I don't believe there is currently any way to tell where the loot is when attacking. A visual indication would be a welcome addition as every other game of this kind that I've played has had this. It's very difficult when you fight hard to take out someone's storages, only to realize the base has gone inactive and all the loot is in the collectors.
Wouldn't that spoil the fun if you knew where everything was before a fight. Also, if you look at the storages, the amount the lid is raised on the gold, and the height of the barrels in the grog give you a hint of how much resource is in there Just a little tip.
given you couldn't spot an identical thread on the first page of this sub-forum i'm not sure any visual indication is going to be of use to you. @chris: advanced knowledge totally wouldn't spoil the fun, not knowing spoils the spoils! this is something that is fairly common in similar games in this genre. also thanks for the tip, that should help sort things out, if the gold/grog looks low then to the collectors we go.
I have noticed my gold storages raise the lid when full, but haven't noticed that when I'm attacking.
I did a quick non-conclusive test that seems to line up with what you say you have noticed. here is a view of the base from the replay, notice the gold storage next to the PH has a closed lid: now here is how that gold storage looks when i visit their base, notice its lid is slightly open: so it seems like when you attack you always get the "empty" image of the gold/grog storage.
