Banished - Medieval SimCity

[Avellion]

Yeah, still gotta play this some more to understand the mechanics. I got Hunters' Lodges where workers wander around not doing anything. Like they're looking for animals to kill except there's nothing in the area. The animals wander easily out of the zone of the Lodge and the Hunters don't seem to want to follow them too far. I ended up with animals actually in the middle of the clear area that is my town.

Fishing seems to have some secret to it. Some areas do well, others are crap.

And "Fair" climate definitely seems to make a difference on output of food over "Harsh". Harsh seems to be a bitch. Wondering how many of those who are having a cake-walk are playing Hard/Harsh? The only thing Easy/Medium/Hard seems to do is just change your starting resources.

That's standard behavior for hunters. Regardless of their behavior, though, a cabin with a single hunter will reliably produce 6-800 venison, which is all that matters in the end.

A wharf's maximum output is determined by the amount of water in its radius, but the current arguments are that having nearby housing along with open storage is a huge component of approaching that maximum.

And I'm playing on hard/harsh. Started at that from the very beginning because I'd rather fuck up, fail due to inadequate experience, and be forced to assess how I screwed up than have a game that turns out to be too easy which results in me shelving the game out of boredom.

I guess I will give fishing another shot, at least my current map has a lake. I play on harsh/hard/large/mountains. Despite the map being large I don't have a lot of places to build on because of all the mountains everywhere, so I need to take advantage of every single little tile. Just like you I just stuck to the hard difficulty settings on the beginning.

 

[J_C]

I thought the deer were just cosmetic and all you need is forest. That would explain a bit though.

So the deer is needed for the hunter to work. I've seen my hunter approach and slay them. Even the manual mentiones that this is how it works. Of course the animals are roaming constantly, so hunting is not a constans food income.

 

[Ashery]

I thought the deer were just cosmetic and all you need is forest. That would explain a bit though.

So the deer is needed for the hunter to work. I've seen my hunter approach and slay them. Even the manual mentiones that this is how it works. Of course the animals are roaming constantly, so hunting is not a constans food income.

The only thing that's ultimately relevant is how much output your lodges have, and my lodges near my foresters have a very consistent 6-800/year.

I guess I will give fishing another shot, at least my current map has a lake. I play on harsh/hard/large/mountains. Despite the map being large I don't have a lot of places to build on because of all the mountains everywhere, so I need to take advantage of every single little tile. Just like you I just stuck to the hard difficulty settings on the beginning.

While going for Mountain Men, I've fallen in love with mountainous maps for just that reason; it forces you to constantly adapt your node layout due to terrain restrictions instead of just being able to plop identical nodes wherever you have room.

Fisheries are often great for the late game simply because their land footprint is so small.

 

[J_C]

I thought the deer were just cosmetic and all you need is forest. That would explain a bit though.

So the deer is needed for the hunter to work. I've seen my hunter approach and slay them. Even the manual mentiones that this is how it works. Of course the animals are roaming constantly, so hunting is not a constans food income.

The only thing that's ultimately relevant is how much output your lodges have, and my lodges near my foresters have a very consistent 6-800/year.

I don't get what's the connection between the hunter and the forrester lodge (if that's what you mean).

 

[Ashery]

I thought the deer were just cosmetic and all you need is forest. That would explain a bit though.

So the deer is needed for the hunter to work. I've seen my hunter approach and slay them. Even the manual mentiones that this is how it works. Of course the animals are roaming constantly, so hunting is not a constans food income.

The only thing that's ultimately relevant is how much output your lodges have, and my lodges near my foresters have a very consistent 6-800/year.

I don't get what's the connection between the hunter and the forrester lodge (if that's what you mean).

Just indicating that those are my most productive cabins. I've got others located in areas that otherwise are dead space (Too small for a field or graveyard, outside market radii, etc) that produce a mere 2-400 a year. Wool's a lot easier to produce than leather, though, so I can use every scrap of it I get.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

How are you tracking their annual output?

So far, it seems controlling housing is the key I've been missing. And not being afraid to just sit there and let your food stockpile before you plonk a new house down (and thus cause a major food grab from the stockpile). The selective breeding of villagers is silly. People won't have kids unless you build houses and then they just... stop. Until you build more houses.

 

[RK47]

How are you tracking their annual output?

So far, it seems controlling housing is the key I've been missing. And not being afraid to just sit there and let your food stockpile before you plonk a new house down (and thus cause a major food grab from the stockpile). The selective breeding of villagers is silly. People won't have kids unless you build houses and then they just... stop. Until you build more houses.

Sounds like Singapore.

 

[Ashery]

How are you tracking their annual output?

When you've got a building selected, the icon to display production is directly to the right of the ticker to increase the labor pool in that building's labor category.

Note that "Previous Season" actually means the previous year. Same thing with "Current Season."

 

[J_C]

So far, it seems controlling housing is the key I've been missing. And not being afraid to just sit there and let your food stockpile before you plonk a new house down (and thus cause a major food grab from the stockpile).

Well my tactic is, when the children in a house reach adutlhood (when they swich from child to a job), and there are at least 2 of them, I build them a new house. They immediately move to that and after a time, they make kids. I'm not building houses in advance for them. I try to kep my houses so there are always 2 adults and 3-4 childs max in them.

 

[Ashery]

So far, it seems controlling housing is the key I've been missing. And not being afraid to just sit there and let your food stockpile before you plonk a new house down (and thus cause a major food grab from the stockpile).

Well my tactic is, when the children in a house reach adutlhood (when they swich from child to a job), and there are at least 2 of them, I build them a new house. They immediately move to that and after a time, they make kids. I'm not building houses in advance for them. I try to kep my houses so there are always 2 adults and 3-4 childs max in them.

The critical thing for population stability is to have at least 1/8th of your population as children (Townsfolk spend 1/8th of their life as a child). Any less and you'll see your population drop dramatically over the next generation.

 

[J_C]

So far, it seems controlling housing is the key I've been missing. And not being afraid to just sit there and let your food stockpile before you plonk a new house down (and thus cause a major food grab from the stockpile).

Well my tactic is, when the children in a house reach adutlhood (when they swich from child to a job), and there are at least 2 of them, I build them a new house. They immediately move to that and after a time, they make kids. I'm not building houses in advance for them. I try to kep my houses so there are always 2 adults and 3-4 childs max in them.

The critical thing for population stability is to have at least 1/8th of your population as children (Townsfolk spend 1/8th of their life as a child). Any less and you'll see your population drop dramatically over the next generation.

I think I'm doing a bit better ratio right now, i have 21 adults IIRC and 8 children.

 

[Ashery]

So far, it seems controlling housing is the key I've been missing. And not being afraid to just sit there and let your food stockpile before you plonk a new house down (and thus cause a major food grab from the stockpile).

Well my tactic is, when the children in a house reach adutlhood (when they swich from child to a job), and there are at least 2 of them, I build them a new house. They immediately move to that and after a time, they make kids. I'm not building houses in advance for them. I try to kep my houses so there are always 2 adults and 3-4 childs max in them.

The critical thing for population stability is to have at least 1/8th of your population as children (Townsfolk spend 1/8th of their life as a child). Any less and you'll see your population drop dramatically over the next generation.

I think I'm doing a bit better ratio right now, i have 21 adults IIRC and 8 children.

That'd be good if you're expanding, but if you were in a situation where you were waiting to stockpile goods, you'd be fucked after a decade of no growth as all your children have now grown up and are past childbearing age without having been able to have any children of their own.

 

[Keshik]

Ah, damn nomads, I knew letting them in was a bad idea. Bastards seem to eat far too much.

 

[Turisas]

Ah, damn nomads, I knew letting them in was a bad idea. Bastards seem to eat far too much.

That's what happens when you let the gypsies in.

 

[sexbad?]

There are nomads? Shit, I bet I could go Dogville on them.

 

[J_C]

Is there such a mechanic as overusing a river/field/forest? I mean for example if I leave a place unharvested for a year, letting it "rest", then the next year it will have better yield? Because I noticed that I started to get lower yields from my fishermans, gatherers and huntsmen, who worked on a place for years nonstop.

 

[Abelian]

Crop rotation, Lords of the Realm 2 style?

 

[Calapine]

Is there such a mechanic as overusing a river/field/forest? I mean for example if I leave a place unharvested for a year, letting it "rest", then the next year it will have better yield? Because I noticed that I started to get lower yields from my fishermans, gatherers and huntsmen, who worked on a place for years nonstop.

Fields - In my experience (~50 years) they are stable.
Fisherman - It feels so, yes. (especially on lakes without rivers). But I am not really sure as wharf output seems to fluctuate between years anyway.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

How are you tracking their annual output?

When you've got a building selected, the icon to display production is directly to the right of the ticker to increase the labor pool in that building's labor category.

For some reason I missed that little squirrelly doo-flicky.

And what's with the fucking seed extortionists? 2,500 for a fucking seed ffs. And I only get Cabbages ffs.

The critical thing for population stability is to have at least 1/8th of your population as children (Townsfolk spend 1/8th of their life as a child). Any less and you'll see your population drop dramatically over the next generation.

Yes, also people seem to live until they're in their 90's quite happily. And they still work. And people never die in child-birth or anything like that. As far as simulating some kind of medieval / old village, it's not very accurate in regards to death in that way.

 

[sexbad?]

I've had quite a few women die during childbirth. Also DarkUnderlord if you get a seed merchant you can order different kinds of seeds for the next time they visit. It's not ideal because of the delay and doesn't get you a discount, but it's more than just cabbage.

Something I don't like about the game now is the random generation and how it can just spawn you anywhere in the map, irrespective of what's actually a logical place for people to set up camp. Every map has a main river, and you start out with either just a cart or just a few structures, so it's perplexing why the game doesn't always spawn them at the riverside. IRL it's normally just another mile at most, so they wouldn't have trouble traveling a bit longer to reach one of the most important parts of every game. In-game, though, you can't control the people or the cart directly, so you have to build over to a better location, and it feels like a waste of time.

 

[MoLAoS]

Is there such a mechanic as overusing a river/field/forest? I mean for example if I leave a place unharvested for a year, letting it "rest", then the next year it will have better yield? Because I noticed that I started to get lower yields from my fishermans, gatherers and huntsmen, who worked on a place for years nonstop.

He has a dev blog on why he ended up not putting in crop rotation. He did a lot of work but he ended up deciding it wouldn't be super fun for most people or something.

 

[Ashery]

How are you tracking their annual output?

When you've got a building selected, the icon to display production is directly to the right of the ticker to increase the labor pool in that building's labor category.

For some reason I missed that little squirrelly doo-flicky.

And what's with the fucking seed extortionists? 2,500 for a fucking seed ffs. And I only get Cabbages ffs.

Seeds are a one time thing in the game. If you buy them, you permanently have access to them. It takes away from the game being a full on simulation, but it doesn't take away from the actual game.

And yea, I wish deaths were more often as well, but they do die from childbirth at times and quarries are about the most deadly thing in the game. Also, bear in mind that people age a "year" every season, so everyone only lives for twenty odd years.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Also, bear in mind that people age a "year" every season, so everyone only lives for twenty odd years.

Yeah I noticed that. I thought it was exceedingly dumb.

 

[Ashery]

Also, bear in mind that people age a "year" every season, so everyone only lives for twenty odd years.

Yeah I noticed that. I thought it was exceedingly dumb.

Eh, it's gameplay balance. Otherwise a 40 year town would require 160 years to reach the same population. It's not ideal, especially from a simulation perspective, but it works quite well from a gameplay one.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

That's resolved by people having more kids (like 5 - 12), not just 1 "because housing". And increasing the death rate. Men and women dying, kids dying all that. We're talking of an era where grandma can tell you how she raised 12 children in one room. Yet these fuckers demand housing like it's 1999. That'd make the first 10 years of the town crucial and then create a challenge in rapid population expansion.

Then again, people should also keep having kids. Which creates another problem to manage. As it is, once you figure out the food / resource juggle early on, the game seems to hit easy-mode pretty quickly. With the only challenge being juggling people around based on resource need from time to time, until you populate enough to let them sit.

It's just bizarre that you have "years" for people and "years" for the town and they're two entirely different things.