No matter what the circumstances of the individual, everything goes into the communal pot.
Today, I had a hunter die of starvation within moments of another hunter depositing venison in the storehouse. I've had fishermen die of starvation as well.
Such dedicated people! The food production people don't hold out anything in times of shortage but kick it all into the general pot while starving, then they don't seem to have first dibs on the pot.
If the food is not available at the abode of the victim, even if he has hands full of it, he can starve before he gets to table. Very monastic and ascetic.
Which version of the game are you using? In the 1.0.3 they can eat from a barn or a marketplace, even if their house is devoid of food.
2.2.0.6
I wasn't aware there was a version newer than 1.0.3.
You must be playing 1.02
Lest there be any confusion, here is the installation history tree:
Banished
├── setup_banished_2.0.0.3.exe
├── setup_banished_2.1.0.5.exe
└── setup_banished_2.2.0.6.exe
These are my installation file names:
BanishedInstaller_1.0.0_x64.msi
Banished_1.0.1_140227_Test.zip
BanishedInstaller_1.0.2_x64.msi
Banished_1.0.3_Beta_140531.zip
i really dont understand how you can be in 2.0 while everybody in the world have 1.0.0 1.0.1 1.0.2 and most of us 1.0.3
when you start the game, the version is written in the bottom of the screen
I haven't had a starvation death in a long, long time. I've been playing 1.03 since it was released.
Yes, with 2700 pop in the 500 farmer challenge I was having 40 or 50 die every year of starvation. That was with 1.0.2.
Since I went to 1.0.3 I don't think I have had any starvation deaths, and am currently on 3670 pop.
Quote from: A Nonny Moose on August 09, 2014, 01:29:50 PM
Lest there be any confusion, here is the installation history tree:
Banished
├── setup_banished_2.0.0.3.exe
├── setup_banished_2.1.0.5.exe
└── setup_banished_2.2.0.6.exe
Where are you downloading these files?
GOG.com. If these are not correct versions, someone should set them straight.
Quote from: slink on August 09, 2014, 01:48:31 PM
These are my installation file names:
BanishedInstaller_1.0.0_x64.msi
Banished_1.0.1_140227_Test.zip
BanishedInstaller_1.0.2_x64.msi
Banished_1.0.3_Beta_140531.zip
@slink, why are you not using the final 1.0.3?
Quote from: solarscreen on August 10, 2014, 07:38:56 PM
Quote from: slink on August 09, 2014, 01:48:31 PM
These are my installation file names:
BanishedInstaller_1.0.0_x64.msi
Banished_1.0.1_140227_Test.zip
BanishedInstaller_1.0.2_x64.msi
Banished_1.0.3_Beta_140531.zip
@slink, why are you not using the final 1.0.3?
The beta fixed my problem and I never noticed that it went final three weeks later. Have you found a large playing difference between the beta and the final in this case? I see from his blog that he fixed a few more things.
Installed 1.0.3 which seems as good or better than the GOG version. Some confusion there because I have three versions for GOG all claiming to be version 2.x.y.
Quote from: slink on August 11, 2014, 06:21:39 AM
The beta fixed my problem and I never noticed that it went final three weeks later. Have you found a large playing difference between the beta and the final in this case? I see from his blog that he fixed a few more things.
To be honest, I haven't played more than 30 minutes since installing the latest. :( Life has been very demanding this last month and I have been struggling just to post on the forum to make sure people know I'm alive.
I would like a professional review and opinion. How about it? :)
1.0.3 runs better than the version I had, thanks. I now have a village worth saving across sessions, and currently am working to solve a tools crisis which seemed to appear out of nowhere. Smithies are not productive enough (I currently have three) and I've just opened a coal mine.
Traders selling tools may solve this in the end, but I am not counting on it.
Quote from: A Nonny Moose on August 12, 2014, 01:47:20 PM
1.0.3 runs better than the version I had, thanks. I now have a village worth saving across sessions, and currently am working to solve a tools crisis which seemed to appear out of nowhere. Smithies are not productive enough (I currently have three) and I've just opened a coal mine.
Traders selling tools may solve this in the end, but I am not counting on it.
Check whether your blacksmiths are educated. Shortages can appear apparently out of nowhere when an educated worker is replaced by an uneducated one.
Quote from: slink on August 12, 2014, 01:58:45 PM
Quote from: A Nonny Moose on August 12, 2014, 01:47:20 PM
1.0.3 runs better than the version I had, thanks. I now have a village worth saving across sessions, and currently am working to solve a tools crisis which seemed to appear out of nowhere. Smithies are not productive enough (I currently have three) and I've just opened a coal mine.
Traders selling tools may solve this in the end, but I am not counting on it.
Check whether your blacksmiths are educated. Shortages can appear apparently out of nowhere when an educated worker is replaced by an uneducated one.
Definitely agree on the education.
When Flomatons education dropped to 30%, I had a tool shortage of almost 300 and had to change my trade ports to buy tools. It took 2 years to pull out of that mess.
I've found 4 reasons for tool shortages:
1. If producing steel tools, citizens are using all coal for heating.
2. Shortage of iron
3. Shortage of logs
4. Shortage of blacksmiths.
#1 is the reason I gave up on producing steel tools. #3 is usually the one that bites me in the posterior. I get so worked up about the shortage of firewood I forget that tools also require logs.
you need to keep in mind that the blacksmith need to spend +-33% more time to walk away to get 1 more ressource : Coal. he needs to go get wood, and bring it to the building, then he needs to go get iron and bring it to the building, and then also, he need to go get coal and bring it to the building, and generally , it s already time to go eat, and after when got back, he is cold, need to go warm up, and then ooops, his house doesnt have any firewood, he needs to go buy some, and then ooops he doesnt have food anymore, he needs to make grocery, and then , he go back, craft 1 Tools, and it s already time to go eat again ^^
I can no longer see any very good reason to make or to buy steel tools or warm coats, either one, since I've seen how easy it is to keep tens of thousands each of iron tools and warm coats wool coats in stock.
In that last sentence did you mean to say 'wool coats'?
Quote from: rkelly17 on August 14, 2014, 10:36:16 AM
I've found 4 reasons for tool shortages:
[snip]
3. Shortage of logs
4. Shortage of blacksmiths.
#1 is the reason I gave up on producing steel tools. #3 is usually the one that bites me in the posterior. I get so worked up about the shortage of firewood I forget that tools also require logs.
You know I hadn't really properly considered that before. Usually I am also worried about firewood, not logs for blacksmiths.
Quote from: A Nonny Moose on August 14, 2014, 03:53:36 PM
In that last sentence did you mean to say 'wool coats'?
I did; thanks. Corrected.
Quote from: mariesalias on August 14, 2014, 04:28:56 PM
You know I hadn't really properly considered that before. Usually I am also worried about firewood, not logs for blacksmiths.
I've had to shut down tool production entirely for a couple of years because of a shortage of logs. Fortunately I had many thousands of them in stock. But you can go without making tools, you can't go without making firewood.
QuoteI've found 4 reasons for tool shortages:
1. If producing steel tools, citizens are using all coal for heating.
Until this post I had no idea my citizens were using my coal to heat their homes! Thank you!
Ever since I switched solely to steel tools I've stopped having tool shortages. Though I think most of you have much larger cities than I do, so I'm not sure if that trend will last. Mine just broke 500. I have two blacksmiths that produce steel tools for my village and one that produces iron tools for trading. Currently I have 2000 tools in stock, produce 215 and use 190. I was at producing 200 and using 100 a couple years ago, but since refining some of my industrial areas and adding more production to food (my population has stagnated), I'm now in need of another blacksmith to boost my production back up. It wont take long for that 190 to overtake the 215, can't let that go unattended :)
@RavenSteele Your supply chain would be much simplified if you just produced iron tools for use and for trade. Steel tools are better, but only because they last longer. If you have scads of iron tools, who cares when they break?
Keep in mind that every market will keep in stock enough iron and logs to keep a blacksmith supplied for making iron tools. I just put a blacksmith at each market, set him to making iron tools, and forget about it. As long as you have enough vendors (and enough logs and iron), he'll never stop. This gives me enough iron tools to have a considerable surplus to put in the trading posts.
Wool coats work exactly the same way. A market will keep wool in stock for one tailor. Or for a number of tailors, if you are able to put a number of vendors there, and if you have enough wool.
Ale works exactly the same way, if you have enough fruit.
Everything I do is based on markets. I plan where my next market is going, then I plan everything around it.
@irrelevant , what do you mean by simplify my supply chain? It seems pretty simple already... My main two blacksmiths are near my markets and my third is next to my trading post along with a well stocked barn and stockpile. The thing that kept happening to me with the iron tools was that I seemed to be using considerably more resources than with the steel tools. My resources would drain very quickly and I wasn't able to recover. I switched to steel tools, and not only did my tool shortages stop but my iron and log production increased. Now I always have plenty of tools and lots of iron, logs, and coal. Are you saying I could do that with fewer than two blacksmiths (I don't count the third because its used only for trading)?
No, I just mean that by switching to iron tools you eliminate the need for coal altogether; coal is a huge problem, your villagers have an insatiable appetite for using it to heat their homes; it is far more valuable than firewood, but burns at the same rate. Plus every blacksmith you build in the future, you can just set to making iron tools and not have to decide.
It is a bigger issue with warm coats vs wool coats vs hide coats. It is so much simpler to make one thing and not to have to keep track of which tailor is making what, and whether you have enough leather, and enough wool, and should this tailor switch to that to balance things out, etc.
If you just have a few blacksmiths or tailors, it doesn't matter, it isn't so hard to keep track of. But if your town gets big enough (and what is "big enough" will vary), producing two different products at the same producer will become more than you will want to mess with.
And actually, I'm surprised your production increased when you switched to steel tools. For iron tools, one log + one iron = two iron tools. For steel tools, one log + one iron + one coal = two steel tools. So you are producing the same number of tools from the same amount of iron and logs, but you also have to have coal. I think you may just have coincidentally solved whatever iron/log issues you were having at the same time you switched to steel.
i usually have 2-3 coal mines (sometimes even 4-5) but it s not for Tools, only for heating citizens, so i can save some firewood to sell ^^
Well now, there is something to be said for that, I never considered that. Firewood and logs are always an issue.
I've never built a mine or a quarry, either one. I'll have to consider that. It's not like I don't have enough guys! :D
If the math works out straight, it appears that 1 log + 1 iron = 2 iron tools and 1 log + 1 iron + 1 coal = 3 steel tools. It says that steel tools last twice as long, so using that logic, producing 6 iron tools is the same number of resources as 6 steel tools, but the 6 steel tools will last twice as long. So in essence you will use twice as many resources producing iron tools. Also, steel tools spread the resource usage amongst the three resources, where iron uses only logs and iron, so the hit to your iron and logs is higher because you don't have coal to share the cost. I realize coal is worth more when trading, but I don't trade for any reason other than emergencies and I like that my iron and log reserves don't dwindle as fast.
are you sure its +1 wood +1 iron = 2 Tools ?
and +1 wood +1 iron +1 coal = 3 tools ?
@RedKetchup, no :) I double-checked. It just shows three steel tools on the ground but when picked up it displays only 2 in inventory.
But still, if steel tools last twice as long as iron then 2 steel tools = 4 iron tools. 2 steel = 1 iron, 1 log, 1 coal for a total of 3 resources. 4 iron tools = 2 iron + 2 logs for 4 resources. Steel tools are still 25% more efficient to produce.
Edit: not to mention use half as much iron and logs.
Quote from: RavenSteele on August 15, 2014, 07:15:37 AM
@RedKetchup, no :) I double-checked. It just shows three steel tools on the ground but when picked up it displays only 2 in inventory.
But still, if steel tools last twice as long as iron then 2 steel tools = 4 iron tools. 2 steel = 1 iron, 1 log, 1 coal for a total of 3 resources. 4 iron tools = 2 iron + 2 logs for 4 resources. Steel tools are still 25% more efficient to produce.
Edit: not to mention use half as much iron and logs.
The problem I always faced was the citizens using up all my coal to burn for warmth and leaving none for the blacksmiths. The result of trying to produce steel tools was always a massive tool shortage. How do you deal with that?
I have three mines, two that typically produce iron and one that produces coal. A fully staffed coal mine covers all the heating & blacksmith needs of my entire village. I'm sitting around 200 in reserve for coal right now. I'm not sure why my citizens aren't using coal as much as yours. It may be another factor? Like warm coats or an abundance of firewood? I have 10,000+ firewood and 300 warm coats in reserve at any given time. I also have a mix of wood and stone houses (about 50/50).
Another factor may in favor of steel tools is time. A blacksmith has to produce twice as many iron tools as steel to support your population, which means twice as many trips to the market/stockpile/barn.
@rkelly17, it sounds like the difference is my citizens aren't using as much coal to heat their homes as yours. What kind of houses do you build? And what is your source for coal?
I usually build some coal mines too and build some steel tools, but when my towns get bigger, I usually end up switching to trading iron tools for steel to keep my population supplied and build up a good stockpile of them. With the trade being iron tools worth 8 and steel tools worth 10, it works out nicely. Later when I have excess wool, I stop making warm coats and trade for them, too.
I do build at least half wooden houses (often more) though as I am not so fond of how the stone ones look.
@mariesalias I think you may be short changing yourself that way :)
Keeping in mind that 2 iron tools =1 steel tool:
2 iron tools is 16 in value. 1 steel tool is 10 in value. Cost of resources for iron tool plus cost of steel tool is 19. This is a net loss of 3.
If instead you use the iron tools to buy materials for steel tools, then cost of resources for iron tools plus cost of resources for steel tools is 16.5 (resource cost of 15 halved to indicate single steel tool + 9 for cost of iron tool resources). This is a net loss of 0.5.
In all, producing iron tools to trade for steel causes a loss no matter if you buy the steel tools directly or the resources to make them yourself.
@RavenSteele These decisions aren't always made solely as a result of trade calculations. For me, the inventory management isn't worth it. I produce iron tools, period. That way, a tool is a tool. I don't have to deal with coal. In my 4000 pop town, I never owned a single lump.
Every time I built a market I also built a blacksmith next to it. Eventually I was producing thousands of iron tools per year at 30-35 blacksmiths because they are excellent in trade, and what my guys were using was basically trade surplus. For a number of years I was also buying steel tools, but I got tired of trying to keep an eye on inventories of two types of tool, in addition to everything else. Plus having two types of tool interferes with the usefulness of the "low supply" warning. Finally I stopped buying them (same time I decided to stop buying warm coats), as a way to simplify my manual trade activities at 22 trading posts. Now all I was buying was logs, iron, wool, nuts (for diet balance) and fruit.
If what you are doing works for you, then it is right for you. As your town grows, what works for you may change ;)
@irrelevant oh I know :) There are also considerations such as the amount of labor needed to mine coal & iron, harvest trees, the cost of the mines & forester buildings, the drain on resources & housing that each blacksmith, miner, & forester causes and so on.
Right now I have only one trading post, and now that I have all seeds/livestock the only reason I use it is to supplement my current resource gathering. I buy coal, iron, leather, and wool only. I produce so many logs that I never buy them. I trade using firewood and iron tools.
Then again, my population is only 500 and as I fill the map and run out of space I'm sure trading is going to become much more important :)
Oh and as a side note, I built my fourth blacksmith to boost my falling tool production. Now I have 3 producing steel tools and 1 producing iron for trade. Out of curiosity irrelevant, how many tools do you produce per blacksmith on average? My steel tool production is about 110 - 115 per blacksmith and my iron is 75 for the one blacksmith. I assume my iron tool blacksmith doesn't produce as much because he is near stockpiles and barns that keep filling up. My steel tool blacksmiths are all right next to markets. My next task is to add another stockpile and barn to the area or possibly switch to a market instead.
Quote from: RavenSteele on August 15, 2014, 12:19:34 PM
There are also considerations such as the amount of labor needed to mine coal & iron, harvest trees, the cost of the mines & forester buildings, the drain on resources & housing that each blacksmith, miner, & forester causes and so on.
Right, and I don't want to think anywhere near that hard! ;)
Quote from: RavenSteele on August 15, 2014, 12:19:34 PMOut of curiosity irrelevant, how many tools do you produce per blacksmith on average? [....] I assume my iron tool blacksmith doesn't produce as much because he is near stockpiles and barns that keep filling up. My steel tool blacksmiths are all right next to markets. My next task is to add another stockpile and barn to the area or possibly switch to a market instead.
I think they're averaging around 100 iron tools yearly. I'll check when I get home this evening. Yes, that's the problem with relying on barns and stockpiles to supply producers, no control over what goes into them.
QuoteRight, and I don't want to think anywhere near that hard! ;)
I'm a data analyst by trade, so I enjoy that level of complexity ;)
I really enjoy learning about how you and others play the game. It helps me refine my own strategy!
Last year got 3998 iron tools, average 110. The most was 174, that one was fronted on a market near a TP.
I'm a CPA, but I get enough numbers at work.
Did you ever notice that the shot of novocain you get from your dentist is also a number? :)
So we are averaging about the same. I built a market right next to my trading post and my iron tools blacksmith and his production jumped to 100 the first year after that. Also my trading post is stocking product much quicker. Woohoo!
Ah you're a CPA. Makes total sense why you like it simple! I don't have to deal with numbers as much as you do. I have databases to calculate all of them for me :) Though database development does require a ton of algebra, so can't get away from it completely.
No I never noticed that about the Novocain, but I haven't had any in a very long time. My dentist uses all sonic tools which don't hurt at all.
@RavenSteele You make a very good point.
I enjoy simple math but more complicated math gets too complicated for me to remember all the rules. I was a Comminications/English minor/major. I had to take Statistics and Math Logic in college twice (at least) before I passed them, and even then, it was only because I took the 5 week summer courses so I did not have time to forget everything.
I rarely build more then 6 tradeposts and I manage all trading myself (no autotrading) so simple is better for me after a certain point. About the time my mines start running out, I start buying iron and just build iron tools and trade for steel because it is easier for me to manage. Since I always have at least half wooden houses, my people will take coal more quickly then my blacksmiths can use it up.
I do a smiilar thing with warm coats, buying wool (if I need to, sheep prodce a lot of it!) and making wool coats then using those coats to buy warm coats. Even if i have to buy wool, it only costs 5-6 each (I think) and wool coats sell for 15. I no longer buy leather buy sell it all once I have wool, because leather costs 10, where wool only costs 5, and it makes more sense to sell the leather to buy wool, to make wool coats and then buy warm coats with the wool coats. Honestly, I have no idea if it all makes sense math-wise. If i really wanted to, I could figure it out, but the amount of effort and time it would take me isn't worth it to me.
I'll have to see if I can come up with a way to make steel tools without losing so much coal to the villagers. Like
@irrelevant, I also build blacksmiths next to all my markets so as long as I don't run out of iron, I never have shortages.Because of this, I guess it never feels like I am losing out when buying steel tools.
personally i always prefer to get steel Tools rather than iron tool, if a crop get wasted into frost cause the guy's iron tool didnt last long enough... it worth it even if i lose some money to trade irons to buy steel ones. money is money , and money is set to be spent. i dont play or log in my game to just Watch and stare the amount of things i have to sell in my trading posts hehe. it meant to be exchange for something else :)
i always always put some mines here and there, cause i think give me nothing to have 300 or 500 or 800 laborers doing nothing (unemployement) in the game so i make them work. so i put coal mine. i have nothing against citizens using coal to warm their houses cause 'it NEEDS' to be warmed, being warmed by firewood ? or Coal ? doesnt matter at all. it needs to be warmed. each time they used 10 coal they saved up 100 firewood (i dunno the real numbers of amount spent in 1 year to warm an house for 1 year)
i play as i feel it. i dont love to start do maths, spreadsheet, or whatever. same in Warcraft. i play my city and plan it as i feel it, as the geography of the map plays on my feelings.
Quote from: RavenSteele on August 15, 2014, 08:38:17 AM
Another factor may in favor of steel tools is time. A blacksmith has to produce twice as many iron tools as steel to support your population, which means twice as many trips to the market/stockpile/barn.
@rkelly17, it sounds like the difference is my citizens aren't using as much coal to heat their homes as yours. What kind of houses do you build? And what is your source for coal?
Wow! This thread has certainly stimulated the conversation. To answer
@RavenSteele's question: In my last several towns I have not built mines or quarries, but traded ale for stone and iron. Once stone is at a sufficient level I build all stone houses, though before that I build a mixture depending on the materials in stock. Before I learned how to trade better, I built both mines and quarries. When I was building steel tools I was new to Banished and built mostly log cabins. The iron and coal were both from mines.
Has anyone tested to see whether citizens have a preference for firewood or coal? Is such a test possible?
they go for the closest
Agreed. And it also appears that wooden houses are a much bigger drain on your coal. Since wooden houses are less efficient, if your coal stockpiles are near your wooden houses they'll take that over firewood and burn it up much faster.
At first I did not notice this and something else was causing an anomaly. So my wooden houses are all near my town center and two of my blacksmiths are there as well. My blacksmiths are right next to the market and are closer then the houses, so my blacksmiths seemed to grab all the coal from the market before people would grab it for there homes. The vendors would go grab more coal and while they were gone people would grab firewood instead. Vendors would return just in time for my blacksmiths to restock their coal.
Then when my population increased by 200 and the number of wooden houses I had increased in the town center, this shifted. The blacksmiths no longer could get the coal quick enough and my people took it all for their homes. I converted many of my wooden houses to stone and that solved the problem.
Ah, maybe then when the mod kit comes out and someone makes some better looking stone houses, then I'll build more of them. ;D
So I had an unexpected coal experience in my current town. An early resource merchant brought 50 coal, period. So having the idea of showing just how frustrating it is trying to keep coal around, I bought it. My blacksmith was active at the time producing iron tools, so I just switched him over to steel. He grabbed 6 or 8 coal, and the vendors gradually moved the rest of it into the market. I figured that would be the end of that.
I checked in on the experiment every month or two. The blacksmith plugged away making steel tools, and the coal sat there in the market. At first I got confused, thinking that instead of 50 coal I had bought 300, (300 was how much I paid for it) and I was looking at the 33 coal in the market and the 30-odd steel tools he had made by then, and I assumed that my point had been proved, that 250 coal had gone up folks' chimneys.
At the end, after a year, the blacksmith had produced 100 steel tools. The roundness of this number led me to investigate, and I discovered my error. So, 50 coal was bought, and 50 coal was used in making steel tools. The stock of coal sat in my only market, untouched by anyone but the smith, for the entire year. This experiment will bear repeating, with bigger numbers, to see if I can figure out under what conditions citizens use or do not use coal for heating.
@irrelevant, could it be that the houses served by that market were full up with firewood and didn't go looking for fuel? Or that there was a source of firewood (e.g., storage yard) closer to the houses than the market? One can't argue with concrete observation, but it dies sound a bit unusual. Do we count it as an anomaly or change our paradigm?
@rkelly17 Full-up with firewood certainly is a possibility, I had at that time perhaps 10 wooden houses and a boarding house. I've never had more than a few hundred firewood extra, but there always has been some firewood available.
The market on the other hand is much closer to most of the houses than is any pile with firewood in it. Of course there is firewood available in the market as well.
I'm not ready to switch over to steel tools, but this was an experiment that will bear repeating on a larger scale.
in my mind, if the market has and firewood, and coal, both, the Citizen will take firewood first, he will take coal only if no firewood left in the market (if the market is the closest)
That's possible, and certainly would account for this. It's quite possible that my previous bad coal experience was caused by failing effectively to manage my firewood. That was during the first 30-50 years of the farming challenge, when I was still quite new to the game.
In my coal only experiment, I did see this phenomena. One of the first buildings I constructed was a coal mine, and I constructed it before any houses. When my houses were finally built (late Autumn of year 1), I had a stock of 100 firewood (from initial supply) and about 12 coal. My workers grabbed the firewood first and ignored the coal. After a while, they started grabbing coal as well but when I looked at the inventory of the houses it was clear they were burning the firewood first and then switched to the coal when it ran out.
This could mean that if there is a surplus of firewood with a stock in every market, citizens would choose firewood over coal and leave coal for blacksmiths. I would really like to see that confirmed. Anyone up for a research project? Any grants available? ;D
I think
@irrelevant is best setup for that experiment right now :)
Yeah, if I get another merchie bring some coal, I'll buy it.
@RavenSteele @rkelly17 I bought 130 coal in fall 19. By Winter of 20, I had made 228 steel tools at three blacksmiths before the coal was all gone. That means in a year my guys got 16 coal for heating, less than 15%. Not a bad exchange. If it can work like that, I'm in. Steel tools for my guys, iron tools for trade.
Thanks for the experiment
@irrelevant. I'm suspecting that one would want to build steel-tool blacksmiths near a TP where coal is coming in, eh?
Actually I'm finding the coal gets taken to all of my markets. Still an early town, so I just have 4 markets, each one with a blacksmith. I changed them all to make steel tools until the coal was gone.
I wonder actually how this will work out when my town gets bigger, how far the coal will get distributed.
So what I'm doing is holding most of the coal in the TPs that buy it. Being careful to buy it in different places. Releasing it in small batches (200-300) from TP to storage. I'll switch all my blacksmiths over to steel tools and produce those until they start running out of coal, at which point I switch them back to iron tools. I'll run those until the TPs are restocked, then I'll release more coal and switch back to steel. I've got 700 coal, that's probably enough to last a year or two.
Using iron tools for trade and giving steel tools to my guys. I'll do this until it starts being a headache, then I'll switch to all iron tools. By the time that happens though I expect I'll have a few thousand steel tools in storage. I already have nearly 500 from just the four blacksmiths.