Good luck with it, your posts are always interesting to read and to learn from

Can Itjtawy support 21000 people with the "rules" of the opening post? Let's assume that there are 150 fancy residences (65.7% of the people), 46 spacious manors (23.7% of the people), and 18 stately manors (10.6% of the people). Can we import enough papyrus and barley? Can we harvest enough reeds and flax and food?

Trade Caravans and Ships

With all roads connected, caravans will spend a long time in Itjtawy--a caravan should repeat about every 4.5 months if it does not trade. I'll assume that caravans that trade will not go any extra distance and will repeat every 5 months. The worst case is when all of a trade city's caravans enter the city just before the end of a year when they've already reached their annual quota, and therefore decide to go through without trading. The caravans will enter the city again a bit less than 4.5 months into the next year, trade, and enter the city again a bit less than 9.5 months into the year. They'll reach their storage yard in time to trade a second time that year if the storage yard is less than halfway through the city, but they risk not trading again until the following year if the storage yard is more than halfway through the city. (If the caravans trade only once during a year then they'll be able to trade at least twice the following year.)

There is only one water trade city, Buhen. I won't use Cleopatra in Itjtawy, so if the dock (which should be fairly efficient) isn't too far from the entry/exit point in the south then there should be around 6 trade ships per year. However, I want my cities to run properly if they are loaded into Cleopatra, where trade ships will exit in the north. Fortunately, trade ships should spend less time in Itjtawy than caravans, with an average of around 2.5 months between ships if they don't trade. Even with 4 months between ships, there should be at least 3 ships per year.

Papyrus, Reeds

I'll assume that a librarian or teacher takes 11.3 walks/year, and therefore (at Very Hard difficulty) a library uses an average of 678 papyrus/year and a school uses an average of 452 papyrus/year. With Culture 65, 1 library is sufficient, but the required number of schools depends on the number of school children. If the demographics of the final city are similar to one of my last 8 cities, anywhere from 6 to 9 schools will be required for Culture 65. I might build 9 housing blocks, each with a school, but I'll probably try to build only 8 housing blocks with the option of adding an extra school (anywhere) if needed. In either case, we should be able to supply an average of 4746 papyrus/year. But there might be more births than in my recent cities and therefore more school kids.

My experience suggests that with sufficient not-too-distant reed cutters, a reed tile is harvested (producing 50 reeds) at least every 18 months on average. (The actual time between reed harvests on a given tile may be considerably less or more.) There appear to be 74 harvestable reed tiles, so the average total domestic papyrus production should be at least 2466/year. We need to import an average of at least 2280 papyrus/year.

Men-nefer sends up to 2 caravans at once and has a selling quota of 2500 papyrus/year. If the papyrus storage yard is closer (by road) to the entry point than to the exit point (and if the brick storage yard, where they may stop to buy bricks, is not out of their way), then we should be able to buy 2500 papyrus every year, which is enough. If the papyrus storage yard is closer (by road) to the exit point, then we risk buying 1600 papyrus every other year, which is not enough. Therefore, the papyrus storage yard will not be too far from the entry point (although that may require building extra papyrus makers).

Up to 50% more school kids than planned wouldn't be a disaster--Culture would still be the required 60--but I would consider it a partial failure. Over 50% more school kids than planned would be a complete failure, with Culture 50. Minimizing births during development would help avoid either failure. Reducing the population (slightly) would help, too.

Beer, Barley

I'll assume that a senet player takes 12 walks/year, and therefore (at Very Hard difficulty) a senet house uses 720 beer/year. 1 senet house is enough for Culture 65. 214 houses will consume 5136 beer/year, for a total beer consumption of 5856/year.

Kharga Oasis sends up to 3 caravans at once and has a selling quota of 2500 barley/year. Even if the barley storage yard is somewhat off of the shortest road through the city, we should be able to buy 2400 barley/year from them.

Buhen, the water trade route, has a selling quota of 4000 barley/year. Even if there are only 3 trade ships each year, we should be able to buy 3600 barley/year from them. Total beer production could be 6000/year, enough.

Linen, Flax

I'll assume that a mortician takes 12.8 walks/year, and therefore (at Very Hard difficulty) a mortuary uses an average of 768 linen/year. 40% of the people must have mortuary coverage for Culture 65. 4 mortuaries should be sufficient, using an average of 3072 linen/year. (If necessary, the housing mix can be changed, perhaps having some common manors and giving more fancy residences mortuary coverage.) 214 houses will consume 5136 linen/year, for a average total linen consumption of 8208/year. We'll produce a little extra linen and sell it to Dakhla Oasis. Let's assume an average production of 9208 linen/year, and therefore also 9208 flax/year.

Food in general, Grain, Straw, Bricks, Meat, Lettuce and Pomegranates

With Bast's temple complex, the residents of 150 fancy residences will eat 32400 food/year, the residents of 46 spacious manors will eat 11040 food/year, and the residents of 18 stately manors will eat 5184 food/year, for a total of 48624 food/year.

All of the houses require 2 foods. To maximize straw production, everyone will eat grain, so grain consumption (and average grain production) will be 24312/year.

A grain farm produces 100 straw at each harvest. Eventually there should be surplus food, so meadow farms may not harvest every chance they get. The average meadow grain harvest could become quite high--I doubt that it will be close to 800, but I can't guarantee that it won't. With perfect floods, the average floodplain grain harvest could easily be close to 800. In this analysis, I'll play it safe and assume only 100 straw per 800 grain, or an average straw production of 3039/year.

We'll need 24000 bricks for the medium pyramid and 4800 bricks for the small pyramid. Men-nefer and Menat Khufu each have a buying quota of 2500 bricks/year. Assume that there are 8 brickworks, which will produce an average of 4517 bricks/year, enough to build the pyramids in a reasonable time while selling a little surplus, and coming close to the quotas when the pyramid is finished. 8 brickworks will consume 1130 straw/year.

The remaining 1909 straw/year will be turned into meat, by 4 or 5 cattle ranches. Assume that it's supplied to a small block of 17 fancy residences, whose residents consume 1836 meat/year. (If the population is lower then the "play it safe" meat production will also be lower.)

Some people who don't eat meat will eat lettuce and some will eat pomegranates. (This will be my first "family history" city with 4 foods. ) Combined lettuce and pomegranate consumption (and average combined lettuce and pomegranate production) will be 22476/year.

Farms

Excluding straw, the average total farm production (flax, grain, lettuce, and pomegranate) will be 55996/year.

I made a possible layout of 74 meadow farms, 41 floodplain farms that touch the river, and 28 floodplain farms that don't touch the river, all irrigated. The meadow farms are of low fertility (the best is 50%), with a total production of 36056/year.

With that layout, floodplain farm production will average 19940/year. The average floodplain farm production will be 289/year, considerably less than the 426/year in my Menat Khufu, even allowing for Menat Khufu's temple complex to Osiris. But almost all of Menat Khufu's farms touched the river. If we assume that the average production from an inland floodplain farm will be half of that from a river-touching farm, then the average river-touching farm production will be 362/year. That seems reasonable to me, especially if there is considerable storage for reserves.

Summary

Barley imports should be sufficient for 21000 people. Farm production should be sufficient for 21000 people, unless there is a very unlikely series of terrible floods. If there aren't too many births then reed production plus papyrus imports should be sufficient for 21000 people.

I had considered building Itjtawy without finding the locations where four 1x1 houses of the same type will merge into a 2x2 house. (Doing that might have led me to design and repeatedly use "standard" housing blocks, for the first time.) However, I'm now leaning toward following my usual practice of designing custom housing blocks around the locations where merging will occur, since that would make it easier to control vacancies and keep the number of births down.

In conclusion, I should be able to build a 21000-person Itjtawy "my way". (If I decide to not design around the locations where merging will occur, then I'll probably have just over 20000 people.)

By the time I finished this city (yesterday lols) I had a little over 16000 people , There is enough food to suport that many and you can have them spread wide over the map so that there is room to build more industry

That is an awesome amount of planning. See I would just load up the city, check the rules (yours), make sure I was in the required level (very hard- I haven't ever played at very hard on cleo yet), and start building. It would probably take me donkeys years to achieve it but if you say 21000 is possible I would get there one day. But I could promise you that my city would not look good.

I guess its a lot of fun working out everything and then seeing it come to pass on the map. I followed your last city with interest and it inspired me to want to try to build that city but I haven't any spare time at present. One day I may try the city you are reporting on so I can see how far away from perfect I am. Myabe one day.

It is very interesting. Thanks for sharing all these cities with us.

Thanks for the comments, Syd and Miranda and Clifford. I enjoy planning a city at least as much as building it, which is why I play like this. (Actually, the planning has barely begun.) I admire those who can jump in with little planning and build a nice city.

After making my last post, I wondered whether a 21000-person Itjtawy would be wimping out. Why not try for 22500 people, thrice the population requirement?

Let's redo the analysis in the previous post, but with 14 more spacious manors, so there will be 22512 people.

Restricting births would be more important than ever. I'd definitely find and exploit those locations where 2x2 houses form. But careful play ought to keep births low enough for Culture 65 with 9 schools.

228 houses will consume 5472 beer/year, so total beer consumption will be 6192/year. With a good placement of the barley storage yard, we should be able to buy 2500 papyrus from Kharga Oasis every year. I'd expect 4 ships to visit the dock every year, but if that occurred only every other year then we should be able to buy an average of 3800 barley/year from Buhen. The total beer production could be 6300/year, enough.

228 houses will consume 5472 linen/year. 4 mortuaries should still be enough to cover 40% of the people, so the average total linen consumption will be 8544/year. Let's cut the extra exported linen in half, and make the average total linen production (and average total flax production) 9044/year.

The residents of 60 spacious manors will eat 14400 food/year, so total food consumption will be 51984/year. Grain consumption (and average grain production) will be 25992/year.

The "play it safe" straw consumption will be 3249/year, so the straw left for 5 cattle ranches will be 2119/year. Assume that the meat is supplied to a small block of 19 fancy residences, whose residents consume 2052 meat/year.

Combined lettuce and pomegranate consumption (and average combined lettuce and pomegranate production) will be 23940/year.

Excluding straw, the average total farm production will be 58976/year. Floodplain farm production will average 22920/year. If we again assume that the average production from an inland floodplain farm will be half of that from a river-touching farm, then the average river-touching farm production will be 417/year. In my opinion, that's cutting it close, but OK if large reserves are stored.

If the city needs a lot more workers, then the analysis will have to be redone, since the per capita consumption of food and goods (other than luxury goods) in fancy residences is somewhat higher than in spacious manors. Barring that, my goal is now a 22500-person Itjtawy.

[This message has been edited by Brugle (edited 09-20-2003 @ 08:21 PM).]

Because you got me interested I wasted the last 4 hours trying Itjtawy at very hard level without going into debt and no festivals etc. Remeber this is the first time I have played at very hard and I still don't know the game that well. How do you make money at very hard? Do you put the palace in the first year so you can get taxes right away because after 4 years game time I still haven't had the money to get a palace as I think its 1800db. If you can get 22250 pop on this map at very hard you deserve all the congratulations that you get. In Jan 1876 I have 1340 pop, 5 in a crude hut and the rest in Spacious Homesteads. CR 15, PR 44 KR 37 and 142 db in the bank. I have not gone into debt but Bast is about to destroy all my houses even though I have 2 temples. I have just started on the small pyramind and have one small housing block. I managed not to go into debt. This is not like I play. At my present rate of expansion and lack of earning money I think it will take me around 795 months game time to reach 22,250 or 66 years. Somehow I feel you will reach there much quicker than I would if I manage to continue which is unlikely.

Do you know when the requests are coming up Brugle, or do you just supply them as they come up?.

Clifford,

This thread simply describes my playing Itjtawy in a way that I enjoy, and is not meant to suggest that other people should play the same way. It's great if you enjoy the challenge of Very Hard difficulty, but if you're not having fun then perhaps you should play another way, at least for a while. (I played quite a bit of Pharaoh at Hard difficulty, using debt at first but eventually learning to avoid it, before switching to Very Hard.)

Money is made at Very Hard difficulty like at other difficulties. If gold is not present in a mission, I would develop the lucrative export industries before starting to tax. (In Menat Khufu, I built the palace and first tax collector early in the third year, but that mission has very few exports.)

At the start of any mission, I'll concentrate on making money. I'd expect to make some money in the first year and a lot of money in the following years. (For the first few years, essentially all of the income is spent, often on making more money.) Unless I'm trying for a fast completion (and maybe even then), pyramid construction can wait for a while (but since placing a pyramid is free, you might as well take advantage of spare laborers to prepare the site). Unless houses need to be evolved beyond cottages to improve city health, entertainment beyond jugglers can also wait. Sometimes I've even waited years to give people food, although food is important for city health unless the population is fairly small.

Itjtawy has several export opportunities, and it isn't clear (to me) which should be started first. Papyrus sells for 165 Db--the industry can be started quickly but the trade route to Dakhla Oasis costs 1250 Db to open. Linen sells for 160 Db--it is also sold to Dakhla Oasis and the first flax harvest takes a while. Bricks sell for 120 Db--the industry can be started fairly quickly (with some meadow grain farms, which harvest in May and Jan) and the trade routes to Men-nefer and Menat Khufu cost only 300 Db and 350 Db to open. Beer (from imported barley) has a profit of 92 Db--the industry is fast to start, but requires a dock and trade routes to both Men-nefer and Buhen, which costs 850 Db to open. Limestone sells for 35 Db--it is the fastest to start and is bought by Menat Khufu. I wouldn't sell food.

If I had to choose industries to start first in Itjtawy, it would probably be papyrus and/or bricks (with linen soon after), but I won't choose until after I design the city's layout (a big job!). To see what I build first, check this thread, although it may be weeks before I get to that point.

Eventually getting 22500 people in a stable Itjtawy at Very Hard difficulty without throwing festivals is indeed a challenge. Getting started at Very Hard difficulty without debt or the "rescue" gift or personal funds is also a challenge, but a completely different one. Getting started in Itjtawy appears to be easier than in some other recent missions (such as Menat Khufu), which is one reason why I made the eventual goal difficult.

If it's been a long time since a festival to the patron god, 2 temples (and no shrines) to the patron god are not enough for 1340 people. For details, see Nero Would's The gods must be crazy! Religion by the numbers.

I try to avoid "future knowledge", such as upcoming requests, except sometimes for a specific thing. For Itjtawy, I checked to see if more papyrus or barley imports would become available, but I tried to not notice other events. If I learn what will occur then I avoid using that knowledge. For example, if two export goods appear to be equally lucrative, and if I happen to know that there will be an early request for one of the goods, then I'll start making the other good first.

Except for requests that are obviously not meant to be satisfied (such as the request for 60 weapons in Dunqul Oasis), I usually have little trouble satisfying requests. I generally start making expensive exports quickly, and most foods fairly soon after that. If I get a request for something that I'm not making, it can usually be made in time. (For example, the request for 12 granite within 12 months in Dunqul Oasis arrived when I wasn't making granite, but it was easily satisified by building 2 granite quarries.) Rarely, the easiest (or only) way to satisfy a request is to import the good. But sometimes I satisfy a request late or even fail to satisfy it (such as the request for luxury goods in Selima Oasis after the trade route to Kerma closes).

By the way, when building two pyramids of different sizes, I recommend starting the larger pyramid first. The smaller pyramid can be built quickly while the top part of the larger pyramid is being built slowly.

[This message has been edited by Brugle (edited 09-21-2003 @ 03:30 AM).]

Hi Brugle, I am back into business, but currently on the custom mission Alexandria. I just downloaded the one from fiel2 to see where he had put his pyramid.
I had a look at the thread corresponding to my upload. Itjtawy is a game I do not remember well (I make some confusion sometimes amongst games); this is what I read: Pop 28700, money 2M, 144 full stately manors, 25 years, score somewhere>350,000.

Hi Tryhard,

I must have read about your Itjtawy at one time, but I didn't remember doing it. However, I did download and briefly look at your Itjtawy (making me start up Cleopatra to look at your world map), as implied in my original post. You have an impressive bunch of stately manors, but I'm going to build Itjtawy without Bast's (or any other god's) help.

A small part of Itjtawy's design is done.

Farms

The farm layout may be finished. While one of the river-touching farms now touches the river only at a corner, the new layout has 41 river-touching floodplain farms, 33 inland floodplain farms, and 82 meadow farms, all irrigated. There are 53 meadow farms with fertility of 42% or 43%, 28 with fertility of 44% to 48%, and 1 with fertility 50%, for a total meadow farm production of 39784/year. Using the same assumptions as in my last reply, the average river-touching farm production would be only 334/year. More people could be fed, and I'll probably increase the population slightly, but not much.

I prefer moderate-sized housing blocks (around a 44-tile intersection-free loop road), packed with houses. While Itjtawy has a lot of empty space, rocks or the map edge are close enough to a few of the meadow farms to prevent such housing blocks from being built nearby (to provide access to labor). One solution is build those blocks around the obstructions, with fewer houses. Another is to not build a few of the meadow farms. I'd like to build all of the farms, but I can't reduce the number of houses too much and still hold 22500 people in 9 blocks. (I could have 10 housing blocks, each with either a school or a library, with 2 of the blocks overlapping (as in my Kebet) to provide everything needed for stately manors, but I'd rather have more than 6 or 7 houses that are better than spacious manors.) I'll have to design at least some of the housing blocks before deciding whether all of the planned farms can have reliable labor access.

Waterfront Buildings

It would be nice to have two ferry crossings across the river, since there may be a lot of traffic between the banks. However, each ferry crossing eliminates a possible warship wharf. A glorious capital city should have good defenses, so there will be only 1 ferry crossing (north of center).

There will be a water lift on the west bank beside its ferry terminal, and one on the east bank as far south as possible.

The barley storage yard should be on the west bank, so that caravans from Kharga Oasis don't have to go far out of their way. Ships from Buhen will also sell barley, so the dock should be on the west bank, and preferably not too far from the ship entry point. Therefore, the dock will be on the west bank across from the larger southern "island".

The locations of the other large waterfront buildings don't matter much. Let's put the shipwright on the west bank across from the smaller southern "island".

There will be 4 warship wharves, 2 on the east bank in the south near the water lift, and 1 on each bank near the ferry terminals.

There will be 2 tranport wharves on the west bank between the dock and the floodplain, and probably a 3rd on the smaller southern "island" (with a bridge to the west bank).

First thoughts on Industry Locations

Reed gatherers will be on the east bank, near the reeds. 2 reed gatherers should be enough to quickly harvest all of the reeds if the papyrus makers are close enough, but more may be necessary to keep up with deliveries. The number will be determined later (when more precise locations are determined).

The papyrus makers shouldn't be too far from the reed gatherers. Since the papyrus makers may deliver directly to the library and schools on either bank, the papyrus makers will be on the east bank, between the reed gatherers and the ferry crossing. The number of papyrus makers will depend on the distances to the library and schools and papyrus storage yard.

The papyrus storage yard will be on the west bank, a good ways south of the ferry terminal, to make it closer to the entry point than the exit point for caravans from Men-nefer. (The long distance will mean extra papyrus makers are needed, but that isn't very important (in such a large city) since the east bank should have plenty of room.)

Since Men-nefer also buys bricks, the brick storage yard will be close to the papyrus storage yard. It would be nice to put the brickworks on the west bank, not too far from the brick storage yard. Similarly, it would be nice if the clay pits were close to the brickworks and the potters were close to the clay pits. Tentatively, a clay/pottery/brick complex will be on the west bank just south of the floodplain near the transport wharves.

Some grain farms will be on the floodplain. In case straw production is minimal, there will be a straw storage yard, to prevent straw cart pushers from drowning. The straw storage yard will be with the cattle ranches, which will use the most straw. Since the straw storage yard may also deliver to the brickworks, they will be close together. I don't know if the cattle ranches can be incorporated into the clay/pottery/brick complex, but in any case they will be close together.

Grain farm cart pushers may deliver straw directly to brickworks and cattle ranches. As long as all grain farms are on the west bank, they should deliver to brickworks in plenty of time, but cattle ranches use straw more rapidly. To keep cattle ranches supplied as well as possible, grain farms shouldn't be far away. Tentatively, grain farms all be in the south and center of the west bank. If some grain farms are too far from cattle ranches (which will be determined later), then more cattles ranches will be built.

Grain, lettuce, and pomegranates will each have approximately the same fraction of each type of farm. To minimize river-crossing traffic, all storage yards for surpluses of a given food will be on one bank. Grain storage yards will obviously be on the west bank, and east bank grain granaries will have to get from them. I think that it would be best to store lettuce on one bank and pomegranates on the other. I'll try to have both lettuce and pomegranates grown and eaten on the same bank as they are stored, but I won't know how close I can come to that until later.

It would be nice to put breweries not far from the barley storage yard (near the dock). Tentatively, they will be in the southern part of the west bank.

It would be nice to put weavers not far from the mortuaries, which will probably all be in manor blocks. While I could easily change my mind, I'm thinking that it would be nice to have most or all of the manors on the west bank, for two reasons: the senet house (in the stately manor block) wouldn't be as far from the breweries, and the best houses would be closer to the center of the action on the crowded west bank. (A possible reason for putting manors on the east bank is that there would be more room for the larger manor blocks.) A minor reason to have the weavers on the west bank is that it would make it easier to manage linen exports to Dakhla Oasis.

Since I'd rather store surplus food than surplus flax, most or all of the flax farms will be meadow farms. The west bank, with more of the farms, has an even higher fraction of the meadow farms. Therefore, it makes sense to put the flax farms on the west bank. (This is another reason to put the weavers on the west bank.)

Pyramids will be constructed faster if they aren't too far from the brick and limestone storage yards, which is a reason to put the limestone quarries on the west bank. Another, probably less important reason to put the quarries on the west bank is to make it easier to export limestone to Menat Khufu.

Itjtawy will have 6 forts, 2 or 3 of them infantry. One weaponsmith should be enough, which (with the recruiter and academy) could be almost anywhere.

Wow--the west bank is big, but is it big enough for all industries except for reeds, papyrus, weapons, and some food, and also for the monuments? We'll see.

[Corrected typo in average river-touching farm production (changed 282/year to 334/year).]

[This message has been edited by Brugle (edited 09-25-2003 @ 01:53 PM).]

The estimated average river-touching farm production in my last reply was wrong, so I corrected it.

Here are a few calculations and estimates. Eventually, I'll get back to the detailed design.

Entertainment, Population, Workers

The fewest entertainment venues would be with a population of exactly 22500. But that is too restrictive, so there will be slightly more people. The entertainment requirement is 1 senet house, 12 dance stages, 26 music stages, and 46 juggle stages. That's enough for Culture 65 with up to 22750 people. (There will be more than 12 dance stages, since most housing blocks will use 2 pavilions.)

I estimated how many of each building would be built. I tried to lean toward high estimates, since too many workers are easier to handle than too few. I decided on 1 work camp for every 3 floodplain farms. The estimated buildings need 5190 workers. 5463 people in the work force would give a comfortable 5% unemployment.

What fraction of people in non-scribal housing want to work? Waset (my last city that didn't start with an existing settlement) ended with 43.83% workers after less than 10 years, but Itjtawy might take over twice as long and should have a lower working fraction. Baki (which I built out of order) should be a better model, ending with 39.23% workers after almost 20 years. The plan is to have 152 fancy residences, which would make a workforce of 5485 with Baki's demographics. There would be no unemployment with 37.11% workers, or 10% unemployment with 41.23% workers.

Housing blocks

Each of the 9 housing blocks will be built around a loop road that includes a booth at a roadblocked intersection. Each will have music and dance coverage provided by entertainers who walk from their "schools" through the block to their venues. Each may have 2 bazaars, which I'll assume for now. Except for the block with meat-eaters, each will have a 44-tile loop.

A block with a senet house could have 19 stately manors. (Or 18 stately manors and 2 fancy residences, or 17 stately manors and 4 fancy residences, but I prefer more of the best houses.) I had intended to build a block like that, but then reconsidered.

If I remember correctly, I haven't built any permanent elegant manors since Serabit Khadim, even though I like how they look. The explanation is: when elegant manors are possible, stately manors are usually possible, and I'm always tempted to build the best possible houses. But I see a way to have elegant manors with some compensation (an extra manor).

The senet house will be just outside the best block, on a road that runs partway around. The houses that the senet player passes will be stately manors, and the others will be elegant manors. How many of each manor? That will be decided later (maybe even during construction), but there must be at least 6 stately manors. I'll tentatively plan on the best block having 10 stately manors and 10 elegant manors. The palace and mansion should be just across the senet player's road.

At Very Hard or Hard difficulty, without senet or zoo coverage, elegant manors require significant city-wide entertainment in addition to juggler, musician, and dancer coverage. Will there be enough entertainment for elegant manors if my Itjtawy is loaded into Cleopatra? With at least 13 pavilions, there will.

A block could have 22 spacious manors, or 21 spacious manors and 2 fancy residences, or 20 spacious manors and 4 fancy residences, or 19 spacious manors and 6 fancy residences (or fewer manors, with 3 residences replacing 2 manors). For various reasons, some spacious manor blocks may have slightly fewer houses. Assume that the 3 spacious manor blocks have a total of 56 spacious manors and 13 fancy residences. (That's at least 5 houses more than are required for 40% mortuary coverage.)

The small block will have 19 total houses, common manors and fancy residences. A single manor would put the population over 22500. We'll plan on 3 common manors and 16 fancy residences. As described, the city holds 22732 people. During construction, I might decide to evolve 1 or 2 more residences to manors, or to have 1 or 2 planned manors remain residences. (I'd like Itjtawy to have at least 1 of each manor.)

A block could have 33 fancy residences. Based on the assumptions so far, the 4 non-scribal blocks will have a total of 123 fancy residences. That's few enough to allow for obstructions, desirability shortages, and perhaps a couple of extra bazaars.

[This message has been edited by Brugle (edited 09-25-2003 @ 01:58 PM).]

First thoughts on Housing Locations

7 housing blocks, 4 on the west bank and 3 on the east bank, are needed to give labor access to the farms, work camps, waterfront buildings, and reed gatherers that are near the center of the marsh. (I want to maximize reed production, even though putting the reed gatherers closer to the papyrus makers would probably reduce production only slightly.) Where should the other 2 housing blocks be built?

Even if the east bank has 5 housing blocks, the farms there will produce more than enough lettuce or pomegranates for them (in addition to grain from the west bank), so some east bank food production will be sent to the west bank. To reduce ferry traffic, pomegranates (harvested twice/year on meadow farms) will be grown and eaten only on the east bank, while lettuce (harvested once/year) will be grown on both banks and eaten on the west bank.

How would ferry traffic change if an "extra" housing block was moved from the west bank to the east bank? Cross-river papyrus deliveries would decrease from east bank papyrus makers but would increase from west bank papyrus delivery storage yards--the numbers are hard to estimate, and I'd guess that they would be similar, so I'll ignore the net effect. Lettuce from east bank farms would decrease but grain to east bank granaries would increase--the second number is hard to estimate, but the worst case would have much of that grain from small meadow farm harvests, for a net increase. More non-food goods consumed by houses would cross the river, of course. In conclusion, putting an "extra" housing block on the east bank would probably lead to a moderate increase in ferry traffic.

It would be easier to put the 2 "extra" housing blocks on the east bank, since it has more usable space while the west bank will have the monuments and most of the industry. However, to minimize ferry traffic, I'll try to put 6 housing blocks on the west bank and 3 on the east bank, but that may not be possible.

I decided to put all houses in locations where four 1x1 houses of the same type will merge. Rather than experiment to find those locations (as I did in several recent missions), I checked Nero Would's "spoiler" Excel map but did not look at any other "spoiler" information.

2 Housing Blocks

To make it easy on myself, I started with the isolated southeast housing block. I was happy to squeeze 29 fancy residences beside the rocks, which should give reliable labor access to the planned meadow farms, work camps, warship wharves, and water lift. However, I then realized that the city's plan may end up with a few extra fancy residences, and the surplus houses (if any) will be removed from the southeast block, since its grain and non-food goods have to be transported the farthest from the west bank.

I then designed the northwest block, which is not isolated but is constrained by rocks and the map edge. I was happy (again) with 17 spacious manors and 6 fancy residences, which should give reliable labor access to the planned meadow farms and work camps. All of the planned farms will be supported!

Actually, I didn't quite finish designing either block, in a few places where the necessary desirability boosters (such as large statues) will easily fit and nothing else will be built nearby. The city will need over 270 shrines, so I may want to put as many shrines as possible in housing blocks, but that decision can wait.

Grain Storage

Next, I turned to the west bank area near the ferry terminal, water lift, warship wharf, and several farms and work camps. I wanted to store a lot of grain there (perhaps along with a few other things), as close as possible to the east bank grain granaries. 9 storage yards fit nicely, beside a small space for a not-yet-designed housing block which should give reliable labor access to everything nearby.

I tentatively designed a few more parts of Itjtawy, but revised some of them several times (and will probably do so again). I'll report on that later.

[Corrected the number of storage yards near the ferry terminal (was 10).]

[This message has been edited by Brugle (edited 10-09-2003 @ 12:48 PM).]

Some Minor Changes

Both papyrus and barley will be accepted in multiple storage yards, to ensure adequate supplies while also having room for imports, regardless of when caravans and ships arrive.

The final city will not export linen, making it easier to reliably supply linen to houses. The income loss will be tiny compared to taxes. To occupy caravans from Dakhla Oasis, a little surplus meat may be exported. (Naturally, lots of linen will be sold during development.)

The small housing block (of meat-eaters) will probably be built around a 44-tile intersection-free loop road, like the other blocks.

Despite my intention to overestimate, I think that my estimate of the number of workers will be a bit low. I'll probably plan on having a couple more fancy residences and fewer manors, but that will be decided when the design is farther along.

City Center Location, Monuments, Question for Readers

I like to create a "city center" that includes the best houses, palace, mansion, and often other special buildings. The obvious place to put it is in the large area between the northwest rocks and the central rocks on the west bank. (The centrally located housing space near the west ferry terminal and grain storage is too small.) The weavers will also be in that large area, not too far from the flax farms.

Itjtawy will build a sphinx, a medium brick pyramid, and a small brick pyramid. I won't try to construct them very rapidly, but they ought to be finished before the rest of the city. Along with the 8 brickworks, I plan on 7 limestone quarries, 4 stonemason guilds, 2 bricklayer guilds, and 1 carpenter guild. (Fewer guilds might be sufficient, but I'm concerned that some monument laborers may come from quite distant work camps.)

Where should the monuments be built? In many missions I've put the monuments (or at least the most impressive ones) not far from the city center. I first planned to do that in Itjtawy, with the monuments against the west sand dunes. I like that location, and may yet use it.

However, the space near the city center might be better used for other things. I am now leaning toward putting the monuments beside the Kingdom Road near the entry point. People approaching the city would pass by the small pyramid, then the medium pyramid, and finally the sphinx before anything else except perhaps a few shrines. It sounds nice to me, but what do other players think?

False Starts

Originally, I assumed that the large area around the city center would include the monuments and a spacious manor block in addition to the weavers. I designed the best block under this assumption, and was delighted to find locations for the planned 20 elegant and stately manors, giving reliable labor access to the nearby farms and work camps. However, there did not seem to be quite enough space for everything else needed, including granaries, storage yards, and entertainer "schools". Perhaps a slightly shrunk spacious manor block would fit, but I postponed working on it.

Next, I looked at the housing block near the west ferry terminal and grain storage. The small block seemed appropriate, and I designed a block that had the planned 19 houses (including a few manors) plus the temple complex, which was not far (across the rocks) from the city center.

At this point, I realized that the monuments could be built near the entry point, freeing up some space near the city center. Placing the monuments beside the Kingdom Road, I considered the southwest area, and tried to squeeze in the breweries, clay pits, potters, brickworks, cattle ranches, construction guilds, and 2 housing blocks (1 spacious manors and 1 fancy residences) with everything that they require. Once again, there didn't seem to be quite enough space.

I was almost resigned to putting a 4th housing block on the east bank. But wait!

Maybe the 3rd Housing Block

Is the space near the west ferry terminal and grain storage really too small for anything other than the small block? No! I designed a "regular" block there, with 31 fancy residences, 1 of which could be evolved to a common manor if desired. (The temple complex would be built somewhere else, preferably in the city center.) This should be a keeper.

I'll try designing the southwest area with the small block instead of a "regular" fancy residence block (along with the planned spacious manor block). There will be a little more space, and the small block should adapt more easily to its surroundings. I hope that I'm on the right track this time.

After 22 years here I feel I can put my thoughts about your question. I think the monuments would look great by the Kingdom road on the way in. I have built all mine in the middle by the rocks and it isn't where I would put them if I started again. But then there was no planning in my attempt. I just started. By putting them in the middle, which is about where I think you were talking about first, it has impacted on my housing space. So yes my two cents worth is that I think they would look good where you suggest.

Thanks, Clifford. Anyone else have an opinion on monument location?

Breweries and the nearby waterfront

At least 12 breweries are needed, depending on the distance to the senet house. My first thought was to put the breweries somewhere in the southwest, in between the dock and the senet house, and to distribute barley using storage yards set to get barley (with a little help from the barley storage yards near the dock). But that seemed to use too much space.

Putting the breweries around the dock appears to be a cleaner solution. However, the nearby sphinx makes it difficult to provide reliable labor access to the transport wharf on the small southwest island island, so the small housing block must be fairly close to the shore. With the breweries and barley storage yards in the cramped remaining space, barley delivery distances may be too long for 2 barley storage yards to handle, so 3 barley storage yards will be built. The senet house will be far enough away to require 13 total breweries.

After several tries, I came up with a reasonable design. A short loop road (with only 1 firehouse) will have the dock, 11 of the breweries, and 3 barley storage yards. Another brewery will receive fire protection from the clay pit/potter loop road, and another will be on the road with the shipwright and the transport wharf.

(It would, of course, have been easier to simply eliminate the 3rd transport wharf. But I'd become attached to that lonely wharf. Besides, 2 transports seem a little skimpty for a large and glorious capital city.)

The 4 stonemason guilds are close to the monuments, 2 near the shipwright and 2 near the transport wharf on the island.

And now I cheated a little (more). I thought that it would be nice to put a booth on the Kingdom Road (where the road to the small southwest island connects), near the medium pyramid and the sphinx, so people entering the city could look at monuments and jugglers. But the booth might not have reliable labor access, since its labor-seeker might head the wrong way. So I experimented--completing (as best as I could) the roads in that area, putting a booth in that spot, and seeing that the labor seeker headed toward the houses.

Since I cheated with a booth, I did the same with the carpenter guild (whose labor-seeker also went in the desired direction), putting it nearby (and close to the monuments).

Clay Pits, Potters, Brickworks

10 potters would be barely enough for 231 houses, with only about 103 pottery/year left over. I intend to overproduce everything, and that's too little excess, so 11 potters will be built. 14 clay pits will keep them and the 8 brickworks supplied, with about 22 clay/year left over. When pottery storage is full then more excess clay will accumulate.

Earlier, I had tried various arrangements of clay pits on a loop road with the 2 close-together transport wharves. But the requirement of providing fire protection to a brewery constrained the design to extend along the coast toward the dock. The narrow loop road has the 2 transport wharves, all 14 clay pits, all 11 potters, 3 of the brickworks, and a clay storage yard. Labor access is from the small block.

The other 5 brickworks are on a parallel but even narrower loop road with at least 9 storage yards. Labor access is also from the small block. The loop is narrow to leave room for a spacious manor block, and there will be statues along one side of the loop to give desirability to that block. Since I haven't designed that spacious manor block yet, I don't know if any more storage yards or granaries can be put among the statues.

The cattle ranches could be close to the brickworks in some nearby space, but it might be better to put something else there. Another decision postponed.

Small (hopefully 4th) Housing Block

Some bits of the small block had already been designed, to make sure that various buildings would have reliable labor access. It was essentially finished. A few parts can be adjusted to fit the surroundings. It will have 19 houses, mostly fancy residences, and could be compact with up to 3 manors or slightly larger with up to 5 manors.

Some houses are close to several undesirable breweries and/or potters. Therefore, houses are not packed as tightly as in a "regular" block, with desirable shrines filling the spaces.

A conservatory and dance school are located outside the block, on a loop road that extends through a gap in the rocks behind the sphinx. Musicians and dancers will walk by all houses going toward and then through the block to venues elsewhere. The small housing block is the only one without a pavilion--most (maybe all) other housing blocks will have 2.

The meat granary (used only by a bazaar in the small block) is on the loop road through the rocks.

The 2 bricklayer guilds are inside the block.

Limestone Quarries, Weaponsmith, Recruiter, Academy

All 7 limestone quarries and a storage yard fit along the loop road through rocks mentioned above, not too far from the pyramids.

The weaponsmith, recruiter, and academy are also planned to be on that road. But I'll put them elsewhere if I find a better spot.

[This message has been edited by Brugle (edited 10-07-2003 @ 11:10 PM).]

Yes, I agree too - sounds like it would make the overall 'look & feel' of the city more 'balanced' - the real monuments also were not in the 'city center', I think ...

I looked at my old Itjtawy and I also put the pyramids in the middle by the rocks but the Sphinx was on the small land to the south east for some reason. Looked kind of stupid now .

I agree placement by the kingdom road will look nice and I cannot wait to find your city in the download section

Thanks, C Franziskus and Nimlot Persson. With unanimity of reader opinion, I'd better leave the monuments by the Kingdom Road!

I had miscounted the number of storage yards near the west ferry terminal, so I corrected reply # 12.

Police?

At first I planned to not use police, but eventually decided that a glorious city should have universal police coverage (just as everyone will have herbalist coverage, even those far from marsh who don't need it). Therefore, I put police stations in the designs of the 4 "finalized" housing blocks, which should lower the cost of starting taxation. (Of course, I could change my mind at any time and build gardens instead.)

With the added police stations, about 1.5 more fancy residences (and fewer manors) will be needed. I'd like at least a third of the people to be scribes, which should be the case unless I badly underestimated the number of workers.

I took a long break from city-building, for several reasons (including Stronghold, spurred on by my daughter's interest). I now feel an urge to go back to designing Itjtawy, even though I am busier than any time in the past year (and am likely to be even busier during the summer). My next report will be posted soon, but additional reports may be a long time coming.

About a year ago, I made several additional preliminary housing block designs, but was dissatisfied with them all. The southwest spacious manor block design was complicated by not knowing how many cattle ranches would be built and whether lettuce would be stored nearby. The city center design had similar complications. Those designs, while not final, are close enough to be used for estimates such as the distances from weavers to mortuaries.

Soon after restarting work on Itjtawy, I realized that I had miscounted the number of houses back in reply #11. I decided to redo the housing and consumption calculations. Then, instead of resuming housing block design, I tackled most of the remaining industries.

Housing Again

My estimate for the number of workers has gradually increased, so I decided to reduce the fraction of scribes to just over one-third. Assuming that there are 5 common manors in the small block and 1 in the block near the west bank ferry terminal, the new expected housing mix is:
10 stately manors,
10 elegant manors,
42 spacious manors,
6 common manors, and
163 fancy residences,
for a total of 231 houses (including 68 manors) with 22532 people.

Pottery consumption is 5544/year. The 11 planned potters will be sufficient, with 668/year overproduction for requests.

Beer consumption (with 1 senet house) is around 6264/year. The 13 planned breweries will be sufficient, assuming that the senet house isn't too far away. Barley imports of 6264/year should be possible, but are very close to the maximum of 6500/year.

Linen consumption (with 4 mortuaries) is around 8616/year.

Luxury goods consumption is reduced to 1632/year.

Papyrus consumption (9 schools plus 1 library) is unchanged, around 4746/year.

Grain consumption is 26124/year.

Meat consumption (5 common manors plus 14 fancy residences) is 2112/year.

Combined lettuce and pomegranate consumption (houses not getting meat) is 24012/year. The amount of each depends on how many fancy residences are on each bank.

Straw consumption (cattle ranches producing the meat plus 8 brickworks) is 3242/year.

Changing a few planned spacious manors into fancy residences will make designing some of the remaining housing blocks easier, since those houses will need less space and desirability.

Farm Types

I tentatively chose the type of each farm. A few farms may change types later, when I finish designing the housing blocks (and determine the exact consumption of each food), make careful estimates of floodplain farm productivity, and decide the storage space for each food.

Grain farms will be a majority on the west bank, those that are closest (by road) to the southwest, to minimize the distance to cattle ranches (which won't be very far from the brickworks). Grain farms will include 16 meadow farms of 44%-48% fertility, and assuming that they are harvested twice/year, each of them will produce 8/year less than it would if harvested once/year. Therefore, total meadow farm production will be only 39656/year.

Flax farms will be on the northwest meadow, just north of grain farms, to minimize the distance to weavers. There will be 14 of 42%-43% fertility and 5 of 44%-47% fertility. Total flax production will be 9064/year, 448/year overproduction for flax or linen requests.

Lettuce farms will be scattered--a few on northwest meadow, more on northwest floodplain, all of the farms on northeast floodplain and meadow, and some on southeast floodplain. (There will be no southeast meadow lettuce farms, since they would be a long distance (by road) from the lettuce storage on the west bank, and their cart pushers (unlike floodplain farm cart pushers) must return to their farms before the next harvest.) Since most lettuce farms will be on the floodplain, considerable lettuce storage will be required (in case there is a series of terrible floods), making the west bank even more crowded.

Pomegranate farms will be all of the southeast meadow farms and some of the southeast floodplain farms.

Weavers

At full efficiency, a weaver produces 100 linen every 34 production increments. A production increment is 2 days (1/192 year), so the linen production of a weaver at full efficiency is 100*192/34 = 564.7/year, and the production of 16 weavers would exceed the required 8616/year by about 419/year. But weavers will not be running at full efficiency, for several reasons, so more weavers will be needed.

Some weavers may receive an odd lot (not a multiple of 100) of flax. When a weaver contains over 100 flax, more flax is not delivered to it. When a weaver with less than 200 linen finishes producing a batch of 100 linen, it will not start producing again until more flax is delivered to it. I haven't seen more than about 1/4 of a large group of breweries or weavers with an odd lot, but the conditions in Itjtawy might be different enough to change that behavior, so I'll assume the worst case: every weaver will have an odd lot of flax.

The production with an odd lot depends on the time spent to resupply the weaver with flax. There will be 4 flax storage yards, with a maximum delivery distance of 18 tiles and an average of around 9 tiles. If a cart pusher always started delivering flax (going 1.7 road tiles/day) as soon as a weaver needed it, this would mean a maximum delivery time of around 11 days and an average of around 5 days. However, sometimes a cart pusher will not be immediately available. This shouldn't happen too often, but I'll assume that it will, with a typical time from when linen is produced to when flax is delivered to be 11 days. Therefore, because of odd lots, weavers will typically stand idle for 5 production increments each cycle, and the linen production of a weaver should average 100*192/(34+5) = 492.3/year.

Some weavers may be supplied flax directly from farms instead of from storage yards, which could delay starting the next batch of linen. The only significant effect will be at the harvest, since at other times cart pushers with flax will already be near weavers. The average distance from a flax farm to a weaver is about 36 road tiles. Therefore, a weaver supplied by a just-harvested flax farm would typically stand idle for about 10 production increments instead of 5. However, such a weaver would not have an "odd lot" for at least the following production cycle (and probably for several more). Therefore, under these assumptions, delivery of flax directly from farms will not reduce average production.

A weaver may deliver linen directly to a mortuary. Assuming the worst case, weavers will try to deliver all of the linen that mortuaries need, an average of 7.68 deliveries/year to each mortuary. Let's first consider the effect on linen production if only weavers deliver to mortuaries, and then consider the complications of storage yard deliveries.

Linen production will not be affected by deliveries to the 2 closest mortuaries (in the northwest block and the best block). For deliveries to the other 2 mortuaries, I'll assume the worst case of delivery from the most distant weavers. The average road distance from the 4 most distant weavers to a mortuary in the southwest spacious manor block is about 101 tiles (requiring about 119 days for a round trip) and to a mortuary in the other spacious manor block (next to the best block) is about 76 tiles (requiring about 89 days for a round trip). A weaver that delivers to the most distant mortuary will not be able to deliver again for 60 production increments, standing idle for 21 production increments in addition to the usual 5. A weaver that delivers to the second most distant mortuary will not be able to deliver again for 45 production increments, standing idle for 6 production increments in addition to the usual 5. If only weavers deliver to mortuaries, the lost linen production is 7.68*(21+6)*100/34 = 609.9/year.

Now let's consider the negative effects of storage yard deliveries to mortuaries. This occurs when the storage yard cart pusher delivers his linen to a mortuary first, so the weaver cart pusher cannot deliver all 100 linen, requiring the weaver cart pusher to deliver the remainder somewhere else. As usual, I'll assume the worst case: weaver cart pushers will never be able to deliver 100 linen to a mortuary. Storage yards that accept linen will be placed so that a weaver cart pusher can deliver his remaining linen on the way back to his weaver without going any extra distance. However, sometimes a weaver will try to deliver his remaining linen to another mortuary. I think that the probability of a weaver cart pusher at a given mortuary delivering to another mortuary would be the fraction of linen consumed by mortuaries excluding the given mortuary, or (4-1)*768/(8616-768) = 29.36%.

Weaver delivery to a second mortuary affects all 4 mortuaries. We'll assume that all extra travel by weaver cart pushers going to another mortuary causes lost production. For each mortuary, I estimated the extra distance required to return to the weaving area caused by detouring to each other mortuary. Over the 12 cases, an average of 24.25 production increments are lost, for a total lost linen production due to weaver deliveries to a second mortuary of .2936*4*7.68*24.25*100/34 = 643.3/year.

In addition, a weaver cart pusher might deliver to a third mortuary, with additional lost production of .2936*643.3/year. And he might deliver to a fourth mortuary, with additional lost production of .2936*.2936*643.3/year. He will (of course) run out of linen at some point, but (for simplicity) we'll assume that this can go on indefinitely. Summing the infinite series, the total lost production caused by weaver deliveries to multiple mortuaries is 643.3/(1-.2936) = 910.7/year.

But there is also a positive effect of storage yard deliveries to mortuaries, since the total amount of linen delivered to a mortuary will, on average, be greater than the 100 linen that the mortuary cart pusher would deliver by himself. I expect that the 2 cart pushers will deliver an average of a least 120 linen. This means that mortuaries will need to be supplied no more than 5/6 as often, and the lost linen production from deliveries to mortuaries can be reduced by 1/6. The total lost linen production due to weaver deliveries to mortuaries is (609.9+910.7)*5/6 = 1267.2/year.

Stop for a reality check. Is the positive effect of storage yard deliveries to mortuaries greater than the negative effect, which would invalidate at least one of my assumptions? No, not even close, so the assumptions are still valid.

Considering everything (that I can think of), the number of weavers required to produce 8616 linen/year is (8616+1267.2)/492.3 = 20.08. 21 weavers will be built, with overproduction of 455/year for requests. (Just in case I missed something, I'll leave space for 1 more weaver.)

Papyrus Delivery Storage Yards

Imported papyrus will be purchased from caravans at 2 storage yards (set to "Accept all" papyrus) in the southwest. Papyrus makers may deliver to those storage yards, but will deliver directly to a school or library that is running low. Cart pushers from those storage yards and from other storage yards (set to "Get 1/4" papyrus, perhaps also filled with an unused good) will deliver to the schools and library. Should the papyrus storage yards have enough capacity to deliver all of the papyrus that the schools and library use? If we ignore requests then the answer is no--being able to deliver the maximum imported papyrus (2500/year) would be sufficient. But I want Itjtawy to be able to satisfy requests that aren't too large.

Excess papyrus will accumulate, so papyrus requests will simply be dispatched. I'll also try to accumulate excess reeds, but that may not happen--there may be enough papyrus makers to use all gathered reeds, and filling the papyrus storage yards may reduce papyrus imports instead of reducing papyrus production. Therefore, a reeds request may require stockpiling reeds (which will shut down papyrus production) temporarily. When reeds are stockpiled, storage yard cart pushers should keep the schools and library supplied (at least enough to prevent housing devolution), as long as papyrus supplies last. (Since reeds will rarely if ever be stockpiled, I won't be as careful with papyrus delivery calculations as I tried to be with linen delivery calculations.)

For these calculations, I chose tentative locations for the schools in the northeast and east housing blocks (which I haven't started designing). Fortunately, each of those blocks has to give labor access to quite a few buildings, so their locations can't vary very much.

I'll assume that the average delay at a ferry crossing is equal to the crossing time, which is reasonable if the ferry traffic isn't too heavy. (If there is too much cross-river traffic for the ferry to handle then the city will fall apart, so I won't worry about that now.) Ferries and cart pushers appear to travel at the same speed. Since a ferry crosses the river in 17 tiles, a cart pusher river crossing will be considered to be equivalent to 34 road tiles.

I'll assume that the papyrus storage yards will be among the 9 planned storage yards on a narrow loop road (along with 5 brickworks) getting labor access from the small block. (Anywhere else that the papyrus storage yards may be located should be closer, on average, to the schools and library.) Of those storage yards, the 2 that are farthest north will "Accept all" papyrus. Weighting the library by 1.5 (since it consumes 1.5 times as much papyrus as a school), the average papyrus delivery distance from those 2 storage yards is 96 tiles, for a average round-trip delivery time of 113 days. A cart pusher may wait up to 2 days before starting delivery, so we'll assume that 100 papyrus is delivered every 115 days, for an average papyrus delivery rate (by an "Accept all" storage yard) of 100*384/115 = 334/year.

If a papyrus distribution storage yard is filled with an unused good (such as plain stone), then both cart pushers will be active. Each cart pusher will usually go to an "Accept all" storage yard and pick up 400 papyrus, return to his storage yard, deliver to a school or library, deliver to another school or library, perhaps deliver one or more additional times, and (when empty) return to his storage yard. If total papyrus deliveries are barely enough, then schools are likely to have no more than 100 papyrus when it is delivered, and the cart pusher will usually deliver papyrus to only 2 buildings. The average distance from one school or library to another is considerably less than the average round-trip distance from the storage yard to a school or library, so the cart pusher will usually take less than twice as long to deliver 400 papyrus as an "accepting" storage yard cart pusher takes to deliver 100 papyrus. The cart pusher will sometimes deliver to 3 buildings, and will sometimes pick up less than 400 papyrus, but those shouldn't happen too often, so I'll assume that their effects can be compensated by increasing the average delivery time to twice that of an "Accept all" storage yard. Each of the 2 cart pushers delivers 4 times as much papyrus in twice as much time as an "Accept all" cart pusher, for an avererge papyrus delivery rate (by a "Get 1/4" storage yard filled with an unused good) of 2*4*334/2 = 1336/year.

Not filling a papyrus distribution storage yard with an unused good has the advantage that 3/4 of the storage yard can store useful non-deliverable goods (such as pottery, bricks, or meat). But only 1 cart pusher will be active, who will usually deliver 100 papyrus to a school or library, return (empty) to his storage yard, go to an "accepting" storage yard and pick up 400 papyrus, return to his storage yard and drop off 100 papyrus, deliver to a school or library, deliver to another school or library, perhaps deliver one or more additional times, and (when empty) return to his storage yard. Using the same reasoning as in the previous paragraph, the cart pusher delivers 4 times as much papyrus in 3 times as much time as an "Accept all" cart pusher, for an average papyrus delivery rate (by a "Get 1/4" storage yard not filled with an unused good) of 4*334/3 = 445/year.

As the stored papyrus runs low, only 1 "Accept all" storage yard may hold papyrus. Therefore, the "Get 1/4" storage yards should deliver 4746-334 = 4412/year. As a minimum, I'll probably have either 4 "Get 1/4" storage yards including 3 filled with an inert good, or 6 "Get 1/4" storage yards including 2 filled with an inert good. I may decide to have a bit more than the minimum papyrus delivery capacity.

Papyrus Makers

Roughly half of the papyrus used (at least 2246/year, preferably around 2466/year) will be locally produced. Some or all of that will be delivered directly to the schools and library by papyrus maker cart pushers. To minimize the distance to most of the schools and the library, the papyrus makers will be near the east bank ferry terminal. Using assumptions similar to those in the previous section, the average delivery distance from a papyrus maker to the schools and library is 88 tiles.

A papyrus maker cart pusher may not be able to deliver all of its papyrus to the school or library, if a storage yard cart pusher delivers papyrus there first. I don't want to make "worst case" assumptions similar to those made for weavers, since that will result in far too many papyrus makers. I think it highly likely, and will assume, that an average papyrus maker cart pusher will deliver its 100 papyrus by going to 3 buildings (schools, library, or "Accept all" papyrus storage yards). Since the average distance between those buildings (whether or not the storage yards are included) is less than the average round-trip distance from the papyrus makers to the schools and library, an average papyrus maker cart pusher will deliver its papyrus and return in less than 3*2*88/1.7 = 311 days. Therefore, an average production cycle will be less than 156 production increments, for an average papyrus maker production of more than 10*192/156 = 123/year.

20 papyrus makers should be plenty, and will be planned. However, I won't build that many unless I determine that they are really needed, which probably won't be decided until after the library is built (when the city is nearing completion).

Reed Gatherers

The reed gatherers will be built near the center of the marsh, to maximize reed production. The average distance from the reed gatherers to the 8 most distant papyrus makers is 55 tiles, so an average reed gatherer cart pusher will deliver 100 reeds and return in 65 days. Therefore, when sufficient reeds are available, 100 reeds will be delivered every 33 production increments, for an average reed gatherer (building) production of 100*192/33 = 582/year.

5 reed gatherers will be built. Assuming that the marsh regenerates as fast as expected, the reed gatherers will produce the desired 2466/year, plus around 444/year extra until the marsh is fully harvested.

[This message has been edited by Brugle (edited 06-03-2004 @ 07:26 PM).]

City Center, with 5th and 6th Housing Blocks

The design of the best block, southwest of the northwest floodplain, was finished. It has 10 stately manors and 10 elegant manors, and supplies labor access to workcamps, meadow farms, and weavers. The senet house is at the east corner of the block, and the senet player walks by the stately manors along the southeast and southwest edges of the block. Bast's temple complex is at the west corner of the block, and next to it (beside the southwest side of the block) are the palace, mansion, and festival square (with traffic through it).

The west block is on the other side of the temple complex, palace, mansion, and festival square, near the middle of the west edge of the map. It has 14 spacious manors and 10 fancy residences, with some extra bandstands around the outside.

In my opinion, this "city center" will look fabulous!

The 3 remaining undesigned housing blocks (1 on the west bank and 2 on the east bank) will have a total of 11 spacious manors (all on the west bank) and 74 fancy residences.

Lettuce Storage

There are 10 lettuce storage yards southwest of the west block. They are farther than I'd prefer from some lettuce-eating blocks, but I doubt that there will be space to store lettuce in a better location.

The last industry!

Cattle Ranches

Until now, I hadn't planned what will be on the northwest side of the narrow loop road that is just southeast of the not-yet-designed southwest manor block, partly because I thought that some desirability boosters (such as large statues) might be needed there. However, since that block needs only 11 spacious manors (which will mainly be along the southwest and northwest sides), those desirability boosters shouldn't be needed. If labor access wasn't a concern, then I would have mostly storage yards along that narrow loop road. However, the unusual behavior of their labor-seekers (described in Random walker start and finish points) prevents storage yards from automatically having good labor access along most of that side of the loop road, so there I plan to have a grain granary (for the small block), a juggler school, and 3 cattle ranches. A total of 6 cattle ranches will be built, so 3 other cattle ranches will replace previously planned storage yards nearby.

6 cattle ranches will be enough, with either extreme of straw delivery: all by storage yard cart pushers, or all by grain farm cart pushers. To make supplying straw from storage yards easier, the cattle ranches and straw storage yards are near the southwest end of the narrow loop road. 2 straw storage yards can easily handle the average straw delivery load, but if a lot of brickworks run low on straw at approximately the same time then a few of the cattle ranches may run out of straw temporarily. Meat production from 5 cattle ranches would still somewhat exceed the required 2112/year, but 6 cattle ranches will have enough overproduction to meet reasonable requests. The longest distance from a cattle ranch to a grain farm is 115 tiles (perhaps slightly longer if there are a few more grain farms), so little production will be lost due to straw delivery from farms.

The calculations above assume that there will not be "odd lots" of straw--I've only seen straw in multiples of 100. But, just for fun, let's assume that "odd lots" of straw will occur. If straw delivery is from storage yards then the meat production reduction would be moderate. However, if straw delivery is from farms then there could be large production losses. Counting meadow farms twice (since they can harvest twice/year), the average distance from the 22 most distant grain farms to the cattle ranches is about 90 tiles, for an average straw delivery time of 53 days. In this (worst) case, a cattle ranch with an "odd lot" would stand idle for an average of 27 production increments each cycle, for an average meat production of 100*192/(34+27) = 314/year. If all 6 cattle ranches have an "odd lot" (an average of 4.5 would be expected) then meat production would be insufficient, but if only 5 have an "odd lot" then meat production would be (barely) sufficient.

Minor changes to Brickworks, Potters, Weavers

The planned 8 brickworks were switched with the 8 southwesternmost potters. This will give more choices for the location of "accepting" pottery storage yards (while similarly limiting the location of brick storage yards).

I decided to add another storage yard in the northwest. Rather than significantly change the design, I used the space that had been reserved for a possible 22nd weaver. Having some wiggle-room is good engineering practice, but this is a game--I will trust my calculations!

Quote:

Your calculations were based on the absolute worst case - also a good engineering practice. I think you'll find that even with 21 weavers, your average production will easily exceed your goal, and you'll probably have at least a few idle weavers most of the time.

pagh,
Thanks for the comment. 21 weavers may be more than enough, but it will be hard to tell. The main linen storage yards should fill up occasionally, so more excess weaving capacity will simply cause more weaver cart pushers to deliver to distant storage yards (that are set to get linen).

Except for some minor details, the west bank design is finished!

7th Housing Block

The southwest spacious manor block is just north of the small block, nestled into a curve in the rocks. It has 11 spacious manors and 14 fancy residences, and supplies labor access to only 1 building outside of the block: a storage yard. This block (the second closest to the entrance point) will probably be settled last.

By the way, in each housing block, I've followed an aesthetic rule: certain sets of buildings are grouped together (touching or across a street). The groupings are: a) bazaars, b) physician + dentist + apothecary + (if present) mortuary, c) courthouse + tax collector, and (if a library is present) d) school + library. I don't know why, but it was difficult to group the buildings in this block while putting the mortuary, school, and bazaars fairly close to the entrance.

Lettuce and Pomegranate Consumption, Final Farm Types

We now know the housing on each bank. Residents of the 89 fancy residences on the east bank eat pomegranates, so pomegranate consumption is 9612/year. Lettuce consumption (in all west bank blocks other than the small block) is 14400/year.

For the lack of a better estimate, I'll continue to assume that, on average, an inland floodplain farm produces half as much as a river-touching floodplain farm. To grow enough of all food types, an inland floodplain farm produces 171/year and a river-touching floodplain farm produces 342/year. (Naturally, I expect that floodplain farms (especially inland ones) will actually produce at least a little more, to meet requests.)

Grain farms are: 1 meadow of 50% fertility, 16 meadow of 44%-48% fertility, 21 meadow of 42%-43% fertility, 17 river-touching floodplain, and 10 inland floodplain.

Lettuce farms are: 2 meadow of 46%-47% fertility, 6 meadow of 42%-43% fertility, 22 river-touching floodplain, and 18 inland floodplain.

Pomegranate farms are: 5 meadow of 44%-48% fertility, 12 meadow of 42%-43% fertility, 2 river-touching floodplain, and 5 inland floodplain.

As already mentioned, flax farms are: 5 meadow of 44%-47% fertility and 14 meadow of 42%-43% fertility.

Food Storage

Food reserves are kept in case there is a series of terrible floods. During such a period, I'll assume that an inland floodplain farm produces 144/year (the 7.5-month production of a 22% fertility (minimum for irrigated floodplain) farm) and that a river-touching floodplain farm produces 192/year (the 7.5-month production of a 25%-30% fertility farm).

During terrible floods, grain production will be 23336/year. Underproduction of 2788/year will not exhaust the 9 main grain storage yards in 10 years. Our requirement for survival through terrible floods is therefore 10 years.

During terrible floods, lettuce production will be 10624/year. To last 10 years with underproduction of 3776/year, there are 12 main lettuce storage yards. The main lettuce storage area (originally 10 storage yards) was redesigned to have another storage yard, and a nearby storage yard was reassigned to lettuce storage. (With the redesign, one of the lettuce storage yards may have marginal labor access if its citizen always walks away from houses.)

During terrible floods, pomegranate production will be 9256/year. For stored pomegranates to last 10 years with underproduction of 356/year, there are at least 1.25 main pomegranate storage yards.

To avoid generating extra food (or flax) with the "cart pusher/storage yard increase" bug, every storage yard that accepts a farm product either holds only that product or has some empty space.

[This message has been edited by Brugle (edited 06-15-2004 @ 01:44 PM).]