regular train/slow train corral feature

[LetswaveaBook]

I was thinking about an feature to allow the corral to train animals for free at a slower rate. I thought some time about letting players start with a corral and see if players would use it. The answer probably is no. This is a pity, as I think having the building should give some advantage and I dislike buildings that lack a competitive use. If players could train cattle for free, it would surely be an advantage to have a corral.

To let the feature work, the number of corrals a player can have is limited to for example 15. So let me give the numbers for an example

regular training cows: If you have 15 corrals and the tech, then you can produce 20 cows per minute. Each cow gives a profit of 150 food and each cow can be collected by 1 cavalry unit in 1 minute. That means you get 20 cavalry units making a profit of 3000 food per minute. In this case you need the food investments to create the cows this way, but you would need about 60 women to gather the same amount if you used farming. This is the option currently in the game and it is not a good way of booming

slow train cows: With the increased base training time of 400 seconds per cow, you would produce only 3 cows if you had the tech and 15 corrals. The profit that you gain per minute is 900 and you need 3 cavalry for this. To get the remaining 2100 food income, you would need extra women on farms. So you would need about 40 extra women with maximum farm upgrades for this.

So if we put a limit on the corral numbers, then both seem to have their advantages, giving 2 competing approaches or 3 if we take farming into account.

These numbers might be complete, as I did not account for investments. I will assume the cattle breeding tech is researched. In the regular case, you need to queu a cow in each corral, spending 150 food. So that is an investment of 100wood+50 seconds build time+150 food (for a queued cow)per corral+ 1.33 cavalry (total of 288.3 food+166.7wood+50 seconds build time) giving a profit of 200 food per minute. For the second example you need 100 wood+50 seconds build time+0.25 cavalry(total of 25 food+112.5wood +50 second build time) giving a profit of 60food per minute. equating 1 food= 1.5 wood=1.5 second build time food then the investments compare to 649 wood and 200 wood.( I am ignoring the fact that you sometimes need up to have 2 "cows at the same time" for 1.33 cavalry to continuously gather, one at the moment being queued in the corral and the other being eaten at that moment)

For comparison, if you want 3k food per minute income with p3 farmers, you would need 58 women on farms. For 5 women a farm will be needed costing 100 wood and 50 seconds build time and I will include the cost half a big house equalling 75 wood and 25 seconds of build time. Then 6 farmers cost  300 food, 210 wood and 90 seconds build time (=750 wood equivalent) and have 300 food income per minute for which you would need about 1k wood equivalent investment if you used corrals. 

I have also  to set up an early regular corral economy myself. Due to the high costs of getting started, it is not easy at all (partly because of this 2 cows at the same time issue). Also to get the corralling started you need a lot of food, but how can you afford that before you get it running?

 

Any thought on this free to train cattle idea?

[alre]

corrals have some competitve use. in a24 they had quite some more, because matches lasted longer.

Edited January 13, 2022 by alre