Seeking advice before unlocking New World

[☠ Asasin ☠]

Hello everyone.
I've played the game probably a dozen times up until the New World, even playing a few hours past it (I repurchased the game on Steam during the sale, hence my low gameplay time on Steam specifically). I just always have difficulty keeping up with resources afterwards and lose interest.

Started yet again and just unlocked Artisans. Before I move on to the New World, though, I want to know what advice you recommend for buffing up my economy and how to manage... the population.

For instance, is it safe to just start getting rid of some of the Tier 1 (Farmer) infrastructure, such as farms and basic goods, and start just importing it? I'm talking about deleting potato farms, Schnapps distilleries, and the tailors for Work Clothes. It just seems like you need a gazillion Artisans to actually staff the Artisan things, but of course you lose a lot of Farmers when upgrading the houses and then can't sustain a lot of the basic level goods.

I just hesitate to go that route because my economy is pretty strong right now and I don't want to tank it and end up having to start over... And I've settled a second island but it also does not seem large enough to assume *all* of the production requirements for the first island.

Curious how you all handle the transition to T3 and the New World in the campaign

[Primigenia]

NW is pretty powerful, if you have a good enough economy with artisans I would advise to start getting rum and cotton to the OW to make furcoats and give the artisans rum, it will boost the gain incredibly, artisan step is notoriously a bit delicate because they can be difficult to manage economically, but once you do and start importing the game is in a pretty good positionI also advice you to never get rid of the artisan production chains, at least no until investors

[Tankfriend]

Originally posted by ☠ Asasin ☠:

For instance, is it safe to just start getting rid of some of the Tier 1 (Farmer) infrastructure, such as farms and basic goods, and start just importing it?

I would never rely on trade to supply my people with consumer goods. It's inherently unstable and unreliable.
The only cases where this makes sense is if you use the Docklands, and you have massive industrial production to exchange for late-game goods that are expensive and time-consuming to make.

Besides, you need to keep building more farmer houses to grow your overall population, anyway, so you will also need the infrastructure to supply and upgrade them, too.

[ElPrezCBF]

Originally posted by ☠ Asasin ☠:

For instance, is it safe to just start getting rid of some of the Tier 1 (Farmer) infrastructure, such as farms and basic goods, and start just importing it? I'm talking about deleting potato farms, Schnapps distilleries, and the tailors for Work Clothes. It just seems like you need a gazillion Artisans to actually staff the Artisan things, but of course you lose a lot of Farmers when upgrading the houses and then can't sustain a lot of the basic level goods.

One thing the game doesn't explain clearly to new players is that every pop tier from artisans onward no longer needs necessity goods demanded by the 2 pop tiers below it. Think of it as pop needs change after every 2 pop tiers. You can see how they change by clicking on any upgraded residence. This means that while you lose farmers/workers when upgrading to workers/artisans respectively, you don't need to worry too much about not being able to sustain lower tiers that have been promoted and no longer need those goods. Of course, promoted pops every 2 tiers also come with new needs that replace the earlier ones, so you'll need to have enough manpower to produce the new goods.

That said, do not demolish any lower-tier production buildings as you will always have a need for farmers/workers to operate some upper-tier buildings. The only exception is demolishing construction material buildings like wood and bricks and moving their production to another island to free up lower-tier pops to operate higher-tier production buildings. Your pops won't mind if you have a shortage of construction materials, but they will if you can't meet their needs adequately. Certain specialists can also bend production rules by changing the required pop type needed to work on certain production buildings. But in general, it's often not a good idea to remove lower-tier pops/infrastructure from the island completely.