[GUIDE] Efficiency Broken Down
Efficient Buffing
To maximize your buffs you should know when someone else buffs your buildings you get more time out of that buff. Simply ask someone to trade buffs with you in WC.
Mention what you are trying to get and ask them what they need or want buffed.
It is better to buff final production buildings and mines rather than the in between productions because a buff increases how many products it makes with less materials. Mines are limited so it is better to have a mini surplus of it to give the person time to find a new mine.
Efficiency (Click On Production Building and go to Details for info)
You want to even out your production of materials to 0 or a small amount above 0 to make as many final products as possible with fewer licenses.
Say you want to make Pinewood Planks, you will need:
Pinewood Forester -> Pinewood Cutter -> Pinewood Sawmill
This means you need a Pinewood cutter to produce logs, a Pinewood Forester to plant more trees, and a Pinewood Sawmill to produce planks.
FULL BLOWN EXPLANATION
You will notice that each one of these buildings produces a certain amount of products at a set time. They have a base production time as well as a worker traveling time. Obviously this means you want your Pinewood Cutters to be in front of a tree or extremely close to one and right next to a Storehouse. Why? Travel time. The closer you are to the start and end point the faster you will produce materials. Final production buildings, in this case the Pinewood Sawmill, also needs to be fairly close to maximize production. But wait... it takes the Pinewood Sawmill 3 Minutes just to produce a Pinewood Plank and it takes a Pinewood Cutter only 1 Minute 30 Seconds to produce a Pinewood Log.
This must mean it would be more efficient to put down two Pinewood Sawmills to even out the production line as well as increasing how many planks you will make. But this means you will be cutting down more trees and eventually the trees will run out... this must mean you want to put down some Pinewood Foresters so your production of Pinewood Planks does not slow down and eventually stop. So to increase the growth of Pinewood Trees you want to place the forester as close to the tree THAT IS IN FRONT OF YOUR CUTTER and AS CLOSE AS POSSIBLE TO THE STOREHOUSE.
The issue here is that you have limited space in areas that are close to the first material you need, in this case Pinewood Trees, and there are only a few areas around your Storehouse that would maximize the production of the materials you need. Solution? Traveling Time. If it takes your Forester 56 seconds to walk to and from the Pinewood Tree from the storehouse and it plants a tree every 2 Minutes and 15 Seconds but it takes a Pinewood Cutter 1 Minute and 30 Seconds to produce a log and 24-56 seconds to walk...that would mean you would want your Pinewood Cutter to be farther away from both the tree and the storehouse, right? Wrong. That would slow down the production of your planks. So you are basically forced to build a second Forrester AS CLOSE TO THE SAME DISTANCE as the first forester from the tree and storehouse.
To elaborate, in this case we already know:
1. A Forrester plants a tree every 2 Minutes and 15 seconds.
2. It takes the Forrester 56 seconds to go to the storehouse, his workshop, and the tree.
3. It takes the Pinewood Cutter 1 Minute and 30 Seconds to produce a log.
4. It takes the Pinewood Cutter 24-56 Seconds (We Will Say 24 Seconds in this case) to travel.
5. 2 Minutes 15 Seconds + 56 Seconds = 3 Minutes 11 Seconds production time
6. 1 Minute 30 seconds + 24 Seconds = 1 Minute 54 Seconds Production time
7. We want the Forrester to plant enough trees in the sweet spot.
8. Forrester take longer than Pinewood Cutters to produce.
9. We do not want to slow down production of planks.
10. We Are forced to build a second forester close enough to the tree to keep it from disappearing.
11. Two Forrester produce more trees than a single cutter can chop down.
12. We want to maximize efficiency.
13. If the tree runs out of logs it will disappear causing an increase in traveling time to get to the next tree.
14. A Sawmill takes twice as long as a cutter to produce so you need 2 to maximize production.
Based on this we would want to build a second cutter THAT IS GOING TO CHOP DOWN THE SAME TREE as close to that tree and storage as possible. The trend would continue, we would need another forester to even out this process wouldn't we? Why? Lets just go by base production for a second.
1. 2 Cutters Cut down 2 trees in 1 Minute 30 Seconds.
2. 2 Foresters plant 2 trees in 2 Minutes 15 Seconds.
3. 1 Sawmill produces 1 plank in 3 Minutes.
See that? They produce at the same rate no matter how many you have. They do not add together or anything like that, you always want the tree to be as close to the cutters, Forrester and storehouse as possible. If it takes the forester 56 seconds to get to the tree you want the second cutter to be a little farther away (Your forced to anyways) to lets just say 32 seconds to maximize, the only spot available would be right next to the first cutter.
Why do we care about Traveling time if the above is correct? The Final Product. Plus the above helps you understand the basic principle about production time and travel time as it applies to all final products, some products need an additional product just to start producing so it is important to note each buildings production time AND distance for calculations.
In this case the final product is a Pinewood Plank, a sawmill makes those in 3 minutes. If your cutter is 24 seconds away you want your sawmill to be 48 seconds away. Why? It takes twice as long to produce so it can be placed twice as far away. Lets break it down.
1. Cutter finishes a log in 1 Minute 30 seconds and traveled for 24 seconds. (1m 54s)
2. Saw-miller starts producing a plank and travels 48 seconds. (48s)
3. Cutter finishes another log. (3m 48s)
4. Saw-miller finishes a Pinewood Plank in 3 Minutes. (3 Minutes 48 Seconds)
It is dead even. Thus it would take 3 Forrester to maintain 2 Cutters to supply 4 Sawmills to produce 4 Planks.
You mentioned some buildings need more than one product to produce a final product and I still do not understand?
Alright.. lets go through Bread real fast.
1. Mill needs wheat and produces flour in 6 Minutes.
2. Farm produces wheat in 12 minutes.
3. Bakery needs flour AND WATER to make bread in 3 Minutes.
4. Wells produce water in 3 Minutes.
From this we know we need 2 farms to keep one Mill running, 2 Mills AND 1 Well to keep a Bakery running.
Lets break it down again but keep in mind due to level restrictions the baker and well are available at the same time anyways and this is assuming you did not bother getting any farms.
1. 4 Farms finish 4 Wheat in 12 Minutes and 1 Well produces 4 Water (12m)
2. 2 Mills use 2 Wheat and make 2 Flour in 6 Minutes (18m)
3. 1 Baker used 1 Flour and 1 Water to make 1 Bread in 3 Minutes (21m)
4. 1 Baker used 1 Flour and 1 water to make 1 Bread in 3 Minutes (24m)
5. 2 Mills Use 2 Wheat and make 2 Flour in 6 Minutes (24m)
6. 4 Farms finish 4 Wheat in 12 Minutes and 1 Well produces 4 Water (24m)
7. 1 Baker used 1 Flour and 1 water to make 1 Bread in 3 Minutes (27m)
8. 1 Baker used 1 Flour and 1 water to make 1 Bread in 3 Minutes (30m)
9. 2 Mills use 2 Wheat and make 2 Flour in 6 Minutes (30m) <-------------------------------------------------
10. 1 Baker used 1 Flour and 1 water to make 1 Bread in 3 Minutes (33m)
11. 1 Baker used 1 Flour and 1 water to make 1 Bread in 3 Minutes (36m)
12. 2 Mills use 2 Wheat and make 2 Flour in 6 Minutes (36m)
13. 1 Baker used 1 Flour and 1 water to make 1 Bread in 3 Minutes (39m)
14. 1 Baker used 1 Flour and 1 water to make 1 Bread in 3 Minutes (39m)<-------------------------------------------------
15. The cycle continues.
Between 30m and 39m we can see why you need 4 farms and 2 mills.
As you already learned you will need to calculate in travel time.
In this case because the final product finishes in 3 minutes you can place it a little farther away than the farms and mills.
If farm 6 secs away, place baker 8 secs away and mills 16 secs away as per what I explained in the beginning.
This is the basic principle behind every single bit of production. Check out http://forum.thesettlersonline.com/t...ding-Placement and scroll down to find a map to check out some sweet spots to save on space. You can also listen to the videos to get a better grasp on the principle if you still do not understand the efficiency.
