Population above 2000 at year 30 a possible goal?

[jeffmikl]

For me the biggest issue is balance. I now see that trying to just get to a population goal is easier than reaching that goal with a solid town that will not fail. Right now I am doing pretty good on my town. I am at 2000 in year 25, but more importantly everything is running smooth. I have plenty of food, firewood, logs, stone, iron, herbs, tools, and coats, and do not expect any limits for anything. I have no clue what will happen in the next 5 year but at this time I think that I will get over 3000 since last year my population build was more that 250. If I am really lucky I might reach 3500 with a smooth running town at 30. What would be awesome is to reach 4000.

Jeff

[irrelevant]

@jeffmikl  Pop 2000 in 25 years is excellent! Congratulations!! Can you put up some screenshots?

Year 15 - pop 328

[Nilla]

For me the biggest issue is balance. I now see that trying to just get to a population goal is easier than reaching that goal with a solid town that will not fail. Right now I am doing pretty good on my town. I am at 2000 in year 25, but more importantly everything is running smooth. I have plenty of food, firewood, logs, stone, iron, herbs, tools, and coats, and do not expect any limits for anything. I have no clue what will happen in the next 5 year but at this time I think that I will get over 3000 since last year my population build was more that 250. If I am really lucky I might reach 3500 with a smooth running town at 30. What would be awesome is to reach 4000.

Jeff

Good job! Can you show us some pictures? How do you support your population? Farming? How do you expand enough fields fast enough? Trade? What do you trade? How many ports?.............

I'm very impressed when you say, everything is running smooth; as I made my 2000 (OK a little faster than you but not much) nothing was smooth at all, after I passed about 1000 inhabitants. Always struggle!

In my school building experiment, I have decided to go back a few years and try to  build the schools better. It seems like the game considers long time students; 24, 23, 22 years old (yes, there are plenty of those in this game  ) as adults. They always hook up with someone, even if there are other adults available. I just had a 17 (male) year old teacher moving in together with a 24 year old student (female). This doesn't work! I will make a new try.

[Nilla]

I went back and built more schools. It's still too few in some areas. I made one school for 20 houses; thinking one schoolchild in each house; that fits. But it didn't. In some houses there are two students. But at least this time it's much better. Not so many students older than 20, who are considered adults and move across the map. I followed these two student girls, who moved out with 21, to the new areas in the north and are attending schools in the south. No pleasant look! 

The game still runs. There's always some shortage, but no disaster yet. Now I'm short on logs, so I'm behind building houses. But I just noticed, that for the first time passing year 5 or something, I have enough clothes. Some of the tailors are now educated. That makes a difference. 

[jeffmikl]

Hiya,

I Have been distracted by real life, so not much time this week for Banished. However, I have reached 2200 and just crossed into the 26th year. The town focus is trade. I will get pics up once I reach 30 years. Storage barn food is currently 100,000 and wood is 80,000. Herbs, tools and coats are enough but not surplus. In year 25 my population grew by 450 and this is not calculating any nomads. If I have enough land to build houses I think that I will exceed 3500 by year 30, but I also now wonder if it will be possible to reach 4500 in year 30. Either way the population will have to be stable to count as successful.

If I do what I set out to do, I will post pics from year one on. This game is an "out of the box" no mod game. I can post vids to show that too. Anyway, writing this on my phone and my hand is going numb.

[Nilla]

So you trade mostly firewood, @jeffmikl. What I see from my games: it's probably the best thing, as the game grows big and fast. I have started to trade some firewood for food, too, but it's still in a very modest amount. The settlement isn't planned for serious trade. As I've said before, I have big problems to expand the farming area fast enough. Land isn't the problem yet, but as I've said before; it isn't cleared fast enough and if I make a try to clear more land; the farmers will go and doesn't get back to their fields in time. It's very obvious: The farmers down in southwest are too far away from the areas I work with and their fields are always well grown. Farms closer to the clearing areas, are often bad. I try different strategies to start and stop clearing, smaller/bigger areas....... but nothing works really good.

In any case, the settlement still lives. Just passed 2000 inhabitants. You can see my new wood-export area. I hope I will reach 3000 in 30 years but I suppose not much more; first it's educated people and second I sometimes run out of logs, so from time to time I'm behind building houses.

[jeffmikl]

I am very impressed with your effort Nilla.

[irrelevant]

@Nilla you are truly awesome! So well done.

I had to take some time away from gaming, eyes burning and feeling sandy from being badly overused, and I have to look at a screen all day at work.

But I'm still plugging away at this. I had a few months where I was unsure how to proceed, and fell behind in houses. But now I have a plan, and I think I still can get 2k.

Year 18 - pop 550

Just starting to break out from the two fairly balanced initial towns, each built around a market and three TPs. The trick always is expanding into sufficient farmland and forest production while developing housing, industry, and trade. The balance is crucial, and really hard!