Need tips for luxury goods and fulfilling needs.

[StretchyStretch]

I'm having a very hard to producing what I need to fulfill my villagers needs, it seems like I never have enough of the right resources to produce things like biscuits, porridge, wine, ale, incense, etc. I feel like it needs a very specific path of blueprints and a lot of lucky nodes in glades to actually make it work. It's never made me lose a settlement but I just feel like I should be able to do it more often.

[Antacs]

You really don't need to view fulfilling needs as a necessity unless you are trying to go for resolve reputation points. It shouldn't be too hard to get one or two complex foods sorted out just to save on food consumption (you get more complex food than the base food that goes into it). You certainly don't need to make every complex food that your villagers want.

As for luxuries, fulfilling those should generally only be done at the end of a game when you're pushing for your last few reputation points....or during a storm if you're desperate for some resolve. It's not often practical to produce even a single luxury in order to keep your villagers constantly using it. The much better option is to build a strong foundation of trade and just buy luxuries when you're ready to use them to push for a win.

[Trollhand]

Did you try trading? Produce luxury or trade goods, sell them for profit, buy what you need - be it raw ingredients or cooked food. You can also buy blueprints, thus completing your production line.
Trade is really powerful. For example, you can buy 0.8 amber worth of wine, use it to produce 2 boxes of luxury goods and sell them for 3 amber. Having cornerstones like "Export Specialization" will increase your profits even more, allowing you to buy the entire trader's stock eventually.

[StretchyStretch]

Originally posted by Antacs:

You really don't need to view fulfilling needs as a necessity unless you are trying to go for resolve reputation points. It shouldn't be too hard to get one or two complex foods sorted out just to save on food consumption (you get more complex food than the base food that goes into it). You certainly don't need to make every complex food that your villagers want.

As for luxuries, fulfilling those should generally only be done at the end of a game when you're pushing for your last few reputation points....or during a storm if you're desperate for some resolve. It's not often practical to produce even a single luxury in order to keep your villagers constantly using it. The much better option is to build a strong foundation of trade and just buy luxuries when you're ready to use them to push for a win.

Ok I guess I just don't need them, seems like a pretty integral part of the game to just not use often but as I said it's never really caused me to lose.

[IamMokume]

Originally posted by Trollhand:

Did you try trading? ....
Trade is really powerful.

++ Due to the random blueprint draws, you are pretty much never going to have access to every intermediate and finished good your workers want. It's a good idea to build a trade post early, and ether focus on producing extra goods for barter, or try to save up amber for necessities. Each colony had a built-in time limit, so you can win without having a renewable supply of every good.

In some game titles, trading is a last resort because you made an error, but in this one, it's intended to be a vital part of game play. I'm not looking forward to the situations where it's not allowed. XD

[l33tness08]

Originally posted by StretchyStretch:

Ok I guess I just don't need them, seems like a pretty integral part of the game to just not use often but as I said it's never really caused me to lose.

Well that wasn't how I'd have interpreted that. But fair enough I suppose, to each their own.

[Antacs]

Originally posted by StretchyStretch:

Ok I guess I just don't need them, seems like a pretty integral part of the game to just not use often but as I said it's never really caused me to lose.

That's not really what I said. They are useful in most settlements, but you don't need to focus on building full production lines to pump them out. It's often more economical to just buy them to push for the last few rep points you need via resolve.

Keep in mind that there is no difference from 1 resolve and 20 resolve if the bar is green. Luxuries are there to push into the blue range to get reputation points, but it's often difficult to produce enough to sustain it indefinitely.

[Samseng Yik]

Generally, my suggestion is
1) During embark, pick a supply line with a luxury resource based on the starting race you picked. (however, supply line only unlock quite late in passive)
2) Spend amber to buy them, or if some of your building can coincidently make them...... then buy the material too from trader.
3) DO NOT spent them until you actually NEED them. Such as
- you really need the extra resolve (and the manpower) to survive the storm
- the bonus resolve from these luxury food/service, will actually push the race resolve toward reputation generation. If yes, then allow them access only last 90 seconds of storm. For a massive reputation push in next season

[Kryldost]

When I pick my blueprints, i try to avoid 3 stars production. I often find buildings I need in dangerous glades so sometimes I dont even have to get the blueprint. When you choose your first blueprints take a look at all their needs and focus on what youd need, like other says the trader is very powerful. Focus on getting the final products when they pop and if you can afford the reroll dont hesitate. Opening caches is another great way to get food. I always pick the 2 best food to feed as many to be able to get the other blueprints. A lot of buildings share recipes so if you really need it don’t hesitate to go for that one star. Can always use rainpunk engine! I also try to avoid biscuits and pies, they are too dependent on flour. So unless you have a steady income of mushroom or grain… dont bother with them get the next best or even one that does the benefit them so they dont starve. As soon as my food production is steady I turn off consumption of base ingredients and let them only eat complex food.

[oldschool]

Coming from other city builders I wanted to build horiztonal and build everything i needed myself by the end game...The more i play the more value i see in vertical integration

Dont try to do everything, only do a couple things but do them very well

Dont try to fight the game and play the way you had planned on playing...
Take what the game gives you, make an efficient plan from it then min max it. Mid to late game start to trade away your surplus and buy what you need

[lethminite]

There are also some cornerstones that do make it really easy, so very occasionally you'll have a luxury line.
Like if you get the barrels from plants one, suddenly all you need is a farm, and something to put them together, and you have consistent wine/ale.

But still, as above, even if you have a storm modifier that needs services, you only need to enable them a bit prior to the storm. And most of the time, you skip luxuries, and only use them end game by buying them off the trader.

Note that the service buildings are still useful just for their bonus when manned, you don't need to actually have their matching luxuries.

[Matthew]

Originally posted by Antacs:

As for luxuries, fulfilling those should generally only be done at the end of a game when you're pushing for your last few reputation points.

Don't mean to nitpick over what constitutes the end of a game, but it doesn't seem to matter when you get resolve reputation points. No reason you can't burn some luxuries relatively early on, get 2 or 3 points, then finish up the game from other sources.

I think you get more reputation/sec for higher villager counts, but that is arguably balanced out by needing more luxuries to sustain. Half the villager count = luxury supplies last twice as long.

The more important point here would likely be that if you are going to burn complex foods and luxuries, make sure it is enough to hit high resolve and for long enough to be worth.

Otherwise that would be like using tools but never sending a cache, resources spent without getting any points.

[Kryldost]

Originally posted by Matthew:

Originally posted by Antacs:

As for luxuries, fulfilling those should generally only be done at the end of a game when you're pushing for your last few reputation points.

Don't mean to nitpick over what constitutes the end of a game, but it doesn't seem to matter when you get resolve reputation points. No reason you can't burn some luxuries relatively early on, get 2 or 3 points, then finish up the game from other sources.

I think you get more reputation/sec for higher villager counts, but that is arguably balanced out by needing more luxuries to sustain. Half the villager count = luxury supplies last twice as long.

The more important point here would likely be that if you are going to burn complex foods and luxuries, make sure it is enough to hit high resolve and for long enough to be worth.

Otherwise that would be like using tools but never sending a cache, resources spent without getting any points.

As you move forward in the years hostility grows relatively high which greatly impacts resolve. I don't do the "resolve" economy thing, I usually get those near late near and end game anyway. By then I got plenty of ressource to sell at traders to mass-buy the goods for the specialized buildings, even the food. Also got plenty of wood and coal to sacrifice to get them all on high resolve and just speed-gain reputation to end the game.

[Matthew]

Sure, but that is just more of a point to not purposefully hold on to them until the end. Easier to get 3 or 4 resolve points when you aren't getting hit by massive penalties.

One of my easiest games thus far was a harpy start where I was immediately able to set up consistent jacket production, then eventually into education. Harpies spent most of the game in high resolve, but I eventually couldn't maintain and finished the game by a single glade event.

I would need to go back and check, but that may have been the 2nd fastest win I finished. The first was cursed forest and doesn't really count because that map seems to give you piles of free stuff in every glade.

[BT]

Originally posted by Matthew:

Sure, but that is just more of a point to not purposefully hold on to them until the end. Easier to get 3 or 4 resolve points when you aren't getting hit by massive penalties.

One of my easiest games thus far was a harpy start where I was immediately able to set up consistent jacket production, then eventually into education. Harpies spent most of the game in high resolve, but I eventually couldn't maintain and finished the game by a single glade event.

I would need to go back and check, but that may have been the 2nd fastest win I finished. The first was cursed forest and doesn't really count because that map seems to give you piles of free stuff in every glade.

The reason people save, I think, it’s because it is possible to increase the resolve but stay under the blue bar, it’s more likely with dwarves and human though.

So if this happens you’d waste some luxury. While putting them in a period will make the resolve shoot through the roof.

Is that correct?

[Syiss]

Originally posted by Matthew:

Sure, but that is just more of a point to not purposefully hold on to them until the end. Easier to get 3 or 4 resolve points when you aren't getting hit by massive penalties.

One of my easiest games thus far was a harpy start where I was immediately able to set up consistent jacket production, then eventually into education. Harpies spent most of the game in high resolve, but I eventually couldn't maintain and finished the game by a single glade event.

I would need to go back and check, but that may have been the 2nd fastest win I finished. The first was cursed forest and doesn't really count because that map seems to give you piles of free stuff in every glade.

Earning reputation points decreases impatience which increases hostility. You have to weigh that against the cost of running with fewer blueprints (from not turning in your reputation points), but there absolutely is reason to hold on to them. Not to mention its very easy to survive the first few storms, but much harder to survive later storms. A resolve boost in a later storm could save you a dozen villagers, or you could use those resources to solve a glade event where the alternative would be dangerous, or to solve it in a way that gives a better reward.