Warehouse rationing

[fodder]

it would work if accompanied by lower morale.

"they went to the next region... honest" *chop*

[Chenier]

it would work if accompanied by lower morale.

"they went to the next region... honest" *chop*

Some kind of region stat drop would obviously be necessary for balance. 'cause really, one doesn't need 100% population for 100% production. That excess population that isn't needed for production would always be chased away. Mind you, I guess they *do* represent overcrowding in a way, as they aren't working (or their work is countered by loss of efficiency by others)...

[Bedwyr]

As already discussed, there is a "hungry" status where there are stat penalties and the like when you have some food but not enough.  Those would not go away.

[acrandal]

They can then push them farther out. To Barca, in this case.

When we take regions with no people in them, being able to forcefully repopulate from other regions would we awesome, but I could see some play balance issues, such as "stealing" people from other realms during a war.

Regarding the original idea (rationing), it's not that hard.  Just have a rationing setting with four options:  full, half, quarter, none

Someone already listed the current results of having food available to those percentages, just use those.  The food needs of Darfix far outstripped the increase in food growth in the rural regions surrounding it.  In no time the realm (Niselur) collapsed.  Similarly, Golden Farrow crashed because there was no way to preempt the loss of food income during the winter after the rural regions were trashed by an invading army.  Once the granaries are empty, that's that and down it went until spring and revolt.  Some kind of control would be good.

If you do set the rations less than 'full', it should include that in your daily region report.  It should be an anomaly that you use these settings for a stable realm, not a daily thing.

[Indirik]

The food needs of Darfix far outstripped the increase in food growth in the rural regions surrounding it.  In no time the realm (Niselur) collapsed.

Uhh... No. That's not what happened. Yes, Darfix may have been growing faster than the rurals could grow to feed it, but that's not what really caused the food problems. It was human error, in the form of a banker/lord disappearing, while all the food was stored in his region.

[egamma]

Uhh... No. That's not what happened. Yes, Darfix may have been growing faster than the rurals could grow to feed it, but that's not what really caused the food problems. It was human error, in the form of a banker/lord disappearing, while all the food was stored in his region.

An emergency request to your friendly neighborhood trader, to come and hit up the black market in exchange for freedom from prosecution, could have helped that situation.

[Indirik]

Assuming there was a skilled enough trader in the area that could have done it. Distances involved would have prevented anyone coming from another realm to do it. Darfix had been having food shipped in from Under Darfix every day to prevent the city from growing too fast. Once starvation hit, the city was doomed. No way to do it fast enough. And once Darfix population was devastated, the realm was history.

[Peri]

Assuming there was a skilled enough trader in the area that could have done it. Distances involved would have prevented anyone coming from another realm to do it. Darfix had been having food shipped in from Under Darfix every day to prevent the city from growing too fast. Once starvation hit, the city was doomed. No way to do it fast enough. And once Darfix population was devastated, the realm was history.

such a sad tale  :'(

[acrandal]

such a sad tale  :'(

I lived through it. :-)

And there was some black market work to get that food freed. No comment on who was involved in that, though...

Feeding 160,000+ people takes 320 bushels/day (2240 bushels/week).  For a city that size, unless you have 7 *very* good food producing regions that never falter you'll never reach full population.  Darfix can handle 180,000 or more.  We did get over 160,000 and then in the heart of winter both of our defensive forces were crushed at the same time.  The rest of winter wasn't great because we couldn't recruit fast enough to rebuild a defensive force.  After that the realm didn't last a year.

There was no way to slowly bring the population down, or limit it so we just starved out and once you're on a bust cycle its really tough to recover.

[Chenier]

Uhh... No. That's not what happened. Yes, Darfix may have been growing faster than the rurals could grow to feed it, but that's not what really caused the food problems. It was human error, in the form of a banker/lord disappearing, while all the food was stored in his region.

Clearly they were doing something wrong to 1) have all the food in a region other than the city and 2) not be able to hold out long enough to find a solution.

[Indirik]

We did get over 160,000...

No, sorry. Darfix never got anywhere near that high. Arrakis, the founder/ruler of Niselur, and duke of Darfix, says it really only got up to about 50-60k.

Clearly they were doing something wrong to 1) have all the food in a region other than the city and 2) not be able to hold out long enough to find a solution.

The colony was attempting to stop the city from growing too fast, and outstripping their ability to feed it. So they were keeping it on half rations by using daily food shipments from Under Darfix. The lord of Under Darfix ox-carted in half the amount the city needed every day. This worked great until the lord of Under Darfix, who was also the banker, went inactive. It took five days for the banker/lord to auto-abdicate, and then a new lord appointed and start shipping food. By then some monster packs had moved in, the city starved, and the tax base of the realm was destroyed. There were some other problems, too, including some poor choices on how to defend the realm, and some really bad military decisions. They all hit around the same time, and the realm just imploded.

[Chenier]

The colony was attempting to stop the city from growing too fast, and outstripping their ability to feed it. So they were keeping it on half rations by using daily food shipments from Under Darfix. The lord of Under Darfix ox-carted in half the amount the city needed every day. This worked great until the lord of Under Darfix, who was also the banker, went inactive. It took five days for the banker/lord to auto-abdicate, and then a new lord appointed and start shipping food. By then some monster packs had moved in, the city starved, and the tax base of the realm was destroyed. There were some other problems, too, including some poor choices on how to defend the realm, and some really bad military decisions. They all hit around the same time, and the realm just imploded.

How much food was hanging out in Under Darfix? That sounds like it would lead to rot. Not to mention that ox carts result in spoilage. Even without Under Darfix, the other rurals should have been able to send a caravan to Darfix without unloading food in the townsland first.

[Indirik]

I'm not sure what you mean by "ox carts result in spoilage".

As for the rest, I really don't know too much more of the situation. While I was involved in starting and supplying the colony, I wasn't actually in it.

[Sacha]

Ox carts are at risk of being attacked by bandits, losing some food in the process. As I understand it, lower loyalty/control increases the risk of this happening. Though in my spell as Duke of Askileon, the losses were negligible. 5% of all food carted around, if that.

[Indirik]

Well, yes, theft on low Control. But I've never heard it called spoilage.