In the game Banished I'm trying to build a small village where the birth rate is equal to the death rate and apparently my citizens go through food really fast (seriously fatties put down the fork) I've tried getting food production into full gear first but lots of people are still starving what am I doing wrong?
Advice for playing Banished
- Thread starter Madmatty
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Balancing the B/D can bit a bit tricky. You basically just want to make sure you have a constant number of babies. If you're children numbers spike or there's a large number of deaths at once, destroy houses so as not to suffer a population boom (adults will move in together again so you don't need to worry about leaving villagers homeless).
Avoid farms as early food production. They're more susceptible to failure (frosts, infestation, etc.) Your better off sticking to fishing, hunting and gathering to start. Also despite what the game tells you, including a forester with your hunters and gathers is more productive as they can increase the number of mature trees - they can even start cutting down trees later on without much of a negligible effect.
Make sure that your workers are living close to where they're working - same goes for storage. If they're spending most of the day walking to work or to drop off what they've collected it seriously hampers production. Markets are also your friend so villagers don't need to commute too far to pick up dinner. Roads will increase walking speed too - worthwhile even in early game.
Avoid farms as early food production. They're more susceptible to failure (frosts, infestation, etc.) Your better off sticking to fishing, hunting and gathering to start. Also despite what the game tells you, including a forester with your hunters and gathers is more productive as they can increase the number of mature trees - they can even start cutting down trees later on without much of a negligible effect.
Make sure that your workers are living close to where they're working - same goes for storage. If they're spending most of the day walking to work or to drop off what they've collected it seriously hampers production. Markets are also your friend so villagers don't need to commute too far to pick up dinner. Roads will increase walking speed too - worthwhile even in early game.
I second this, but with one caveat. I noticed that sometimes, if you aren't careful, one villager will move into a house with no one else, effectively meaning that you're down up to 3 potential kids. This usually happens early game when you're first building houses.Bellvedere said:
I would argue that this is not only good, but vital. It ensures that you will have a large number of mature trees nearby in case you ever need the lumber.
Dirt roads require only time to make, but you'll notice a huge difference is walking speed. Definitely recommended.
I found that fishing is the best way to get lots of food quickly. I usually start with 3 or 4 fisheries and a hunters' lodge in the first year. After that, you can expand to some small farms and gatherer's huts. Early game, you can sacrifice a small amount of villager health (due to poor diet) since they all start at full health.
Later on, schools are a must, by the way, especially if you have a quarry or a mine. Education really ups worker productivity. But if you can't feed your village, don't even worry about schools, food and iron tools are much more important overall.
- In the early game, a good chunk of your labor will be spent towards food. Like 50% or more.
- Gathering is by far the best method to get food in the begining. Hunters will also be necessary for the leather to make coats. Those deer you see on the map? irrelevant to hunting yields.
- Fishing is.....okay. With 4 people working it full time you will feed like 7 people. 4 fishers will typically yield about 700 food, on the other hand 4 gatherers will typically yield 1200 food and up to 2k food a year. Beware diminishing returns however.
-stone houses use less firewood
-Firewood is amazing to sell at the market
-once you have built a trading post and get a decent firewood production going, congratulations you have won the game.
-Schools make your workers work better, but instead of being a laborer at 10 they become one at 16.
-above all else, AVOID THE SPIRAL OF DEATH. This is where even though you have food stored up, the citizens die before reaching it, which then starts a chain reaction of all of your citizens starving to death before they can reach the food. This is especially problamatic after a well placed tornado.
-another thing, Tornadoes are dicks. Make sure you are prepared.
- Gathering is by far the best method to get food in the begining. Hunters will also be necessary for the leather to make coats. Those deer you see on the map? irrelevant to hunting yields.
- Fishing is.....okay. With 4 people working it full time you will feed like 7 people. 4 fishers will typically yield about 700 food, on the other hand 4 gatherers will typically yield 1200 food and up to 2k food a year. Beware diminishing returns however.
-stone houses use less firewood
-Firewood is amazing to sell at the market
-once you have built a trading post and get a decent firewood production going, congratulations you have won the game.
-Schools make your workers work better, but instead of being a laborer at 10 they become one at 16.
-above all else, AVOID THE SPIRAL OF DEATH. This is where even though you have food stored up, the citizens die before reaching it, which then starts a chain reaction of all of your citizens starving to death before they can reach the food. This is especially problamatic after a well placed tornado.
-another thing, Tornadoes are dicks. Make sure you are prepared.