Single villagers; is it too late for them

[mechamse]

I would love to be able to provide the two guys that are living alone right now with companions. However, as they are the only 2 single guys among the families I have, I cannot bring in any more people. what's the deal with this? do I kick them out and wait for the children to grow old enough to work or marry?

I have a population of 53 and 2 homes are dedicated to support these 2 guys. where I could have 6 more people if only I could bring in 2 more. but I imagine I cannot kick them out and then fill their spots either. Seems very odd to not be able to either find a companion for them, or them to find one independently.
Says I need 40K reputation to bring in new villages. but I simply believe i'm locked out of this now.
any thoughts on this? or simply avoid by always managing equal male/female numbers?

[Chris Vienna]

I always invite a man and a woman together. The downside is maternity leaves after a pretty short time, but it saves on buildings.

[Capuzzi09]

How old are your singles?
Remember that there's a maximum range of 10 years between male and female workers to get married.
Since marriage is a random event and the chance for that to happen gows lower the bigger the gap of age is between the villagers, it might still be possible for them to couple up even if the difference is more than 10 years, but I wouldn't bet on that.

[Willow Rivers]

Originally posted by Capuzzi09:

How old are your singles?
Remember that there's a maximum range of 10 years between male and female workers to get married.
Since marriage is a random event and the chance for that to happen gows lower the bigger the gap of age is between the villagers, it might still be possible for them to couple up even if the difference is more than 10 years, but I wouldn't bet on that.

I saw it is 10 year gap for the player but for the NPCs it is 20 year gap to be able to marry and have children.

[Lailantie]

Originally posted by Willow Rivers:

I saw it is 10 year gap for the player but for the NPCs it is 20 year gap to be able to marry and have children.

I second this. There was a discussion on discord a while ago about this topic and that's the info we got there.

[Capuzzi09]

Good to know.
I only noticed that it takes longer, the bigger the age gap is between two settlers.

[Shooter_McGavin]

Personally, I do everything I can to NOT get the NPC's to marry and have children. As this counts against you later for population, I find that if I allow nature to take it's course, then I struggle to have enough workers later in the game. Once you find yourself in the dreaded need to increase reputation, you never can build it fast enough as each time they produce another child, the reputation number increases. I basically move housing location for the female NPC's each season. I really wish the game would not count children as your population until they are workers.

[molly_zero]

Once you hit the impossible reputation requirement, so that you can no longer invite new villagers, and every family has the maximum 2 children, how can the population ever increase? Can NPCs ever get themselves partners from outside the village?

[Lailantie]

The population can increase when your kids turn 18 and you have some spare buildings left where you can let them move together. At the same time the elders will die, but in my longest savegame they died much slower than the youngsters got kids.

[Thunder Beaver]

Ive found that if you place the NPC males and fenales(single) that are within 20 years age difference in the same home they will start a family. Start them off at early ages when you can. The cut off point for female NPCs having kids is age 40.

[Lailantie]

Originally posted by jasonswearingin:

The cut off point for female NPCs having kids is age 40.

Did they change that recently? That would be so great. I had a 60 years old woman have a baby, but that was some time ago.

[mechamse]

Originally posted by Capuzzi09:

How old are your singles?
Remember that there's a maximum range of 10 years between male and female workers to get married.
Since marriage is a random event and the chance for that to happen grows lower the bigger the gap of age is between the villagers, it might still be possible for them to couple up even if the difference is more than 10 years, but I wouldn't bet on that.

I've never had a marriage problem with the people, but I have a problem now that my population has reached a certain point. specifically that I cannot recruit new villagers to provide the option of a mate for these guys. They are currently in their late 30's. As I recall, I was trying to keep 1 man to 1 woman, but 1 of the women came to me as a wife and another left when I didn't get a house built fast enough. The guy seemed to care just a little less. it was a matter of minutes honestly. but I was not able to recruit another woman after, as the population seemed to be the problem. I leveled up the reputation needed but the bar kept moving. my suspicion is that they are stuck now.

Just seems it would be a benefit to allow villages to marry if there is housing capacity to support it. Also is unclear what the transition will be for village children that grow up. when/if they marry will they require their own home, or attempt to occupy a family home with the parents? at present, all of my families have 2 children so homes are full with exception of the single guys.