Effects of additional workers and some suggestions

[Sharpshootah]

Hey all, I always struggle with knowing how many workers I should have in certain production buildings. For example, what is the impact of additional workers in a pasture? More people are available to butcher animals when it goes over the limit?
Maybe we could have an estimate production per worker. I would say maximum even, considering resources are always available and the only downtime is to take care of needs.

Also, many resource production buildings lack production caps. Example sandpit. I don't want to forget and have them dig 2k of one resource and have it fill up my warehouses with it.

[phatty1979]

It seems that for most production buildings, there's a linear relationship between the number of workers and the output. Assuming sufficient input resources, three workers in a sawmill should output three times as much as just one worker.

Where most of the vagueness is present is agricultural production. I always struggle to know whether I'm really getting any benefit from having 9 workers on a field versus 5 workers on that same field. Same with pastures, is there really any benefit from going from 7 to 8 workers on my pasture or is it just overkill? But, I don't see how the game could really give you an estimate because there's so many different things that come into play that affect the production efficiency with agriculture. For example, if all your workers live far from the field, you'll need more people working the field because they'll be spending so much time going back and forth to their homes. The speed of your workers, the tools they use, the buffs in place, how hungry they are, how happy they are, etc. etc. all factor in to the equation.

[Andramal]

the closest impression I have gotten from the fields and orchards is that (ignoring use of fertilizer) each field has a rough, flat amount they'll grow to, but if you don't harvest it all in time you risk losing some from harvesting too slowly. One example is the 8x8 field using beans: 1 worker, it only make it to about 73% before autumn harvest kicks in, then it forces harvest, causing a lower yield (and it takes awhile to harvest too). With two workers, however, it typically ripens before harvest kicks in and gets picked clean during autumn harvest. All adding extra workers did at that point was theoretically get it sowed and harvested sooner and that's it (but I could be off on that).

The main advantage if this logic stays accurate is extra workers means anyone who gets delayed coming to the field (such as from injury or a long trek), the extra workers compensate for complications. They might also contribute to fertilizing faster which would have a result as well.

If you want to really test if there's a serious difference, an easy way to check is to make 2-3 fields right near houses with minimal walk time distance and check the yearly production at each and put a set number of people on them. If workers gives more food, you'll see it scale accordingly at the higher numbers, and if all they do is harvest faster, then the final yields should be relatively the same.

[Jeffus Maximus]

I set up some test fields, all 15x15, and set their workers to consecutively higher thresholds in order to see the difference from higher staffing. It was moderately significant from 1 to 2 to 3 workers, then negligible from 3 to 4, and almost non-existent from 4 to 5 and so on. So I staff my fields with 3 workers, add a 4th once my populations has grown enough, and call it good. Any more workers seems to be a waste of manpower.

[Sharpshootah]

Interesting. So if you have fields far away, you might want additional people to help speed up and compensate for travel times.

What about pastures? more workers means faster animal reproduction?

[Andramal]

as I understand it more workers means the animals spawn faster (and thus get butchered sooner) and possibly boosts the other gains. Not certain though.

Another indirect value to having extra people on these is they contribute to proficiency scores.

[Vastless]

Originally posted by phatty1979:

It seems that for most production buildings, there's a linear relationship between the number of workers and the output. Assuming sufficient input resources, three workers in a sawmill should output three times as much as just one worker.

Where most of the vagueness is present is agricultural production. I always struggle to know whether I'm really getting any benefit from having 9 workers on a field versus 5 workers on that same field. Same with pastures, is there really any benefit from going from 7 to 8 workers on my pasture or is it just overkill? But, I don't see how the game could really give you an estimate because there's so many different things that come into play that affect the production efficiency with agriculture. For example, if all your workers live far from the field, you'll need more people working the field because they'll be spending so much time going back and forth to their homes. The speed of your workers, the tools they use, the buffs in place, how hungry they are, how happy they are, etc. etc. all factor in to the equation.

The only thing having more workers on a farm does is affect how soon they finish planting and how fast they can harvest. All you have to do is decide when you want the season to be over and assign workers accordingly.

[Guurt]

Originally posted by miguellima:

Hey all, I always struggle with knowing how many workers I should have in certain production buildings. For example, what is the impact of additional workers in a pasture? More people are available to butcher animals when it goes over the limit?
Maybe we could have an estimate production per worker. I would say maximum even, considering resources are always available and the only downtime is to take care of needs.

Also, many resource production buildings lack production caps. Example sandpit. I don't want to forget and have them dig 2k of one resource and have it fill up my warehouses with it.

It depends on how your city is organized. Extra workers in fields and pastures don't produce extra resources, they just make sure that you actually get the work done. If your workers live farther away then you need more workers. If they live close you need less.

This game is about optimization.

If your city layout is badly designed and people have to travel all over the place then you need more workers to accomplish the same task as a well organized city will accomplish with less workers.

So the optimal number really depends on your city.

[Guurt]

I got curious and I ran some tests on a pasture.... I posted this in a different thread but I thought I would post it here as well...

I did some tests.

From the same save spot I ran 3 scenarios in a pasture.

1 worker
2 workers
4 workers
6 workers

No matter how many workers I had the animals reproduced at the exact same speed. No difference.

I was using alpacas.

2 workers produced about 1/2 the amount of 4 workers for fur and animal dung. 1 worker produced about 2/3 as much as 2 workers.

Oddly, 6 workers produced less than 4 workers for fur an animal dung.

I then went back and re-ran the workers and this time 4 workers produced roughly the same fur and animal dung as 6 workers.

So I suspect there is some random component going on. But who knows. It could be anything.

What I can say is that the animals always reproduced at the same speed.

I believe their is a hard limit on how often animals take to give birth and the number of workers will never change that.

I believe their is a cap to how much meat a pasture can produce and this cap is maintained by how long it takes animals to give birth and mature.

So at some point adding more workers to a pasture (just like a farm) is not going to achieve any extra output.

You can run your own tests obviously. Workers probably do different stuff every time, so there always going to be some randomness to it I suppose.

[Marcondy]

I love all the comments on this thread :) For me, If I have enough labourers, I tend to max out on fields and pastures. Whilst the output doesnt significantly increase, what it does do though is increase the proficiency level in the development tab. That gives further bonuses like production speed etc :)