Virtual Storage is one of the more difficult concepts to understand in Sim Settlements 2. Virtual Storage is another form of inventory for your settlements, separate from the vanilla Workshop Storage. Scrap and caps in Virtual Storage are used, and can only be used, to build and level-up Building Plans, and pay for the upkeep of Plots (and other workshop objects if maintenance costs are activated) which have already been built. Unlike vanilla Workshop Storage, once scrap, caps or other items have been added to Virtual Storage, it cannot be used again by the player directly.
If you are currently in a settlement and the Virtual Storage doesn't have enough resources for the settlement to build/upgrade something, it will then pull from the Workshop Storage, and then your inventory if there is not enough in the Workshop to fill the gap.
Virtual Storage is filled in two ways. First, Industrial Plots produce various scrap resources that are placed in Virtual Storage. Scrap and caps can also be donated directly to Virtual Storage by the player through the Donate section of the City Planner's Desk. However, remember that whatever you donate to Virtual Storage cannot be recovered and used by the player, so choose wisely.
Each settlememt starts with no Virtual Storage. You add possible Virtual Storage to a settlement by building Industrial Plots. You can also increase a settlemet's Virtual Storage by building Storage Containers. You can find Storage Containers in the Sim Settlements 2 Workshop menu. When Caravan connections are established between settlements, those settlements' Virtual Storage will be pooled.
The current use priority is:
Note If two settlements are connected by a vanilla provisioner only, the Virtual Storage of the two settlements are not linked.
Resources are displayed in the Resources Panel on The HUD
Vitual Storage resources are shared through the Caravan Supply Lines.
The Supply Lines will be disrupted when a Caravaneer Plot becomes non-functional, caused by:
When these events happen, the settlements connected to the supply line that includes that Caravaneer Plot will no longer receive resources until the issue is resolved.
The creation of Virtual Storage in Sim Settlements 2 was done to ensure players had resource and cap sinks throughout the game, and to provide a more hardcore experience where the player doesn't end up with near-infinite resources so quickly.