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Food Desert

Started by irrelevant, June 13, 2014, 05:32:58 PM

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irrelevant

I was just thinking about this. What follows, I don't know for sure, I only suspect. My suspicion is based on something I had just noticed this evening in my current game.

Just passed population 1000. This winter was the first time I had had hungry and cold villagers wandering around. I was poking around to see what I could figure out.

The first thing I noticed was that in the oldest part of town, the part now furthest from farmland (which is concentrated in the "suburbs"), the barns are empty. These are barns that had always been full since the beginning, to the point that it was a hindrance when purchasing fruit for the taverns in the area, as there was no place to store it except at the trading post.

Second, I see that the market in the area is down in the 30% range, when it had always been full before. The only thing I can think of as a remedy is to increase the number of vendors from 3 to 12 (or maybe more). Presumably they are ranging farther and farther away in their quest for food, and greater numbers will permit them to keep ahead of the local demand for food now that they must make significantly longer trips.

A more long-term fix is to start importing food at the trading post in that area only. I need to have an infusion of food, but not just anyplace, I need food that will fill those now-empty barns. And if I get it, I will have to increase the number of traders at that post, in order to get the food moved out faster.

If you are having big die-offs caused by hunger, you might check out the inventory of all your barns and your markets to see if you have any "food deserts."

Bobbi

If you have plenty of food elsewhere, you can also use your traders to drag food across the map to your trading post, then release it to your "hungry" area to fill up the barns in that area. Only a temporary fix, though.

irrelevant

#2
@Bobbi, that's a great idea, thanks!

rkelly17

@irrelevant, ironically you have brought forward a very relevant characteristic of Banished maps. It is highly likely that resources from far away (in terms of the Banished map) will be in short supply. The other night I built a market area that had no nearby source of firewood. Only later did I notice the snowflake icons over a number of the cabins and then moved to correct the situation. I've also noticed that, when I'm not careful to balance, foods that I have acquired later end up in short supply in the older parts of town because the farms that grow those crops are far away. This got to be a problem on a map where seed and general merchants were not bringing corn or wheat seeds until year 50 or so. This is probably also a function of playing with only 2 or 3 vendors per market, but I have seen it even when I have all 12. It isn't only food deserts that can be created by town design.

RedKetchup

#4
thanks for the warnings....

in my 300 farmers contest ... i m checking all the barns in my old town ....

even if they look ... like almost all full..... there is not alot of food Inside, if you check each one ....
(sorry image deleted , replaced by error)

some have Tools, sometimes only that ... and mushrooms... 1 is at 27% and only have 26 Tools and 339 mushrooms.. it s not with 339 mushroom i ll feed a population of 1k !!!!!!


i ll keep an eye on that, thx for the warning


edit: but should I grab all the mushrooms and sell it ? and buy other food with it ?
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slink

I often trade away the mushrooms.  They take up four times the space as other food.

RedKetchup

really ? why does it takes 4x times other food space?
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irrelevant

Mushrooms are very light for their volume. Storage space is measured by weight.

Bobbi

I would love a decent explanation for why mushrooms take up more room. Mushroom=light. Venison, mutton=heavy. I don't get it.

Kaldir

#9
Storage room might be about volume more than weight. One kilo of mushrooms takes up much more space than one kilo of meat.

But I think it's kinda stupid in game. There is no way to tell that it takes up four times as much space, and it's the only food type that does. Like @slink, I always try to trade my mushrooms for other food (or even for other stuff).


Edit: Does the game say somewhere that storage is measured in weight (or volume)? I know the wiki and such talk about weight, but I can't find any reference to it in the help.

Bobbi

Yes, me too. Just suck up all the mushrooms and trade them for stuff that doesn't take up so much room.

mariesalias

Quote from: rkelly17 on June 14, 2014, 07:25:34 AM
...
I've also noticed that, when I'm not careful to balance, foods that I have acquired later end up in short supply in the older parts of town because the farms that grow those crops are far away. This got to be a problem on a map where seed and general merchants were not bringing corn or wheat seeds until year 50 or so. This is probably also a function of playing with only 2 or 3 vendors per market, but I have seen it even when I have all 12. It isn't only food deserts that can be created by town design.

I noticed in your DV map that you had spread your farmland around the map quite a bit. Is this why? I was wondering, as I think it really helped your town look more like an actual real world town.


I agree with @slink and the others, trade your mushrooms or they can take over your barns.



One issue I have been noticing in my towns where I have recently starting trading firewood for logs is that there can be areas that will not get the extra logs unless you have a tradeport and room for stockpiles between the tradeport and woodcutters. The multiple stockpiles can be used to kind of love the logs across the map a bit, but location with these can be tricky. Although I always thought they deposited goods like logs and stone in the nearest stockpile, I am finding that this is not always true. The way distance is measured in game must be variable. I don't want to fill my town with tradeports so I will have to keep this in mind while planning out the placements for things in my town.

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irrelevant

#13
Quote from: Bobbi on June 13, 2014, 05:37:23 PMIf you have plenty of food elsewhere, you can also use your traders to drag food across the map to your trading post, then release it to your "hungry" area to fill up the barns in that area. Only a temporary fix, though.

Traders are good for dragging anything. Just set an inventory level for something and those guys will go grab it fast. That's pretty much all they do. Then you can release it back to the supply system from the new location. Raw materials for any type of production.

@Bobbi's post got me thinking about logistics in a way I hadn't before. Your logistics net is probably as important as your housing situation in determining how successful your town will be.



irrelevant

#14
Quote from: mariesalias on June 14, 2014, 02:33:39 PM

One issue I have been noticing in my towns where I have recently starting trading firewood for logs is that there can be areas that will not get the extra logs unless you have a tradeport and room for stockpiles between the tradeport and woodcutters. The multiple stockpiles can be used to kind of love the logs across the map a bit, but location with these can be tricky. Although I always thought they deposited goods like logs and stone in the nearest stockpile, I am finding that this is not always true. The way distance is measured in game must be variable. I don't want to fill my town with tradeports so I will have to keep this in mind while planning out the placements for things in my town.

@mariesalias Here is an example of what you are talking about. The first screenie is of a forester/hunter complex on the outskirts, showing the logpiles and a barn, which is jammed full of leather. I just started demolishing the barn and the pile closest to the town. When that big pile is gone, I'll work my way back. Before I do the last one or two, I'll rebuild the big piles nearest the town.

The second screenie shows to the left the storage being razed, and to the right, where the goods are being moved to. The barn under the town hall panel is the one that is filling up with leather. When it gets full, I may burn it down as well, and move the leather on down the line.