Can someone tell me how the haulers work ?

[SIEGE CREEP (DEADLOCK)]

I unlocked it but have no idea what they really do

[mostly willing]

they haul output resources from building to warehouse and input resources from warehouse to building. same thing your regular workers have to do before and after production.

[SIEGE CREEP (DEADLOCK)]

Originally posted by a mostly willing son:

they haul output resources from building to warehouse and input resources from warehouse to building. same thing your regular workers have to do before and after production.

But dont the workers do this already ? whats the point of having them ? Or does having haulers mean the workers dont have to do it themselves anymore and can spend more time producing ?

[mostly willing]

Originally posted by eric:

But dont the workers do this already ? whats the point of having them ? Or does having haulers mean the workers dont have to do it themselves anymore and can spend more time producing ?

haulers are workers dedicated to hauling. workers assigned to production buildings, camps, and farms don't have to do as much hauling when there's someone who does it for them.

[el Darkness]

In other words, your workers save a bit of their time and they can use it for more production.

[SIEGE CREEP (DEADLOCK)]

Originally posted by el Darkness:

In other words, your workers save a bit of their time and they can use it for more production.

Thanks !

[waltduo]

Also, if you get the rain punk hauler thing cornerstone, it will automatically be used in your secondary warehouses as well where you cannot assign workers.

[Stübi Senpai]

Note that the haulers can be particularly useful for farmers, since they tend to spend a substantial amount of time hauling their produce back to the warehouse, and can actually miss some fields due to this.

[Urza]

Originally posted by waltduo:

Also, if you get the rain punk hauler thing cornerstone, it will automatically be used in your secondary warehouses as well where you cannot assign workers.

You get 2 slots for haulers in the small warehouses

[arithmoquiner]

Originally posted by Stübi Senpai:

Note that the haulers can be particularly useful for farmers, since they tend to spend a substantial amount of time hauling their produce back to the warehouse, and can actually miss some fields due to this.

It's much, much better to build a second farm, a warehouse very close to the farms, and to use 3 farmers during clearance.

If farmers have to do their own hauling and there's a nearby warehouse, each farmer will typically harvest 4-5 tiles during a 4-minute clearance. If they don't have to do any hauling themselves, they will typically harvest 5-6, but they can never harvest 7. Harvesting 7 tiles, carrying crops back from farm fields to the farm itself 6 times (note, the last time can technically be after the end of clearance), walking to the farm fields 7 times, and resting once at a hearth takes more than 4 minutes.

So, a single farm with 2 farmers on a 14-tile patch of fertile soil will never be able to harvest more than 12 tiles of soil, no matter how many haulers you use. If you instead used a third farmer during clearance, you should be able to harvest 14 tiles if there's a nearby warehouse.

But there are ways using haulers can go wrong. In order to get 6 tiles per farmer, the hauler actually needs to prioritize delivering goods from the farm. Haulers prioritize tasks that are near them, and when you assign haulers, they are probably in your starting glade with the rest of your industry. If there's other industry going on in your settlement, a hauler will likely prioritize hauling for other buildings, meaning the farm could fill up before the hauler ever gets around to walking to the farm, and your farmers would have to do the hauling themselves.

And even if they do walk to the farms when the farmers finish harvesting their first tiles, two farmers can't keep up with the rate that a hauler can deliver goods from the farm, meaning eventually the hauler won't have anything to deliver for the farm, and they will go do a hauling task for someone else. When that happens, the hauler will have spent a lot of time walking between glades to deliver a pretty small number of resources. Instead, wouldn't it be great if they did a non-hauling task that was nearby - like harvesting one of the tiles that wasn't going to get harvested?

Note that if you don't have a small warehouse near the farm, then even if your hauler does deliver crops from the farm once, they will then be at the main warehouse, and are again unlikely to deliver from the farm. In that case, your farmers will likely fill up the farm's storage before they've reached 6 tiles per farmer, they'll have to do the delivery themselves, and you will again fall short of what they would harvest if there were 3 of them.

[SIEGE CREEP (DEADLOCK)]

Originally posted by arithmoquiner:

Originally posted by Stübi Senpai:

Note that the haulers can be particularly useful for farmers, since they tend to spend a substantial amount of time hauling their produce back to the warehouse, and can actually miss some fields due to this.

It's much, much better to build a second farm, a warehouse very close to the farms, and to use 3 farmers during clearance.

If farmers have to do their own hauling and there's a nearby warehouse, each farmer will typically harvest 4-5 tiles during a 4-minute clearance. If they don't have to do any hauling themselves, they will typically harvest 5-6, but they can never harvest 7. Harvesting 7 tiles, carrying crops back from farm fields to the farm itself 6 times (note, the last time can technically be after the end of clearance), walking to the farm fields 7 times, and resting once at a hearth takes more than 4 minutes.

So, a single farm with 2 farmers on a 14-tile patch of fertile soil will never be able to harvest more than 12 tiles of soil, no matter how many haulers you use. If you instead used a third farmer during clearance, you should be able to harvest 14 tiles if there's a nearby warehouse.

But there are ways using haulers can go wrong. In order to get 6 tiles per farmer, the hauler actually needs to prioritize delivering goods from the farm. Haulers prioritize tasks that are near them, and when you assign haulers, they are probably in your starting glade with the rest of your industry. If there's other industry going on in your settlement, a hauler will likely prioritize hauling for other buildings, meaning the farm could fill up before the hauler ever gets around to walking to the farm, and your farmers would have to do the hauling themselves.

And even if they do walk to the farms when the farmers finish harvesting their first tiles, two farmers can't keep up with the rate that a hauler can deliver goods from the farm, meaning eventually the hauler won't have anything to deliver for the farm, and they will go do a hauling task for someone else. When that happens, the hauler will have spent a lot of time walking between glades to deliver a pretty small number of resources. Instead, wouldn't it be great if they did a non-hauling task that was nearby - like harvesting one of the tiles that wasn't going to get harvested?

Note that if you don't have a small warehouse near the farm, then even if your hauler does deliver crops from the farm once, they will then be at the main warehouse, and are again unlikely to deliver from the farm. In that case, your farmers will likely fill up the farm's storage before they've reached 6 tiles per farmer, they'll have to do the delivery themselves, and you will again fall short of what they would harvest if there were 3 of them.

Thanks everyone and especially this extensive and interesting post. This will help me optimize my farms. My opinion so far was that farms felt like they underperform a bit. But maybe it was just me having suboptimal infrastructure