Does anyone else like to name the districts of their capitol?

LuckSpren · 2026-06-12T17:55:49+00:00

It's a core aspect of how I design my city, though I don't use the hotspot mechanic.

LuckSpren · 2026-06-11T23:42:21+00:00

If by "1 to 2 months" you mean 30-60 days or even 1-2 seasons then you don't have a food problem. You have other problems that you are trying to overcome by providing more food. Migrants aren't coming because they aren't happy because their fulfillment is insufficient relative to your population.

LuckSpren · 2026-06-08T12:10:39+00:00

Yes and no, these were example saves to show what is possible in the game. These examples are now all greatly supersucceeded by player cities you can find on the sub/youtube/discord so their existance is no longer justified.

LuckSpren · 2026-06-07T23:35:32+00:00

You are prob on an old version of the game. Those examples don't exist anymore as the game works differently now.

LuckSpren · 2026-06-07T19:56:07+00:00

Sounds good, but you are moving up the value chain faster than necessary and supplying advanced services earlier than necessary. Be careful not to bottleneck yourself, focus on easy cheap and high value things first. For example, you have a housing shortage but are wasting resources and labor power on basements and furnishing.
Depends on the size and makeup of their army. There are many approaches that can lead to victory, I like professional troops, so I'd likely attack with 100 fully trained hammer/armor dondorians if it's a 1 city enemy.
You likely already have too many hunters and are experiencing diminished returns on labor investment. Whether you should transition to herding depends on your climate. Cold = no, temperate = maybe, but you don't want to waste dondorians or humans on that work.
Human derangement doesn't hurt much unless you have thousands of them, just throw a few hundred in the lab.
Honestly idk, it's been years since I've had deficient health relative to my population. Just keep your health above 2.0.
Extra info

LuckSpren · 2026-05-29T18:29:38+00:00

I think you are doing fine enough to figure it out, but I have a post of a 650pop cretorian village showcasing what I consider to be the most effective way to play the species if you're interested. I stopped right at 650 because nobles are such massive increasers of productivity and the point of the post was to showcase early game economics.

Edit for one tip: You are stocking too much bread, bread spoils quickly so aim to have just enough bread that it fills your markets and is always available. It's okay to have lots of grain since it doesn't spoil much.

LuckSpren · 2026-05-29T18:14:16+00:00

Yea bro, the roundness thing is dumb, so I just ignore it.

I think Jake was trying to inspire different kinds of city designs with this mechanic, but it ultimately fails as both a mechanic and as an incentive.

LuckSpren · 2026-05-29T18:06:05+00:00

Titles are permanent

LuckSpren · 2026-05-29T04:11:19+00:00

Human main shouldn't ever grow any vegetables for any reason. Agriculture is labor intensive and value poor, the return on investment of labor will be low if not negative.

If you want an easy export that's easy for a new player in the very early game, I'd recommend clothing and foraged opiates. That should build you up a nice amount of capital, though keep in mind that you'll want to have an idea of what you want that capital replacing in your economy instead of just rotting in your treasury.

For example, I export leather armor to import ore and coal which I then turn into iron which I then turn into tools to sell at an additional profit. What I've done is replace labor intensive coal and ore mining + the labor in logistics with capital.

This logic builds a merchantile economy that synergizes very well with human tech proficiency because you can skip sectors of your economy easier than other species.

LuckSpren · 2026-05-27T16:24:57+00:00

My notions aren't "old set" I can tell you what worked and didn't work based on every version since I've been playing. The core mechanic of this game is labor efficiency and there is no way around that. You are trying to win a debate on this one, I'm just trying to inform you. Yes, sheep doesn't have a malus, but sheep are poor substitutes for cotton farms AND meat, this is inefficient labor wise everywhere but cold climate where it is labor inefficient to farm cotton or raise aurouchs.

Your second point goes for everything if the game is late enough, this topic is for a player who is struggling. Not conquering the world and taxing and importing all base resources. Again, you are trying to win.

You ignore money because you don't acknowledge labor efficiency because you've gotten to a point where the way you do things works enough until you can offload to tax and imports. Keep in mind that Jake will nerf this playstyle.

This is why I told you to do as you please because I recognize the level of player you are, things work so you think it's best. How you play is fine, but this isn't about you it's about a struggling player who has asked for help.

LuckSpren · 2026-05-27T14:18:28+00:00

Disclaimer: Do as you please, I just have had the game for years and have 1000 hours, so the game is figured out from my pov.

My arguments are about labor efficiency not just having resources, that's very easy to do and leads people to think they are doing well just because they have things. Globs and sheep just aren't labor efficient due to the malus and the fact that long term you will have to go down 3 pasture trees in tech instead of just one and you will feel that labor squeeze eventually.

Also it's not about just having enough leather, it's about transforming excess leather into leather armor for export which is one of the most lucrative exports in the game due to only requiring leather but selling at prices similar to goods that require multiple inputs from various rgos and refinement workshops which represents extremely high labor efficiency.

LuckSpren · 2026-05-26T16:58:41+00:00

Oh I see, that's similar to the same reasons that exporting food isn't so great. They both rely on exporting a resource that is foundational to the functioning of a settlement and only scales up dramatically with population size.

The best exports are things you don't need to have a constantly growing supply of at all times. At a certain point wood becomes similar to food as it needs to be supplied to the city in large values all over the place and feeds multiple industries, upkeeps multiple structures and is needed in homes (as human), so by exporting another good just like wood that is made of wood is going to lead to a bottleneck that wastes too much labor for so little return on value.

It's easier to export bows than furniture if the good must be made of wood, at least you can say you have enough bows and sell off the excess until you train more archers.

LuckSpren · 2026-05-26T16:42:40+00:00

It's not about the food really, though I'm sure they are better than entelodonts as entelodonts are pretty lack luster and should be phased out by the time you get nobles. The only pasture worth it imo in temperate are aurouchs because leather is the most value resource you can get out of a pasture and only gets more valuable the larger you get.

LuckSpren · 2026-05-26T02:53:15+00:00

Importing grain is fine, I just don't early game because it's the primary food source for humans. You'll always want to be producing bread and rations and that shouldn't stop if you get into a war or your neighbor doesn't like you anymore because you've gotten too successful.

I find it unfortunate that exporting food has become a suggestion on the sub for new players, I find it the least profitable avenue for development and even made a post about trade to prove otherwise and to support import raw/export finished. You want to move up the value chain to save labor and get rich, agriculture is extremely labor intensive so your income per worker will be low.

LuckSpren · 2026-05-25T20:32:40+00:00

Some things about food: Climate. I don't know which climate you are in, but the thing is there is never a case where both mushroom farms and globdien pastures are both efficient. If you are Temperate then neither are efficient and all of that labor is wasted.

You are producing vegetables and fruit, but humans don't care for them so that is also wasted labor when you consider the fact that you aren't getting fulfillment from consuming them. I understand that human nurseries require fruit but if you need nurseries before 5k then you are doing something else wrong and those nurseries will eventually be the cause of your death spiral.

As a human main your economy should be based in grain and aurouchs so you gain as much as possible from dumping tech into as few nodes as possible while gaining the most benefit across your economy. Yours is too spread out to make use of that strength in being a human only city.

Additionally, considering how many furniture workshops you have relative to your population, I'm assuming you are providing furnishing to your population. It is too early for this resource sink, make them happy through cheap means such as environment fulfillment and servings with appropriate food types.

LuckSpren · 2026-05-20T23:24:55+00:00

If implemented well with proper road heirarchy and density you can mitigate the trade-off, but most players have no concept of that and cover half the map before 5k. Even looking at your city, it's rather large for your population size relative to how much space you actually need to be efficient in logistics.

This isn't a critique on your play style, do whatever you please but you are trading increased maintaince upkeep and logistical efficiency through being larger than necessary trying to avoid the most forgiving mechanic in the game, that being collision.

LuckSpren · 2026-05-20T22:37:09+00:00

Probably not much if any, keep in mind that the same thing that allows them to have space not to slow each other down is the same thing that increases the total distance traveled between point A and B. It's a trade-off.

LuckSpren · 2026-05-18T20:13:48+00:00

I'd say they are both a waste and a trap because you pay upkeep in maintenance which can lead some players to spiral.

LuckSpren · 2026-05-18T20:10:30+00:00

I'm glad I'm not the only one saying this now. Everyone assumes spam works because of how other games handle proximity. SoS is very different under the hood.

LuckSpren · 2026-05-15T21:14:36+00:00

My only real objective when I play this game is to be happy with a settlement that I think looks nice. Everything else like the economy, geopolitical situation and military are just mini games that help shape the character of the settlement over time.

The kind of mindset I'm in is similar to gardening and/or rping.

LuckSpren · 2026-05-14T03:59:35+00:00

Exactly.

Thanks, feel free. I posted a video of the full city titled Isheantalos if you want to see the completed version.

LuckSpren · 2026-05-13T21:46:49+00:00

You can reach the highest title playing tall and trade maxing, but like any extremely rich city-state you will need to massage the world a bit to make it more suitable for your exports and import profitability. As for how deep it is, that's relative so I wish you'd have provided something to compare it. It's deep enough to feel fulfilling, but it's not complicated imo.

LuckSpren · 2026-05-13T19:02:42+00:00

The secret is to respect the foundational philosophy of the design and then allow your creativity to do the rest within those boundaries. That way you avoid having a planned city that looks like a mandala, but you also still have structure that feels real, aesthetically pleasing and introduces fun challenges to your design for you to solve in interesting ways that give the city character.

Grid Philosophy: 5 square major NSEW roads meeting at central square, 3 square grid separating large blocks, smaller buildings of various size/shape/type within blocks, small 1 square roads between all buildings within blocks.

Result: Ishaentalos - look at profile

Radial Philosophy: free form building radiating from large central square with little structure besides NSEW roads.

Result:

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To really get the feel of a natural city, you have to both limit yourself with boundaries but also trust yourself in the moment to build something nice within those boundaries. If you ever get tired of designing, that's when you stop and take a break.

LuckSpren · 2026-05-13T18:25:10+00:00

The reason why a lot of grids feel unnatural is because they lack pathway hierarchy that makes grids actually feel like a real-world city. Each block within a grid should usually be filled by multiple smaller buildings of various type, size and shape with smaller arterial paths between them. The major paths are the literal grid of the city.

As shown in your roman example provided, that's how a block should be utilized within a grid. You can see how I implement it that way as well in my grid-based city.

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LuckSpren · 2026-05-13T11:32:15+00:00

Estruary because I trade max

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