I recently discovered your medieval hood/blog and am fascinated. Your post about sending the Pullets to the smithy made me wonder though: How does your economy work? Is it a self-sufficient hood? I'm particularly curious about how you handle food. Do your farmers produce enough for everyone in town and if yes, how do you get the food to all the non-farming families? Do you have some kind of market place/farmer's market?
Hi Nonny! Thanks for liking my little āhood and Iāll try to keep this as brief as possible (no promises). I totally failed at keeping this brief, btw.Ā
In short, yes, I aim to make the game as self-sufficient as I can. If something, anything can be produced by a Sim as opposed to being bought in the Build/Buy catalog, then I will assign a Sim to produce those goods and have other households buy from them. My woodcutters produce fuel for the fires. My smith sells all of the metal tools needed to run other jobs and household goods from his smithy. My weaver makes display baskets for vendors to use in their businesses, etc. Basically, my entire game economy revolves around the Crafting Stations from Sun and Moon at PBKĀ <3.
I base the starting points and the milestones for each phase of the hood by referring to the Medieval Charter Challenge. There are guidelines for each class and a breakdown of monetary stuff like taxes and rents. I break lots of rules, but I find that it provides me with a great and simple foundation to build upon.
So for food, specifically, when I first create and move in a family, I allow them to use the food that the fridge comes with. I sometimes give them a small garden, sometimes not. For the most part, my families didnāt even go through all of the contents of the initial fridge in the first rotation. The only family to do so was the Pullets, and thatās cause thereās so many of them >.< During the first rotation, we had no Merchant Class and therefore no markets, so anyone who produces foodstuffs and other useful goods was given a market stand at their home. It worked out well because as Iād rotate to each new household, pretty much everyone was buying additional fuel, food, etc.and thatās what I intended.Ā
In the case of my Weaver, or other more specialized trades, I have her create special orders based on what I know is an upcoming need in the rotation. Last rotation she made over 50 market baskets for the Gardner and the Groen families (market gardener and merchant). Next rotation I see a need for more baskets, but also some furniture items like pet beds and cribs, so I will have her work on those.Ā
When my Sims do run out of food, I have them restock with whatever is in their inventory. But when that inevitably runs out, they will now have a Market to visit to buy their goods. Since we have some Merchants now, and one of them owns the Little Market, most of the people who were selling their goods from home will now sell to him at a 40% markup instead. He will then use all of those goods to stock the Market, and thus, the self-sufficiency cycle continues :) The Market will also sell food for livestock, which I will be starting to grow this rotation for sale and use in the NEXT rotation when I add some more food-production roles such as a Herdsman or Pig/Goat Farmer.Ā
Some roles I have had a hard time working out the details for. When I made my blacksmith, who seemed like a natural fixture in any growing village, there wasnāt a Crafting Station that I could fall back on. So after much angst and gnashing of teeth and LOTS of advice from people on several forums, I came up with a happy compromise. For now, he actually produces very few usable goods, BUT he is the sole provider of tools like fireplace grates, pokers, cookpots, axes, scythes, dung rakesā¦you get my point. Anything thatās metal and makes sense, which is a surprising amount of stuff! He is also the resident handyman, due to his high Mechanical skill,Ā so when things break at another household, he is summoned over to repair whatever it is and is sent a fee. So now, my Sims that need those things go to him to get it. Oh, he also makes the horseshoes that the residents of DallĆ¹bach hang above their doors for luck :)
Iāve rambled on for way too long now, but if you have any other questions about anything in particular, feel free to drop me a line.
