Been running this set up hard this time. have 3 - 9sq setups, with 4 farms 2 pasture 2 fallow.
I am thinking on moving to 5 farms and 2 fallow 1 pasture as I have found it seem so not deplete too fast if I stack the grazing.
My farms have no issues at all keeping the fertility up… I almost for get about my compost lol
Just read the new Patch Notes.
I don’t think I’ll be giving them any more ideas about what to nerf.
Adios cousins.
I don’t see anything that nerfed this?
I don’t see anything either. Plus, what is supposed to be inspired by this thread, when you could read most of what’s in the patch notes in the public testing changelog even before this thread was started?
I was all set.
My teeth were grinding.
They changed everything.
Even down to the size of the pasture the Barns were putting out, going from a 10x10 to a 12x12.
I was so ready to trash the whole thing and walk away, but I sat down with it first, to be sure it was the right decision.
(really, it was the Blueberry thing)
But.
Hmmm…
Pastures will once again progress to 100% Fertility on Idyllic Valley, slowly, but completely.
On an Arid Map I was able to see an advance from this 44%, up to 47% in five years with just a couple of cows.
The 12x12 size allows a player to use the space as one large field if fertile land is plentiful and the population is large, or for smaller populations, they can cut it up into multiple useful-size Farm fields for different combinations and rotations around the new larger footprint, once the desired level of fertility is achieved and the Barn’s cows are moved to a new pasture.
1 @ 12x12 = seven workers
2 @ 6x12 = six workers (three ea.)
4 @ 6x6 = eight workers (two ea.)
1 @ 6x12 + 2 @ 6x6 = seven workers
1 @ 5x12 + 1 @ 7x12 = seven workers
1 @ 5x12 + 2 @ 7x6 = seven workers
1 @ 7x12 + 2 @ 5x6 = seven workers
Whether you want to minimize or maximize manpower, manipulate the volume of crop result, rotate to avoid disease downtime or make pretty patterns in the flora emerging, now with this update you have much greater opportunity to do so.
Diseases not threatening an entire year’s crop for a small colony.
Wheat coming in smaller batches each year, so as not to overrun your first Granary and alongside root vegetables and greens, not instead of them.
Farmers staying closer to the fields because of so many different crop rotations and timings available, keep them all busy and nearby, ready for harvest times.
The changes have made the co-spacing farming and barns together much more useful and interesting.
Ahem.
Rant over.
Here a 12x12 Farm Field has almost completely overfilled two new Granaries with just one crop of Wheat from the previous year.
Even a barn full of cows will not eat that much before it spoils in two years.
With the Farm Field now split in half, a single Granary should be able to receive the entire crop of one of the half-fields and store it well enough for Fodder to last through the rotation of crops to the next wheat planting.
Animals feed properly over two winters, and each year new animals are born of the plenty.
To do a complete 9-square, or 12-square Farm/Barn complex with two barns per in the center squares, now has an additional 44 squares to develop.
The added size will allow for a complete roadway through the center, not having to rely on the bypass between the Barn and the Cheesemaker for workers to get through but barring wagon traffic.
The addition of the completed roadway will only subtract 5 squares from the 44 new squares to develop, because I had 7 developed as road access already.
3 to span the width of the Cheesemaker and 2 to span the complete 12 space width.
That leaves 39 new spaces inside each 12x12 center square for Root Cellars, Smokers, Wells and anything new Crate might bring to the table in the future.
I can see a 12-field grid (3x4) with four Barns & pastures and 6 Farm full-size fields (all running at full capacity) feeding up to 750 population, maybe more, depending on how tight you’re willing to stretch it and how well you balance production.
44 new squares.
Yeehaa!
Setting up a 12 square here in Idyllic Valley, without checking off to Pacifist mode.
A couple of raids have set back production and profits, slowing progress.
Boar do not repopulate?
I took one with two hunters from the group in back of the fields in the first year, and it has not respawned a new one to replace it yet.
Fields just now being fenced in as population grows.
I am seeing way too much crop loss to rot, due to farmers not being there to plant or harvest.
I think it has something to do with the Farm fields being placed directly contiguous to one another on the long side.
If this bears out, it will reduce the number of options available as far as splitting the 12x12 pasture size into smaller sections for farming.
1 @ 6x12 + 1 @ 5x12
1 @ 6x 12 + 1 @ 5x5 + 1 @ 5x6
1@ 5x 12 + 1 @ 5x6 + 1 @ 6x6
Each of these possible combinations result in a seven-worker total, from the 3+2+2 workforce requirements and leave one space between fields.
It is possible to leave two spaces between fields and still fit three fields with 1 @ 5x12 + 2 @ 5x5, and it still plays out to seven workers needed.
Two spaces would give a player room to add Root Cellars among the Farm fields, for quick depositing of harvested goods.
I am resizing the farm fields now, with almost 80 population so I hope it doesn’t crash the food chain doing so…
Separating the fields has produced immediate favorable results in planting and harvesting of crops.
I found that fields being on adjoining plots causes some kind of issue, where for several years running, one or both field(s) will be completely ignored for a whole year and bring up notifications of crops in the field lost to Rot.
So for now and the immediate future, Farm fields must be separated by at least one space.
So is this a whole new set up for you? Not a pinwheel around the barns?
I am still running the 3x3, with 5 fields, 2 grazing, 1 fallow. My fertility is amazing… I am looking to up it to 6 fields and put the grazing on top of each other as it seems to hold long enough.
I’m going for a 12-field setup (3x4), to work out the layout of the two Barn squares in the center.
I’m just needing some time to build it up, and noodle around with the new options that the extra spaces provide.
That, and not playing in Pacifist mode has slowed progress.
That’s why you’re not seeing the full layout yet.
It’s not even a T3 village at this stage of the buildout.
Raids really take it out of you if you’re not prepared.
Thanks Celebrindan, this is always interesting to read. Cheers.
Up to this point with one full herd, raw meat had been provided by three Hunters.
After just seeing some raw meat being Shelter Stocked off of their original locations, I’m now thinking that the Hunters should take up some of the new space created by the 12x12 layout and be moved into the central squares closer to the Smokehouses, along with the Barns.
Each of the four Barn squares brings an additional 44 squares to the table, and the Hunter Cabin is only 6.
Closer proximity to the only Root Cellars that accept raw meat, and the Smokehouses that cure it, further from the general population, and behind the wall of prepped, long shelf-life food Root Cellars.
Once four Barns are completed and full, if there is a need for space for other reasons in the future and meat production is sufficient under the current population cap, I think one or all of them can be removed entirely.
