Not enough resources

[Pattyrikku]

Bought the game, like the game, but I keep hitting a point where all the resources available at the start are depleted, then I can't build anything to progress. It's hard to keep up with the citizens demands for shelter, food, medical posts, etc.

Got up to where I had the coal miner thing but then all the wood was gone, and I didn't have enough for the sawmill, so there was literally nothing I could do but watch the generator go dark and die.

Gonna try easy, I guess. Am I missing something?

[Bobywan]

You have to research the tech for sawmill or walldrill before running out of wood and if you do... recycle buildings, you'll lose part of the ressources but that's the only solution once you run out.
Same for coal, you have to research coal mines or coal thumpers (read the description, coal thumpers only produce a pile and you need to gather coal on the pile).

[some moron]

The "timer" in this game is the fact that things are getting colder and you need to be prepared BEFORE it happens. You mush have enough resources to not only survive but build research for the tech that you need for the next level of cold.
I'm trying to say you can't coast in this game, you need to play aggressively, if you fall behind that curve, the disaster will avalanche ha ha.
So you need to be scouting to get that extra bit of wood AND researching AND building the thing you just researched.
You also have to find tricks such as upgrading day buildings during the night so there's not lost production, whenever there is a warm bump turning down or shutting off the generator and heaters to save coal.
And of course the city layout matters massively but not directly. I changed mine from keeping all the houses in the center, now I build a heater near the edge and build more heaters that way so I don't have to research ring techs. That may not work for all scenarios.
Oh and don't forget the culture stuff cause some of that stuff is VERY helpful but other not. I kinda don't like it when they do that, I wish they would make it all have pros and cons.
I would say it is a rather demanding and stressful game, you do have to play several games and make mistakes so you know what your city design will look like and what techs to prioritize. Keep thinking of ways to make incremental improvements, or look for or ask for strategies that other people find to work.
I think a good strategy is : scrimp and save and cheat and be cruel to your people to do whatever it takes to build as many research centers as possible. But there is not enough time to get all techs so you have to know the ones you are going to get. What is your order for the techs you get?

[Amanoob105]

The resource piles in this game are a bit of a trap. While the game does give clues to this being true a lot of new players (like myself back in the day) will miss this as it requires you to look at the numbers found in the info the game gives you and not simply the overview of what's going on.

Coal piles can keep you going for a while until you start to look into heating upgrades at which point thumpers and mines quickly become needed.

Wood and steel piles are the true trap however and one of, if not the, first things you start making is a workshop to research the sawmill and steelworks. Both because they don't run out of resources nearly as fast (or at all with the steelworks) and also, but far more importantly, because they can bring in those resources far faster than you could even with a gathering post.
Piles look like an easy way to get the things you need but you can just never get those things in fast enough. The only reasons to go for them are; A lack of other options, you have some people spare to go get them or (the most common reason as the game goes on) they're in the way of something you want to build.

[some moron]

Yeah I agree. Those piles in the beginning, they are good for the first day. But for the second day you want to build gathering points so people don't get sick. You want to get lumbermill and thumper going ASAP, at which point those piles are just nuisances in the way of building things. Suck em up so you can build the real producing stuff.

[Pattyrikku]

Understand all points stated above but I guess my issue is there's not enough resources to get to the point where I can even build thumpers and sawmills. My wood/coal/steel gets used up trying to house/feed/heal my civilians, and I can't keep up. Is the only option to just let them die off?

The furthest I got was one thumper and the hothouse, and by that point all my wood had been spent building tents to keep people from being homeless and medical stations that got overrun within a day.

[some moron]

What exactly game and mode and episode are you playing?

[Looks like Duke]

Originally posted by PattyAisu:

Understand all points stated above but I guess my issue is there's not enough resources to get to the point where I can even build thumpers and sawmills. My wood/coal/steel gets used up trying to house/feed/heal my civilians, and I can't keep up. Is the only option to just let them die off?

The furthest I got was one thumper and the hothouse, and by that point all my wood had been spent building tents to keep people from being homeless and medical stations that got overrun within a day.

Just checking that you do know that you can collect piles of resources that just on top of the surface. There is wood, coal and iron, and all you need is to allocate people collecting them, no technology needed. Do you do that?

[Amanoob105]

Originally posted by PattyAisu:

Understand all points stated above but I guess my issue is there's not enough resources to get to the point where I can even build thumpers and sawmills. My wood/coal/steel gets used up trying to house/feed/heal my civilians, and I can't keep up. Is the only option to just let them die off?

The furthest I got was one thumper and the hothouse, and by that point all my wood had been spent building tents to keep people from being homeless and medical stations that got overrun within a day.

When you first start a game your people can last a day or two without a tent to live in, use what wood you start with to get a workshop (or better, two) up and running. Also a medical tent.
The moment you have both a workshop and enough wood get a sawmill and following that a steelworks. Resources are now sorted for the immediate future.

If you wait a day or three your people will ask for housing letting you get a free hope boost for building them.

For food you can go about three days on medium difficulty before people get hungry. Use this to put off building a cookhouse, also saving on wood for when it's in such shot supply.
It also gives you a few days to both try and get a source of food supply and to pass one of the cooking laws to get more from your opening food stocks.

[Commisar Jon Fuklaw]

Originally posted by Amanoob105:

snip

Typically, you don't even need to sacrifice housing to get a workshop up day one if you plan things right. Child labor helps with that, too.

Wood should never be a significant problem outside of On The Edge or extreme economic difficulty unless you make a big ♥♥♥♥♥ wucky in terms of planning the early game out.

[Pattyrikku]

Originally posted by Commisar Jon Fuklaw:

Originally posted by Amanoob105:

snip

Typically, you don't even need to sacrifice housing to get a workshop up day one if you plan things right. Child labor helps with that, too.

Wood should never be a significant problem outside of On The Edge or extreme economic difficulty unless you make a big ♥♥♥♥♥ wucky in terms of planning the early game out.

I guess I done made a big ♥♥♥♥♥ wucky, then. Lmao.

[Amanoob105]

Originally posted by Commisar Jon Fuklaw:

Originally posted by Amanoob105:

snip

Typically, you don't even need to sacrifice housing to get a workshop up day one if you plan things right. Child labor helps with that, too.

Wood should never be a significant problem outside of On The Edge or extreme economic difficulty unless you make a big ♥♥♥♥♥ wucky in terms of planning the early game out.

I'm not sacrificing housing and I'm not sure where you got that idea from, I simply putting it off to help get more important buildings/research up right from the start and for the aforementioned free early boost to hope.
Once that last bit's done, irrespective of whether or not I had the resources to do it before that, it's tents for all as normal.

*Edit*
Also I'll take child shelters (for even more ways to boost medics) over child labor any day I can.

[Vazkiel]

Look up Wilx on YouTube. He has two videos on normal and hard that are a bit outdated from when the game launched. He uploaded a new video a month ago for normal mode. All videos are about A New Home scenario. You dont have to follow his or anyone else's build orders to a tee but they will at least give you an idea. CrystalDazz is another good YouTuber for Frostpunk.

If you're getting overwhelmed by housing and medical you might be bringing in too many people too early before you're ready for them. As others have stated above, you have to prepare before things happen. The game even says it in the loading screen tips, if you are reacting to things instead of being prepared, you're going to have a bad time.

This game is all about the trial and error, keep learning and trying, you'll get it. It's good that you asked on here. This game has great community always willing to help.

[Vazkiel]

P.S. Any YouTube videos that mention exploits (example hunter hut workers being able to be moved to day time workplaces was patched out) ignore the exploits, all of them have been patched out by this point in the game.

[Bassdeff]

You just got to remember who's the boss. Ignore what the people want. For "New Home" the first building you should build is the research facility and give it the 24h shift (only allowed one 24h shift or someone will die.) Research faster gathering and then the beacon. You want the beacon up and send scouts out as soon as possible. Have your scouts bring back some wood when they find it. If you do it right you'll have plenty of wood to build all your tents before people give you the boot. My defacto starting research order is faster gathering, beacon, hunting tools, sawmill, steelworks, after that it varies depending on what coal production I choose. My usual starting build order is, research facility, beacon, infirmary, gathering post, infirmary, cookhouse, hunting hut. As for laws, I usually fastrack soup, overcrowding. then moonshine to help keep the discontent down. At the start you can easily get by without tents by turning the generator overdrive on from 11pm to 4am.

[General Idea]

The Beacon is something you did not mention.

The Beacon allows us to send scouts to search the wilderness for goods and survivors and bring them to our city. Lookouts will also spot incoming groups of people. 5 mouths less to feed and 5 mouths that can persuade other people to come join your city. You can have three groups of them all doing their thing. Until the ill scouts fully return to your city you don't have to worry about them, but you will have to maintain where they live as they still belong to your city.

Maybe you missed the opportunity to send your ill people as scouts to go out into the frostland in search of additional resources and people?

PS: There are sites in the frostland that have a potential for killing your scouts. You can either accept their loss, rebuild another scout squad in their place or savescum just before the event and that way ensure that they always survive. Note: cannot savescum on Winter Survivor level.