Small Questions

[irrelevant]

If you have enough tools and firewood, you can turn these guys off for awhile; they are your big log consumers (next to construction). I aim for 100 firewood per house (which is probably close to two years worth) and 1 tool per person (which is 2-4 years worth, tool consumption is difficult to judge).

You can use the production limits to control firewood and tool production. Set the fuel limit at whatever level you desire, and they will not surpass that limit. All production has a limit. Make sure your limits are not set too low (especially for food).

I always end up importing logs. There are never enough logs.

[snapster]

During the winter the retrieved firewood drops the available number close to 0. The tools, along with clothes, are my main trading materials. Do tools last 2-4 years or 2-4 seasons? How many logs go into a tool? And I though you wrote logs are the way to boom via trading? By the way, is there any point to having multiple trading posts? On two different rivers?

"Autumn 12: A child named Demon was born."

I am entertained.

[irrelevant]

During the winter the retrieved firewood drops the available number close to 0. The tools, along with clothes, are my main trading materials. Do tools last 2-4 years or 2-4 seasons? How many logs go into a tool? And I though you wrote logs are the way to boom via trading? By the way, is there any point to having multiple trading posts? On two different rivers?

"Autumn 12: A child named Demon was born."

I am entertained.

If your logs are getting down to zero, that's a concern. I'd stop building stuff until I had more logs, except for....

There absolutely is a point to having multiple trading posts. Each trading post gets a merchant boat every year or so. If you have two TPs, you get two boats. If you have 30 TPs, you get 30 boats.

The easy way to boom is to put a wood chopper next to a stockpile at the TP. Buy logs, make firewood, buy lots of stuff.

One log costs 2, makes four firewood, each sells for 4.

One log + one iron = two iron tools.

IIRC my 5000th citizen at Sink Mill was named Demon.     edit: no, it was some other milestone in some other town.

[snapster]

There is little conflict between the gatherers and foresters, even though that doesn't make much sense?

[irrelevant]

There isn't a conflict with each other, but there is a diminishing return within each system if you try to max them out. Four foresters cutting and planting will tend to denude the circle of trees. Two is more like equilibrium. Four gatherers will tend to denude the circle, three is more like equilibrium.

You can see this forester's circle is looking a bit sparce. I'm going to dial it back.

[snapster]

How would four foresters cutting and planting denude "the system" against two? The two would just produce less or they might just produce less but produce consistently (Is this what you mean by denude? So what?). What is over-gathering? The conflict between foresters and gatherers is that you figure it takes time for there to be stuff to gather, which cutting and planting interferes with.

By the way, I might be on the verge of freezing and starving and the worst part is I don't see what I could do differently.

[irrelevant]

Trees take four years to grow to maturity. Four guys, while planting, can cut down all the mature trees in the circle in less than four years. If you leave a forester with four guys cutting and planting, eventually there will be no mature trees left in the circle. Foresters will not harvest trees that are not mature.

Gatherers work pretty much the same way, the stuff they gather grows pretty fast, but four gatherers collect it faster than it grows back. Eventually they will pick it bare.

[snapster]

Is this confirmed? My oldest forester lodge producing 200+ a season seems surrounded by plush forest and my oldest gatherer hut has been doing ok.

[irrelevant]

When you are heading into a death spiral, the most important thing is not to build any more houses. In fact, if you are concerned, you might mark some of the houses for demolition or upgrade. This will evict the residents, shake out their stored food and fuel back into general storage, and prevent them from having more children. Their houses will not burn fuel.

The evicted guys will be okay, they can get food from barns, and can warm up at someone else's house.

[irrelevant]

Is this confirmed? My oldest forester lodge producing 200+ a season seems surrounded by plush forest and my oldest gatherer hut has been doing ok.

If they are doing okay, do nothing. Just keep checking, comparing this year's production with last year's.

[snapster]

What I could've done differently is paired gatherers with foresters and had five apiece of those sumbitches as opposed to two and three. I'll try to do that now and see if it saves me.

[irrelevant]

Yes gatherers and foresters do play together pretty nicely, lots of players normally use both together.

[snapster]

I suffer for my intelligence. And that wink is disingenuous.

On a more positive note, my first fishing dock has gotten to 1.7k fish per season. A rather gradual increase in production over time has been something I've noticed a couple of times in this game. I seem to have interrupted it... no, my gatherer hut was doing better but I pulled workers from the fishing dock as well, although I don't think I checked their numbers.

When you are heading into a death spiral, the most important thing is not to build any more houses. In fact, if you are concerned, you might mark some of the houses for demolition or upgrade. This will evict the residents, shake out their stored food and fuel back into general storage, and prevent them from having more children. Their houses will not burn fuel.

The evicted guys will be okay, they can get food from barns, and can warm up at someone else's house.

...Funnily enough some old geezers are freezing.

[irrelevant]

I suffer for my intelligence. And that wink is disingenuous.

I know the feeling.

On a more positive note, my first fishing dock has gotten to 1.7k fish per season. A rather gradual increase in production over time has been something I've noticed a couple of times in this game. I seem to have interrupted it... no, my gatherer hut was doing better but I pulled workers from the fishing dock as well, although I don't think I checked their numbers.

What happens is when you first build something the guys that get assigned to work there may not live right there, so they lose time commuting. Gradually, guys swap jobs until they are more or less optimized for how far they have to walk to get to work. That improves productivity.

When you are heading into a death spiral, the most important thing is not to build any more houses. In fact, if you are concerned, you might mark some of the houses for demolition or upgrade. This will evict the residents, shake out their stored food and fuel back into general storage, and prevent them from having more children. Their houses will not burn fuel.

The evicted guys will be okay, they can get food from barns, and can warm up at someone else's house.

...Funnily enough some old geezers are freezing.

They can have a cold icon for a long time before they die. They will stop working and go warm up in the nearest doorway.

But if a geezer dies, no big loss, eh?

[irrelevant]

One thing that is very helpful that you may not have yet is a town hall. It's expensive, but it gives you considerable info on what is happening in your town. I  highly recommend saving up and building one.

Also, a town hall plus a market will mean nomads will come. They can sometimes be useful, if you are prepared to take them, having a surplus of food, coats, and tools.