Nilla.
Tom SawyerHello and welcome!
Nice that you like it so far.
1. From our experience, the game counts a building as inside a circle if the middle tile is inside or the use-point where people drop food and firewood which is near the door and mostly in the middle anyway. An edge of a house touched by a circle is definitely not counted.
2. Three stars is their normal level of being ok with their life in this mod (in vanilla this level is at 4.5 stars). They need at least 3 or 4 of the requirements full-filled to raise in happiness. You can get them to 5 stars but it is not easy to achieve in early game with low population and uncomfortable houses. An overview of how it works in the North you can find here How To Happiness.
3. How big fields should be per farmer mainly depends on crop and climate but also on distances and if you micromanage harvest. I guess people have different opinions about that and I could not say a general size.
4. The main use of markets is food distribution. Vendors carry food of all categories to the market (with wheelbarrows which is much more efficient) and people living inside its circle gather food there instead of picking single items from the nearest barn. So it’s good for health and also for efficiency in a growing town with food production far away.
5. You can collect firewood and gatherers from your shelters do it in winter for additional fuel. It’s also useful to set a low limit for charcoal/tar production to control your fuel situation and coal mining is another option if wood becomes an issue.
NillaMay I add a few things; farming in the North is more difficult than vanilla. Unless you play on “mild”, you need to start the harvest manually or you will have the problems you describe. I generally also build smaller fields than in a vanilla game. The size depends on the climate. Especially at the beginning when not everyone is 5 stars happy, I prefer 2 farmers at each field. This way the chance to get it planted fast and harvested in time is bigger. On “mild” I would make 100-120 tiles on “fair” 80-100 and on “harsh” about 60-70 for 2 farmers with 3 stars or 1 farmer with 5 stars. Since vegetables are heavier and the farmers need to go more often to the stores, these fields should be smaller than grain. But most important; start the harvest manually when the temperature starts to drop in late August/early September.
To happiness; it´s harder to get the initial population happy, especially by the harder starting options. Some Bannis never seem to forget that the conditions have been bad; that they were homeless, without a coat, had a bad diet, were sick without a doctor and maybe other things as well. They can live inside all good and no bad circle, there’s enough alcohol and a priest but they may still be unhappy. This is something we just have to accept. I use to use a “trick”: I use to locate as many houses as possible in villages, inside the circles of all happiness buildings but I also need a few houses outside by remote workplaces. I use to locate these people who are not able to make happy in these houses.
