Small Questions

[irrelevant]

Do the builders of a building carry materials as they can't be doing anything? Do they just fall in the normal queue instead? It has seemed like materials have gotten quicker to my building sites than would be according to a normal queue of labor. The clearing of building sites has been the issue.

The builders will act as laborers while they are waiting for the site to be cleared and the construction mats to be placed. It could be that the "task queue" sees clearing the site and bringing mats as one big task, and keeps assigning laborers to it until it is done.

All this talk of "queues" is speculative; we have no visibility into what is really going on. But it seems to fit well with what one can observe.

[snapster]

Considering how much more quickly materials are deposited than the space cleared I don't know.

Does priority apply to clearing? When I used it on covered building blueprints, as you call them, it didn't seem to do anything.

[irrelevant]

The priority tool moves a job to the top of the queue, but unless you have lots of laborers, most or all of them will already be doing something. The priority tool won't make them drop what they currently are doing; if they already have a task assigned, they will complete that task first. An individual task (walking to some location to pick up an item and then carry it to storage) can take some time, depending on how far they have to walk to do it.

Individual workers also may need to go home to get something to eat (4x per year I believe), and if it is winter they may also need to stand in their doorway for a while to get warm. If they decide their house needs to be stocked up with food and/or fuel, they will do that as well. The priority tool does not override these needs. All citizens first priority is their own food, clothing, tools, and warmth. Only when those needs are met do they do work.

[rkelly17]

The builders will act as laborers while they are waiting for the site to be cleared and the construction mats to be placed. It could be that the "task queue" sees clearing the site and bringing mats as one big task, and keeps assigning laborers to it until it is done.

Unless roads have been marked. Then builders will work on the roads until all the materials are assembled at the assigned job site. One needs to be careful about marking roads in one part of the map and then building in another part, since all the builders will be off building roads and take a long time to get to the building job site.

[A Nonny Moose]

I find the queueing a little odd in that if a lot needs to be cleared of various items and another lot, queued later, does not the clear lot gets worked on first.  Does debris on a lot cause action on the lot to be deferred?

[rkelly17]

I find the queueing a little odd in that if a lot needs to be cleared of various items and another lot, queued later, does not the clear lot gets worked on first.  Does debris on a lot cause action on the lot to be deferred?

I'm pretty sure from observation that no one will bring construction materials to a job site until all clearing is complete. I am finding that it is faster for sites like fields, orchards, cemeteries and pastures to clear them completely with the materials harvesting tools first and then mark the construction. The clearing tools seem to bring out far more laborers than the construction tools. I'm not positive of this, but any time I've done a comparison the clear first, build second approach has gone faster.

[A Nonny Moose]

I find the queueing a little odd in that if a lot needs to be cleared of various items and another lot, queued later, does not the clear lot gets worked on first.  Does debris on a lot cause action on the lot to be deferred?

I'm pretty sure from observation that no one will bring construction materials to a job site until all clearing is complete. I am finding that it is faster for sites like fields, orchards, cemeteries and pastures to clear them completely with the materials harvesting tools first and then mark the construction. The clearing tools seem to bring out far more laborers than the construction tools. I'm not positive of this, but any time I've done a comparison the clear first, build second approach has gone faster.

Agreed, but if you extract the construction window for both lots, you can see that not even clearing starts before construction on the lot queued second.  You would think that clearing would at least start even if no construction materials were delivered.

[rkelly17]

Agreed, but if you extract the construction window for both lots, you can see that not even clearing starts before construction on the lot queued second.  You would think that clearing would at least start even if no construction materials were delivered.

It drives me crazy that if I place three or four identical items right next to each other, all but one get built in decent time and that last one takes forever. Doesn't really matter what it is. From houses to barns to pieces of stone wall it always seems to come out that way.

[snapster]

So if you have few laborers will carcasses, baskets, and **** be lying around everywhere? At no point will the people with professions or occupations do the carrying? It also seems like you shouldn't have storage at a separated location unless you have houses too. And what if the people in those houses are employed and are not laborers? Would laborers travel all the way to the location to pick up the stuff and deposit it at the local storage location?

How long does it take a hunter to fully complete one kill in a season? If the cabin is limited to one kill per herd per season why is it possible to have four hunters?

Do people require 100 food at minimum per season or per year?

Do laborers also carry fish out of the fishing dock or whatever it is? Is this perhaps part of the reason why my settlement starved? Where would the undeposited fish have been at? Lying around the fishing place? o.O :/

Might have to read the lay lie thing on dictionary.com a few times...

[snapster]

Hmmm, I just started a new game. Placed a trading post on pause nearby given the location. I've included it in the clearing area. I've also repeatedly now made an area over it for clearing. The people are clearing everything else but not the resources over the building area. Furthermore, yellow x'es aren't appearing on the resources.

Perhaps less significantly, I also noticed that no one carried materials to the houses until I assigned builders, who appeared to then do so.

[salamander]

... Placed a trading post on pause nearby given the location. I've included it in the clearing area. I've also repeatedly now made an area over it for clearing. The people are clearing everything else but not the resources over the building area. Furthermore, yellow x'es aren't appearing on the resources.

I've seen this also (as I'm sure everyone else has).  The clearing of an area and the clearing of a building footprint appear to dealt with separately.  If you mark an area for resource clearing all of the resources you've chosen to be harvested get the yellow 'x', but if then put within that area a building footprint, the resources within the footprint will not be harvested until the building reaches the top of the queue and laborers start on the clearing specifically for the building.

If the difference in clearing priority is something that causes problems, it's something to plan around.

[snapster]

Are there hotkeys for simulation speed?

How are you supposed to not die of hunger on hard if there is no lake nearby? Just plop a hunter's cabin in your settlement? Fish on a river is crap apparently, and there goes attempt number two. Strangely had a shortage of stone too so much so that I was thinking of a quarry (just thinking, mind you). Those walking distances would've killed the bastards. You also shouldn't listen to the game when it tells you there are four families.

[salamander]

If there's no lake nearby, you adapt to the situation.  A lake provides fish, ie food, so if you don't have one, plan on using gatherers and/or hunters to provide the food you need to survive.  If you don't have the easily harvested surface stone you need, then a quarry is a good choice.

Possibly the game is a little more challenging than you originally thought? 

[snapster]

No, it actually isn't. The point remains. You gain proficiency or at least competence, especially with so few options, and there you go. This may be one of the most interesting parts, which has been claimed by others repeatedly. Challenge needs to be more sustained, or at least there need to be content oriented goals, for long term play. Much of what I've read points to this not being the case.

How are there laborers remaining to move the goods and products of workers when there is an ongoing clearing task?

[salamander]

No, it actually isn't. The point remains.

And you've re-started your game how many times, now?  The point may remain, but I'm not seeing evidence for it.