I've been experimenting with the number of builders and the number of labourers in the game and have found some strange things that I don't understand.
When running in hard mode, especially, I found that buildings get their materials whether you have any builders assigned or not. However, beyond a foundation, you need a minimum of one builder for them to be completed.
Is there any point in having more than one builder assigned at all? Maybe one per project?
Is it better to keep a big labour pool rather than assigning them to be builders?
Quote from: A Nonny Moose on November 15, 2014, 11:13:51 AM
Is there any point in having more than one builder assigned at all? Maybe one per project?
The only reason to have more than one builder is if you are in a hurry to get the building built. Other than that, not really.
If you have more than one construction projective active at the same time, and you just want a single builder for each one, you'll need to go into the buildings UI panel and click down the number of builders, as almost all default to two or more builders. If you don't do that, you could easily have one building with two builders and another one with zero.
Quote from: A Nonny Moose on November 15, 2014, 11:13:51 AM
Is it better to keep a big labour pool rather than assigning them to be builders?
I only assign builders when I have something to build. I regularly zero my builders out, so the next time I need builders I might get some assigned that are nearer to where I need them to be, instead of wherever the existing ones just happened to be.
Quote from: A Nonny Moose on November 15, 2014, 11:13:51 AMI found that buildings get their materials whether you have any builders assigned or not. However, beyond a foundation, you need a minimum of one builder for them to be completed.
Yes, that is the 'standard' - Laborers will bring the materials to a site, and once the foundation pops up you need to send in Builder(s) to finish the construction.
QuoteIs there any point in having more than one builder assigned at all?
Is it better to keep a big labour pool rather than assigning them to be builders?
What
Irrelevant said, he sums it up pretty well...
I do the same - set all my builders to 0 once a construction is finished, and re-assign them only when fresh foundations are up... And I usually keep a very large pool of Laborers.
Many thanks, folks. That's the conclusion I was coming to. The whole issue has a great deal to do with collecting resources.
Quote from: irrelevant on November 15, 2014, 11:25:04 AM
I only assign builders when I have something to build. I regularly zero my builders out, so the next time I need builders I might get some assigned that are nearer to where I need them to be, instead of wherever the existing ones just happened to be.
The only thing I would add here is that if you need roads built the only people who build them are builders not working on another project. That includes builders waiting for supplies to be gathered at their assigned sites. This can bite you if you've drawn roads a long distance from the current building site. The builders will go work on those roads and not start back until the materials are all gathered (when the foundation appears). I also assign extra builders when I get enough stone to pave some roads.
Quote from: rkelly17 on November 17, 2014, 07:32:32 AM
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The only thing I would add here is that if you need roads built the only people who build them are builders not working on another project. That includes builders waiting for supplies to be gathered at their assigned sites. This can bite you if you've drawn roads a long distance from the current building site. The builders will go work on those roads and not start back until the materials are all gathered (when the foundation appears). I also assign extra builders when I get enough stone to pave some roads.
Noted. While starting out a new session, roads are the very last thing I do, usually when materials are being collected. I try to keep a 'close coupled' situation at the beginning but sometimes the terrain places the river quite a distance from the badly selected town site. It would be nice to be able to relocated that damned cart.
Quote from: A Nonny Moose on November 17, 2014, 09:12:31 AMIt would be nice to be able to relocated that damned cart.
A ploppable copy of the cart
http://banishedinfo.com/mods/view/25-Storage-Carts
Another version with 2 variations (edibles, supplies)
http://banishedinfo.com/mods/view/21-Elfecutioner-s-Buildable-Storage-Carts
Thanks. That means a complete override of the hard cart placement. Sometimes it is downright silly.
I place a small amount of road from get go, since it seems to speed up the acquisition of materials.
I too agree that at times the cart placement is just wrong for certain maps. The one thing I haven't done but will possibly do in the future is if my preferred 1st build site and cart don't mesh will probably be to build a road between the two, to then be deleted later once the cart is gone.