Production chains are what Settlers is all about. Producing a product from a resource and taking that product and using it as part of another process to produce something even better.
You will learn a little about this in the Tutorial but here I hope to give you a far better overview of how and why a balanced production makes the game move a little faster.
Building Times[]
First off you should note that every building that produces a product in the game has a Details tab that gives the production time for the output. You can take that information and easily work out how many buildings you need to supply a building that depends on it.
Here for example is the very first production chain, and one of the most important, Pine Wood.
The Pine Wood Foresters plant Pine Trees which in turn are harvested by the Pine Wood Cutter. Looking at the timing you can easily see that to keep 2 Cutters in constant production you will need roughly 3 Foresters.
- 3 Foresters > 2 Cutters = Infinite Pine Logs
Now all that limts this is your storage, once your logs fill the stores your production stops. Stopped production is a very bad thing and wastes precious time. To keep things moving we get to add Sawmills and the timing on these means we can have 2 and keep the process moving smoothly again.
- 3 Foresters > 2 Cutters > 2 Sawmills = Infinite Pine Planks
Then things get complicated.
We need Bows and Coal which take up Pine logs too and you need to factor them into your chains and if all you have is the above all your logs are being converted into Planks and so we need more Foresters and Cutters.
Pausing Production[]
Paused
It should be noted that you can Pause production on a building by opening it and pressing the Stop button, this way you can swap which buildings are working and sapping a resource. Paused buildings have Blue Zed's over them.
While this is handy at first it's far better if you can leave your game working 24/7 with only the occasional nudge from yourself to replenish exhausted resources like: Wheatfields, Mines and Water.. so bare in mind if you are over or underproducing see if you can add, upgrade or remove a building.
Moving a Building *New[]
Included in the Update 16 AUG 2012, you now have the option to move a building (Unfortunately this does not include Storehouses). Moving buildings saves you both time and resources, since you do not have to destroy, rebuild and reupgrade a building when you need to rearrange your settlement for improved Production Chains.
Select the Building Menu, then select the Toolbox.
Move Building
Move your cursor to the building you wish to move, and click on it. You will be given the option of two Move Methods, 1 or 2.
- Method 1 will cost you resources to move (e.g. 10 Pine Wood Planks + 10 Stone).
- Method 2 will cost you Gems, which is typically the level of the building (e.g. Level 1 Provision House costs 1 Gem).
After you choose your Method, you can then move the building cursor around your settlement as if you were placing a new building. After you select your location you will be prompted to confirm you still wish to use resources or Gems (depending on the Method you chose) to move your building. Confirm the selection and in a few seconds your building will instantly move to the new location.
Moving Storehouses
Moving a Storehouse remains the same as it was pre-update. Firstly build the new storehouse in the sector before demolishing the first one (failing to do so will lose you the sector and demolish the buildings within).
Demolishing a Building[]
Early on I found 6 Sawmills really handy to get my settlement going but once i started upgrading them I was massively over producing, at that point i deleted 3 and upgraded the remaining 3. The bonus here was I freed up 3 Licences, was over producing Logs which got fed into Coal making, Bows and even trading the excess in the Trade tab for other useful resources.