Small Questions

[snapster]

The Help is at the end of one of the sections of the main toolbar. Its icon is a question mark.

[salamander]

Thanks, I'd never noticed it in the game (under Tools).  I'd assumed you were seeing it in one of the folders on your computer, and since I wasn't seeing it at all, had assumed it was maybe a Steam (which I use) vs. stand-alone difference.

[irrelevant]

So I'm kinda late to this discussion here today, been spending some rare time with mrs irrelevant.

Are there unanswered questions? Seems like there must be, but I'm not up to sorting them out so I'll cut to the chase.

[irrelevant]

Laborers' basic function is to collect resources that are stacked in piles or in baskets and move them into storage.

"Remove resources/harvest trees/gather stone/iron" will always override that. The number of laborers assigned to a remove resources command will be in proportion to the number of individual tasks (the little yellow Xs) generated by the command. If you lay down 30 Xs, that's going to draw a large response, and will take away from the basic collecting/storing function. If you have but a few laborers, it is best to generate just a few Xs at a time. The times I have screwed myself up have been the times I have gotten impatient and commanded the harvesting of more trees/stone/iron than my labor force was really able to handle. It crashes everything.

Keep in mind that there are two levels to the storage system. The first layer is getting resources picked up and put into storage. The second layer is moving resources from storage into the locations from which they will be consumed. This refers to structures like blacksmiths, tailors, woodcutters, and most important, houses. And it is the second layer that is the most critical. Laborers are responsible for the first layer, but it is up to the individual resource consumers to handle the second. This can involve lots of time wasted by your guys as they walk around from one storage building to another looking for the stuff that they need. Laborers can easily spend a big chunk of their time doing not what you are tellling them to do, but rather in gathering fuel and food for their homes. They will try to provide a balanced diet (protein, veg, grain, fruit) for their family. If they have to look in this barn here and that barn there, they aren't going to be getting much work done.

This is where markets come in. A market with a vendor or two will in a short time gather an inventory of everything that you have (except ale and stone; markets never stock those). It provides a one-stop shop for producers and homemakers to get what they need, so they can spend less time shopping and more time working. I have no idea whether you have figured this out yet, but a market can really give your workforce a huge gain in efficiency.

The other thing markets do is to remove a lot of the anxiety over where to place your first level storage structures. It doesn't really matter where they are, as vendors will go anywhere on the map to grab whatever it is they want to stock in their market. That being the case, "close to the resource producers" is the best location for stockpiles and barns. Which means I'm dumb for not putting my gatherers' barns immediately outside the gatherers' circles.

[snapster]

So not all laborers are committed to a removal task until it is finished? What is the ratio of x'es to laborers? Is it itself perhaps dependent on basic economic demands of transport or is that too advanced of a concept?

[irrelevant]

I expect it is one laborer per X, if that many are available. If not, the Xs are queued, seemingly at the top.

Typically a number of laborers will head out to a collection project, each one will hit an X, and then another one, and possibly one more, before they go do something else.

The resulting piles of resources do not have the same high priority, and they will sit until they are collected as a matter of course. Unless you hit one or more with the priority tool. Now we're talking micromanagement. You need to really want those logs or whatever it is.

[snapster]

 

Well that's not helpful.

[irrelevant]

If you want a response, you'll need to be more specific. I'm often unsure whether you're complaining about a game mechanic, or about what I wrote 

[irrelevant]

A lot also depends on how far away the resources you are collecting are from the laborers' homes. Further away, they will spend less time working before they need to return home to eat and possibly restock.

Also, the time of year. They can't work as long in the winter as they can in other seasons. They get cold and have to go home to get warm.

[snapster]

If you want a response, you'll need to be more specific. I'm often unsure whether you're complaining about a game mechanic, or about what I wrote 

Neither.

[salamander]

@snapster -- I think @irrelevant pretty much covered the bases on what you can expect laborers to do.  Unfortunately, I don't think there's much you can do to change that.  IIRC, all of the game's AI is hard-coded and not part of what can be changed in the mod kit.

However, there are ways to deal with laborers' behavior without crippling your town while they're working on a job, and @irrelevant mentioned several of them, eg clearing smaller areas rather than large ones.  As your towns get more spread out, here's another approach that I think helps in keeping jobs moving -- try to keep laborers living local to the job.  As you build up a new area, that's where a lot of clearing is likely to be needed.  Be sure to have enough housing in the new area so that not only are producers with 'real' jobs where they need to be, but there are also laborers in those houses.  That can really cut down on the time needed to reach the job site, and let the laborers remain longer before having to return home for food.

[A Nonny Moose]

Now for a rather vapid comment.

I've restarted this game any number of times.  I don't give up easily but when I can predict a mass die off, I can that village and start a new one absorbing the lessons from prior attempts.

One of the best ways to learn a game like this is to ask it questions.  This is done by playing with a specific scenario in mind.

I really am only an egg when it comes to this game so far.  I haven't made it past 200 residents.  I generally play on medium level because the hard level is too much for me at the moment.  Besides, I live in a large farming area so I can use the local expertise.

This thread has been somewhat illuminating, but it seems to be getting to the beating a dead horse stage.

[snapster]

It's just lingering on a topic. Plus you can ask your own questions.

My little brother is on 76 people not playing on hard in like two days of play, by the way.

Also, one of the putting off things in general about games I would imagine is difficulty caused by lack of information. When there is a lack of information I think it needs to be done quite deliberately. Could be mistaken to a degree.

[snapster]

Do forester lodges get in the way of hunting cabins?

Gatherer huts are extremely productive, by the way. Fishing docks may be the worst.

Do you need wells if you are by a creek or river?

[salamander]

So far as I know, the only interference would be if one building is in the other's radius.  A hunting cabin would be less area on which trees could grow for the foresters to harvest, and having a forester lodge in the hunting cabin's radius might affect the chances that deer will pass through.  I'm not sure if that's how a hunting cabins radius works, though.