Plantation workers

[Sebena]

Ah yes, a true Soviet mindset. Why care for the workers when you can simply replace them?

So what comrade. You don't ask what state can give you, you ask what you can give to the state. Remember state is your mother

[Whitcomb The Feared]

instead of revealing the formulas, could there be an hint next to the health or happiness
Ex. Healthy ... their health is increasing / or their health is decreasing.
Happiness - Walking on clouds - their happiness is stagnant (so you don't touch the plantation anymore)
Happiness - Walking on clouds - their happiness starts decreasing (so you need to increase meals or decrease hours of work)

Because now i have happiness at 97% and i want 100% but nothing happens if i increase meals. And if i increase working hours to 7-8 their happiness decrease but at 4 hours it is nothing ! i mean in real life slaves worked many many hours, not 4 a day.

Just some hints to understand how happiness or experience or health is changing. And if you don't want that people try to exactly guess the formulas by testing, you can make that the hint changes after some hours from the change of the work hours or the change of meals.

There are clues. Hover your mouse over the building image on Plantation Infrastructure screen. They will tell you what effects each building has. For example, recreation areas increase happiness.

i didn't mean on buildings. Buildings are quite clear on what they do. I meant near meals and hours of work.
When i started the plantation i thought that 15 hours were ok. then they told me to put 3 hours (which i think it is not realistic at all ... why 3 ? how can someone imagine that 3 will make them happier and why not 5 or 10 ?). Then i raise at 8 hours and they lose happiness very fast. just a clue near the amount of hours and the meals to explain if happines will increase soon or decrease and same for health and experience. no ?
just a little explanation.

[DezNutz]

instead of revealing the formulas, could there be an hint next to the health or happiness
Ex. Healthy ... their health is increasing / or their health is decreasing.
Happiness - Walking on clouds - their happiness is stagnant (so you don't touch the plantation anymore)
Happiness - Walking on clouds - their happiness starts decreasing (so you need to increase meals or decrease hours of work)

Because now i have happiness at 97% and i want 100% but nothing happens if i increase meals. And if i increase working hours to 7-8 their happiness decrease but at 4 hours it is nothing ! i mean in real life slaves worked many many hours, not 4 a day.

Just some hints to understand how happiness or experience or health is changing. And if you don't want that people try to exactly guess the formulas by testing, you can make that the hint changes after some hours from the change of the work hours or the change of meals.

There are clues. Hover your mouse over the building image on Plantation Infrastructure screen. They will tell you what effects each building has. For example, recreation areas increase happiness.

i didn't mean on buildings. Buildings are quite clear on what they do. I meant near meals and hours of work.
When i started the plantation i thought that 15 hours were ok. then they told me to put 3 hours (which i think it is not realistic at all ... why 3 ? how can someone imagine that 3 will make them happier and why not 5 or 10 ?). Then i raise at 8 hours and they lose happiness very fast. just a clue near the amount of hours and the meals to explain if happines will increase soon or decrease and same for health and experience. no ?
just a little explanation.

Understand. I think the reason for that is that no number is ideal. Your buildings, the number of workers you have, the number of workers you are bringing in, how many acres you have, the distribution of those acres, etc., all play a role. 5 hours may work for your plantation and happiness, while 7 or 8 can work for others and still have happy workers.

The best thing you can do is experiment with the numbers. Run it for a few days and see if things change. Then make a change and let it run again.

IIRC, Stan brought forth a similar question. There are lots of factors that determine it, so having a general gauge could be misleading.

[Whitcomb The Feared]

I am following the distribution advised by some veterans. I let the happines raising till 100% but whenever i increase working hours from 4 to more... happiness decrease
So i don't know what to do

[Stan Rogers]

I am following the distribution advised by some veterans. I let the happines raising till 100% but whenever i increase working hours from 4 to more... happiness decrease
So i don't know what to do

Increase your recreation bldg quality or the acreage allotted to recreation. . If they get tired, better their houses. If they get unhealthy, increase kitchen quality. That said, all buildings affect all the metrics of a worker to greater or lesser degree's depending on the metric sought after. You are not going to get a good 8-10 hours work out of workers that live in tents and eat in open fields. That is reserved for the workers who have warm dry beds and healthy meals.
Same thing for happiness... too much work and not enough play makes workers unhappy but the better the rec facilities are, the more work they can do and remain content

[Captain Jack]

Can your Plantation workers that has gained experience be moved to a new plant location and teach the new workers ?

I think the answer is no but, will it be possible in the future?

Right now, you can either Fire or Sell plantation workers.
->When you fire them, experience is lost as they return to the port and blend in with the rest of the population.
->When you Sell them, experience is retained and moved to the new owner.

The answer for the future is yes.

[Captain Jack]

I am following the distribution advised by some veterans. I let the happines raising till 100% but whenever i increase working hours from 4 to more... happiness decrease
So i don't know what to do

Increase your recreation bldg quality or the acreage allotted to recreation. . If they get tired, better their houses. If they get unhealthy, increase kitchen quality. That said, all buildings affect all the metrics of a worker to greater or lesser degree's depending on the metric sought after. You are not going to get a good 8-10 hours work out of workers that live in tents and eat in open fields. That is reserved for the workers who have warm dry beds and healthy meals.
Same thing for happiness... too much work and not enough play makes workers unhappy but the better the rec facilities are, the more work they can do and remain content

The working hours and meal settings can help you balance your plantation current situation versus your current buildings/acres setup, your number of workers and their condition.

Remember, that your workers have more attributes which are hidden. For example, energy used to be hidden as well. Perhaps we will display more in the future, like FAT. Fat can be both helpful or not. Feed them too much and they can get obese, which will reduce their productivity. Let them without much food and they will die from starvation (there is also Hunger, another hidden attribute). Keeping "little" fat though can be beneficial as this fat will shield your workers from dying off easily in a famine. Famines as a generated event is not yet a possibility though (as in general, random generated events are not yet activated) but still, you may run into a food sortage yourself (either because you forgot to bring in more food or because the port providing it run out of food or because simply your plantation grew too large). So, in such case, fat can not only be beneficial but also a savior. Right now, the only chance of getting insight of the FAT status of your workers, is through advice from your plantation advisor.

[Whitcomb The Feared]

I am following the distribution advised by some veterans. I let the happines raising till 100% but whenever i increase working hours from 4 to more... happiness decrease
So i don't know what to do

Increase your recreation bldg quality or the acreage allotted to recreation. . If they get tired, better their houses. If they get unhealthy, increase kitchen quality. That said, all buildings affect all the metrics of a worker to greater or lesser degree's depending on the metric sought after. You are not going to get a good 8-10 hours work out of workers that live in tents and eat in open fields. That is reserved for the workers who have warm dry beds and healthy meals.
Same thing for happiness... too much work and not enough play makes workers unhappy but the better the rec facilities are, the more work they can do and remain content

it is what i meant. i would like to know if it is possible to add a clue next to the time worked and the happiness and health.
Like now i have health named "improving" but it is decreasing
just a clue, that states if my health will decrease or increase or be stable with all the data currently set (if then i change working hours ... the clue could change in decrease or increase or remain stable).

I don't want the exact formula. Just that when i change the settings in my plantation, clues change too. Ex. I have health with a clue "decreasing" and then with half star in kitchens it can change in "stable" ... but then i add too many workers in the plantation, too many in fields and not enough in kitchens and even if i have the half star, the health has the clue "decreasing" again.

The clue will explain me what it is going on with that specific parameter. I don't necessarily need that the clue explains me what to do to increase health ... i can test by myself. the clue could just prevent me by going every 5min on the plantation to see if setting X work hours and Y meals i still have happines stable or increasing or decreasing ... and each hour i have to check what it is going on. without a clue.