How do Oxen work?

[Corsen]

Hey gang, really enjoying this game but have no idea how oxen work and I think it's slowing everything down. A few question from me:

If I assign an oxen to a workplace (e.g. logging camp) should it still take up a space in the stable?

I have an oxen assigned to a logging camp and it takes up a space in the stable and then also sometimes goes to the pack station to "rest"?

What's the relationship between the people that work at the stable and the animals? When I don't have any workers the oxen still get used so why assign workers?

My horseshoe overlay says that I have 3 oxen (2 unassigned) but I can only find 2 in the game. Any idea what happened to the third one? I ordered it months ago so assume it is delivered by now?

When I order Oxen where do they get delivered? If it's the livestock trading post do I need to have workers there to receive them?

Sorry for all the questions but I think this is just the one but I can't figure out. The controls are a bit vague.

[eflat0]

I think they go to the nearest stable or pack station to rest no matter what. The other thing I wonder about is a hitching post upgrades to a "Small Stable" ... I wonder if they planned to have an upgrade to a "Large" at some point. I end up with small stables all over the place.

[Driblex™]

Greetings

I'll try to answer the best I personally can and hope it will help you :)

Ox will always take up a stable place, no matter if you assign it to any workplace or not. Always make sure you have enough stable space, before ordering new animals.

Yes, sometimes it goes back to the stable, mainly when the workers are also taking a break. It still "lives" in the stable and just work on the assigned working place. You only need to do it for some working stations (like the farm house and the plow upgrade), otherwise it will be used for all kind of works. Though sometimes micromanaging helps, for example if you need planks. Without assigning an ox it can take a while until wood is delivered. If you assign an ox they will be used only for this station. Early in the game it useful to coordinate the management of the logistic, later is will be easier.

Assignen workers to the stable assure, that this specific family is taking care of the ox in terms of guiding it. You don't need to assign a worker to the stable, in that case non-assigned families will use it, though more randomly. For your follow-up question: If you have 1 family left unassigned as builders and no workers in the stables it will simply take longer. Because the family has to guide the ox AND addiotionally build the houses. With an assigned stable worker it will be faster obviously, because the ox is guided and the builder family will just build. (Shouldn't be a priority in the early game with limited workers, later it is more useful)

I'm not sure what happened to the 3rd tbh. Hard to tell. If you have 3 in the UI, than you should click on your stables. From there, if I'm not wrong, you can see the linked animals. Maybe you'll find it this way?

The ordered oxen will go into any free stable space, though you can't control which one afaik. If you don't have any, you will get a warning in the UI and should take care of it. If you wait to long, it will leave automatically and you'll lose the animal. Always make sure you have enough free stable space. You don't need a trading post or oxen. You can order one per month via the stable itself. You CAN do it with a trading post (If you wanna make a bigger order usually) than you'd need some workers to take care of the trading post. (And again, free stable space)

I think this is the best I can give as a response for now. If I'm correct, others are welcome to correct me, but I'm fairly sure most, if not all, are correct here (;

If you have other questions or if something was unclear, just let me know and I'll give my best to help out.

[mrxak]

I try to err on the side of having too many oxen in my town, and too many stables. They are too important to too many things to neglect your oxen count, and being able to assign them to specific tasks at specific times is much better than waiting on one to be free.

Horses and oxen assigned to workplaces will go back to a nearby stable when they are resting or don't have any more jobs (which may be the same thing, I'm unclear on that myself). They will only be used by that particular workplace they're assigned to, but they still live in the stable.

Stable workers just move oxen around. They're basically just people who bring timber to where it's needed as far as I can tell, and that might make things more efficient. I haven't bothered because as you say, it's not strictly necessary to get jobs done.

If two are unassigned, and you can't find the third, it's because the third is assigned to a workplace. Think back to whenever you last assigned one, and then unassign it if you don't need it dedicated to that workplace anymore.

I think livestock trading posts only need a worker to get livestock bought and sold via the trading interface. If unmanned, these livestock trades simply won't happen. However individual purchases seem to happen regardless of whether you have a livestock trading post at all, and livestock purchased in this way will simply end up at any stable with an empty spot. I think they are delivered by a foreigner to this empty spot and that's all. You can make these purchases from any stable, even full ones, and I think that purchase ends up at the oldest stable that has a free spot But it could be random.

All this to say, managing your oxen isn't that complicated or troublesome. Just make sure you have plenty of them, and keep building more stables near places where horses and oxen might be useful so these animals end up resting near where they're needed most frequently.

[9erRed]

Greetings,

From Game Wiki:

What do Horses, Oxen, and Mules do?

- Horses allow traders to move larger quantities of goods via carts. They are not used for anything else right now.

- Mules are used by the Pack Station to move goods between regions.

- Oxen are used to haul around timber, and if you take the right development branch, can be used to plow a field.

- Oxen are also crucial for early game transportation of timber – for construction but also for things like the saw mill. Consider buying an extra one early.

If you assign a worker to a hitching post with at least one oxen, the next build query it starts right away.
- As no one has to travel to get an oxen, it moves to pick up timber right away.

[Corsen]

Thanks for all the responses. This is much clearer now :)