missions from time to time, it is a nice cool little activity as you put some music and you fly around (when I was doing them I would do like up to 10-15 runs and quit).

Fill them up to that 'safe number' and let them be until there is a double week, then you finish them up to 111 and sell. Now you can buy them also, so it will go even faster 

[Taterman]

9 minutes ago, SpaceBeagle said:

You fill up large warehouse up to 77 crates and you are safe, no raids under 78 - I also have 2 large and one small (for special items), on both characters... I made second because of crates & CEO warehouses, even though I'm not a 'grinder' 

Who is ok with doing crate collecting missions from time to time, it is a nice cool little activity as you put some music and you fly around (when I was doing them I would do like up to 10-15 runs and quit).

Fill them up to that 'safe number' and let them be until there is a double week, then you finish them up to 111 and sell. Now you can buy them also, so it will go even faster 

 

I do the exact same thing, even have the same warehouses.

[Mexicola9302]

1 hour ago, SpaceBeagle said:

You fill up large warehouse up to 77 crates and you are safe, no raids under 78 - I also have 2 large and one small (for special items), on both characters... I made second because of crates & CEO warehouses, even though I'm not a 'grinder' 

Who is ok with doing crate collecting missions from time to time, it is a nice cool little activity as you put some music and you fly around (when I was doing them I would do like up to 10-15 runs and quit).

Fill them up to that 'safe number' and let them be until there is a double week, then you finish them up to 111 and sell. Now you can buy them also, so it will go even faster 

I usually do 30-45 per run, also doesn't feel too grindy, if you really fill it up as fast as possible, then it really is grindy as hell. But doing it slowly works great yeah.

 

That is doing 2-3 missions for each of my 5 large warehouses.

Edited August 2 by Mexicola9302

[EkaSwede]

Crates are nice, I guess. I can stomach the fact that we buy the crates, but that one Lupe mission where you have to do so many things doesn't make sense that we still "buy" them. We're already trading goods. Give me a refund!

[BlackMilk]

Come to think of it, while I see why they didn't, it would have been nice if the collection crew could be sent out on crate runs from a central terminal like say... ye olde office computer?

The arcade and terrorbyte terminals set a trend that I think they should have stuck to. Ofcourse because this doesn't fall under the missions you do yourself they didn't include it but my point of view is like what I said in a post above: going round to the warehouses and paying crew to collect crates is really just a very slow version of getting them yourself.

[AUScowboy]

I’ve been buying them up for the chance at special cargo and will sell the regular ones when they pile up or we get a money bonus on them. I more enjoy the process of being able to drive up and enlist the warehouse attendant to source them, it adds to the kingpin/crime lord vibe. That’s what I love about this update, you can make decent money by just maintaining and doing little extra bits of work for all the existing businesses (sourcing cargo, stealing nightclub goods, delivering excess cargo and gun parts). It’s nice not having to commit to filling up and grinding one revenue stream.

[ilovefreebird]

6 hours ago, AUScowboy said:

I’ve been buying them up for the chance at special cargo and will sell the regular ones when they pile up or we get a money bonus on them. I more enjoy the process of being able to drive up and enlist the warehouse attendant to source them, it adds to the kingpin/crime lord vibe. That’s what I love about this update, you can make decent money by just maintaining and doing little extra bits of work for all the existing businesses (sourcing cargo, stealing nightclub goods, delivering excess cargo and gun parts). It’s nice not having to commit to filling up and grinding one revenue stream.

 

Agreed. I haven't done any crate sourcing or selling in years because it's so boring to me. I've been loving going to my three warehouses periodically and making Lupe's crew do the work for me - I don't care that it's less profitable (level 1269 with more money than I'll ever need).

 

I've also been having Sessanta's crew deliver both cars from the auto shop (I know this was available before). This update has just added to your ability (some might call it a chore) to fly around the map and essentially collect/make money. Instead of doing a zillion more "drive here, pick this up, deliver it here" missions, it's kind of nice to put my feet up while someone else does it for me.

[SummerFreeze]

So who else made a $4.44 million crate sale for that x2 bonus and beat off earphones?

[AUScowboy]

2 minutes ago, SummerFreeze said:

So who else made a $4.44 million crate sale for that x2 bonus and beat off earphones?

Does it have to be over $4 mil or something? I got a pair for delivering nightclub cargo, white ones.

[SummerFreeze]

19 minutes ago, AUScowboy said:

Does it have to be over $4 mil or something? I got a pair for delivering nightclub cargo, white ones.

Nooo... I just figured I'd use that one-time bonus on the biggest possible sale. But now I read it applies to multiple categories of sales, so I guess one could do a crate warehouse, a bunker, a nightclub sale, ... all with the bonus. Can't confirm yet though.

Edited August 2 by SummerFreeze

[Mexicola9302]

7 hours ago, SummerFreeze said:

So who else made a $4.44 million crate sale for that x2 bonus and beat off earphones?

I did get the beat off earphones for selling an I/E car.

[Black-Dragon96]

After not bothering with crates for over half a decade, I decided to give it another shot with the new sourcing mechanic.

 

Sadly it still doesnt feel worth it imo. 7500$ is rather steep for what will usually be 1 crate. Especially with a 48 min sourcetime.

I can manually fill the equivalent of a small warehouse in that time at roughly 1500$ less per crate.

To little, for to much investment, over a to long time period.

[TimTri]

On 8/2/2022 at 8:19 AM, Mexicola9302 said:

As long as i don't stand around outside doing nothing, i should be fine. I did this often already, that i had all warehouses full for like a half year or something.

 

And because all my MC businesses are completly out of stock and supplies, i can just register as MC pres now if i have to do bunker or NC related stuff. It sucks that i have to pay 35K every ingame day as MC press, damn daily fees with all businesses running for the NC.

 

My warehouses are filled to 95% now, soon they are full.

I’m assuming you’re not shutting down the empty MC businesses so your bunker staff can still source that product, right?

[Mexicola9302]

59 minutes ago, TimTri said:

I’m assuming you’re not shutting down the empty MC businesses so your bunker staff can still source that product, right?

Yes they are up and running, i let the MC businesses run completly empty, all they do is supplying my NIghtclub, and i buy supplies for my Bunker for 75K and sell it for 210K, so it's always only one vehicle.

 

Now whenever i do something where i need to be CEO or MC president, i just become MC pres, because then it's impossible to get my warehouses raided.

[summerblues]

My warehouse got raided 3 times in two days. First time it was because I was AFK towards the end of a heist setup because there was nothing to do and I was just waiting for the other player to drive to the objective. I return 3 minutes back and my assistant tells my half my stock's gone. Second time, I was present and fought them off. Third time I dozed off waiting at someone's random heist lobby waiting for players, then woke up to my 111 crate warehouse reduced to 83 crates. I haven't played since lol. It seems like the warehouse raid frequency has gone up. I've made over 300 mil with crates and I had all 5 fully stocked before for double money week and I never had a single raid.

[DrEeveell]

On 8/2/2022 at 3:26 PM, SummerFreeze said:

Nooo... I just figured I'd use that one-time bonus on the biggest possible sale. But now I read it applies to multiple categories of sales, so I guess one could do a crate warehouse, a bunker, a nightclub sale, ... all with the bonus. Can't confirm yet though.

 

Yes, you get a bonus for each business. Including for each MC business if you have more than one.

 

[DODI3OG]

2 hours ago, summerblues said:

My warehouse got raided 3 times in two days. First time it was because I was AFK towards the end of a heist setup because there was nothing to do and I was just waiting for the other player to drive to the objective. I return 3 minutes back and my assistant tells my half my stock's gone. Second time, I was present and fought them off. Third time I dozed off waiting at someone's random heist lobby waiting for players, then woke up to my 111 crate warehouse reduced to 83 crates. I haven't played since lol. It seems like the warehouse raid frequency has gone up. I've made over 300 mil with crates and I had all 5 fully stocked before for double money week and I never had a single raid.

That's why I don't fill them to 80 crates. I think the limit is at 73 crates until event day as I move between cayo grinding to crates every now and then.

[Pedinhuh]

CEO warehouses gets raided after they are 70% full, so for large warehouses of 111 crates it's 77 crates, for medium warehouses of 42 crates its 29 crates and finally, for small warehouses of 16 crates it's 11 crates.

 

So if you just be aware and remember of this threshold and keep your warehouses under them, you're safe and sound from raids.

 

Once you get past that threshold, there is a timer that trigger the raids that starts when you're on freeroam and not involved in any activities, but I can't remember much about it as it's been too long since I looked it up.

Edited August 6 by Pedinhuh