Resource Clearing Strategy ?

[mbutton15]

My town is around year 30 and I'm none the wiser on how this works. So we have the ability to clear only trees, only stone, only iron or all resources at once. We can also set the size of area to be cleared. Is there a right way and a wrong way ? Once you say clear such and such an area, you seem to have no more control on that work (except priority level and I have no evidence that really makes a difference).

Once you've selected an area to clear are people devoted to that task until complete ? So if you then want a house built that person is not going to help until they've cleared their resource area ?

Is there any difference between marking a 10x10 block for clearence or marking 4 smaller 5x5 blocks to be cleared ?

[SeriouslyDave]

I usually only clear as much as I think I need for any current firewood or construction efforts. I eyeball it since resources aren't necessarily distributed evenly around the map. If I find I underestimated, I highlight a little more.

If I have farmers, which I usually do, I try to wait for their off season to do any clearing since they can add a useful number of workers to clearing resources.

My experience is that the priority tool works. With resources, I'm more likely to use it to pull builders off of clearing and onto contruction (e.g., I marked a large area a long way from town and then decided to build something... bad planning :)

Mods can change what you decide to do here. However, age old disclaimer - mods disable achievements.

[Jambie Lionheart]

I personally just do clear whatever I need. If i'm short on stone I'll clear that, if i'm short on logs or Iron I'll clear one of those, and if I just want the area to build in I'll clear everything in a relevantly sized block. And prioritizing can work a treat especially during land clearance. Say if you decide durig the Autumn that you wanna clear an area, but in winter they still aren't finished and you need some houses built in a sharpish time frame. Prioritise the building project and labourers will gradually come off the clearance area as soon as they've finished their immediate task and go to the building site to do what needs be done. I don't have mods yet though so I dunno how much that may vary if you have them.

[mbutton15]

I don't have mods yet, and if they block achievements then will probably stay clear of them for some time.

Simple questions here, as I've said, I've tried using prioritising, but not seen evidence it's made any difference, so:
- Is the use of prioritising as simple as getting the red blocks in selected area and left click to confirm the action ?
- Is there some kind of priority list so will marking the same area 3 times move it up the priority list 3 places ?

[davetango182]

Originally posted by mbutton15:

Is there any difference between marking a 10x10 block for clearence or marking 4 smaller 5x5 blocks to be cleared ?

A larger area requires more workers and more time and as far as priority goes once you make something a priority it becomes the priority but if you have workers that already have material in arms they will continue to deposit the inventory wherever they were headed.

[davetango182]

Originally posted by mbutton15:

I don't have mods yet, and if they block achievements then will probably stay clear of them for some time.

Most ppl do exactly that, the acheivements are a good instructor on most aspects of the game. IMO Tenure is the most difficult as it becomes tedious, so if you have a good town running try to get as many achievements on the way to 200 years. And join us on the 36 club.

[davetango182]

@mbutton15
I want to add that you can disable a simple mod and your achievements will fire and a simple mod that really helps is "no coal in houses" It helps early on when building steel tools so your smith doesnt have to compete with the firestarters or you dont have to overpopulate a coal mine to keep up with the demand.

[Jambie Lionheart]

Originally posted by mbutton15:

I don't have mods yet, and if they block achievements then will probably stay clear of them for some time.

Simple questions here, as I've said, I've tried using prioritising, but not seen evidence it's made any difference, so:
- Is the use of prioritising as simple as getting the red blocks in selected area and left click to confirm the action ?
- Is there some kind of priority list so will marking the same area 3 times move it up the priority list 3 places ?

Well as I said somewhat to this affect if you're not noticing the prioritizing making a differece then you may be a little impatient. Prioritizing an area doesn't make everyone else dump their jobs immediately, they'll always finish their tasks first before taking on a new one. So they will finish hacking up that tree, put it into storage and THEN move onto the newly prioritized area... of course, eating might come second before the new priority area. It makes a difference if you use it right. It can be the difference between waiting a season or a year for a particular task to be done. Also try prioritizing the entire area of the building(s) you want built faster. It's what I do, just to make sure it happens.and no, no priority list that I know of so prioritizing an area will make it the number one priority after their next immediate task.

[mbutton15]

Originally posted by davetango182:

@mbutton15
I want to add that you can disable a simple mod and your achievements will fire and a simple mod that really helps is "no coal in houses" It helps early on when building steel tools so your smith doesnt have to compete with the firestarters or you dont have to overpopulate a coal mine to keep up with the demand.

So far I only have wooden houses, but I'm guessing that a stone house uses coal as its heat source instead of (or maybe in addition to) wood. Glad I've not upgraded any houses in that case.

[mbutton15]

Originally posted by CtMurphy:

...Prioritizing an area doesn't make everyone else dump their jobs immediately, they'll always finish their tasks first before taking on a new one. So they will finish hacking up that tree, put it into storage and THEN move onto the newly prioritized area...

Just finished playing some more and this time did notice some response to my request so maybe I was a bit impatient before !!

One thing I have noticed is people carrying, say, iron and instead of dumping it in the store I built right next to the work area, they instead go to some other store miles away. Do I need to build the store right across their path, or is it just an AI oddity I'll have to live with ?

[davetango182]

Originally posted by mbutton15:

Once you say clear such and such an area, you seem to have no more control on that work (except priority level and I have no evidence that really makes a difference).

Once you've selected an area to clear are people devoted to that task until complete ? So if you then want a house built that person is not going to help until they've cleared their resource area ?

1 other thing, you may already know but you can cancel you clear command with the cancel tool.

[Jambie Lionheart]

Originally posted by mbutton15:

Originally posted by CtMurphy:

...Prioritizing an area doesn't make everyone else dump their jobs immediately, they'll always finish their tasks first before taking on a new one. So they will finish hacking up that tree, put it into storage and THEN move onto the newly prioritized area...

Just finished playing some more and this time did notice some response to my request so maybe I was a bit impatient before !!

One thing I have noticed is people carrying, say, iron and instead of dumping it in the store I built right next to the work area, they instead go to some other store miles away. Do I need to build the store right across their path, or is it just an AI oddity I'll have to live with ?

You don't gotta worry about that. Sometimes the Bannions (my nickname for citizens of Bannished) will behave increadibly efficiant and simply offload the resource into a storage yard that's along their route to another task anyways. I thought it was pritty cool, AND it helps to spread out resources too :3

[SeriouslyDave]

Originally posted by mbutton15:

So far I only have wooden houses, but I'm guessing that a stone house uses coal as its heat source instead of (or maybe in addition to) wood. Glad I've not upgraded any houses in that case.

Actually, both can burn either. If your goal is to reduce resource consumption, then you are much better off with Stone Houses than Wooden Houses:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=462084431
One of the reasons I encourage new players to use Medium (or Hard) Start instead of Easy Start is because Easy gives them 6 Wooden Houses Day 1 and not enough firewood let them play comfortably for a few years. Instead, they have to focus on firewood production in a way early that they wouldn't if they went with Medium and started building Stone Houses.