towel boys and productivity

[Copper Maniac]

I checked how much productivity improvement results from having overseers.  I used the demo scenario and chose two buildings to evaluate, the original corn farm and the original sawmill.

Production (not counting the starting corn and lumber) was recorded for the first and second years, and the total. Five trials were done with no overseer, and nine trials were performed with overseers (three each with meager, fair, and lavish wages). For the sawmill, two timber camps were placed near it.

Variations in productivity were higher for the farm than for the sawmill. This is because the farm is a resource collection building; these seem to be implemented the same way as in Tropico. On the other hand, the sawmill is a resource conversion building. In T2, unlike Tropico, it doesn't matter whether the laboreres who do the conversion are present. The production occurs even while they sleep.

The average productivity increase for the farm due to having an overseer was 15%. For the sawmill, it was 14%. No distinction in productivity could be deduced due to differences in the wage paid to the overseer.

The actual increase in work rate is likely higher than 15%. For the farm, the increased labor probably leads to planting/harvesting crops in lower fertility squares. For the sawmill, the hauler was a limiting factor; the overseer did not enhance hauling.

Most (all?) of the productivity loss due to hauling has to do with the procedure the hauler follows. It waits until there are less than 20 units of wood at the sawmill input before fetching wood. This is a good idea for some types of buildings, such as the chuck tent, because it prevents one building from dominating the output of a single producer when there is competition for the goods (dominating due to being closer). However, the timber camps only have sawmills (in the demo) competing for its output, and it doesn't much matter where lumber ends up (except for lumber fetched to go to the boat yard). The trigger for the hauler for the sawmill should be set to more like 40 instead of 20.

Attached is a spreadsheet with the results.

[muttbunch]

In T2, unlike Tropico, it doesn't matter whether the laboreres who do the conversion are present. The production occurs even while they sleep.

Yuck. This can't be right, can it? I think I'd report this as a possible bug if I were you, Copper, just in case it's not what FC intended.  

[wardad]

Has anyone else found a lazy hauler?

In one case, adding an overseer fixed the problem.
In another case, I had to fire and replace her to get my second saw mill running.

I am very wary about using living haulers now.
I prefer skelaton haulers for the lonely jobs.

[Killian]

However, the timber camps only have sawmills (in the demo) competing for its output, and it doesn't much matter where lumber ends up (except for lumber fetched to go to the boat yard).

I just realized that the cannon foundry will only use lumber from the timber camps and not from the sawmill.  Thought I'd chime in with that info.  Later on in the game when you are looking to build up your weapons, it looks like the competition for the lumber would increase with more and more cannon foundries.  Just a thought.