Do I need an "unlimited workers" cheat code?

[pat]

I'm starting to get a little frustrated in that I've pretty much maxed out my workers and I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out what to do about it. I'm pretty sure I'm still early in the game, but the next base upgrade to get more houses looks like it's going to involve a lot of construction and I've got no more workers to man the buildings. I feel that I'm missing something.

Also, I suspect I waited to long to start this game in that most of the people who answered questions regularly on this forum have moved on.

[Quibus Maximus]

The best way to free up workers is automation.

No idea what your town looks like, but that would be my first guess. Use belts and chutes so you don't need workers for delivering goods.

[pat]

I'm definitely using belts and chutes. I actually have very few individual workers running around, having replaced them with buildings that do the work, like mines, foresters, farms, etc., but those use workers as well. I'm convinced that there is a concept in the game that I'm missing that will give me a big boost, but I don't have the energy to sit through hours of youtube playthroughs to get to it.

And btw, you don't want to see what my town looks like.

[Quibus Maximus]

Another wild guess then, have you upgraded your houses?

It's very hard without further info to check what the problem might be.

[pat]

All of my houses are at lvl 5. I'm pretty sure I have 27 of them (total 304 workers) and I can't build more until I upgrade my base, which is currently at lvl 7. The next upgrade will cost lots of things that I don't have yet. I'm sure I can build the factories to make them, but that requires workers.

[Vegaetalus]

Scale back on the resources you don't need to be producing so much of, including the gatherers and the processors.
Split your multi-worker buildings into more buildings. Remember that 2 buildings with 1 worker each will do more work than 1 building with 2 workers in it. Assigning multiple workers to one building gives diminishing returns (except for gatherer buildings like farms)

[pat]

Originally posted by Vegaetalus:

Remember that 2 buildings with 1 worker each will do more work than 1 building with 2 workers in it. Assigning multiple workers to one building gives diminishing returns (except for gatherer buildings like farms)

That's definitely information I didn't know. Mines fall under the "gatherer building" list, right?

[Bobucles]

Some buildings work twice as hard with 2 workers, while others need 5 workers to give twice the output. You can cut down on workers by throwing more buildings at the job.

Steam power should be available at that point. It gives a good boost to most things and lets single worker buildings be highly effective. I think there's a trickier setup with mana later on.

Don't try running massive factories over a single item. For the most part, 1 or 2 production chains for any particular item is all you really need. It may be worth investing an an extra belt or rail setup, but a player can only spend resources so quickly.

Town happiness is the big production booster. Provide a little bit of every item type to the town, and it will boost the output of everything in a major way. The boosted output means everything to tiny production setups, since a lot of partial demands getting maxed out is way better than overloading on one good.

[Vegaetalus]

Originally posted by pat:

That's definitely information I didn't know. Mines fall under the "gatherer building" list, right?

To be sure, just look at how the efficiency percentage increases when assigning more workers to the building.

[pat]

Originally posted by Bobucles:

Steam power should be available at that point.

Funny you should mention...

I have a steam generator at the edge of a lake being fed with coal. As a test, I put a forge next door and ran above ground steam pipes connecting the two. The forge is getting a steam boost of 9. So I know I've got that part working. But unless things have changed, I should be able to connect steam underground. Watching a youtube video, he just brought up the grid view and stretched a steam pipe between the generator and a building and it was all connected, but that's not working for me. I have to wonder if the game was updated since that video.

[cainboy]

Older player thinking of jumping back in, so things may have changed, though many have stated things I would have said already XD
-upgrade houses- (said; its usually where i miss out the most)
-more buildings for production ( said; gatherers can be compressed to 1 building, producers should have more workers, but being effecient can save workers) IE: having 5 wood cutters in a forester that doesnt need 5 eats up workers
- happiness (said; when everything starts getting buffed, the workers effeciency shoots up)
-Check for effeciency: Find bottlenecks and jams within a production line; and rectify them to improve effeciency: IE; if a building is not producing non stop; its bottle necked, something earlier isnt producing fast enough. If a building is not unloading fast enough, its jammed, and you need to either get products out faster, or the end of the production is fine, and you have too many workers in gathering.


Personally, I found the 300-500 mark for workers is when things started becoming effecient, and really didnt need much more to reach the endgame with 600-700 workers. So I'd wager its more about effeciency than it is about throwing more workers at the problem.

Are you capping your Happiness production with every distribution building? Each bar should be full, and you shouldnt be using more workers than needed to hit those caps.


Pictures are always good :)

*PS: havent played since a bit before the train update, but will hopefully be getting back into it soon*

[pat]

Originally posted by cainboy:

Are you capping your Happiness production with every distribution building? Each bar should be full, and you shouldnt be using more workers than needed to hit those caps.

Sorry, new to the game and I honestly don't know what that means. First, what's a "distribution building"? Is that the same as a storage building like a barn? The only place I see any sort of happiness indicator is on the houses. I'm seeing lots of blue smily faces there.

[Bobucles]

The food market, general store, etc. will automatically distribute stuff to all the houses in its radius. Items can also be sold door to door, but it's far easier to stuff the market place.

Each market has a pile of item types. Supplying more item type will give more bonus happiness for the town. High happiness gives a global speed buff to worker buildings, and the bonus gets pretty huge.

Steam now flows through pipes above ground. They can be connected through the overhead view, but in general the pipe system is very height sensitive so it's better to use the 3d view. Pipes require fluid connectors to access a building.

[pat]

Originally posted by Bobucles:

The food market, general store, etc.

Ok, I'm definitely doing some of that. Enough? Who knows... I've got a food market, general store, apothecary and gourmet foods. LOTS of stuff that I'm not supplying, but hopefully enough to keep the people happy enough. The happiness numbers are 27/270 up to 96/270.

Originally posted by Bobucles:

Steam now flows through pipes above ground. They can be connected through the overhead view, but in general the pipe system is very height sensitive so it's better to use the 3d view. Pipes require fluid connectors to access a building.

So no underground anymore? That sucks. Because things are already pretty hectic above ground with roads, belts and chutes.

So when I'm in grid mode and running steam pipes all over the place, is that not doing anything and just maybe wasting pipes?

[Vegaetalus]

Originally posted by pat:

So no underground anymore? That sucks. Because things are already pretty hectic above ground with roads, belts and chutes.

Steam pipes can still be built underground like other pipes.

[pat]

Ok, that's great to hear, but I'm still confused about what I'm doing wrong. Here are the steps I take, and maybe someone can tell me where I'm mistaken:

I place a Steam Generator on the edge off a lake so that it's blue when I place it. I supply it with coal. Both inputs are full. Steam output is maxed at 10.

Nearby is a Grain Mill. I click on Add Steam Booster.

'G' for Grid mode and I connect the middle of the Steam Generator to the middle of the Grain Mill using a steam pipe. A pipe shows connecting them with animated arrows flowing.

Back out of Grid mode, the Steam Generator still has a pipe-questionmark icon with the tooltip "This building needs a pipe outlet", and the Grain Mill is getting no steam.

So how many things did I do wrong here and what's the right way to do it?