What's the optimal number of hunters/gatherers/foresters per building?

[Chico]

Different sources claim different figures, so I'm not sure what to do.

[mbutton15]

Do what ever works for you !!

For Gatherers I find that for 1, 2 or 3 workers I get roughly a fixed amount per worker, say 500 per worker. Adding the 4th worker does not get me an extra 500, maybe only 250 more. Therefore it's better to build a second Gatherer Hut and put the 4th worker in there to maximise output per worker.

Hunters I use 1 or 2 (sometimes 3), depending on stage of the game and how many I can spare.

Foresters I usually build 2 side-by-side with 1 worker in each. One is set to 'cut' only, the other is set to 'plant' only. I feel I get a more consistent output this way, compared to just 1 building with 2 workers doing 'cut & plant'.

Also, pastures I use 2 for sheep, 1 for the others. I found my sheep quite often don't prosper unless I have 2 workers.

So, experiment and do what works for you. :)

[Thalassophobia]

1 Forester for forest node you just want to grow your food.
I also use 1 Forester right in the center of my population to make scenery and few timber.

[olympe]

Hunters: In early game, make it only one hunter. If you are in dire straits when it comes to food or have laborers to spare - meaning more than 1/3 of your adult population - you can add a 2nd hunter. More won't help noticeably, as the number of kills per hunting lodge is fixed.

Gatherers: As many as you can. The amount of food produced per person may be slightly lower for the 4th, but it's still a good amount. Also, the amount of food produced depends heavily on the number of trees all around.

Foresters: I have pretty decent experiences with the full set of 4 foresters in one building set to plant and cut trees. However, I was considering trying something slightly different in my next vanilla game: Put two foresters next to each other. One with 2 workers set to cut trees, one with 4 workers set to plant trees. Then see how it goes, and how the other forest node buildings are affected. However, as I'm currently playing modded again, I haven't gotten around to this yet.

[Thalassophobia]

Originally posted by olympe:

Hunters: In early game, make it only one hunter. If you are in dire straits when it comes to food or have laborers to spare - meaning more than 1/3 of your adult population - you can add a 2nd hunter. More won't help noticeably, as the number of kills per hunting lodge is fixed.

Gatherers: As many as you can. The amount of food produced per person may be slightly lower for the 4th, but it's still a good amount. Also, the amount of food produced depends heavily on the number of trees all around.

Foresters: I have pretty decent experiences with the full set of 4 foresters in one building set to plant and cut trees. However, I was considering trying something slightly different in my next vanilla game: Put two foresters next to each other. One with 2 workers set to cut trees, one with 4 workers set to plant trees. Then see how it goes, and how the other forest node buildings are affected. However, as I'm currently playing modded again, I haven't gotten around to this yet.

In forester case ,I'll explain how it work.
In situation you place 2 forester huts next to each other ,this doesn't increase the productivity of the said forester huts.
Reason is it require only 1 forester to plant trees in its radius.
You can even set it to 0 or deactivate the hut after a while.
Those trees planted will still grow normally.

Why you would want more than 1 forester is because they can cut down trees in the area faster and help each other to collect lumbers back to their hut.

Hunter / Gatherer / Forester hut work the same way with orchard and crop field. You need more worker when you want to collect resource faster.

You can try to build a forester hut in cleared open field. Apply 4 workers to it.
You will see it produce next to none lumber.

[rkelly17]

I don't actively min/max, so I fill all the slots. May not be the most efficient (probably isn't, in fact), but it works for me. That is, of course, not right at the beginning of the game when workers are at a minimum, but as the settlement adds people. I always start with a forest node: Hunter, gatherer, forester, wood cutter, barn, 6X6 storage yard, 6 houses (12 workers comes pretty close to the number of job slots). It works on hard start and keeps people warm and fed until I can build blacksmith and tailor and trade for seeds and animals.

[Claybot]

Whatever works best for your game.

I do not use the Hunter/Gather/Forster node system that most use I usually have 1 hunter/fisher for every 2nd gather. Plus 2-3 foresters for every gather.

But if your learning its best to stick with the standard node until you figure out whats best for your game

In an vanilla game I place 2 gathers with 3 people split between the two of them ( I play on harsh/hard). Afterwards I use 1 per gather hut, (I use them as a circuit breaker, the circuit being food production) as soon as the circuit breaks ie food production falls I simply add another worker to every gather hut which effectively doubles the food production of the gather hut.
I continue until I get to 4.

Hunters I start with 1 then move them to 2. Later on if I have more labours than I know what to do with I will add them to the Hunters.

Fishing 1 each (another circuit breaker), works the same as the gather hut.

Forester 1 each later until I have 5 or 6 of them running, when i have enough workers I will make it 2 each.

When I get seeds ( no seeds on hard), I place the farms/orchards with and between the gathers. When the gather produces less than 400 total I remove the gather and build more on the outside of the town, same goes for the hunter. Forester is only removed when there is no place left to grow trees.

[Chico]

Thanks for your advice, people. I'll keep it in mind, you've all been really helpful.