Why can't the villagers breed?

[LadyAquanine735]

In every other city-building game I have played, my villagers (whether human or not) could have children and increase their population. It's way too easy to have too many jobs, not enough workers, and there are so few villagers to find out in the world. It makes no sense that the villagers in this game can't have kids. Their race would die out eventually, even with survivors to pick up. What's the deal here?

[Bobywan]

Who says they can even breed.
Maybe they are all males and haven't found their queen.

[LadyAquanine735]

Interesting idea, and it's hard to tell the gender of the villagers anyway. They're all hidden under those outfits.

[chaotic_adventure]

Lore-wise, this is probably because of how long a "day" is. Like, I've just hit 250 villagers (which took many real life hours) and I haven't even hit an in-game year yet. I think most other city builders have time that goes much much faster than that.

I actually can't think of any city building games besides the sims where the "villagers" can reproduce. If you have any specific ones in mind I would be curious to know what they are, because none of the ones I've played have that feature.

Also it's early development, maybe they will be able to do that in the future.

[LadyAquanine735]

Oh yeah. Three city-building games I know of where the inhabitants breed are "Timberborn," "Children of the Nile," and "Surviving Mars." The first is a fun, post-apocalyptic game where the humans are gone, and the beavers took over, lol. xD The second one is where you build cities in ancient Egypt, and the graphics are surprisingly pretty and detailed for a game its age. The third one is where you take human colonists to Mars, and one of many ways to survive is to have them produce children while living under domes on the Martian surface.

I originally thought Zeus & Poseidon had the breeding feature, but I think they actually just had immigrants that would come in if your city was popular enough and you had enough jobs available. Children of the Nile has the breeding feature, but, similar to this game, days are long and I suspect breeding is slow, because you eventually run out of new villagers to employ after a while. But the ancient Egyptians in the game do have kids, they grow up into adults, and you get to see what they do for a job later on in their "lives."

[Mizi]

It's actually pretty rare to have a city/colony builder with a children mechanic, which is kinda sad, I really like the legacy aspect of city building. Another one that has it is "Dawn of Man" where you grow your caveman settlement through the different epochs, from prehistoric to iron age.

[City Builder]

Originally posted by Mizi:

It's actually pretty rare to have a city/colony builder with a children mechanic, which is kinda sad, I really like the legacy aspect of city building. Another one that has it is "Dawn of Man" where you grow your caveman settlement through the different epochs, from prehistoric to iron age.

Actually I can think of about 3 or 6 that have it, so not so rare as I'm not even investigating it, I'm sure if I wanted to look just in my library, i'd find a lot

[SeionTheKitsune21]

Originally posted by Mizi:

It's actually pretty rare to have a city/colony builder with a children mechanic, which is kinda sad, I really like the legacy aspect of city building. Another one that has it is "Dawn of Man" where you grow your caveman settlement through the different epochs, from prehistoric to iron age.

out of the ten city builder games I own, The Wandering Village is the only one that doesn't produce children... so I don't think its all that rare to INCLUDE that feature lol

[Asphe]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3008007075

501 villagers... almost 1100 days later. So if there were any kids... they'd be 3 year old brats pulling immature crops out of the ground, emptying the Water Tanks in the Desert, smearing Dung all over the Kelp or falling into the Fish ponds

i.e. kids would be another Hostility (every 9 months, half your villagers will poop out a smol version that will be a burden on you for the next 18 years, should one die, you lose 10% productivity for 1 week due to low morale)

You'd probably need to change the lore just a tad. And goats, cows... for the milk. Maybe someone can figure a way to turn wheat stalks into diapers...

Unless... villagers have a 'health durability' like how buildings have a durability rating. So half your kids DIE for every half-day you spend in a toxic cloud and/or High toxicity environment. This will be no way a bummer ^_^

Think of the game as a road trip that gets you out of an early grave. Would be nice to have a way to make the trip last for decades though... watch the kids grow up... get off my Farm

Might have to wait for the 'birds', to get Storks.

[Lil Puppy]

The planet is toxic, they've probably been sterilized. But just because you can't breed doesn't mean you don't want to survive.

[ShaddaShk †<CC><]

Originally posted by Asphe:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3008007075

501 villagers... almost 1100 days later. So if there were any kids... they'd be 3 year old brats pulling immature crops out of the ground, emptying the Water Tanks in the Desert, smearing Dung all over the Kelp or falling into the Fish ponds

i.e. kids would be another Hostility (every 9 months, half your villagers will poop out a smol version that will be a burden on you for the next 18 years, should one die, you lose 10% productivity for 1 week due to low morale)

It's hilarious because it's true! Alternatively, you get a General Post that has "babysitting" duties, but has a 50% chance of injury/poisoning due to work conditions such as fetching said hostilities out of the fish pond.

Dawn of Man skipped the diaper stage, went to adolescent so they could help out with small chores (sticks, rocks, no logs), but were also the ones targeted by bears, wolves and other aggressive creatures and you had high moral loss if they died.

[LadyAquanine735]

Originally posted by Lil Puppy:

The planet is toxic, they've probably been sterilized. But just because you can't breed doesn't mean you don't want to survive.

Humanity is doomed if it can't breed. Doesn't matter how many people you pick up, they eventually age and die.

[di eshor ribly]

Fun fact, the villagers are perfectly capable of breeding, they just never go home to their huts. It's hard to get your freak on when there are two other couples alternately staring at you disapprovingly or shouting advice.

But nah, I think the main problem besides timescale is just general population control issues. There's only so much usable farming space, so eventually you'll need some kind of contraception or edicts (one child policy or something similar). Otherwise every run will eventually devolve into homelessness and starvation death spirals.

At least the current system gives us the option to turn down new villagers instead of "I know you're out of wood and stone from building the last set of huts, but Cindy is pregnant again. By the way half the colony is named Cindy. Better build a new housing district. Or six. Maybe we should try breeding Onbus for more room."

[Asphe]

Ehh... I don't even have tents... and I click on each villager periodically... so NOTHING happens or the it's the Dung Collector for you.

------

Yeah, I know some players complain about the limited amount of space but that's part of the game's challenge. The idea is you're in a sense, roleplaying as the 'next' village Elder and it's up to you to prove it to the existing one

[Spark Sunbright]

I just assumed they fed all the kids to the beast.

[dame_c]

Banished also had breeding. It wouldn't be every 9 months +50%. Some would arrive pregnant, and not every woman would be pregnant the entire time. More realistically, 1 or 2% of your pop would be pregnant at any given time. dependants can start helping with harvesting around 5 years old maybe at 10% capability of an adult. 12+ could probably do building and carrying at 10% capability. 23+ is full adult with 100%. Seniors could start losing capability.