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RavenSteele - Parth

Started by RavenSteele, August 16, 2014, 07:39:12 PM

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Nilla

Have you built anything more? i am really curious how you manage to heat with coal. I failed badly in my no-tradesman-town. (but sure it was a bit bigger)

RavenSteele

@Nilla , yes, I did continue my experiment.  Sorry I haven't posted, been pretty busy with work and kids.

So, I was able to successfully use only coal to heat my homes and provide steel tools.  I managed to make it to year 15 without killing off all my citizens and my settlement stable.  What I discovered though, is that the rate at which coal is mined is very inefficient to heat homes.  If coal burned longer than firewood (which it should, but they burn at the same rate in Banished), then coal may be worth it to heat homes.  While I was successful, it took way too much micromanagement and also caused my settlement to grow very, very slowly.  So in conclusion, its possible, but not very fun.

I did get some good data out of this experiment though.  First, I redid the experiment using the exact same parameters, except I added firewood production.  The efficiency at which firewood is produced is just not something that can be ignored.  My town literally grew three times as fast in the first 10 years as with the coal only scenario.  Second, stone houses are definitely the way to go.  They use so little firewood that nearly all my firewood production goes to my trading posts.  My houses use no coal, and I have a huge stockpile of firewood.  Third, steel tools are awesome.  One blacksmith produces all my steel tools.  I haven't needed to mine coal since year 10 because I get so much from the trading posts that I always have a surplus.  My workers are more efficient since they make half as many trips to the market for new tools.

All in all, adding firewood production turned a map with hard starting conditions, mountains, and harsh weather into the easiest map I've played.  I'm on year 55 (I think) and I have massive surpluses in every resource.  All citizens are educated, have steel tools, warm clothes, max happiness, and max health.

I'll post screen shots when I have a chance :)

RavenSteele

Oh, and I've a total Tavern > Ale convert on the trading :)

I only trade Ale.  Firewood is now solely used for heating homes and I don't produce any wool coats or iron tools.  Just doesn't make any sense with how efficient my ale production is.

irrelevant

Quote from: RavenSteele on August 27, 2014, 01:51:16 PM
... I have massive surpluses in every resource.  All citizens are educated, have steel tools, warm clothes, max happiness, and max health.


Such a happy feeling!  ;)

RavenSteele

Ok, so here is year 10 of my settlement while using only coal.  The woodcutter you see was just built, as I decided by this time that my town was growing far too slowly and I wanted see the effect firewood and foresters would have on the growth of my town.  So firewood hasn't been introduced yet.



Unfortunately I don't have a screenshot of year 15 because I decided to quit without saving and now my autosave is long gone :)

RavenSteele

And here is Parth at year 10 after starting from the beginning using foresters and woodcutters.  I used my same basic build order, but changed the layout of some things.  Its still a bit slow at first, due to having to split my resources between a mine, a blacksmith, and stone houses in year 1.  Stone and iron were an issue for a while, but the other resources I had plenty of for the size of my settlement.  Not wanting to build a quarry, my laborers had to spend quite a while scouring the countryside until my trading posts started giving me more stone.



And here is after year 50.  Ok, so maybe not 100% happiness and education.  But close :)