Are Services actually useful?

[andrewcurrall]

I'm not very far through the game's progression yet- I've just won my first game on Viceroy difficulty, but one thing that strikes me is that complex food (and coats, I suppose) are way more efficient at increasing resolve than Service buildings, to the point where I struggle to see a reason to use Service buildings. With complex food, you just need to create the food item. With services, you need to create the service item (e.g. Ale, Cosmetics etc.), get the blueprint for the service building, build the service building, assign workers to the service building, and have the villager make a separate trip to the service building- all to get the same Resolve bonus.

Am I missing something?

Incidentally, Specialised Housing is rather harder to compare to the other methods- it consumes no continual labour at all, but costs relatively high amounts of building resources to set up (and can't be stored, like food).

[rouths]

Of course, you can literally win the round with high Resolve since it continually gives you reputation.

[Coolguy]

Services are UNSPEAKABLY powerful. The further over you are on the resolve threshold, the faster you will gain reputation and the faster you will win the game.

You don't actually need the entire chain for the luxury involved, either. Traders will sell you the luxuries straight. Vliss Greybone in particular is a reason to rejoice. She will have 60+ of each luxury and the rampant happiness is frequently enough to just win you the game.

It's also not the same resolve bonus. It all stacks. And a single Service need satisfaction will net you up to +10 resolve, whereas complex food is +3 per food provided. I say again, Services are UNSPEAKABLY powerful.

[Danielsonpl]

Villagers don't visit the service building itself, they satisfy their services need same as food while resting at fireplace. It's only the worker of service building that have to make trips from warehouse to service building supplying it with consumables.

[Narandia]

Services are arguably a bit hard to set up to matter much for faster games. They do provide a lot more resolve than any other need, though.

The service buildings themselves are pretty useful even without the relevant goods though. Not something you immediately want to go for in the first few years, but some of the passive effects are still useful once you can spare a few people to staff them, plus you need one for the final hub upgrade. And these benefits work even if you don't have a lot of workers who would benefit from the service goods in the first place.

[ACS36]

Generally, no, service buildings are trash. But they are useful sometimes, depending on corner stones and how lucky you are.

You can win with service buildings, but good luck getting up the production chains in the early game to make it worthwhile. If you ever use service buildings it tends to be near the end of the game to finish out a win from resolve.

By the time you have the resources for service buildings, you probably could have being doing something else instead. Everything has an opportunity cost in this game.

[zverozvero]

Some passives like Green tea are really nice plus eventually service building slips in when other 3 blueprint options improve nothing. May aswell grab it and use.

[Tomruler]

Some of the effects are super nice, in addition to needing them to upgrade the hearth to lvl3 to gain 10% extra global production, which is a ton. I rarely actually use the service buildings for resolve except the endgame; instead using them in midgame as situational buffs I can immediately activate/deactivate as necessary. These include: 50% extra camp production, -100 hostility, 25% global production speed, slower sacrifice rate, 15% global production output increase, etc. Very powerful and viable to rush midgame even at mid-high prestiege.

[Die Happy]

services or rather the resolve gained from them are often what helps me with in the end game for when i dont get tool production oder some other means to finish the run.
however i do strive to get my hearts to lvl 3 which requires are service building and the bonuses from them can quite potent.
it took me a while to figure out that you dont need to fulfill the service to get the bonus from the building.

[Paladino]

I like to think of services, like tools, as a game closing mechanics. If you got all the easy resolve points from complex foods and you need that extra points to get your resolve over the new bar. Or if you are just not getting the right building to set all complex foods you need.

That aside, there are some really powerfull buff for some buildings. Market is OP as hell 2 villagers for 10 carry capacity.. If I can get it, I'll take it and allow me to move a harpy out of hearth for a human, making the game even more chill.

Also don't ignore the extra resolve you can get from tavern/guild house/monastery (it's basically 2 resolve since it reduces hostility by about a level). They can give you a push if you are stuck on options to generate extra resolve. And since it's global, it dosen't help only the race you pushing up, but helps keep the other 2 races.

But I think that in general, you don't set production chains for services, you buy the service goods from merchants. That is what works best for me.

[Kalisa]

Originally posted by Paladino:

That aside, there are some really powerfull buff for some buildings. Market is OP as hell 2 villagers for 10 carry capacity..

Not sure if you know but for the market you actually only need 1 villager for the 10 carry capacity, theres no real reason to add the 2nd unless ur providing the actual services and struggling to move enough supplies to the market.

But for me service buildings are more for the bonuses they actually provide being staffed more then the services themselves usually, like the 100% buff to camp output (which stacks with other modifies) for example, i had a game where i was at +6 meat, with the 100% camp buff service building, i was bringing in 12 meat for every "harvest" of a resource, 24 if double proc happened.

My Top service buildings are the +10 carry capacity, the +1 resolve for every 60 amber earned from trades (trade routes included, so very easy to stack to insane levels) the +1 resolve for every abandoned building salvaged/repaired, the 100% camp buffer, and the -100 hostility if im struggling with hostility cornerstones in a game.

Service goods are usually just a side bonus for me, and usually never focus on them, i tend to just keep some stocked for glade events and eventually maybe supply 1-2 of them.

[Narandia]

Originally posted by Paladino:

monastery (it's basically 2 resolve since it reduces hostility by about a level).

Normally yes but that does a lot more for you during storms, negating an extra -4 resolve from Looming Darkness and potentially preventing another modifier from activating. I'll take that over a Tavern or even a Guild House or Explorer's Lodge with low stacks any day.
Granted, it could potentially not actually do much on low difficulties with less unavoidable hostility to negate, and on Coral Forest its arguably better to go for straight global resolve buffs to counteract hostility instead.

[Samseng Yik]

I agree that the production chain to make luxury items are too troublesome.
This is why I always just buy all the luxury item from trader.
My usual production chain only focus on tools, farming, food, building material.

[CyberDown]

Depends how you use them, and the specific games modifiers, and the quests you choose.

I typically dont care, but the right one might make the maps modifiers far easier, or get you a large chunk of resolve if theres a quest for it.

Usually its just luxury resolve as far as i see it.