Development Planning and Village Logistics at Life Is Feudal: Forest Village
This guide focuses on Life is Feudal: Forest Village , a city-building simulator from indie developer Bitbox Ltd, which was released in May 2017. The game gives you the opportunity to build your medieval village – the way you see it: large and picturesque, with solid houses in the center and shacks at a distance, industrial buildings and barns, standing, it would seem, in a completely unpredictable order, fields, chicken coops, pigsties and gardens of various sizes and areas, set up by hard workerswith a trembling hand of the player both on a flat clearing and on the slopes of hills, narrow winding paths and stone roads between them and large forest park zones that occupy all the space between buildings up to the winding coast, created by a unique random map generator.
Or vice versa: a village built on a prepared and leveled site, designed to minimize the distances traveled by the villagers when performing their daily activities, with verified logistics between warehouses and barns, as compact, functional as possible, more like an ideal utopian city, but with this having the ability to scale to increase the population. The economy of the simulator forces you to compromise: by trial and error to create your village, something between the creation of an artist and a project of a logistics specialist.
So, if you are looking to build a large village, planning is essential, and I hope you find my advice helpful. The text is designed for players who are at least superficially familiar with the game.
General layout.If you are thinking about increasing the number of settlers to at least 100 people within one village, i.e. part of the island with common facilities, you need to take care of scaling first. It will not work to build the whole village at once, as you want: you do not have so many resources, not people. It should be built gradually, building by building, in sequence as needed in these buildings. At the same time, plan places for new buildings: both similar and others, the need for which will be required later. I could not find anything better how to apply a linear layout: parallel zones-lines are highlighted: residential buildings, buildings conventionally classified as industrial, zones of fields and pastures, as well as zones of fishing houses and forest lands. This layout can be continued in both directions: build new buildings from both ends of the zones, of course, as long as
Village zoning
Fields, gardens, pastures and fishing grounds should be located as close as possible to houses where residents live and barns, where residents take the collected food and materials, and take food and fuel for living. Naturally, fields, gardens and pastures should be placed directly next to the houses of residents, but there are also barns, warehouses and all sorts of industrial buildings: forges, smelters, weaving workshops, sawmills, furnaces for coal, and so on. They can be placed between the residential area and one of the field zones, or, alternatively, two residential areas and the production area can be placed between them. All of them should be separated by roads, preferably paved with stone. In the screenshot above, the total width of the strip, excluding fishing huts and forest belts, is 107 cells, of which:
– fields and gardens – 30 cells;
– road – 4 cells (the width itself is enough to accommodate a well, which has dimensions of 3×3 cells, and the road itself);
– residential buildings in two rows – 20 cells;
– road – 1 cell;
– industrial buildings and municipal facilities – 20 cells;
– road – 1 cell;
– fields, chicken coops and pastures – 30 cells;
– road – 1 cell.
The choice of the width of the residential and industrial areas is not accidental. In fact, many industrial buildings have a size of 10×10 cells, or at least 10 cells in length, the castle barn has a size of 10×10 cells. Large buildings have a size of 20×15 cells (caravan stall) or 20×20 cells (donkey farm, mill). Residential buildings have a size of 10×10 (small residential building) or 10×20 (residential building). Thus, the 20×20 square is the smallest and optimal for the most compact placement of buildings, and the 20×107 rectangle (or 21×107, if with an adjoining road) is a unified building strip, in which a complex of buildings self-sufficient for settlement can be placed. In this strip, you can place: residential buildings with a total number of 20 people, 4 fields (garden, chicken coop, pasture) with dimensions of 10×30, at least one production building.
Residential buildings. In a square of 20×20 cells, you can place four small residential buildings or two ordinary residential buildings, if they are placed close to each other, and the entrances to the buildings are oriented in the opposite direction (to the roads). True, there is one drawback of placing buildings close to each other: in the event of a fire, the fire often spreads to the neighboring building. But this does not matter: it is advisable to place wells near each 20×20 square, which are already needed for irrigation of fields and gardens. I recommend placing two residential (unimproved) houses with 10 people each. Improving a house costs in terms of resources compared to building a new house, and the increase is only two people, while you should not worry about the attractiveness for the establishment of offspring – villagers breed in unimproved houses and so quickly enough.
Living sector. Building strip
Industrial buildings. It is quite simple here: we place the necessary buildings as tightly as possible. If possible, we fit a well in a square – it is necessary to supply water to adjacent fields and pastures, as well as to extinguish fires that are often in the game. In the same zone, funeral pyres and / or crypts can be placed – for the destruction or burial of the bodies of the dead, since if they are not promptly buried, the plague will spread.
Production area. Building strip
Nobody canceled fire safety requirements
Farmland.Since the total width of the unified strip has already been determined – 20 cells, the question arises about the width of the fields. You can use a width of 20 cells, in which case the fields and gardens are large, it takes a lot of people to maintain one field, which is inconvenient at the beginning of the game. It turned out to be more convenient for me to beat the fields by 10 cells in width, and select the required area (for example, based on the maintenance of the field by three people) with the appropriate length. I got long fields with dimensions of 10×30 cells. A large number of relatively small fields gives great flexibility in setting them up. Another important fact: in order for resources to be more or less evenly distributed among the barns, it is necessary to alternate fields, so that in the area of operation of one barn (for example, 21×107 or 42×107 cells) there are fields and gardens with different crops, and even in the ratio, proportional to resource consumption. The task, of course, is difficult, and in the ideal case, unattainable, but you must admit that when there are many small fields and gardens, it is easier to strive for this. It is necessary to alternate chicken coops with fields of oats, pastures of sheep with fields of the highway, while a more or less suitable ratio of areas is 2: 1. Chicken coops and pastures should be oriented by the entrance to the barn, back to the forest, thereby shortening the path of workers from the barn to the field and, conversely, complicating the access routes to the coveted territory of wild animals. Naturally, a hunter’s shack must be placed in the production area so that the pastures (or at least the entrances to the pastures) fall into the shack’s coverage area. To ensure the prevention of the penetration of cunning foxes and other wild animals, there should be three hunters in the shack. and in the ideal case, unattainable, but you must agree – when there are many small fields and gardens, it is easier to strive for this. It is necessary to alternate chicken coops with fields of oats, pastures of sheep with fields of the highway, while a more or less suitable ratio of areas is 2: 1. Chicken coops and pastures should be oriented by the entrance to the barn, back to the forest, thereby shortening the path of workers from the barn to the field and, conversely, complicating the access routes to the coveted territory of wild animals. Naturally, a hunter’s shack must be placed in the production area so that the pastures (or at least the entrances to the pastures) fall into the shack’s coverage area. To ensure the prevention of the penetration of cunning foxes and other wild animals, there should be three hunters in the shack. and in the ideal case, unattainable, but you must agree – when there are many small fields and gardens, it is easier to strive for this. It is necessary to alternate chicken coops with fields of oats, pastures of sheep with fields of the highway, while a more or less suitable ratio of areas is 2: 1. Chicken coops and pastures should be oriented by the entrance to the barn, back to the forest, thereby shortening the path of workers from the barn to the field and, conversely, complicating the access routes to the coveted territory of wild animals. Naturally, a hunter’s shack must be placed in the production area so that the pastures (or at least the entrances to the pastures) fall into the shack’s coverage area. To ensure the prevention of the penetration of cunning foxes and other wild animals, there should be three hunters in the shack. sheep pastures with track fields, with a more or less suitable area ratio of 2: 1. Chicken coops and pastures should be oriented by the entrance to the barn, back to the forest, thereby shortening the path of workers from the barn to the field and, conversely, complicating the access routes to the coveted territory of wild animals. Naturally, a hunter’s shack must be placed in the production area so that the pastures (or at least the entrances to the pastures) fall into the shack’s coverage area. To ensure the prevention of the penetration of cunning foxes and other wild animals, there should be three hunters in the shack. sheep pastures with track fields, with a more or less suitable area ratio of 2: 1. Chicken coops and pastures should be oriented by the entrance to the barn, back to the forest, thereby shortening the path of workers from the barn to the field and, conversely, complicating the access routes to the coveted territory of wild animals. Naturally, a hunter’s shack must be placed in the production area so that the pastures (or at least the entrances to the pastures) fall into the shack’s coverage area. To ensure the prevention of the penetration of cunning foxes and other wild animals, there should be three hunters in the shack. a hunter’s shack must be placed in the production area so that the pastures (or at least the entrances to the pastures) fall into the shack’s area of effect. To ensure the prevention of the penetration of cunning foxes and other wild animals, there should be three hunters in the shack. a hunter’s shack must be placed in the production area so that the pastures (or at least the entrances to the pastures) fall into the shack’s area of effect. To ensure the prevention of the penetration of cunning foxes and other wild animals, there should be three hunters in the shack.
Farmland
The definition of the area for orchards is quite complicated, the game mechanism of growing fruit is not fully understood. But the fact is that the game assigns an insufficient number of workers to large fields, which is fraught with a delay in harvesting. On an area of 10×30 I placed two gardens of 10×14 squares, at least it was always possible to harvest one crop from such an area, while with a larger area – not always. Alternatively, you can set up gardens in 10×10 and 10×18 plots, with the first one you can harvest two crops, with the second one. With a total number of trees (12 pieces), you can increase the harvest in this way by 30%. When organizing two plots, there is a passage between them, in which a scarecrow can be installed, which should have some effect on the productivity of the garden. The scarecrow’s area of effect also covers the adjacent potato field.
Fields and gardens
Fishing lodges. To increase the catch, it is necessary to increase the area of water with fish entering the area of the house, it is advisable not to allow crossing with the area of the adjacent house. In the screenshot below, the fishing houses are placed on special islands.
Fishing area
Forest lands. We place the huts of the forester, hunter’s shack, gatherer’s shack (if the collection from the fields and gardens still does not fully feed your villagers) are placed in the forest zone, preferably opposite the warehouses and barns of the production zone, where your residents will carry resources. We choose the placement of houses and shacks so that their coverage areas do not overlap or slightly overlap, the zones are maximally located in the tree growing zone. It is recommended to collect all resources (stones, ore) from the ground, this will increase the number of trees, mushrooms and berries. And for greater effect, you can level the territory and lay paths.
Terraforming.To build the most compact village, you need to terraform the entire territory, even if it looks relatively native. It is necessary to cut off the mountains (which are the largest in the middle of the island) and fill the whole seas. The maximum unit square of terraforming is 50×50, labor costs (let’s call them workdays) can reach 800 or more. Not only does terraforming require large labor resources, but it also conceals dangers: residents do not build buildings unless you increase the priority of construction until they finish terraforming; in winter, they can die from the cold if they are not provided with warm clothes, since the path to the place of work is sometimes long, while in summer terraforming slows down, since all residents have to be sent to the fields; may die of cold or hunger, because of large movements they do not have time to bring fuel and food into the house. Nevertheless, you cannot do without terraforming. In addition, for a more efficient use of the island’s area, it is necessary to level the coastline. When moving on a flat surface, the speed of movement of residents also increases. To achieve the most even terrain, you must use the “Raise or lower level” function. For the passage of people and wild animals (for prey to hunters), it is necessary to provide for descents.
Descents between levels
Logistics and production buildings.With more than 100 … 150 inhabitants, logistics begins to play an important role. Having crossed this boundary, the game will remind you of casually placed buildings, steps and slopes, barns standing at a distance and other trifles of the historical development of your village. We have to demolish buildings, level the territory, lay roads again. The resources spent on the construction of the building are not returned in case of it again. In general, the game lacks statistics in order to better plan both the village itself and the consumption of resources. With a large population, one barn is indispensable. I recommend building one barn for every 30-40 people, while building castle barns at once as more spacious ones. With a lack of barns, the latter can overflow at the most inopportune moment (for example, at the end of autumn) and your villagers will quickly die out (and this is in barns bursting with food), since they will not be able to pick up food from the barn. A large number of barns are also bad – they are easy to get confused with and difficult to manage.
It is advisable to have a barn 2/3 full; when it is 3/4 full, there will be a message that the building is almost full. It is necessary to ensure that in each barn there are at least three types of food (meat, fruits, vegetables, for example, or fish instead of meat) and in approximately equal quantities. Even with the uniform distribution of fields, gardens, pastures, hunters’ shacks, it is not possible to fully ensure the uniform maintenance of all types of food in the barns. You can distribute food and, especially, materials (clothing, tools, coal) centrally: place buildings for the production of a resource in the same place with the central barn. From this barn (active supply), using the trade routes of pack mules (donkeys), to distribute resources to the consumption barns.
True, many routes will be required, perhaps even more than one caravan stall (the maximum number of routes for one stall is eight) and constant monitoring in order to maintain the same amount of resources in consumption barns. Although control is needed in any case, it is easier to control permanent routes than constantly creating or deleting routes to redistribute resources from mixed barns (both supply and consumption barns). to maintain the same amount of resources in consumption barns. Although control is needed in any case, it is easier to control permanent routes than constantly creating or deleting routes to redistribute resources from mixed barns (both supply and consumption barns). to maintain the same amount of resources in consumption barns. Although control is needed in any case, it is easier to control permanent routes than constantly creating or deleting routes to redistribute resources from mixed barns (both supply and consumption barns).
In general, the logistics in the game looks very crude and there are not enough obvious things: restrictions on the minimum limit in the active supply barn, restrictions on the maximum limit in the consumption barn, the ability to set the ratio of the amount of resource between barns, caravan movement patterns). Some buildings, which I refer to as industrial, are required in the game in large quantities: wells, furnaces for the production of coal (at the rate of one furnace per 20 inhabitants for permanent work or 12 inhabitants for seasonal work), weaving workshops, smelters and forges. Others are sufficient in the singular, for example, a healer’s hut or a doctor’s shop. Still others are analogous to other buildings, for example: a barn, a castle barn and a market; funeral pyre and crypt. The fourth is not needed at all: a tavern, which practically does not affect the productivity of residents, a castle,
But what is definitely necessary for good logistics are roads, preferably stone, and for a true perfectionist – straight boulevards and avenues through the entire town.
