Building species housing

[TwisT-Chi]

I'm currently at P5 and just finished the Silver Seal. I've almost never built species housing. When do other viceroys make species housing?

A few things hold me back from species housing. In the early game, I'm focusing on food production and building materials. Maybe fuel too if I get a nice blueprint for it. By mid-game I'm looking at running services or setting up production for more complex food needs. Combined with reputation from glade events and orders, I'm usually looking at a win at Year 7-10.

The things that work against species housing in my opinion are the material costs. They require construction of building materials compared to just wood with shelters. If I'm making building materials, they go into production buildings or event requirements. Next, each species housing can only hold 2 villagers instead of 3 with shelters. That means I need more housing and more time clearing space around the hearth and building the houses themselves.

The only times I really focus on species housing is if I have beavers and I have a building that produces 2-3 star planks. Or if I somehow get Crowded Houses cornerstone. All other times, I'm building bricks and fabrics just to cover my construction needs then unstaffing the workshop so the villagers can work on the new building.

[mostly willing]

1. Harpies pretty much require their race-specific housing within the first 3 years if you can't make their food and don't want to waste their starting bonus coats. And it's just a good way to stabilize their resolve.
2. If you find some blue metal in an event/cache - build foxes housing. Again, helps with early resolve and stabilizes them during storms.
3. Getting a good bp or perk for any of the building mats (+nodes) means you can boost your villagers' resolve at little cost AND that means you can build some building packs to further boost speed and other stuff. 15% speed boost is decent imo. I'm really enjoying the way the housing upgrades were implemented, though they are labor intensive.
4. If you are in a trade-heavy game and have beavers, their level 2 housing bonus is great to have. I had fully loaded trade routes at level 3 relationship finish in like a minute. Though 12 planks does sting, definitely not something you can afford early on.
5. Crowded Houses and Urban Planning definitely skew your calculus, if you take those. You could theoretically have 3-4 villagers per house getting the regular resolve boost+upgrade bonuses. The perks themselves are weak, though. Definitely not something you would want to build a game around.

I rarely feel the need to build human or lizard housing, though this may just be my playstyle.

[Beje]

I'm still early in the game, unlocked only the first 2 seals. But I rarely build species specific housing. I feel the materials cost combined with the fact it can house only 2 is too big of a trade-off in a game where you often have to manage your available space. I did find once a haunted shelter for harpies and after fixing it it could house 7 so that was cool. I'd definitely consider building more of those for example.

I'm hoping there's some upgraded versions of those houses later on so that at the very least they can fit 3, I don't mind the materials cost. If not I can see myself building specific housing only if any other plan to increase resolve fails.

[Clawyer]

When you reach the top of the citadel upgrade tree you unlock upgrades for the species specific housing. That's when human's housing gets interesting since one of their upgrades increases the speed of planting and harvesting. Two houses with 3 humans each will give you a 30% boost which is usually all you need in order to completely harvest 12-14 crops without needing to build a second farm for help with harvesting.

As mentioned above Harpies houses are pretty easy to set up if you can get some kind of cloth production going and helps with their low starting resolve.

The others have less priority even though their upgrades might be nice.

I almost always wait for having a steady production chain going before I start with speciec specific housing unless the upgrades are worth it in an early game state.

[arjensmit79]

I have done many so called iron man runs where you get to play higher prestige levels without the entire tree unlocked and the species houses are one of the later things i unlock because they simply aren't that important. At p20, i often build very few houses. It depends on what building materials i have available.

Look at it this way:
When you have 40 people at end game, that would be 20 species houses, for a total cost of 120 brick/fabric. This gives you 3 global resolve. Compare that to the tavern or monastry, those cost a fraction of that. Species housing are simply one of the least efficient ways to produce resolve.

There is however one saving grace for them and that is that its very scalable. While it is super expensive over the whole game, just a single house can do wonders in early game. And then a little later its just one more house to keep em happy, and then another one etc. That way you get sucked into building more of them. Only if you have the building materials though. You surely dont need to go out of your way to build them.

[Narandia]

One neat aspect of the specialized housing is that since it only provides 2 slots, it allows you to neatly line up your population to district tresholds (ie. one Harpy house and 2 shelters or one big shelter is 8 slots for the first tier, with only shelters you'd always have one extra slot).

Of course that math kinda goes out of the window if you upgrade the house for more capacity or have cornerstones that increase housing cap for all types but at least early on its pretty reliable.

And it only works if you have at least 2 of the species in your population (not already housed in an existing specialized house).

[Spacesuit Spiff]

Once the upgrades are unlocked in the citadel they become a good value proposition any time I'm making building packs (+1 to packs, or a recipe, combined with a 3-star building material or copper). Otherwise I'll try to do lizards/harpies/foxes (especially harpies), maybe trash some buildings to make human/beaver for the endgame resolve push but even that's marginal.

[Hariman]

I try to overproduce Planks/Fabric/Bricks and if needed Crystal Bars so I can always have species housing build.

I'll start with basic housing though, and use the basic housing as a buffer.

It's as much for the resolve as it is for the stability it offers as hostility rises.

[kory]

Originally posted by arjensmit79:

Look at it this way:
When you have 40 people at end game, that would be 20 species houses, for a total cost of 120 brick/fabric. This gives you 3 global resolve. Compare that to the tavern or monastry, those cost a fraction of that. Species housing are simply one of the least efficient ways to produce resolve.

The service buildings also require service goods, which require another building+more raw goods+worker time, whereas species housing is built and done.

[arjensmit79]

They dont require those for their base effect. They do of course require people to be in it though.

[kory]

Originally posted by arjensmit79:

They dont require those for their base effect. They do of course require people to be in it though.

Oh, yes, the passive effect on those particular ones are sort of overpowered, I'm not sure its fair to compare anything to them.

[TwisT-Chi]

Originally posted by arjensmit79:

I have done many so called iron man runs where you get to play higher prestige levels without the entire tree unlocked and the species houses are one of the later things i unlock because they simply aren't that important. At p20, i often build very few houses. It depends on what building materials i have available.

Look at it this way:
When you have 40 people at end game, that would be 20 species houses, for a total cost of 120 brick/fabric. This gives you 3 global resolve. Compare that to the tavern or monastry, those cost a fraction of that. Species housing are simply one of the least efficient ways to produce resolve.

There is however one saving grace for them and that is that its very scalable. While it is super expensive over the whole game, just a single house can do wonders in early game. And then a little later its just one more house to keep em happy, and then another one etc. That way you get sucked into building more of them. Only if you have the building materials though. You surely dont need to go out of your way to build them.

Yeah those numbers are basically how I see species housing. Massive materials and labor costs for only +3 resolve. At least its permanent though I still prefer to focus on services and complex food. I'm also a long way to go from upgraded housing citadel upgrade so I'm not sure how that will change my opinion once I do get there.

One exception I do agree on is harpy housing and beaver housing. The +3 resolve lines up perfectly with their decadence so it might be worthwhile to do if I need the reputation push. That's after I've already exhausted other means of gaining resolve.

Thanks everyone for your inputs.

[Beje]

After having done a run with Orders from the Queen disabled due to a modifier, I have to say I warmed up to species housing. The +3 to Resolve was a godsend to be honest and it allowed me to finally get my reputation going. And resources were not a problem at all, having started the game with an early Sawmill. Of course trading and building extra hearts at lvl1 also helped a ton.

There are situations where every source of resolve counts, such as this one where orders are disabled. If resources are abundant I say go for it, it can give you an early boost in resolve and start snowballing from there. And yes, harpies houses are quite cheap to build and some of the most cost efficient ones + it helps a lot with their initial low resolve. Beaver houses were also the 1 thing that allowed me to finally make them happy and go in the blue.

[doomleika]

with +2 from lv1 hearth, notably races with low base resolve(fox, harpy, lizard) need +3/+3 for them to have total 13 resolve so they won't be leaving during storm in lv1 hostility. This is especially true if you start the game with ancient battleground(+150 hostility as base hostility).

For a fixed building mat. cost you get a lot of resolve easily especially at early game as other sources are more costly, complex food require proper BP, extra hearth require glade, building mat, significant fuel, and a lot of manpower, coat/service are all very tech advanced choices. Rain engines can be water intensive and may not fit your correct racial bonus and extra blight burden(+fuel needed).

Besides, you might not believe it, wood pretty rare in early stage and being able to use fabric/brick to offset wood pressure is neat.

[Narandia]

Originally posted by Beje:

After having done a run with Orders from the Queen disabled due to a modifier, I have to say I warmed up to species housing. The +3 to Resolve was a godsend to be honest and it allowed me to finally get my reputation going. And resources were not a problem at all, having started the game with an early Sawmill. Of course trading and building extra hearts at lvl1 also helped a ton.

There are situations where every source of resolve counts, such as this one where orders are disabled. If resources are abundant I say go for it, it can give you an early boost in resolve and start snowballing from there. And yes, harpies houses are quite cheap to build and some of the most cost efficient ones + it helps a lot with their initial low resolve. Beaver houses were also the 1 thing that allowed me to finally make them happy and go in the blue.

Oh right I should remember that next time I run that modifier. It can really drag out the game if you can't unlock those early blueprint rewards as usual otherwise.

[it's-just-me]

i make species housing only when i get the cornerstone that makes houses have +1 occupancy for each 10 trade routes completed. Otherwise its just shelters and large shelters for everyone