posted 05-03-20 16:45 ET (US)
Long (forced) walkers can be fun, but there is a problem when houses are medium insulae or better and the walk is long, since houses store no more than 2-months of some goods. Typically, a trader wanders around then takes the long walk back to her market, so the total time taken on her walks varies. Therefore, even when traders are initially spaced evenly, that usually won't last and traders will eventually be far enough apart to allow house devolution. This can be made rare by building lots of markets, but that's a pain.
A market trader can always take the same time on each walk by using a gatehouse to prevent her from wandering around by only giving her one tile of road. (Also, traders don't waste time wandering around.) With traders from multiple fully staffed markets traveling the same distance, they can keep their even spacing. (Traders did this in Palace Peaks.) But gatehouses are ugly and aren't allowed in some missions. (I've done this for bazaars in several Pharaoh missions, since roadblocks function like gatehouses, are not as ugly, and are usually allowed.)
A "target" for a random walker (such as a market trader) may be different in each of the four cycles of walks. The target is a road that is close to 8 tiles to the NE, SE, SW, or NW of the north tile of the building. It is defined more precisely in reply #15 ofRandomness of Random Walkers. (It is also defined for Pharaoh walkers in Ambulomancy, linked from the opening post of Predicting Roaming Walks, and the target for C3 walkers is the same except that the search around the "routing center" stops as soon as a road tile is found whether or not it is connected to the starting point.)
A trader begins her walk by going toward her target. If she has gone 25 tiles without reaching her target, after another tile she will go to the finishing tile of her walk. If the first 26 tiles of her walk is along the long walk for all four cycles, she will go the same distance on each walk. If the traders from all markets travel the same distance, they can be evenly spaced.
The usual arrangement for a long walk has markets between two roads running SW-NE. A trader starts on the more SE road and finishes on the more NW road. A buyer starts on the more SE road, obtains food and goods from nearby granaries and warehouses, and finishes at her starting point. Farms should be close to the granaries (especially non-northern wheat farms), probably to the E and S of the granaries.
With the more NW road long enough and connected to a road somewhat to the NW, the targets are set up to make the trader start along the long walk during the NE, SW, and NW cycles. But with a typical arrangement, the SE cycle target is down with the farms, which causes the trader to wander around. Bad!
Farms deliver to the center of a granary. However, a buyer obtains food from a road along the side of a granary. My technique is connect the more SE of the two roads to the road to the E of the N tile of the granary and to connect the more NW of the two roads to the center of the granary and the farms.
The first reply has an example.
A market trader can always take the same time on each walk by using a gatehouse to prevent her from wandering around by only giving her one tile of road. (Also, traders don't waste time wandering around.) With traders from multiple fully staffed markets traveling the same distance, they can keep their even spacing. (Traders did this in Palace Peaks.) But gatehouses are ugly and aren't allowed in some missions. (I've done this for bazaars in several Pharaoh missions, since roadblocks function like gatehouses, are not as ugly, and are usually allowed.)
A "target" for a random walker (such as a market trader) may be different in each of the four cycles of walks. The target is a road that is close to 8 tiles to the NE, SE, SW, or NW of the north tile of the building. It is defined more precisely in reply #15 of
A trader begins her walk by going toward her target. If she has gone 25 tiles without reaching her target, after another tile she will go to the finishing tile of her walk. If the first 26 tiles of her walk is along the long walk for all four cycles, she will go the same distance on each walk. If the traders from all markets travel the same distance, they can be evenly spaced.
The usual arrangement for a long walk has markets between two roads running SW-NE. A trader starts on the more SE road and finishes on the more NW road. A buyer starts on the more SE road, obtains food and goods from nearby granaries and warehouses, and finishes at her starting point. Farms should be close to the granaries (especially non-northern wheat farms), probably to the E and S of the granaries.
With the more NW road long enough and connected to a road somewhat to the NW, the targets are set up to make the trader start along the long walk during the NE, SW, and NW cycles. But with a typical arrangement, the SE cycle target is down with the farms, which causes the trader to wander around. Bad!
Farms deliver to the center of a granary. However, a buyer obtains food from a road along the side of a granary. My technique is connect the more SE of the two roads to the road to the E of the N tile of the granary and to connect the more NW of the two roads to the center of the granary and the farms.
The first reply has an example.
[This message has been edited by Brugle (edited 05-03-2020 @ 05:58 PM).]
