Am I playing wrong or is this game just crazily unbalanced?

[ElectronicSource]

I really love the game but after a while I just keep encountering the same issues:

I have two logging cabins and yet my storage is always empty. I do not even have a lot of production going on that would require much sticks or logs. But even though it says ~80 logs a day, I hardly have more than 5 per day and most of the time the storage is just empty so I have to do it manually after all.

By now I just disabled carrying capacity because it sucks that I have to do everything manually and therefore could only carry like 6 logs at a time.

This applies to basically everything. Production is not what it says in the panels. The "work efficiency" system is total crap as you can only select a few things not even considering if they can do them. If you have 80% on one resource and that one cannot be produced for some reason, they just don't do anything and their work doesn't shift more towards what they could actually produce. Insane micromanagement.

It also lacks some QoL features that really need to be there. Like simply selecting one wall type instead of doing it for every single piece of wall. Yeah there might be a builder hut that will automate this, but you only unlock it late-game. If you don't build stone houses, people are super unhappy and work even less.

In the end it just feels unnecessarily tedious. It's so unrewarding and without putting the XP/Technology gain sliders up to ~200-400% it just feels like a more elaborated auto-clicker.


I could probably write another 50 things that are just way off. But now's the question: Am I playing it wrong, am I overlooking something and things are just ineffective due to that or is it simply lacking a lot and devs don't seem to improve these issues at all (after all the game has been out for a long time now and it still feels so half-baked in some parts...)

[Oga]

Originally posted by ElectronicSource:

I really love the game but after a while I just keep encountering the same issues:

I have two logging cabins and yet my storage is always empty. I do not even have a lot of production going on that would require much sticks or logs. But even though it says ~80 logs a day, I hardly have more than 5 per day and most of the time the storage is just empty so I have to do it manually after all.

Go in to your management menu, limit your villagers from burning sticks/logs to keep themselves warm.
This should solve the issue there.

Originally posted by ElectronicSource:

By now I just disabled carrying capacity because it sucks that I have to do everything manually and therefore could only carry like 6 logs at a time.

Large backpacks help to keep mobile.

Originally posted by ElectronicSource:

It also lacks some QoL features that really need to be there. Like simply selecting one wall type instead of doing it for every single piece of wall. Yeah there might be a builder hut that will automate this, but you only unlock it late-game. If you don't build stone houses, people are super unhappy and work even less.

This (as well as custom blueprints) have been a QoL people asked for, make sure to voice your mind in the suggestions forum on this.

Originally posted by ElectronicSource:

In the end it just feels unnecessarily tedious. It's so unrewarding and without putting the XP/Technology gain sliders up to ~200-400% it just feels like a more elaborated auto-clicker.

Tho this is quite personal on the speed you want to develop, do note that villagers work also counts to this and the game is made to be slowly progressing making next steps feel like actual accomplishments rather than easy gains.
To make it less time consuming, opting for additional gains on XP/Technology can be a great feat.

Originally posted by ElectronicSource:

I could probably write another 50 things that are just way off. But now's the question: Am I playing it wrong, am I overlooking something and things are just ineffective due to that or is it simply lacking a lot and devs don't seem to improve these issues at all (after all the game has been out for a long time now and it still feels so half-baked in some parts...)

There's no way to play it wrong, play it the way that feels best to you.
That said, there are likely some things that would make your life easier so I'd say: "Make sure to spill it on the forums so you (and anyone reading it) can use the knowledge available in the community to ease your (ingame) life.

[Morri]

Production is always what it says in the panels.
In your case your villagers are probably burning your logs instantly because you didn't provide them with firewood.
I personally turn off that they are allowed to burn logs or sticks (or consume raw food ingredients).

Part of getting a self sufficient village is figuring out how to set the sliders so that you won't run out of stuff. Once you get to that level, you won't have much changing to do anymore.

As for not having stone houses, people won't be "super unhappy". It makes a little bit of a difference, but not that big. The feature to change the type for the entire house is requested often though.
As for the builder's hut I have bad news for you. That one won't build new buildings for you, but will only do the necessary repairs once they drop below a certain percentage.

As for technology gain; your villagers also contribute to that. I find the default more than fast enough, but the sliders are there for people like you that would like to level things faster. (And for people like me that like it slower :-)) I don't understand why you would complain that it's too tedious without changing the xp/technology sliders. Everyone has different preferences; if you find the default too tedious, that's what the sliders are for. There's no need to change the default.

But if you have specific suggestions, also for QoL features, feel free to post them in the feedback section. A lot of the things you mention are mentioned (a lot) before already there, but it doesn't hurt if you add your wishes there as well. That way the devs can see whether many people are interested in a certain thing.

Edit: O hi Oga! You beat me to it (again) xD

[Oga]

Originally posted by Morri:

Edit: O hi Oga! You beat me to it (again) xD

No worries there, you beat me more often to it than I beat you to it.
Plus you word it a lot better than I do.

Also, Hi

[ElectronicSource]

Okay thanks for the infos. That they use other things to burn makes sense. I will try what happens if I change that. But like hunters gathering a whoping 8 meat per day with two people and 100% feels really odd if you need to feed ~20 villagers. Feels like adding one more villager to fill another hunting cabin already adds more consumption than they can actually provide for then.

[Oga]

The hunters meat gain was nerfed in last update or the one before that.
Might be re-balanced upward again in the future since, at least for me, it feels quite low now.

To keep access to the food, you might want to go in to the management menu and disable raw meat for consumption so it can be processed in to something more nutritional.
Also making sure that food isn't eaten for the water gained from it is quite handy there (same part of the menu)

[ElectronicSource]

Yeah it really feels like hunters cabin is just a waste of work force to be honest. Same for the well. 100% = merely a bucket of water a day? Consumption is 500 with 16 people already. You want potions? They take one bucket per potion. How does that add up? I thought you're not really supposed to do much manual crafting once you unlocked the buildings but some just don't make sense with their production rates :(

[Oga]

Once they level up it does get better.
I have a few hundred villagers being self sufficient on 1 water well, 2 hunting huts, a fishing hut and a kitchen which crafts some goods from the land with the meat and fish.

The only things I manually do is building/isolating new buildings (and clicking repairs in the building hut) and quests. (and sometimes pick up manure to craft additional fertilizer I don't need)
Sometimes I fiddle with production or sales numbers but that's mainly after some new recruits are brought in

[ElectronicSource]

I hope so. I tweaked a lot now but it still doesn't work well. Still no logs although I should have quite the over-production. I don't feel the production is working 100% like it should. Sadly there's also no detailed view to most things to analyze what's exactly the problem.

For the water I realized that waterskins have more water value than buckets anyway. So I hand craft water buckets for potions for now while the well produces more than enough water via waterskins.

[Maehlice]

Yes. This game is terribly unbalanced. @Morri will tell you otherwise and even quote the devs on how they have an algorithm to balance things. But, the proof is in the pudding. I think their algorithm is borked.

EDIT: I'm talking mainly about the economy and only partially about production numbers.

It's better if you don't try to min-max anything. Don't try to be efficient, and don't worry about what might be a waste of time or resources. Just do whatever and be happy. Explore, build pretty things, and let numbers be damned. There's a certain joy in that, too!

Originally posted by ElectronicSource:

Yeah it really feels like hunters cabin is just a waste of work force to be honest. Same for the well. 100% = merely a bucket of water a day? Consumption is 500 with 16 people already. You want potions? They take one bucket per potion. How does that add up? I thought you're not really supposed to do much manual crafting once you unlocked the buildings but some just don't make sense with their production rates :(

For what it's worth, a full bucket is 10 "servings". So, it would be one Bucket of Water per (10) potions.

And another FWIW: remember that one "game" should encompass an entire **cough, cough** Dynasty. So, progression is suppose to be slow. It's not until after many, many seasons of your villagers honing their craft when yields become more meaningful.

[Morri]

Originally posted by Maehlice:

Yes. This game is terribly unbalanced. @Morri will tell you otherwise and even quote the devs on how they have an algorithm to balance things. But, the proof is in the pudding. I think their algorithm is borked.

All I did was refute the claim that they just picked some random numbers and don't care about the balance, when in fact they do have a reason and thought behind most prices and production values and try to balance things out in excels with lots of formula's.
They don't always get it right straight away, but they are trying. :-)

To OP; as for the hunters not bringing in a lot of meat; their skill level is very important here. Also, upgrading to a hunter's hunt version II, will improve the yield.
You are supposed to not let them live of raw and roasted meat forever either, but to move on to better dishes that are more filling as soon as you can.

[Ookapia]

Originally posted by ElectronicSource:

I could probably write another 50 things that are just way off. But now's the question: Am I playing it wrong, am I overlooking something and things are just ineffective due to that or is it simply lacking a lot and devs don't seem to improve these issues at all (after all the game has been out for a long time now and it still feels so half-baked in some parts...)

It can really feel like that at first, but it is going to get better. The skill level and happiness of your villager are really game-changing. When everything is set up and running without help, a lot of player get bored, so maybe it's not so bad if you have a little trouble at the beginning.

[Oga]

Originally posted by ElectronicSource:

I hope so. I tweaked a lot now but it still doesn't work well. Still no logs although I should have quite the over-production. I don't feel the production is working 100% like it should. Sadly there's also no detailed view to most things to analyze what's exactly the problem.

IF you're playing on OxBow you could always invite a (more) experienced player over to take a looksie why the logs arn't coming in or help with some other tuning.
If they still arn't coming in there can only be a handful of causes tho:
- Burned for firewood
- Used to craft tools
- No tools to farm
- Not at set at (100%) production
- Used to craft planks

[UnableRogue]

Originally posted by Morri:

You are supposed to not let them live of raw and roasted meat forever either, but to move on to better dishes that are more filling as soon as you can.

Serious? Honestly I would never have guessed it. Meat is all my villagers live on. They should implement some kind of higher productivity for eating dishes or at least after a while make the villagers lose productivity or happiness if their diet consists solely of meat and water. (Which my villagers do) I hope the devs do something like that in the future. I know they have their hands full at the moment.

[Ookapia]

When you are cooking, you find a bunch of information on every meal. Some meals provide more food, some more water - this applies to ýour character and NPCs. Other effects a meal may have are for your character only.

If your village lives from meat and you balanced that out, there's nothing to worry about. If your village grows and you find that you need more food, you might consider adding other meals instead of hunting more.

[ElectronicSource]

It is definetly bugged. I produce stone axes and stone knives in the smithy. The axes can be crafted with their 2 stones required. The stone knives show "2 stones are missing". Logs are still missing even though I should produce more than enough with 3 logging cabins. I don't get it... and by now I disabled them burning logs.