How do I get my builders to build?

[iridiumHatAndCoat]

New player, have played to a population of 40-50 workers and restarted a few times, getting the hang of things.

The current map (first few years, 16 workers), I've got 2-5 builders assigned at all times, and a handful of starting buildings designated, but it seems like builders usually prefer to do other things rather than work on buildings. I have plenty of wood/iron/stone, but they're not moving these to the build sites. They seem to be spending most of their time gathering resources and "visiting the herbalist" (which is weird, because there isn't an herbalist or any herbs, because they haven't built the herbalist's cottage yet.)

It's getting to the point where a whole year can pass with little or no progress on *any* building, even though I have materials and builders. What gives?

[Grace1957]

Did you try to prioritize the building?

[mbutton15]

From what I have read the builders role is to build once the materials have been delivered by the labourers.

Rasons for stuff not being delivered to site could include the labourers already tasked on other jobs, such as resource clearing. So it's best not to mark large area for clearence.

You can try using the 'priority' option to increase priority on work you want done urgently. But don't mark too many jobs at a time as you can't actually unprioritize it later.

[Dude]

Two words: Priority Tool. This tool will be neccessary to get your citizens to do what you want and is especially important when it comes to builders.

Also note that having more then a few, I usually go with a maximum of 3, buildings being built at the same time will cause havoc unless you prioritize one building at a time to ensure that laborers delivers materials in a efficent way.

[Vrayna]

As a tiny quick note, you must have stockpiles first, so the stones/iron/logs that are harvested on the maps can be stored in a place before being taken out to constructions sites. Materials will never go directly from Cut Tree - Log on ground - Construction. You'll always have a stockpile trip.

[iridiumHatAndCoat]

Thanks very much; this is all very helpful. I think what is definitely happening is that I'm designating too-large areas for resource gathering, so my laborers have too much to do besides bringing materials to new building sites. I'll try dealing with that, and the priority tool.

Quick laborer question, since it's related: is there ever a reason to leave citizens in the Laborer job, or do Laborers just do things everyone does during their downtime?

[mbutton15]

I've always had labourers so don't actually know what happens if you have none. That's because I always thought labourers were basically the grunt men shifting things around the map. If they didn't do it, then I thought no-one would. But I'm happy to be corrected if anyone can explain who moves what resources where.

One thing I know for certain is that having labourers is very handy when your population starts dying. That's because when, say, a forester dies, they are automatically replaced by a spare labourer. So, if no spare labourer then you have to manually find someone to take that forester job.

[Grace1957]

You ALWAYS need laborers.Without them nothing will go anywhere.They move the stuff to the barns and stockpiles.

[Vrayna]

If you have no labourer, when a worker assigned to a work place dies, no one replaces him. If it happens to be the teacher, it kicks all the students out of school and makes them all uneducated labourers, even if they had already spent years at school. And adding a new teacher won't make them students again, so you basically wasted some years of education on them.

[Jambie Lionheart]

If you assign builders/labourers to a new task, you have to keep in mind how long it will typically take them to get around to it, to set it up and then to finish it. You also have to take into account any jobs you already have going. You have to keep your expectations of labourers and builders realistic. They need to attend their own personal needs from time to time as well, even before seeing to their job. All you gotta do is learn to work around it, and everything runs pritty smooth after that. A typical building project of mine I usually expect to take, mayybe 2/3 of any season. And like the others have pointed out, if I can see it taking too long then I use priority tool. Press F1 on your keyboard, you'll find it. It doesnt force them to get straight on it, but it'll overrule any other building or labour project they're currently commited to.

[Banisha]

Scroll a bit down at my pinned help section above wich says....

LABOUR TASK
One of the key mistakes I've seen people make is to start building a building, realize they are short on resources, and then mark a huge swath of land for "gather resources". This will cause your laborers (including the builders who can't build the building because you're short on resources) to go gather resources. -->TIP : Look for an empty spot where a stockpile can be placed without any labour involved.
After a season of gathering you now have enough resources to build the building, but since all of your laborers are gathering, they never return to the building to move resources on site, triggering the "ready to build" state of the building, wich won't trigger the builders to become builders again.
Once you have the resources ready in reserve, you need to mark the build site as high priority to get those resources moved on site.

[jensenthecat]

How is their health?

If they are trying to attend a non-existant herbalist it is probably time you built them one.