Fishing huts are very ineffective. They also depend on the generation of the map. No lakes = no fishermen. Even if you have a lake on your map, fishermen will not be the most effective investment in getting food. Why is that:
The average amount of food obtained is 200 ±30.
The only advantage is long-term storage of smoked fish.
There is nothing more positive. There is a minus, which depends on the size of the lake. The larger the lake, the greater the minus. Let’s imagine that the place of the lake was land. Deer/boars, bushes with berries/greens, or ore could be generated. This land could also be suitable for city development. But instead of all this there is a lake that does not provide anything other than fish.
This is especially upsetting when you play on the lake map. Initially, I thought that there was an opportunity to build a “fish” city there. But when I saw the prey of ~200 fish, I was upset. Hunters get from 280-320 meat, skins and fat, and also help fight off wild animals and raiders. Gatherers bring 200 ± 50 food, if there are a lot of blueberries on the map, then all 250-300. The downside of the berries is that they spoil quickly, but they cure scurvy. Wild herbs and willows are also collected, which affects the development and healthcare of the city.
It turns out that fishermen are inferior to other food sources. Because of this, when placing the main building, I never pay attention to the lakes. Initially, I am looking for where there are a lot of deer → where there are simply deer → wild grasses + willows → bushes with berries → fish.
It might be worth increasing the number of fish caught to 300-350, as well as the fish in the lakes themselves. As a bonus, eating fish increases immunity.
Can be easily be solved by upgrading the fishing hut to tier 2 which adds a boat, a second fisher and nets for increased yield.
And the advanced version would be a fish farm, which produces a stable and sustainable amount of fish akin to a barn or a deep mine, but requires feed and a suitably large pond (or creates it itself).
That is paltry yield indeed. Basically, this only manages to feed the fisherman himself.
Fishing huts are mostly valuable at the beginning of the game, but become only supplemental later on.
I have to buy 90% of my smoked fish needs for my 700 pop town from traders, despite having 5 fishing huts. My citizens consume all the fresh fish practically instantly, leaving little for the smoke house.
A tier 2 fishing hut should at least double the yield to remain useful for longer. Also be able to work during winter, as an ice fisher or something.
In addition to this, may I suggest to add “Fish oil” as a by-product of the fish farm.
“Fish oil” could be used to make:
Lanterns, as a new luxury item or could also be an upgraded version of the candle, which would last longer.
Medecine
Some other ideas would be to use it to make boiling oil, a new defense mechanism that could be used by T3 stone walls or towers, but I’m going far here.
Dunno, fish oil is an item usually only produced by fatty saltwater fish or Whales in relevant quantities.
And currently, FF has neither a coastline nor whaling ships. And in the medieval time period it is set, whaling wasn’t even a thing yet.
For the production of oil, we’d need either an oil ground resource or an oil crop, like rapeseed or sunflowers.
There is firm evidence of deep sea whaling with harpoons as far back as 5 - 6000 BCE in Scandinavia and Korea. You are right in that before the Renaissance (Early Modern) Era it wasn’t a major undertaking, though: on a food/effort basis, fishing the cod and herring schools of the North Sea gave a much better return for food.
One seafood possibility that has been overlooked, though, and is applicable to shore fishing as modeled in the game, would be Shellfish like clams or oysters, which were ‘farmed’ by both Romans and Classical Chinese and some Native American tribes. That would be a potential output from Upgraded Fishing Huts that could also produce some type of Luxury item like Pearls or even Abalone/Mother of Pearl Jewelry and decoration.
Would need proper rivers for that. Salmon only seek rivers to breed.
I very much hope we’ll get coastal sea and river maps someday. Other similar builder games can do it, so this one should too.
Sigh. They have said for a long time that Water Features will have to wait until after release (DLC?) because of the complexity of the problems connected with it.
Given the importance of rivers and coastal trading communities in the Medievalish period, I hope they take their time and get it right, much as I’d like to have it Tomorrow.
For one thing, a town site on the coast would be potentially an entirely different focus from one inland, with far more emphasis on making goods to trade with ships coming from Far Away. The potential great increase in prosperity could be balanced by making them prone to Sea Raiders of much greater ferocity and potential damage compared to the landlocked raiding parties the game has now.
Bridges over rivers would be very nice, too. There’s a place for some serious Upgrading, from a simple pile and timber one-lane bridge up to a stone arch bridge wide enough for houses to be built on it with a massive stone Gate House at the end opposite the town.