Why do these markets function differently?

[smurphys7]

tl;dr.   Why don't the Edible Markets behave like the Regular Markets but only for food items?  Edible Markets fill with food nearby.  Regular Markets don't.  Video Example




Citizens only stop at one market for food.  Regular Markets waste time with all goods.  Edible Markets fill with food.  Specialized Carts only stock one food group.  None of the 3 work ideally a large and specialized town.




I made a demonstration town.  The town makes Broccoli.  I put a market in the center.  I put a few useful buildings next to it.  The next ring is houses.  The next ring is Barns.  The outer ring is tons of broccoli farms.  I trade broccoli for everything else: tools, clothing, and the 3 other food groups.  I purchase Corn, Cherries and Chestnuts to make it easy.  Picture of Town  Save Game File of Town




When I use a regular market, like this Old Town Market all goes well for food groups.  I keep a relatively steady and even supply of each food in the market. Regular Markets work great for this example town: Video Here.  This example is the behavior I want: Vendors trying to constantly stock all four food groups at a market.




When I use the Edibles Market the markets fill with Broccoli.  My people's health suffers because they eat few food groups.  The barns where food is imported contain plenty of other food groups.  Edibles Markets fail in example town: Video Here.  Second Video showing Change from Regular to Edible HERE.  I don't want this behavior.




When I use a group of specialized market carts the people only use the closest market cart.  Again, people's health suffers because they eat few food groups.  Specialized Market Carts fail in example town: Video here.  I don't want this behavior.




The problem is regular markets don't work in my "normal" towns.  My other towns produce or own too many goods.  The Example Broccoli town works because that town only makes broccoli.  The only other goods are imported and there are very few of them: clothes, tools, fuel and the other 3 food groups.  The marketers in Broccoli town only have to cart around the necessities.  When the markets have more goods the desired effect (stocking all four food groups) fails.  




My Cheesy Bread town has several Rural Markets.  The only fruits produced in Cheesy Bread town are Apples and Cherries.  The only vegetable produced is Tomatoes.  I bring up the Town Hall and there are a few thousand of each at all times.  There aren't a lot, but enough that each market could stock or try to stock some.  The problem is the Vendors at these markets are too busy messing with all the other goods Cheesy Bread town produces rather than trying to stock fruits and vegetables.  




Furnace Fuel, for example, is one of the problem goods.  My town imports Furnace Fuel.  Furnace Fuel is only used in one corner of town.  Unfortunately, each market tries to stock some.  The specialized market cart I place next to the Furnace Fuel users won't take Furnace Fuel out of another market.  My vendors waste their time stocking furnace fuel, and other similar goods, rather than the Fruits and Vegetables my people need.




Here's a Video of Cheesy Bread town Struggling




I cannot simply change the Rural Markets to Edible Markets.  The Edible Markets would fill with the outrageous amounts of Beef, Bread and Cheesy Bread that Cheesy Bread town produces.  That's not a problem in real life but in the game my people need their fruits and veggies.  I cannot use the specialized market carts for Fruits and Veggies because a person will only stock their home from one market.  Either they go to the Rural Market with little to no Fruits/Veggies, or the Edible Market filled with Cheesy Bread goodness, or to the Fruit or Veggie Cart.  The only go to one and don't stop at each.




How do I fix this?  How do I properly use markets to feed a spread out population with all four food groups?  Why don't the Edible Markets behave like the Regular Markets but only for food items?

[Kralyerg]

he <abbr title="Colonial Charter">CC</abbr> Edibles Market does have an issue, yes.  It is set to store the Edibles flag alone, and doesn't concern itself with the food groups.

Code:

MarketDescription market
{
    float _fillLimit = 0.99;

    FillType _fillType
    [
        {
            RawMaterialFlags _flags = Edible;
            float _ratio = 0.99;
        }
    ]
}

This was done because there are some resources that have a food group flag, but not the Edible flag (like Flour. Grain but not Edible).  If it was made to accept the 4 food groups equally, then people may complain that their market was getting filled with food no one could eat.

[estherhb]

You could try moving the broccoli not in Trading Posts to Resource Barns where the Market Vendors and citizens can't grab it.  The Resource Barn will store 25,000 (based on weight). If you add the Ridiculous Storage mod from Kralyerg's Kave, that will increase storage 5X (goes above <abbr title="Colonial Charter">CC</abbr>). 

[smurphys7]

I considered doing the Resource Depot option but sadly most of my towns are vastly more complicated than Broccoli Town.  The Resource Depot method would take a vast amount of micromanagement.  I like Banished because I can do nothing while my people work.  Resource Depot means I have to do something.




The issue is Market Carts do not function for food variety, Standard Markets get hung up collecting the wide variety of small quantity goods that inevitably pop up in <abbr title="Colonial Charter">CC</abbr> games, and Edible Markets merely move the closest food closer.  Here are two towns of mine that have clear issues:




CheesyBreadIsLife uses regular markets but they function poorly because of all the other small quantity things made.  One side of the river has bread, cheese and beef.  The other side has Fruit/Veggies.  I could redesign the town and get a little of everything everywhere.  At that point I wouldn't need markets at all.  




Independence has tried every possible market.  The town doesn't trade and is vegetarian.  That means lots of Gathering Stations and lots of spreading out.  I can't figure out a way to get a diverse diet into any of the spread out communities.  Again, the regular market get clogged with other stuff.  The Edibles market fills up with the closest food.  

[estherhb]

One of the challenges in playing Banished is figuring out the game's idiosyncrasies and using those in the best way to create a successful town. Sounds like your insistence on creating specialized, one product, towns isn't working well.  Reminds me of the saying that Einstein is credited with: "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."  I know this is frustrating, but now that you know what your options are, you need to decide if you want to adjust how you are playing or live with the results.

[smurphys7]

The idiosyncrasies I am struggling with are from Colonial Charter, not Banished.  My towns work just fine.  The markets of Colonial Charter simply do not serve what I understand to be their intended purpose.

[estherhb]

I'm glad your towns work fine and that we could clarify how the <abbr title="Colonial Charter">CC</abbr> markets work (compared to what you had hoped).  

[smurphys7]

Quote




 
Sounds like your insistence on creating specialized, one product, towns isn't working well.

What I have learned is that in order for the standard markets in <abbr title="Colonial Charter">CC</abbr> to work I need to make my towns MORE focused on a single good.  As my examples and videos show the Colonial Charter standard markets only work to distribute four food groups in my town that only produces Broccoli.  This functioning exists because the market doesn't get clogged up attempting to acquire the wide variety of goods present in Colonial Charter; only broccoli is produced, nearly everything else is stable.  In the unmodded game this issue is significantly less of a problem because of how few goods are created in the unmodded game.  No other markets in <abbr title="Colonial Charter">CC</abbr> function to distribute food groups. 

[smurphys7]

I have solved my issue.  In short, I need to fill my markets with goods of each tag.  If all the other tags are full, and remain full, the vendors will focus on moving only the things I want: four food groups, fuel, tools, and clothing.  




I wasn't setting a high enough Max Limit for a few specific items: Construction, Industrial Fuel, Fuel, Iron and Raw Materials.  Also, I need to let these goods build up to a decent sized inventory for each market I have placed.




What I was doing was making all those goods "on demand".   Tool Production, for example, requires Industrial Fuel, Iron and Logs.  I kept my Limits on these items very low.  As these items were produced they were turned into tools.  My markets constantly attempted to stock these items at EVERY market rather than stocking what I wanted.  Instead, now I will produce large amount of these items (and others) and keep each stockpile high.




Now the markets stay full of Fuel, Industrial Fuel, Iron, Lumber etc. and focus on bringing in other things.