Livestock comparisons

[ladicken]

Amounts vary some from year to year, but these are the outputs of the livestock buildings I've got.

Chickens - max 15 chickens, 6 workers produces about 100 or less meat and about 60 eggs per year. Grazing area is one quarter the size of a cattle area. This building does not upgrade. Chickens are cheap to buy.

Goats - upgraded building to 20 goats and 12 workers produces about 400 meat per year and about 500 milk. Grazing area is one half the size of a cattle area. Goats are cheap to buy.

Cattle - upgraded building to 20 cattle and 12 workers produces about 1000 meat per year and about 1000 milk per year. Cows can be moderately expensive at times.

[Commodus]

Thats very helpful, thanks!

6 workers for 100 meat, sounds terrible, that sounds like it should be a one worker building.

Whats the point of goats if its the same number of workers as cattle:/

[ladicken]

I think the goats and chickens need a little reworking by the devs to make them more useful.

Now that we can produce eggs, I think the pubs should have an upgrade to allow them to serve meals, maybe that will help with the drunkards a bit. Steak and eggs is always a good thing, and maybe make some more money.

[Anonymouse]

What about tallow and hide production from goats in comparison with the cows?

[ladicken]

So far goats produce half the amount of tallow and hides a cattle farm does. My cattle farms (in late winter) show they produced 12-15 hides and tallow each that year. My goat farm says it produced 6 each.

[ladicken]

I'd put chickens and goats on the same level as fishing shacks, foragers and hunter shacks. Nice and cheap to get started with, but they just aren't enough once you're supporting a large population. I have noticed that traveling salesmen will sell you a lot of chickens and goats at once. I've seen them have 19 goats for sale.

Right now, for serious food production, you need still need farms, cattle barns and arborists.

And I don't know what city level you can upgrade the goat barn. I was experimenting with chickens and goats at level 4, so if the goat barn is upgradable before level 4 I can't say. If you can upgrade the goat farm to 20 goats at level 2 or 3, they could be worth it. Chickens not so much.

[ladicken]

Found some old saves and goat farms aren't upgradeable until level 4. That's a shame, if they were upgradeable in level 2 then they'd certainly be worth it.

[ungamer]

to devs
i suggest this - 1 worker for chickens, 2 workers for goats.
i will tell it many times again, but pls take thing from REAL life , if we need to manage many things and have survival elements like in real life , then there should be real life logic , othervise make a full fantasy game , to avoid such nonsense . same like bear meat amount ~ wolf meat amount and boar = 5 times more meat amount than bear meat amount .
12 workers for goats ? just open youtube and type "goat farm" - you will see that 1 person can deal with 10-20 goats EASILY.
thx for reading me.
ps. i do believe that in games people play genres as well , and if there will be opposite genres in 1 game (like we have fantasy+reality)... it will be a mess for all players.
i understand that every buiseness's goal is money... but that's how we lose everything as humans and stop to care of real life and do many bad things. no need to satisfy EVERYONE , actually there is no any person who can do that. just focus on certain players and make a GREAT game, that we didnt have for decade

[Anonymouse]

Originally posted by ladicken:

I'd put chickens and goats on the same level as fishing shacks, foragers and hunter shacks. Nice and cheap to get started with, but they just aren't enough once you're supporting a large population. I have noticed that traveling salesmen will sell you a lot of chickens and goats at once. I've seen them have 19 goats for sale.

Right now, for serious food production, you need still need farms, cattle barns and arborists.

And I don't know what city level you can upgrade the goat barn. I was experimenting with chickens and goats at level 4, so if the goat barn is upgradable before level 4 I can't say. If you can upgrade the goat farm to 20 goats at level 2 or 3, they could be worth it. Chickens not so much.

Thanks for all the analysis mate, much appreciated.
Based off of what Zentai said about horses having more uses in the future as opposed to them being only military related at the moment, I'm guessing goats and chicken are a stepping point to new materials and potentialy new industries (hair/wool from goats to make rugs as luxury items / new types of clothing, feathers from chickens to make pens to increase productivity of guild hall / library for example)
And since it's only p1 of the beta, I bet they will change the worker requirements for goat barns and coops.

[LaserHawk]

pretty much net negative after you account for the feed required. Why bother?

[SerBucky]

Do you really need to fully stock the coop and goat farm. I have full capacity and only 2 workers each and seems to be doing just fine.

[Alexaraas]

Originally posted by Bucky:

Do you really need to fully stock the coop and goat farm. I have full capacity and only 2 workers each and seems to be doing just fine.

Maximum workers means maximum birthrate which means more animals to slaughter = more food

[Commodus]

All the Livestock buildings could do with a drop in max workers

[loriaw]

Originally posted by ladicken:

Amounts vary some from year to year, but these are the outputs of the livestock buildings I've got.

Chickens - max 15 chickens, 6 workers produces about 100 or less meat and about 60 eggs per year. Grazing area is one quarter the size of a cattle area. This building does not upgrade. Chickens are cheap to buy.

Goats - upgraded building to 20 goats and 12 workers produces about 400 meat per year and about 500 milk. Grazing area is one half the size of a cattle area. Goats are cheap to buy.

Cattle - upgraded building to 20 cattle and 12 workers produces about 1000 meat per year and about 1000 milk per year. Cows can be moderately expensive at times.

The amounts for the chickens and goats are definitely in need of some tweaking.

Now, I haven't played the beta but I DO own 15 hens and 2 roosters. I get 100 -105 eggs per WEEK, from March thru November if I have no broody hens or I'm not collecting any for the incubator. I generally incubate 125 per year and raise 115 for meat and the rest for replacement hens. That adds up to the 115 for meat (I'd allow that one chicken for a fully upgraded home would make one meal), a constant turnover of young hens, and a round number of 3500 eggs.

The grazing area for those chickens should include a compost area, and not only increase the compost output BUT reduce feed somewhat. Feed should be root veg and clover. So, a small clover field and a compost area, with root veg in the winter months should feasibly produce 3500 eggs and 115 meat (and there should be roosters or you aren't going to get a single chick!!!! And ... 6 workers?!? NO. Just NO!! I take care of the hens, feeding, cleaning, AND planting/harvesting clover/borage/melons/carrots/beets/cabbage/any other extras ALL BY MYSELF! Chickens are NOT labor intensive, and if a chicken coop in this game requires 6 workers they had better add a flogging post!!

Goats. Not sure what breed they were going for, and whether they are adding meat goats or dairy goats. One dairy doe will provide on average 2018 pounds of milk per year (or about 250 gallons). This requires a buck for breeding or there are no kids and no milk! Goats require hay and the does require grain for milk production.

Meat goats produce significantly less milk (cut the amount by about half), but provide on average 63 pounds of meat at a 6 month slaughter age (compared to 580 ish pounds of meat and 150 pounds of tallow from a 2 year old steer).

I've had a small dairy goat herd and also managed that myself (in addition to the chickens, my meat rabbits, pigs, and a largish flock of Muscovy ducks outside of slaughter day ~ that took 2-3 people and covered maybe 18 - 25 days each year). It takes less than an hour to milk 7 goats, another 2 hours for cleaning equipment/shed, and about 10 minutes to feed them. Goats require hay and/or browse (not pasture). They eat bushes and trees (so don't put them in your orchard lol!). I would suggest adding borage, sunflowers, root veg and apples ... and a grazing area in woods.

I know this is a game ... but these numbers and the required workers are WAY off.

For the population, there should be 2 chicken sheds/1 goat barn/1 cow barn per 250 people.

Workers should be one per chicken coop, 2 per goat barn, max 6 per cattle barn (fully upgraded), and as for the horse barns, I am almost afraid to hear the stats on that!! Ideally soldiers would be caring for their own horses AND there should be a farrier. With or without shoes, horses require regular foot care ... and so do goats for that matter.

Realistically, this can be done in a manner consistent with the game, but it should have a lot more tuning and tweaking to get it right. And WHAT was that 'meat and hide' count from the horse barn I saw on a video?!?!? Cripes, I fully understand that different cultures eat different meat, but that's a hard no from me! Horses that are injured? Fine. They would likely have been slaughtered for meat. A regular turnover for meat? No. Just no!

Please devs, take some notes from people who actually raise these animals and understand exactly what they can/do produce and what is actually involved in their care ... at least as far as workers are concerned.

[Heart of Storm]

Gonna agree with this, chickens in particular should be 1 worker tops and yield a LOT more eggs.

Traditional chicken breeds don't produce eggs at the rate that modern hybrid birds do, but 4-5 eggs a week per bird isn't unreasonable

[madracc00n]

They are rly bad compared to hunter or gatherer or w/e it is called.Yes u dont always have option for hunter or gatherer,but i mean u have to have 6 people working chickens LOL.