Rat Catcher Suggestion.

[Nefelia]

The micromanagement of the Rat Catcher is the only element of the game I consider un-fun. Everything else is delightfully challenging and fun. So, here is my suggesting for making the Rat Catcher more fun:

1) The default target circle around the Rat Catcher building is a permanent rat-free zone. This justifies the 8 gold/month upkeep cost and makes the placement of the Rat Catcher an important strategic consideration.

2) When all of the rats inside the target circle are caught and properly disposed, the rat catcher should head towards the nearest rat outside the circle: playing whack-a-mole with rats is not fun; the target circle should determine the rat catcher's priorities, but not limit him from catching rats elsewhere once the area has been cleared.

3) On top of the 8 gold/month building upkeep, the rat catcher should cost 4 gold/month and you should be able to employ three of them per Rat Catcher building. This would give people interesting choices: One Rat Catcher building employing three roaming rat catchers for 20 gold/month? Or perhaps two Rat Catcher buildings employing one rat catcher each for 24 gold/month? One rat-free zone vs two, but at the cost of less employed rat catchers and a higher cost.

[Zantai]

In what way are you micromanaging the rat catcher? Are you moving the work area around as rats pop out?

Multiple Rat Catchers should ultimately cover all of your food storage and homes. You're not meant to get by with one catcher for the entire town. But if you want to save gold, then I suppose micromanaging it is an option.

[Jeffus Maximus]

So we need 50 rat catchers to cover the entire settlement, or micromanage.

Sounds super fun...

[ungamer]

Originally posted by Jeffus Maximus:

So we need 50 rat catchers to cover the entire settlement, or micromanage.

Sounds super fun...

for a small town at the beginning you will need 5-10 rat catchers.
at the moment i have 800 people and around 30 catchers...

by the way TO IMPROVE - we need another ui window with buildings, to see how many each kind of them we have and to switch from one to another of same type.

[dazkaz]

Originally posted by Jeffus Maximus:

So we need 50 rat catchers to cover the entire settlement, or micromanage.

Sounds super fun...

Sounds like you have made the same mistake as me on my first map. Spread out your town too much.
I think we are meant to build supper compact core of the city then spread out agriculture into the rural areas.
Look at the picture of the city in all the promo.
Also, its only the houses and storage that needs rat catchers, and if you keep the houses clean with good waste collection they don't get many rats anyway.
Edit: I'm not sure, but I think soap also helps. Just use all the tools you have in game to keep cleanliness up.

[highlanderanno59]

beim rattenfänger sollte noch einmal nachgearbeitet werden--
überall ratten trotz viele viele rattenfänger--

[Nefelia]

Originally posted by Zantai:

In what way are you micromanaging the rat catcher? Are you moving the work area around as rats pop out?

In my previous games I've had my storage buildings spread out haphazardly. I was forced to move the work radius several times a year, which ate up into my other management tasks. Building more than one was not an option, given my poor economy.

I've had far less problems with the Rat Catcher in my latest game. Clustering up the root cellars, granaries, and storehouses so that they fit into one work radius or two helps a
lot. Of course, markets can't be clustered together, so they require me to shift my work radius around some as they get infested by rats. Still, with only three work radii to cycle through, the issue is currently manageable.

At 8 gold/month, the Rat Catcher does not feel like a building that one needs to build too often. I'll see how it goes with my current game. Hopefully it won't get out of hand again once my town gets larger.

...

Besides, upon further thought I'd like to scrap point #1 from my suggestion. Just #2 and #3 would be enough to improve the current Rat Catcher.

[SgtScum]

With careful city management you only need a handful of rat catchers to cover it all since rats only go after food and waste. Keep the waste cleared up and root cellars in strategic locations so one rat catcher can cover multiples of them and you are good to go.

[Vengos]

Originally posted by Jeffus Maximus:

So we need 50 rat catchers to cover the entire settlement, or micromanage.

Sounds super fun...

300 people towns and i have 2-3 rat catchers covering wall houses + storages

[Hazel Stone]

Yep, my population is around 250 and only two needed.

[Ninjafroggie]

Rats only show up in storehouses, root cellars, granaries, and markets. Some good planning will minimize the number of catchers you need. I have a town with 270 pop and only 3 catchers keeping it completely rat free without any need to micromanage them at all

[Barok]

what they need to do is increase the efficiency of the waste/compost collector that way all your houses will be waste free all the time so that you will only need one rat catcher for your granaries and food storage assuming those building are relatively close to each other or inside the work area of the rat catcher

[dazkaz]

Originally posted by Barok:

what they need to do is increase the efficiency of the waste/compost collector that way all your houses will be waste free all the time so that you will only need one rat catcher for your granaries and food storage assuming those building are relatively close to each other or inside the work area of the rat catcher

To be honest money/gold is not an issue mid game.
If you pay attention to the traders, and keep your towns desirability high, so the houses level up, then you can also extort gold from the villagers by supplying them luxury goods. (I'm playing on normal settings).
So to pay a few rat catchers, is peanuts in the grand scheme of things.

[Ninjafroggie]

you still want to plan well though...I mean, even if you can afford it easily, why pay for 8 of them when 3 can do the job with some good planning?

[Selig]

Is there a notification that shows you if you have rats or not? I have one rat catcher covering my granaries and root cellars (town pop of only 170-ish) but I don't know if houses or anything are having rat problems. After reading some of these comments, I'm starting to think that I'm either missing signs that rats are getting into stuff, or I'm just lucky with my layout and my town is very clean.

Edit: Just checked and my Rat Catcher hasn't killed a single rat... I have the best city on the frontier!

[Ninjafroggie]

Originally posted by Selig:

Is there a notification that shows you if you have rats or not? I have one rat catcher covering my granaries and root cellars (town pop of only 170-ish) but I don't know if houses or anything are having rat problems. After reading some of these comments, I'm starting to think that I'm either missing signs that rats are getting into stuff, or I'm just lucky with my layout and my town is very clean.

Edit: Just checked and my Rat Catcher hasn't killed a single rat... I have the best city on the frontier!

rats dont actually show up at all until you upgrade to tier 3