Food not being gathered

[a50]

Hi all.  I've done some searching on this topic, but can't find a solution anywhere.  In my research, I haven't run across anyone having as severe of a problem.  First, some stats:  I have 527 citizens, 81 of which are farmers and 77 are laborers.  There are 11 plantations, 22 orchards and the rest are designated as regular crop fields.  All orchards are dense except for two.  Their dimensions are 15x3 (or 3x15) for dense and 4x15 for regular.  The majority of my plantations and crop fields are either 15x8 or 8x15.  There are a few that are 12x10 or 10x12.

However, the type or size of the field doesn't impact the issue I am having.  The problem doesn't discriminate.    I have an ongoing issue of the crop harvests just sitting in the fields into the next spring and therefore, no crops are grown in those fields in the following year.

So, as I was writing this post and collecting stats, I noticed that all the fields and orchards that had the uncollected baskets had been set so that gatherers rather than farmers took the harvest to storage.  Now at least I know the issue is not field dimensions.

So, I am left with some different thoughts:

1.  I have several idling laborers.  But there is no unhappiness issue involved.  And the "working" laborers aren't picking up the harvest.
2.  I have seen in years past, that they pick up the food well into the following year.  Is this normal?
3.  Once the food is in baskets, can it still rot away or will it eventually go to the storage barns?
4.  Do you all let the farmers pick up their own harvests to avoid this issue?

Incidentally, I have several storage facilities around the fields.  Some are nearly full while others aren't even close to capacity.  Distance from housing to fields doesn't appear to be the problem in that ALL the fields, regardless of location, experience this issue.

I am really curious to hear your experiences in this area.

[brads3]

what mods are you using? did you click the pickup button for the farmers? in which case,the farmers are harvesting but not storing he food. then someone comes along to move it.since the gatherer has nothing to do,he just happened to be the 1 assigned that job. i'd reclick the pickup button,so the farmers do put the food away. if it is already winter,try using the priority tool across the farms. and turn off any other projects the laborers may be doing. cancel any clearing they might be working on. double check your food limits to make sure that isn't stopping the food from being picked up. delay starting next years projects until the farmers start planting.

food doesn't rot in banished.

   i normally leave the harvest and pickup buttons alone. they can be helpful in a North or harsh climate.   

[a50]

@brads3

I am only using two mods: Cathedral and MegaMod 8.01.

For all the fields (and 2 orchards) that are having the leftover harvest problem, I did click the pickup button so that farmers did not gather the harvest, but laborers are supposed to.  I have been watching some of the laborers very closely and have found that by the end of the next year, they pick up most of the harvest.  One laborer picked up tomatoes in one field and then walked all the way across the map to pick up a harvest in a different field and then went to a storage facility.  This behavior was repeated with other laborers.  They also don't use the closest barns.

I did try the priority button but it appeared to have no affect at all.  I had no particular assignments for resource removal that the laborers would be doing (e.g., forest removal) and no construction projects where they would be gathering those required resources.  Food limit is set high.

The farmers logically won't plant anything the next year if there are any baskets on the field.

Thanks for your many suggestions!  I may try returning to the option where farmers pick up their own harvest.  It will probably lower the output in one year, but at least they can sow crops every year.

[Abandoned]

@a50 I tried that once quite a while ago because I was losing crops to early frost and snow.  I thought that would help and to some extent it did a bit if food was short at the time, but as you said food crates left on the fields prevented planting the following spring.  The laborers did not exclusively gather the items from the farm fields.  What was saved by extended the harvest did not make up for the lose the following year.  The farmers are quite efficient if fields are not too large and storage is close by.

[kid1293]

Sometimes crop fields need an empty tile around them or they will not be gathered.

[a50]

@Abandoned

Yes, I think you are right about the overall yield being better if farmers pick up their own harvest.  I am trying that right now.


@kid1293

Do you mean, that there should not be roads going around the circumference of a field?  Leave a space, and then build the road?  I have never done that before.

[kid1293]

No no, roads are okay.

[Abandoned]

I usually place a road along side of farm fields, it help them get to and from the field and to storage faster I think.  I doubt it would help the laborers gathering though.  I do not remember which map I tried using the laborers but more than likely I did have roads too.

[Nilla]

I have the same experience as you when it comes to the use of this "farmers not pickup" button; after one or two tries, I made the conclusion that it makes more harm than use. So I recommend farming "the vanilla way" where the farmers carry their own crops to the barns. If you have problems of often losing crops, I would look into all these other things like free space in close barns at the end of the harvest, access to the fields, actual living space of the farmers, labourers work in winter far away that makes that farmers start planting late......

You don´t mention how many farmers you use in each field. Usually, I start a game with 1 farmer on each but when the settlement grows, and I have more labourers than I need, I use to double them, starting with these fields that always seems to be late.

[a50]

@Nilla
I only use 1 farmer per field.  But you present a good idea of using some of the extra laborers as farmers in the fields with later harvesting crops.

Currently, I switched all fields and orchards back to only the farmer collects the harvest and it certainly solved the problem of the baskets remaining on the field through the autumn of the following year.

[brads3]

 i leave a 1 tile space around fields,between them, and betweeen fields and roads.so a road between 2 fields is 1 balnk tile road then a blank tile wide. reason for this is i have read where if a certain space is blocked<i believe it is the southwest corner> then the bannies will not plant the field. as bannies harvest and drop the food basket,the space can become blocked. with a basket on the space, the bannie can not travel faster over the space.so the added speed bonus or advantage to it being a road is gone.

      now not all of that may be accurate,things have changed over the many years. the main thing is i don't want to run the risk of the field being blocked and not planted. and the value of a road has no help being tight to the field.

       based on what i have read and some experience,i think you have a glitch in the storage calculations. these glitchers occur with no reason on their own. sometimes, you will find a bannie emptying a barn or market and then instantly refill it. like they took inventory. have heard it happen,but have never heard a solution.

        in your case,i'd get the game to mid winter and pause it. un-assign all farmers. then unpause the game just a bit. repause it and reassign all farmers. double check to make sure you have enough markets and they are being stocked.if 1 vendor is working too hard to move tools or firewood,they may not be moving and stocking food fast enough. in which case, adding a vendor or building another market might help smooth the storage issues.

        the game does many interrnal calculations and assigns jobs or spaces to items way ahead. where we see a space sometimes has been assigned to an item waiting for a bannie to move.the way LUKE programmed things adds to the mysteries of the game and the mindset of the bannies.

[a50]

i leave a 1 tile space around fields,between them, and betweeen fields and roads.so a road between 2 fields is 1 balnk tile road then a blank tile wide. reason for this is i have read where if a certain space is blocked<i believe it is the southwest corner> then the bannies will not plant the field. as bannies harvest and drop the food basket,the space can become blocked. with a basket on the space, the bannie can not travel faster over the space.so the added speed bonus or advantage to it being a road is gone.

      now not all of that may be accurate,things have changed over the many years. the main thing is i don't want to run the risk of the field being blocked and not planted. and the value of a road has no help being tight to the field.

I will be watching for such incidents.

       based on what i have read and some experience,i think you have a glitch in the storage calculations. these glitchers occur with no reason on their own. sometimes, you will find a bannie emptying a barn or market and then instantly refill it. like they took inventory. have heard it happen,but have never heard a solution.

I don't know if it will help, but I am going to try "demolishing" a couple of barns, and, before demolition begins, I will Reclaim them and see if that might help with any calculations. 

        in your case,i'd get the game to mid winter and pause it. un-assign all farmers. then unpause the game just a bit. repause it and reassign all farmers. double check to make sure you have enough markets and they are being stocked.if 1 vendor is working too hard to move tools or firewood,they may not be moving and stocking food fast enough. in which case, adding a vendor or building another market might help smooth the storage issues.

Some interesting points here.  I do notice that many of my markets don't have much food in them.  They are stocked with many other items.  Unfortunately, I can't add other vendors since most of my markets are ONE-man worker buildings.    I'll have to see about adding other market buildings.

[brads3]

that is also 1 of the issues with CC. so many items, the vendor is trying to find some of all of them. he takes time searching or collecting odd items and less time for food. u can pick and choose which markets you use. not sure how much CC alters them when compiling the MM.

    i like adding the mods myself instead of the large MM. this way i can choose what mods i am adding,since this computer won't run the MM. plus i have more control of some affects. i have different options,thanks to the grerat modders here at WOB.  i have carts that can supply the BS and firewood cutters and markets to move differtent flags. and my main markets don't store the odd stuff but concentrate on the items needed by the bannies. 

     don't get me wrong thou,i do like lots that CC has done. just i never took to the MM. when you cram everything in 1 box,something has to be crushed or damaged. i am constantly looking for something that is not here cause i don't have the CC journey enabled. such a give and take to it.LOL

[a50]

@brads3

I like the idea of adding individual mods because there are many things in the MegaMod that I don't use or there are duplicates of what appear to me to be the EXACT same building.  I just don't really know which mods my favorite buildings come from.  Also, I don't know the proper ordering of mods.  I assume that MM has the ordering already figured out.   

[brads3]

i did a write up on that. there have been some adjustments since but the basics are the same.
i use about 125+ mods per map.

http://worldofbanished.com/index.php?topic=1790.0