Advanced questions / first tribe successfully reached Neolithikum

[Herr Ping]

Hey all, after struggling with the beginning I had thanks to the support of the community reached successfully the Neolithicum. This success is a besides the mix of direct help and the great "how-to" guide and you-tube-videos of lilly also part of the beginner setting, as a lot of things just happens, while I have no idea how to force (or avoid) them. So I have tons of questions.

Dear developers, even if there are a lot of help ingame and good tutorials, for the new ones they still keep a lot of uncleared questions. Also the tutorial is quite okay to just start and releasea new tribe, but the new player will still have a lot of "how exactly...?" questions. When I get some of my "30%-achievements for steam" that are more or less mandatory achievements if you just play on beginner mode, I guess there are lot players lost in the very beginning. This is a little sad, as Ancient Cities is worth to play longer. Maybe you think about to give a little deeper Tutorial and more specific explaining info (not only how, but also why)

So, here my questions (I startet in 10K BC around greece with fast) - sorry if it is a little much:

1) Time fast to slow:
The chosen time has massive influence in the game. In Lillys guide she wrote "fast is easier" and "slow is harder". In my beginner tribe the fast time lead (I guess) to "massive technology develpoment". After I built a hut, it becames soon outdated. This feels "harder", as I never had a stable housing, I was always forced to improve my camp. I guess this is indeed some kind of harder, but in total it's easier because of shorter winter period? Is it correct that i assume in the end choosing the game speeds completly doubles or triples the real play time until civilisation reaches new ages?

2) Knowledge (and benches)
I started with very little knolegde in stone work (Only one person with 6%). Nearly until Neolithicum I get very few progress and was very little shared. I could not force any training in lack of accessible stone tools. How do I manage a thriving learning context? How important are benches to share knoledge? Should I have a "sitting place" for each of my members and should there enough camp fire? It seems to be important, but my members give me no hint (the first one or two millenia I had just a few benches to give working space for the tool makers).

3) Believes:
In my whole first game (currently im in the "five thousands"B.C.) I never noticed a tribe member praying - maybe I missed it, maybe they just do it when they are unrest. I had due to lack of high-tech-houses some unhappy guys, but otherwise the easy mode gave my tribe no reason to complain. when does religion matters?

4) Goods and how to see the richness
One of my big troubles with housing was a lack of reet. Even when I set specialized reet-groups they collect just a handfull per day. I set a communal task to a coast with rich reed, but they just gather plant fiber at the spot. I set a communal task to grass near the tribe and they indeed found reed. It is really hard for me to recognize what the land gives and what not. For reed that was very true, but it's true in general. How do I "read" the land?

5) communal tasks and assingments and priority
If I see it right, I could give building completly to the tribe and build as communal task. Indeed, I did this often, as the tribe is many and then even faster than my 3-builders-group very slowly collecting 100 reeds and sticks and so on. Also I sometimes saw people of other groups do things assigned to a spedific group, I guess I do not fully understand the groups and communal tasks. Is it correct, that the tribe will do some tasks always if working power is available and in the end goups will do nothing more then specializing and giving attention to some specific tasks? After let's say a pit is assigned to a builder group and the pit is finally build, the assingment stays to that grop. What does that meas? They are responsible to maintainance or are they only ones that work with that pit at all?

6) storage
If I have no storage at all, what happens with hunted meat? Will they carry it to the camp and lay it down "somewhere" or is "somewhere" the spot where the meat was hunted? I guess no, as sticks are collected in the wild and put somewhere near the tribe without storage area, so this is really just to bring things together and make it easier for the player to see the goods?
After I build my first (and yet only) store house I was dissapointed that it still has only room for one good. It felt like wasted time, as it consumes so much reed (remember my lack of reed all the time). Is a long time pits and baskets the first choice of store things?

7) big tribe and migration
In the guide there was this "mesolithic 100 people tribe". In my current game I have not 30 in neolithicum and I would have no idea how to bring a tribe to 100 persons before time runs out. Is this very depending on game speed?
When do best choose to leave a place? I did it some time, but more to just do it. I had some times the red food marker, but indeed never run out of food. Usually the next day there was again enough food from "somewhere". How do I see when the area indeed is low at ressources? I hope I do not have to scan manually the area?

... okay, still tons of questions en detail, but I think 7 big points are enough for now :)

[LadyLillyno]

1.
Slow is 3 days per month, Normal is 2, Fast is 1, so yes, the faster game speed mode, the faster historical years will go. Historical years always go faster pre Neo, with highest count in 10K BC.
Fast is easier due to that you only have to feed your tribe 2 times per month as 1 month is 1 day in this mode. Slow is 3 days per month, meaning you must feed tribe 6 times per month.
Time-wise to perform things in game it is not easier to play Fast mode, it is harder as you must be very efficient in getting things done in time, for example farming has 5 days to complete, while on slow you actually get 15 days to complete, so you will need more work force to complete on Fast. This in turn also means we players must be more vigilant on using work force to get materials for upkeep and maintenance of objects.
Time between repair needs are 3 times shorter on Fast as 12 months is just 12 sleeps, while it is 36 sleeps on Slow.
Also, the faster in-game speed you have, the faster historical years goes as well, so you get more tech sooner but you also get that you must repair sooner and you will reach 1500 BC 3 times faster than Slow mode.


2.
All knowledges in game can be learned from 10K BC except the Neolithic knowledges Agriculture, and Pottery. To learn, spread, or progress any knowledge from 10K BC you will always have options of how to do it, the first way you can start learning stone working is to build stone fences. All Palaeolithic simple tools and constructions cannot be lost even if you lose the overall knowledge, so you will always have smt you can practise on for each type of knowledge.

You do not need a sitting place for all members, but do get up fireplaces as they are always a point where members gather for socialising and being with family before and after work.

Benches has no direct link to improving knowledge learning as such, they do however allow us to increase efficiency of crafters, and subsequently then also knowledge learning, but only if we consider logistics and also incorporate storage areas for less time wasted on logistics.
Benches are for people to craft, chill out, socialise, and eat. This in turn also means your crafters will seek benches to sit and work as crafters would like to actually sit on smt when working. They prefer roundhouses, longhouses and Neolithic mud houses, but will do with, benches, logs, suitable stones, and fireplaces, last resort for them is sitting on the ground.

Keep tribe happy and busy to facilitate best learning. Spread knowledge before progressing in all small tribes. Many working on related tasks will spread although slowly, few working on same tasks will progress. A mix will do both and is best used when tribe has at least 2 persons with same knowledge per app 15-20 population. This means the smaller the tribe the more important it is to use builder groups to control how many share the tasks.

Use your builder groups to control how many are working on same task and disallow knowledge that you lack or wish to progress in to be a communal task simply due to that the more people are sharing the task, the longer time they need to learn as tasks will be done too fast. 4 people will complete 4 tasks 4 times faster than 1 person will complete 4 tasks, ergo the latter gives more time to practise a skill, hence chance of learning is 4 times higher.
Also depending on several other factors here such as attributes. I talk about these finer details in my Hardcore videos for the more experienced players, us crazy min-maxers you know :D


3.
Religion matters 100% for graves, get graves or tribe will riot when a relative dies.
Praying is normally an activity done when unrest/worry is present in a member. You will find them going to pray outside work hours if in work age, otherwise they can and will pray whenever it suits them.
In order for members to be able to pray we need to make praying facilities, such as offerings and Temples. We also need to give people free time to pray, so calming down on work hours will grant more time for praying.
In Hardcore you tend to always have _some_ unrest in at least the members with bad attributes within Fitness and Will, so you will find more people regularly praying in that difficulty than in Beginners, so if you always have happy tribe there will be less praying going on.



4.
Reed is indeed best gathered in a solo task group when tribe is +50, pending your reed usage ofc, no need to have reed group with 0 reed dependant objects in tribe, but you also need to allocate enough work force to cover the usage both for building and for maintenance, so if you find yourself lacking Reed; add more workers to the group, place limits, max out priority, and create better cropping tools for them.
Keep in mind that you must be careful with adding more work spots in any group than you have people in work age available.
You can use a "Free Workers" group with max work spots and lowest priority to see how many free people you have in the tribe, then adjust the other groups accordingly based on current need.
This group will only contain free people that has no other task at the time they join this group.

When you are using Clear Task tool on an area, you correctly state it is a communal task that all in tribe can and will do, but precision is not easy to do, and thus you will always run the risk of also getting unintended resources, in your case, fibre, meaning, you had too little riverside Reed at that place and much more Plant fibre.
Also, a small tip, coastal areas will not have too much reed growing by the shore, but plenty fibre, so if you wish more reed, aim for a river or a river delta as they have tons of reed by the river edges.

You can "read" the land simply by following your gatherers around, and by watching my "Harvestable Resources" Tutorial :)
In time you will learn by heart what is what and where to find it, I promise :D



5.
As a rule of thumb, adjusting policies based on current task division i.e. groups vs communal is always a good idea that should be done regularly to help out in specific events such as when using Clear Task tool. Meaning chuck up communal policies till tasks are completed or near completed. I do not recommend to do this prolonged as group tasks will be neglected in favour of communal tasks.
Group tasks will always be done by group members as long as limit is not met and some tasks are free. When work hours are almost over and time for the evening communal tasks are happening, some of the group members will often leave their group task to help the rest of the tribe out to do communal tasks.
If a member is out of tasks during work hours but communal task are available, they will go perform these communal tasks until more group tasks becomes available.

When a group has responsibility for a pit, they will be the only ones clearing the land, building it, and repairing it, but the object can still be used by entire tribe.

This short Tutorial video will explain the difference between Group tasks and Communal tasks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYVEqPthTio

And this video will explain how to assign objects, projects, livestock, and what it will do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6cGaCz2PwA



6.
Hunters killing prey will always strip all except bones from the animal and bring it back to either assigned storage or anywhere in camp, and so will the gatherers you have tasked with stripping, meaning, they will go for the raw meat and the raw hides. To get the bones you must in addition also assign bones to be gathered by the gathering group.

Storage areas are suitable for organising resources in camp, otherwise members will place down resources indiscriminately everywhere. They are also good for increasing efficiency of crafters by keeping all crafter resources in same area to minimise waste of work hours to logistics.

Store houses can indeed still only house 1 type of resources, but their need for reed has been lowered to only 40 units, so this should not be an issue for you in Beginners at any time.
We must divide our work force based on need of tribe, and if we cannot succeed in that we will find resources lacking. We must then adjust our work force and task division to get the needed amounts, or reduce reed-depending objects to a manageable amount for that locality.
Remember that locality also has a say in how much you can build of what. No 2 localities will be the same for all resources even if they do have a trend based on timeline, temperature, and geography.
Pits and Baskets are indeed our only choice for a few thousand years starting in 10K BC.



7.
The safest way to establish when a migration is needed is to pay attention to how far gatherers and hunters have to go to get the resources they are responsible for, and as a thumb of rule, if you go more than a few days without any food coming to camp, it is often time to migrate unless you have bad group set-up.
If your groups did well last week, but no longer = time to migrate as resources are either too far away to have same work force covering the tribe need, OR resources are depleted.
You can pay attention to tribe state reports to find out if resources are depleted. Keep in mind tho, all vegetal produce is seasonal, so even if you land during summer and have no Berries, it does not always mean locality has none, it just as well can mean they are out of season as their season is spring and autumn. Also remember that not all areas and timelines are suitable for all food types. The further back in time you go, the less food types and amounts you are likely to find, especially the more north you go.
Basically, if in a Mesolithic setting: if tribe size is same as when you started but food is a lot less, migrate.
Neolithic setting: Build more farms.


Good Luck! :)