Long time lurker… first time poster…
So, the other day i was feeling like a little special time and went into my wife’s underwear drawer to see what to wear… Oh wait! wrong community…!
So, I am loving this game so far, great in what it offers and so much more potential that can be layered on. One of the challenges I foresee however is managing larger towns and more complex production and consumption chains. I would like to suggest the following to aide the game play…
- addition of storage spaces that are specifically for consumption of the villagers either for survival and living or for production. Let call these “markets” for lack of a better name for now. These “nodes” will have the same selection list as the current storage spaces and chests, but they will be serviced by a new job role … lets call it a Vendor for now. The “market” node can be on the ground or in a crate.
- intro of Vendor job role - supported by a Cart that is made either by the carpenter or perhaps the blacksmith.The cart will have 20 slots (or whatever)
- the Vendor will look at the allowed items in the “market” nodes and then scurry around the other storage spaces to collect to keep the stock levels up at the “market”.
- As an example this will allow facilitate primary producers (farmers) feeding secondary producers (cooks) who may in turn feed immediate consumers (cooked food for peeps near the living areas of a town). This can also support other complex production chains. Further, this allows production of one type of material to be at a farther distance from where it is “used” so that crafters and villagers don’t have to travel longer distances to get what is needed.
- you can augment the “market” nodes with either 1. some interface to specify “keep x units of Y resource”. OR, 2. some background process that looks at consumption rates and tries to be dynamic. The first is easier, the second allows the Vendor to be dynamic in maintaining resource stock levels across a village as their needs rise a fall.
- Further, this will allow storage areas to be designated near a far placed mine site for example, the villagers will keep mining while the vendor sees the need for the resource in a “market” node and will go the distance to effectively collect the resource. this greatly facilitates
- you may even want to have a designation of the regular storage sites with “long term” and “short term”. The short term sites will drive the vendors to empty the sites where possible (againts other tasks) and put the resources into more central (long term) sites.
- Finally, you can add some weighting to the Vendor efficiency when travelling on roads (or that they will exclusively use roads), giving the road even functionality and not just visual benefit.
Example 1. Create a farming nexus… farms and homes for the farmers in a locale with a food/water “market node”. They can produce efficiently. The food they produce is placed in a close by stroage site and the Vendors will draw from this to bring it to the town center where there is a “market” that feed the Cooks production who works right beside the “tavern” where the villager eat. The vendor draws some from the Cooks production and brings it to the “market” node near the farming center to keep the farmers feed and happy. If they implement things like tools wearing out, then the Vendor will also be bringing fresh tools to the “market” node by the farmers.
Example 2. They have implemented ranged combat and you have made a tower/wall set up to defend your space. putting beds and a small “market” node will keep the Archers in their towers and not scurrying off to get food, arrows, water, etc… and leaving their posts un-attended.
In short EFFICIENCY… especially as villages grow into more complex towns and distance becomes a factor in keeping villager feed and/or near where they work. but more importantly it will add an in-game method to take out the “un-fun” aspect of micro-managing many many villagers as a village grows. May game developers invest heavily in squishing out “un-fun” game mechanics.
Thanks for reading