It doesn't limit where the vendors go for resources, they go everywhere.
It doesn't limit who can draw resources there, if that is the closest source for someone, that's where they'll go, whether in the circle or out.
It doesn't cause the vendors to bring resources for demand within the circle; if you watch a new market with only houses in the circle, it will have logs, iron, wool, leather....
And we know the vendors don't make home deliveries, inside the circle or out.
So, we know what it doesn't do, what does it do?
Ah! Maybe production workers inside the circle will deliver their goods to the market in preference over other storage? Farmers too? Laborers storing produce?
maybe :P i cant tell (sometimes i dont use any market lol like my 500farmers map ^^)
I think if a house is built within the market circle, the house occupants will prefer to go to the market for food etc... rather than other storage sites, even if they're closer. I can't swear to that, but that's how I think about it based on what I've seen in other threads.
I'm sure those here who know way more about it than I do, will set me straight if I'm way off base.
Simply put, all residents inside the market will prefer the market to barns and stockpiles for resources. Well managed and stocked markets can reduce a lot of walking and improve performance and survival of your citizens.
Markets are a way to provide food variety for houses who draw from it, while the nearest barn would usually not have as much variety. As such the radius is useful because citizens will prefer it to a nearer barn as
@solarscreen and
@salamander said.
Will a blacksmith also prefer the market for logs and iron, even if a stockpile with those resources is closer? In that case it might increase walking distance.
I always assumed the circle meant a house outside it wouldn't use the market at all, but I never tested that. If the circle only means a preference, then it allows for some more flexible planning for me. Good information. :)
it is definitly a must ! for sure
Quote from: irrelevant on June 28, 2014, 04:55:06 PM
Ah! Maybe production workers inside the circle will deliver their goods to the market in preference over other storage? Farmers too? Laborers storing produce?
While farmers will sometimes deliver goods to markets (I'm not sure whether the same applies to tailors, blacksmiths or woodcutters), normally they go to barns or yards. The vendors then get what they need from the barns and yards. Blacksmiths, tailors and woodcutters will get raw materials from markets if they are inside the circle and the market has the materials. Since laborers may carry items for quite some time before they put them in storage, you will also find what seem to be odd items from far across the map in barns and yards.
In my 500 farmers town I have followed people who got sick while "collecting fuel." In cases where their local market was out of firewood, people were willing to go long distances to find a market with firewood or coal in stock and then carry it all the way back home (which in these cases was unfortunate since they were sick and spread disease all along the way).
I think (correct me if I'm wrong) residents living outside of the market circle will prefer whatever is closest, market or barn. So if they live close to a barn with only fish in it, they'll only eat fish, and will never go to the market to pick up other foods.
Quote from: Kaldir on June 29, 2014, 06:28:05 AM
I always assumed the circle meant a house outside it wouldn't use the market at all, but I never tested that. If the circle only means a preference, then it allows for some more flexible planning for me. Good information. :)
I agree! I always kind of assumed this too, and made sure homes outside the circle had nearby barns.
I have seen farmers drop their crops off at the market and I have seen laborers take logs to a market place if there were no nearby stockpiles. I am not sure this is the norm for labor behavior though.
Quote from: mariesalias on June 30, 2014, 02:56:38 AM
I agree! I always kind of assumed this too, and made sure homes outside the circle had nearby barns.
It seems like that would still be a good thing to do ... it's a long way from the edge of the market circle to the middle and back.
"When I was your age, little Hell, we had to walk 5 miles to the market just to get a peach ... uphill ... in the snow ... both ways."
I've had tailors and blacksmiths drop their wares in the marketplace as they don't use the stockpile for these items and the marketplace was closer than any barn.
Quote from: salamander on June 30, 2014, 04:16:29 AM
"When I was your age, little Hell, we had to walk 5 miles to the market just to get a peach ... uphill ... in the snow ... both ways."
Uphill both ways? That sounds like Escher (http://visualfunhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/mc_escher_063.jpg) (or Penrose (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrose_stairs) or Reutersvärd (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Reutersv%C3%A4rd)).
I'm a big fan of Escher's drawings, but my comment to little Hell was something like what I used to hear as a kid to sort of make fun of adults who always wanted to talk about how tough things were when they were young, and how easy we had it as kids. The funny thing is, in retrospect, they were probably right.
In regards to the market circle itself, what constitutes 'inside the circle'?
Does the house have to be 100% in the circle, have the entrance inside the circle, or any part of the house touching the circle?
A good question, I have always just assumed part of it has to be in the circle.
for me , those Inside the radius will go to the market, and those outside will go for... what is the nearest
That *is* a good question. Are we playing (American) football where on the line is out, or soccer where on the line is in? I can't see a huge advantage in detecting whether a house is entirely within the circle over whether it's only partially in the circle from the game's point of view, so I can't even try to predict which might be the case. I do think, though, that looking at the house's orientation (ie, the door) would be unlikely just because that would seem to be more complicated for the game.
Gang! We may be over-thinking this in a Medieval theologian sort of way. You've no doubt hear the story of the group of Medieval theologians who were sitting around arguing about how many teeth a horse had. The boy cleaning the room piped up that they should just find a horse, open his mouth and count. He was immediately branded a heretic.
The only way to find out for sure is for some one of us--and I think we have a sufficient reserve of OCD types here--actually to follow some citizens around and see what they do.
Quote from: rkelly17 on July 05, 2014, 07:20:10 AM
The only way to find out for sure is for some one of us--and I think we have a sufficient reserve of OCD types here--actually to follow some citizens around and see what they do.
@rkelly17 -- you may just be our resident heretic. But, I think you may be right, although I'm not sure I have the attention span to keep up with individual citizens. ;) Short of doing that, though, I don't see another way of getting any sort of answer.
I will try to remember to follow some around. I believe I have at least a couple houses partially in the circles. I also have some in over-lapping circles and i always wondered how the people decide which marketplace to go to.
If they're like me, they stand still and twitch for 10 minutes, then go online and order in.
So here's a market puzzler: we know that vendors will go pretty much any distance to pick up what they decide they are going to get, but can vendors take resources from another market? Or do they only go to barns?
i never happended to notice they took something from another market, i dont think so cause the game would end up to be locked in a Deadly loop
@irrelevant -- There was a thread some time ago on the SRS forum that you might be interested in:
From the SRS forum: Do vendors collect stock from other markets? (http://shiningrocksoftware.com/forum/discussion/1376/do-vendors-collect-stock-from-other-markets)
The upshot is that they do not collect from other markets. At the time the thread was going on, I thought they did, and was bummed to find out otherwise.
I totally forgot. :\ Next time!
However, while expanding into a new area, I did notice that my laborers were not only warming up at other people's houses, but they were eating there, as well. Or appeared to be eating. Maybe that is part of the lunchbox functionality Luke put in. I watched a few laborers who were cold and hungry go to a nearby-ish house and warm up and then immediately eat, as well. (By warm up and eat, I mean the cold and hunger icons disappeared.)
I checked to make sure the houses they were going to were not theirs.
Quote from: salamander on July 06, 2014, 04:41:19 AM
@irrelevant -- There was a thread some time ago on the SRS forum that you might be interested in:
From the SRS forum: Do vendors collect stock from other markets? (http://shiningrocksoftware.com/forum/discussion/1376/do-vendors-collect-stock-from-other-markets)
The upshot is that they do not collect from other markets. At the time the thread was going on, I thought they did, and was bummed to find out otherwise.
Traders will take from markets, but, as
@salamander points out, vendors do not. Probably a good thing or markets would be going up and down as vendors grabbed stuff from each other.
Quote from: rkelly17 on July 06, 2014, 10:22:50 AM
Traders will take from markets, but, as @salamander points out, vendors do not. Probably a good thing or markets would be going up and down as vendors grabbed stuff from each other.
If there were some way to keep two (or more) markets from getting into some sort of transfer loop (as
@RedKetchup pointed out), the ability of market vendors to take to/give from other markets would be nice. It would certainly contribute to keeping resources spread throughout a town if markets were wisely placed.
Quote from: salamander on July 06, 2014, 11:25:51 AM
If there were some way to keep two (or more) markets from getting into some sort of transfer loop (as @RedKetchup pointed out), the ability of market vendors to take to/give from other markets would be nice. It would certainly contribute to keeping resources spread throughout a town if markets were wisely placed.
I think that the loop would be almost inevitable, especially given the imperative to get the supplies from the nearest source. It reminds me of the 4 city endless commuter loop in SimCity 4.
I think this would mean that barns and stockpiles are important at the boundaries between markets. Vendors put goods as well as taking them. Presumably they don't put to other markets, if they don't take from other markets. They might pass things along from market to market through barns and stockpiles placed equidistantly between them.