People Management?

[GmanUK1965]

One of the main problems I am having is people management. I am always running out of people in labour shortages. I think the problem may be I am starting too many professions too early. So, after starting 2/3 hunters and fishers, the forager and the professions that lead up to the sawmill, what other professions should I consider?

How many people should I have in my village before starting farming?

[garthurbrown]

Avoid fishers unless you don't have enough hunting to support your tiny population, which seems unlikely. They are less productive than hunters and don't give you pelts or tallow.

After the saw mill, you want to get a market. After the market, you should get a fresh injection of immigrants, which you can then make into a tanner, a fletcher, a cobbler, and (if you have willow nearby) a basket maker, and a two-guard tower. Then you save up to get to T2. If my calculations are correct, that should be 13 people (assuming 2 guys manning the sawpit, one tanner, one fletcher, one cobbler, one basket maker, and one grocer) when they are all staffed. With production limits, your woodcutter shouldn't be working the whole time though.

Some people will tell you different, but I don't start farming until T2, and I primarily do it so that I can get flax first. When I set up the farm, first I set only one farmer for a 7x7ish field, with 3 rotations of peas, maintenance, and clover until all the rockiness is gone, the weeds are under control, and the fertility is over 80%. Then I bump it up to two farmers.

[GmanUK1965]

I tried to decrease my farmers in my last village but did not know how?

As for what to build and when, I will take on board. I've tried a few villages but always failed in one way or another but never really bothered with the tanner, cobbler and basket maker till later but will change that from now on.

I also didn't bother with towers until later in the which is probably the reason why my villages have failed because of raiders and bears

[Matthew]

You kind of just want to keep growing up to 100+ quickly. If you think of it in percentages, only a portion of your village is free to do specialty jobs when everyone else is doing the minimum food, building, labor, defense, etc.

Which means the more villagers you have, the more available to task to those specialty jobs.

I can't imagine waiting until T2 to start farming. I am usually farming by year 2. I find it useful to push farms "wide" early, because they take a number of years to clear rocks, get fertility up, fix soil mixture. So I usually pump out around 12 farmers right away, but the yields are low-ish. Then, over time, the 12 farms produce higher and higher yields going into T2.

Maximum amount of farmers can be controlled in the top right of the farm UI when clicking on a farm. It will display a number like 3/3. At max fertility, a farmer can usually take care of about 25-30 tiles. So a 10x10 farm, or 100 tiles, will need 3-4 farmers. Anything more is typically wasted. With staggered crops and careful rotations, you can push that to 35-40 tiles per farmer, but trying to go more will typically result in rotted crops due to late harvest. Especially at larger village sizes and travel time becomes a factor.

[garthurbrown]

Originally posted by GmanUK1965:

I tried to decrease my farmers in my last village but did not know how?
As for what to build and when, I will take on board. I've tried a few villages but always failed in one way or another but never really bothered with the tanner, cobbler and basket maker till later but will change that from now on.

While the field is in construction, you can't lower the number. Once the field is constructed, it's in the upper right corner.

Those three will increase your efficiency and happiness a lot. Without baskets, villages carry less at a time. Without hide skin coats, they get cold and are more vulnerable to animal attacks. Without shoes, they get worms.

[garthurbrown]

Originally posted by Matthew:

I can't imagine waiting until T2 to start farming. I am usually farming by year 2. I find it useful to push farms "wide" early, because they take a number of years to clear rocks, get fertility up, fix soil mixture. So I usually pump out around 12 farmers right away, but the yields are low-ish. Then, over time, the 12 farms produce higher and higher yields going into T2.

That's a huge drain on your starting manpower. Just start a game, don't make your first farm till T2, and see how much difference it makes. Hunters get plenty of food for T1. Have your laborers pick berries and hazel nuts. I do it every time I start a new settlement.

[The Bear]

My main thing complaint is i have around 30 people who can actually work and 70 younglings that cant, this forces me into only producing food and clearing waste, eventually running out of clothes, firewood, general materials. This happens every time, mainly due to a few adults dying early due to bear attacks, a raid after I hit tier 2 town center. My only guess is I am advancing too fast instead of focusing on the basics for the first 5 years.
I cant stop my villagers from reproducing and creating more waste and therefore creating more illness which kills more adults. Healer station is tier 2 and is the main reason I rush tier two. I could potentially solve this by staying in tier 1 and just building houses and markets and tax the ♥♥♥♥♥ out of everyone. Make everyone a farmer/hunter/gatherer and sell food/hides. Definitely more testing is required, but it seems as if there might be some issues with reproduction rates of villagers and aging rates of infants/children/adolescents. If anyone has advice, more testers on this issue would be helpful.

[ladicken]

As has been previously stated, to start a farm the game max's out the farmers to prep the field, only after the field is ready for crops can you drop the number of farmers. I would very much like to be able to drop the number of farmers assigned to "prep" the field.

[Matthew]

Originally posted by garthurbrown:

Originally posted by Matthew:

I can't imagine waiting until T2 to start farming. I am usually farming by year 2. I find it useful to push farms "wide" early, because they take a number of years to clear rocks, get fertility up, fix soil mixture. So I usually pump out around 12 farmers right away, but the yields are low-ish. Then, over time, the 12 farms produce higher and higher yields going into T2.

That's a huge drain on your starting manpower. Just start a game, don't make your first farm till T2, and see how much difference it makes. Hunters get plenty of food for T1. Have your laborers pick berries and hazel nuts. I do it every time I start a new settlement.

What else are your villagers going to do? Sit and watch the scenery? Food is the driving force behind village growth, and delaying farms is delaying growth. Just start with small farms to till them quickly. I know some people like to work larger plot sizes, but you can just expand them later. No need to try and till a 12x12 farm on year 2.

I'm not skeptical of being able to make it to T2 without farms, just that I don't see the point in delaying them. My sights are typically on rushing T3, because I find T2 too limiting. The faster I get 12 farms up to max efficiency, the faster I get to T3.

But to each his own 👍There was dude on here who would only grow a couple villagers per year. Personally, I'd get bored taking 80+ years to make it to T4, but if someone finds that fun, have at it.

[Matthew]

Originally posted by The Bear:

seems as if there might be some issues with reproduction rates of villagers and aging rates of infants/children/adolescents. If anyone has advice, more testers on this issue would be helpful.

I haven't had an issue with it. Less than 10% of your village needs to be tasked on food, which is more than enough to keep everyone going. Child or otherwise. I wouldn't rush a healer. That is a lot of gold and you shouldn't need one for a long while. Make sure your villagers eat more than just meat to prevent scurvy and don't attack raiders to get festering wounds.

Just use a couple towers early on for raiders. Pull everyone else away, don't let anyone actually get hit in combat. Festering wounds is nasty. The amount you are trying to spend on a healer could instead just be spent on that tower maintenance and you wouldn't need the healer.

[garthurbrown]

Originally posted by Matthew:

What else are your villagers going to do? Sit and watch the scenery? Food is the driving force behind village growth, and delaying farms is delaying growth. Just start with small farms to till them quickly. I know some people like to work larger plot sizes, but you can just expand them later. No need to try and till a 12x12 farm on year 2.

What are they doing at T1? Making baskets, smoking meet, cobbling shoes, stocking houses, etc. To use 12 people for farming means you'll need 1/3 more population than I have when I get to T2. Even if all 30 of your people are adults, that only leaves 8 for all other occupations, including laborers and builders. The math there doesn't make any sense to me.

[GmanUK1965]

I'm not going to bother with farming until I actually need it. Atm I have between 40 and 50 villagers but still need more wood and stone with all the building I have to do so starting farming now would decrease the amount of wood and stone that I need. I tend to have most of what I need except more houses (I can get about 3 or 4 houses in the catchment area of the two markets I have. I have a guard tower defending one of my markets and trading post but I think I still need a tower to guard my other market. A basket maker will come in handy too

I think I wont start farming unless I have to until I have enough wood and stone and I have built the above. I reckon I will need about 50 villagers before I do this.

[garthurbrown]

Originally posted by GmanUK1965:

I'm not going to bother with farming until I actually need it. Atm I have between 40 and 50 villagers but still need more wood and stone with all the building I have to do so starting farming now would decrease the amount of wood and stone that I need. I tend to have most of what I need except more houses (I can get about 3 or 4 houses in the catchment area of the two markets I have. I have a guard tower defending one of my markets and trading post but I think I still need a tower to guard my other market. A basket maker will come in handy too

I think I wont start farming unless I have to until I have enough wood and stone and I have built the above. I reckon I will need about 50 villagers before I do this.

An important factor to take into consideration is also the fertility level of soil. If you have no good farmings areas, you'll need longer to develop the farms to kill the rockiness and weeds and raise the fertility, so start as soon as its practical. You don't need any wood or stone for farming, except for the fences you might build to keep animals out.