1. Adding " footprint" graphic to the info screen for buildings.
Is it 2 X 3, 3 X 4, 5 x 5 etc.? Maybe with a different color spot to indicate door(s)? I know a lot of you in the forum have been with the game from the beginning. But, for all us newbies, and for those soon to discover the game, knowing the size / shape of a building BEFORE it is unlocked helps a lot with advanced planning.
2. Adding Soil Mixture graphic from Crop Field Screen to info about each crop.
So you figured out which ones can handle a chilly spring, or summer heat and which ones won’t die if winter comes early. Then you figure out which combinations will actually fit in the space to make best use of the allotted time. But then you go to drop them in, and they all have different soil needs! Would have been nice to know that to decide WHICH farm to put them in before you already set up the other one.
This one is annoying to look for, but it does actually show up in the tooltip when you go to build a farm. If you just put it over a single square, it even shows the statistics for that single square. The farm build info box also shows the statistic that is actually much more relevant than fertility (but usually correlates) of environmental fertility factor. EFF affects how effective compost and clover are, which means it’s the real measure of long-term farming sustainability.
Yes. But … consider that Newbie follows the pretty color patterns on the map, chooses a couple of nice dark green areas some distance apart, and lays out a nice-sized farm in each. They are now locked into the soil in those areas. When you open the farm menu, it does show you the soil mixture graphic for that plot of land. But right now, the only way for Newbie to know if a crop is more compatible with the soil in farm 1 or Farm 2 is by clicking on a crop to assign. Only THEN can they see how that crop compares to the soil there. Then they have to take it out and assign another crop to see if it likes the soil better. It is time consuming and annoying. Especially for Newbie who is already fighting the learning curve on everything else in the game.
As a ’ slightly more experienced newbie" I need to plant farms and get back to work. I want to look at the soil profile between farm 1 and farm 2, match up the crops that will grow best in each, program in in 2 or 3 crops each year and go back to exploring, collecting resources, building stuff and protecting my people from danger. The more info we have access to, the less time wasted figuring it out the long way. And Newbie is happier.
I usually put a mix of the soil around the fifth bar from the left at the beginning, and later on I add more sand when I’m transitioning to other crops. This way I have decent crops of beans, peas, cabbage and leek at the beginning of the playthrough (those are great to farm at early stages), and later on, when I’m switching to carrots, turnip, wheat and rye, I’ve got decent crops of them. I find adjusting the soil mix every season a bit of a hassle for a 10% increase of crops I don’t plant that much in the given stage of development.
But, I guess your idea might be helpful for someone who cares about the best possible soil for their crops.
I do not change soil mix every season either. that would be logistics toooo much. What I was intending was matching initial planting of crops to the soil mixture the farming plot starts out with. And to be able to tell that peas, beans and cabbage greens all like the same type of soil; while carrots, turnips and flax all agree on a different mix.
Or to increase sand in one farm by a certain amount to better suit one group of crops and set the mix in another farm to maximize others. But you need to see each crops soil mix to do that. Right now the only way to see a crops preferred soil is to assign it in the planting bar.
I don’t think you’re really supposed to keep changing the soil mix, as that would be a highly inefficient use of resources.
Instead its better to adjust it to your primary crop (Flax or Rye usually, or your highest yield root vegetable over the 3 year rotation if it isn’t growing flax or rye) when you have plenty of clay/sand to spare.
Ok. Enough farming. What do you think about the first part of the initial suggestion - adding the" footprint’ of a building to its info card in the build menu ? Lots of replies and / or hearts on this one please so the Devs know if you agree, or if you think this would not be helpful to you ( or to future newbies ) as I do.
As a newbie, I found myself in awkward situations without knowing the building’s size. After completing the game, I still had some difficulties. I want dimensions added to the construction menu!
the footprint would be a tiny set of squares that SHOW dimensions, but also indicate where the doors are. I had to replan an entire block of buildings because I had memorized that two of them were 2X 3, and two were 3X4. But the last one I Jenga-ed in had a door in the center front, not on the end like I expected so nobody could get in or out. Thankfully I always pause the game when I plant buildings and roads, so I can always just hit the little " I want that back -X button" and flip some things around before anybody starts delivering materials. my games take forever to get to level 2 because I spend A LOT of time in pause mode.
But the last one I Jenga-ed in had a door in the center front, not on the end like I expected so nobody could get in or out.
My understanding (and experience) is the door location doesn’t matter, the building will function just fine no matter how it’s oriented. Even if the “door” is up against a neighboring building, the villager will sneak through the crack and enter it. Aesthetically it’s nicer if the door is facing a road but not required.
This is my understanding and observation also. The arrow is provided as a reference to allow placement the same way as other buildings of the same type. That way they can be uniform in orientation.
Regarding access, the location and orientation is meaningless other than aesthetically.
This is only an issue in free placement mode. In grid mode both the terrain grid and grid footprint for your new building are shown.
If the terrain and building grids were always on in either mode they could be used as a reference both for placement and building size. Alternately, provide a toggle for the grid lines as well as placement mode.
I have never played in free placement mode, always with the grid. But it would not matter which mode you are in. And it would not be a toggle or overlay. It would be a tiny graphic added to the info screen for each building showing how big it is.
Right now, you do not know the size or shape of a building until you try to build it. This would help plan ahead before you are ready to build it, even before you have unlocked it. If you can see the footprints of the buildings, you can lay out streets and plan to leave “holes” for them. Like knowing that a healers house is the same size as a level 1 shelter, so can just replace one in a row of regular houses later, or planning a 2X2 hole for a rat catcher when you are arranging storages close to your market. Instead of wasting time and workers to have to relocate stuff later.
