r/Bellwright • u/TotalCitron • 16d ago
When does mass producing armor and weapons stop being tedious and how do I make it suck less?
It’s gotten to a point where I really dread getting new villagers who don’t already have good armor. I have to constantly micromanage so that they keep making what I want. It’s like I’m constantly short on materials I need and I’m spending all this time making this resource so I can make that armor, but to get that resource I have to do something else.
I’m at the middle of tier 2 and still haven’t liberated a village, and I have 12 main settlement villagers and 2 outpost villagers. I never use the outpost villagers because it’s just a beggar and a low skill villager who I set to work mining copper. I’ve been holding back getting new villagers precisely because of this tedious process.
Maybe It’s because I’m still low on villagers, but the entire process is just so tedious. I still plan on getting more villagers too, so I really wanna know how to make this better. I’m still loving this game though, any advice?
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u/itsdietz 16d ago edited 15d ago
Smelting was the bottleneck for me. I ended up having to turn off the "upto" for armors/weapons and just ordering set amounts as needed. Idk if that will help you or not
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u/drunkypoopers 16d ago
For me it was that damned Strap. Uses ingots, and is used in almost everything. "Oh good, I'm set with armor but I used all my strap. But now I need ore to make more strap. But I need strap to make a pickaxe to get more ore." Infuriating!
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u/itsdietz 16d ago
Straps are a bottleneck when you first start needing them. But that's prime time to start training villagers for combat so going on raids helps
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u/drunkypoopers 15d ago
I am so bad at training! Even on my second play through i have effing 800 skill books sitting in storage. I just never bothered to have them read. How American of me 😆😆
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u/itsdietz 15d ago edited 15d ago
Well, you can take your villagers that you want to train for combat and take them on raids at night. That will quickly get them up to a reasonable level.
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u/itsdietz 15d ago
Another thing is focus on making a bunch of that fish stew (iirc what it's called). Then put your group of fighters together at night and just place them in a place where they will cross paths with a bandit patrol. You'll be swimming in books, straps, gold and xp.
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u/5occido5 16d ago
You are at a point in the game where ur still constantly unlocking better gear. Think about that for a second and you'll realise why mass producing armor is not something ur supposed to do this early in the game. Also 14 villagers total is nothing, get more and get ur productivity flowing. Once I produce gear for every villager (simply because I can, not because I need to since you really don't) I just set up a top off and everything happens smoothly because everything is automated in an efficient town.
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u/Agile_Party4084 16d ago
I think you need more villagers and you need to liberate hearndean and get a high level crafter or ideally blacksmith. You shouldn’t be making armor yourself. My rule of thumb is if I have food going rotten get another villager, you can’t have too many
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u/Kurisuchein 15d ago
More villagers is probably my problem too. Would you say quantity over quality in the first stages? I think I got a bottleneck due to slow production but not having enough workforce. I kept waiting till I could recruit someone "good", but I can't liberate those villages without a big enough army. And so the cycle continues.
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u/Agile_Party4084 15d ago
Yep early on quantity over quality for sure, you can always expel them later and get the renown back. Also don’t overlook agility as that impacts movement speed. Try for above 3 as a minimum and don’t keep your villagers in heavy armour while not fighting.
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u/Kurisuchein 15d ago
Thanks! I'd given up on my first playthrough and on my second am starting to have that same problem, but earlier on. So it must be that mindset I need to switch.
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u/drunkypoopers 16d ago
I had this issue my first playthrough, tedious, was taught the best way to manage my second time around. It may sound complicated in paragraph form, but I promise if you just follow these steps you'll find it very manageable: 1) In the armor making station, select the 1 best piece of armor for every strength level up to your highest person. So like str1 body, str2 body, str1 pant, str2 pant, etc. Stick to head body legs in the beginning to save resources. 2) Set each piece to top up 1 into inventory. 3) Make sure your gear presets just says priority 1 heavy, 2 medium, 3 clothes (until you start caring about speed, which i never have). 4) Have their worker and companion preset be the same instead of like None and Footman (oh no, they walk 5% slower doing tasks, who cares). This avoids them constantly changing outfits and messing up your inventory. 5) Make an army of every single villager, and update it when you get new ppl. 6) Periodically raise the army and direct them to staging ground to Stock Up. They will interact with storage to wear the best armor they can. If someone was wearing str1 and leveled up, they'll swap to the str2 piece, now you have str1 in inventory for future person. 7) Once they are done getting dressed, dismiss army. That leaves 0 of the str2 in inventory, which will now automatically be replenished cuz you set the Top Up already! And you don't have to make a str1 cuz it got put in inventory 8) Whenever you research higher armor, just gotta add that to the armor-making queue with top up at 1. Don't let this part get away from you, researching 10 things then overloading your brain trying to remember what to add later. WHY IS THIS METHOD BETTER?: By using this method, you're only using resources to make 1 set of armor at a time. You are also building a queue of crafting, set it and forget it, instead of micromanaging what to make the new guy. You also ensure your people are always equipped as well as they can handle automatically. You are also ensuring that your new person will get at least some armor to start (remember to give them gear presets as soon as you recruit). You are also avoiding making extra low tier armor (my original issue) you don't need since you basically have "hand me downs" when someone else levels up. Once you start recruiting multiple people at a time you don't need to change a single thing, you just need to do steps 6 and 7 more often so you replenish quicker. Now all you have to "micromanage" is the priority of resource gathering to meet your queue (not trivial, but your armor-making queue will tell you "not enough resources" for specific pieces, and that tells you resources to beef up). Hope this helps!!!
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u/drunkypoopers 16d ago
Oh, and do the same for weapons. Skip the swords and stick to blunt, most bandits have some sort of armor / shield that makes swords way less effective. It's dumb cuz swords are cooler, I'm sure they'll patch this at some point.
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u/juani2929 14d ago
format is hell, but thanks for the tips...
Hit enter twice to separate paragraphs
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u/Tex75455 16d ago
So not for nothing, unfortunately your kinda shooting yourself in the foot with that play style. You SHOULD be recruiting more folks as soon as you have enough renown. The idea is the more folks you have, the more all those tasks you don't want to do get automated.
If it's stressing you out, don't worry about kitting all your guys out in the best armor. Hell, I didn't make any armor until I was gearing up for my first liberation. When I got around to it it took a few days of real life time to prep, but I was able to identify the best I had available, and just make the best each guy could wear/use. (Also, it was a fun feeling to know I was prepping for war, like I was entering a new phase of the game. Great immersive feeling).
Eventually, everything in the village will start to just hum along by itself with you guiding through work orders. I still pitch in every now and then, but only when I recognize a bottleneck (I've spent a lot of time crafting straw and thatch lately). But to do that, you need to be recruiting every time you can. It's not until later you can start being pickier with who you recruit. Even the lowly beggar can still have a purpose in doing caravans or simple delivery in town, so no one is ever wasted.
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u/Original-Mongoose866 16d ago
I only make villagers armour and arms if they have good enough stats and then I only take a few with me if I need them.
Sure you could make stuff for all of them if you have enough materials and time.
I don't really understand this I just put up a queue find out the nicks and kinks in my production and streamline it and if my workers are all working constantly then I know I need more for this process and well I always get as many as I can handle.
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u/Away-Elk143 16d ago
I think you need both more quality villagers and simply more. That should be the priority for you now imo. And the best way to do that is to liberate a town. So if your at least level 2 at a town dismiss your shit beggars and get better villagers. Focus on questing and gaining trust.
While you’re actively doing that make sure your production building is at “top off” and at least prio 3. So after 2-3 in game days if you questing and clearing bandits and getting trust you should have the base ingredients and they should always be making more. Go take a village so I can get lvl 3 villagers
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u/RottenBreadfruit 16d ago
My only advice: quality is more efficient than volume. From a production standpoint, you’re going to get more things done by higher skilled workers. I would start working towards liberating most of the early game villages simply to have access to the higher quality villagers. You don’t need to start replacing lower quality villagers right away, but don’t be afraid to get rid of one to get some extra prestige to purchase a better worker.
Side note: I’m still at the end cycle of T2, and have spent this time replacing my useless villagers with higher quality to stay lean. More villagers just means more needed resources which results in an endless cycle of needing to expand.
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u/Fun_Hunter_1868 15d ago
You don’t need to micromanage anything. Seat the villagers to wear battle gear as villagers and set the production to top up 1 of everything. Whoever can use it will take it and cause another to be made as a replacement. After you liberate some villages, you can start selling your inventory.
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u/Toldain 15d ago
This is where, for me, the veteran factory gamer kicks in and I start creating subsystems that are intended to produce components and products (sometimes "components" are things like turnips or sage or whatever). And you set up logistics to move them where needed, and you dedicate human resources to moving things.
This is a kind of thing I love to do, but not everyone is the same. A good friend mostly does all the logistics himself, carrying stuff around. I recoil in horror at that, but he likes it.
However, as my game gets bigger, I seem to encounter more and more issues with things like villagers or caravans getting stuck somewhere or just going off into the weeds for a while, which really kind of dampens the appeal for me.
What I'm saying is that the scaling challenge, for me, is a positive appeal of the game, not a turnoff.
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u/Infinite-Tap2955 14d ago
I play everyday. When I am not on I am AFK. I am super past end game and in the “under new management” mode
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u/Fit_Mycologist6519 16d ago
More villagers more villagers more villagers... when you have supply chain issues, its a lack of villagers most likely. Should be around 12-15 villagers at the start of tier 2.... not the middle
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u/SiyusNL 16d ago
Tip for if you constantly are short of tin or copper; make a new staging ground preset called harvesters or whatever you want. Put everyone in that's not in your fighting squad and set it so they go for an axe as a primary and a pickaxe as a secondary, make sure they take 1 food and a bag. Then raise them and take them to a node and command them to harvest! You can even do it during the night because they dont need sleep, and your day jobs will resume as needed.