Living by numbers

by Merepatra
Images by Lord Matt

This article contains information about the production cycles of the various industries/farms/workshops etc. Times given are generally the amount of time it takes to produce goods excluding the time taken to collect raw materials and/or to deliver the goods to the stockpile/armoury/granary. This time taken collecting/delivering will have a major impact on how quickly you are able to produce goods/food. An efficient layout where the workers have to walk a minimum distance will give you much higher production numbers, but since space is often at a premium around the stockpile/armoury/granary then choices about priorities often have to be made.

Index

Food Sources

Apples

Once you place an apple orchard, the trees start growing and bearing fruit even before a worker arrives there. Fruit is ready to be picked in just less than 3 months, and there are 4, sometimes 5, harvests per year. The orchard worker picks the apples and delivers 3 units at a time to the granary.

With an orchard extremely close to the granary, i.e. directly adjacent to the granary and the orchard next to that on the granary entrance side, then an orchard worker is able to pick 2 crops of 3 units each harvest. Any further away and only 1 crop per harvest is possible.

This means that it is possible to get 24, occasionally 30, apples from an orchard in a year with the optimum placement. Slightly further out and the yield will be reduced to 12, occasionally 15. If the orchard is so far from the granary that the worker cannot pick, deliver and return within the time it takes for the next crop to reach maturity then the trees turn brown and that crop is lost.

Orchard workers will also pick from adjacent orchards if there is no fruit available on theirs at that time.

Orchard workers walk at 50 tiles per month.

Cheese

Cows do not start being born and growing in dairy farms until a worker arrives. Once 3 cows are fully grown then the milking/making cheese cycle starts. The first cheese is ready approx 5 months from when the worker first arrives. After that it takes 2 months for each milking/making cheese cycle, with 3 cheese being delivered to the granary each time.

If a dairy is directly adjacent to the granary it is therefore possible to produce 18 cheese per year. As the milking cannot commence again until the worker delivers his cheese and returns, any extra time taken walking to the granary and back will reduce the number of cycles possible in a year.

If a leather armourer takes a cow for leather, no milking will be done until a 3rd cow is produced again.

Dairy farm workers walk at 50 tiles per month

Wheat

Once a worker arrives at a wheat farm he starts by hoeing the ground, then sows the seeds and waits for them to grow. Once the wheat is grown, he harvests it in sections and delivers it, 2 units at a time, to the stockpile. A full crop is 12 loads, 24 units of wheat.

It takes 18 months minimum for a full crop to be hoed, grown and harvested if the farm is directly adjacent to the stockpile. If the farm is further away it will take longer. Any part of the crop still unharvested 24 months after hoeing starts will die.

Wheat farm workers walk at 33.3 tiles per month

Hops

Once a worker arrives at a hops farm he hoes the ground, sows the plants and then waits for them to grow. Once they are fully grown he picks them in sections and delivers them to the stockpile 1 unit at a time. A full crop is 4 units of hops.

It takes approximately 13 months minimum for a full crop to be grown and harvested if the farm is adjacent to the stockpile. If the farm is further away it will take longer. Hops not harvested within approximately 15 months will start to die, meaning that it is very important that hops farms are not too far from the stockpile if you wish to get a full harvest.

Hops farm workers walk at 50 tiles per month.

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