Not so sure how well fishers work. I have had food problems since I started. I had half of my population fishing, people were dying left and right, and then I moved that up to 100% and they are all still just barely not starving to death.
But I has just run of of firewood, and almost out of tools, and have almost no stone, and I still need to build a blacksmith. But I do not have a single free laborer to do anything. Are fishers only supposed to produce enough food for themselves and maybe their kids?
I used to think it was that I only had a wagon and it was farish away. But I built a storage barn finally quite a bit ago, and people were still dying left and right.
What I do not get about gathers (which everyone recommends) is how they are supposed to be efficient. They cannot be next to houses/storage, so every basket of food they get requires a 2 day trek to get it into town. How is that supposed to work out?
Conversely, my fishermen produce boxes of fish pretty constantly, and even right next to a storage shed a significant amount of their time is going back and forth.
What am I doing wrong, how are gatherers supposed to work with such a long required travelling time? Do I just place them on the edge of forests, butting up against my town? SO onyl half the circle is used, but they are right next to a storage shed and houses?
Best Answer
Fisherman are a great supplement for your food stores, but I wouldn't rely on them exclusively. I don't know how your setup looks, but you also have to make sure that their areas don't overlap at all. It will destroy your efficiency.
When you first start out, the best options for food are Gatherer Huts. Place them in the middle of a forest so the entire circle is completely filled with trees to maximize their output. Make sure that you get a Forester log next to them to plant more trees for them to gather from as well. This should hold you over for a pretty good amount of time before you need to start expanding into things like Fields, Orchards, etc.
Edit::Completely missed the second part of your question. Sorry
As for how Gatherers are supposed to be efficient, look into what is referred to as the "Forest(er) Cluster".
These are when you place a Forester(set to plant), Herbalist, Gatherer and Hunter all right against each other. The Forester will provide the trees necessary to reach maxium output of the other buildings. Make sure that you set this up in an area with as few hills, mountains, streams, rivers or anything else trees will not grow on as possible, agian to achieve maximum output from the Forester.
Once you have this set up you have a few options. I've seen many people place a couple houses directly in the forest cluster, but personally I like to set up a little living/storage area just outside of the tree line so I don't take up anymore growth space. This will provide the workers for each of these buildings a place to live, eat, stay warm and drop off goods so they don't have to walk too far anymore.