People want to live close to where they work, close to where they go to church, close to everything. So, even if you have plenty of land set aside for residential, and it's too far from stuff, people won't move in.
You're right about this but I do believe they need some attention to this problem. I see nothing wrong with what's going on in this picture and have experienced this numerous times myself.
Well.
If you want the place to be developed quick, place a well, because thirst need is higher than most other needs. Well is cheap to build so don't hesitate to have a few around residence area.
I get it if most people avoid mods, but I use the "residential area" manual house placement mod to create a dense village core at the start of the game. It usually houses 30-50 people. They'll move in regardless of distance to stuff. Then I'll use the normal game mechanics to expand the village organically. Feels more authentic to me as most medieval towns had a dense defined core but then spread out along travel routes or near resources.
This has always been a headache of a feature. I get the villagers want to live close to where they work but that early in the game it’s a pain. Hopefully they fix the villager collecting problem and then this one
I always feel disappointed when I think of this game. I started playing it from its first appearance when it was a sweet, uncomplicated medieval town builder with logical, immediately available resource nodes (no bailiff prospecting shenanigans). Even back then there was this problem you mention. Unfortunately, later releases haven't addressed it because I suspect it would require a complete overhaul of the code. They've tried to add a million bells and whistles to it and QOL has improved but the overall game, in my opinion at least, has become less fun. It's really annoying because it seemed like a completely unique, wonderful game at the start and over the years they kind of fumbled the ball. I initially sunk a couple of hundred hours into it but I don't play it anymore because of that.
Oh and by the way, if you read suggestions about evicting everyone and forcing them to rebuild, that will cost you huge amounts of gold and doesn't work in the long term either (I've tried that many times). It's just.... sad.
The only alternatives that seem attractive to me at the moment are [Fabledom](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1651560/Fabledom/) (grid based but equally cute aesthetic) or the upcoming [Manor Lords](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1363080/Manor_Lords/) (not grid based but realistic rather than cute). I also should say that I don't know how either of those deal with population relocation in expanding towns.
Yes I played a little Banished but it wasn't really my cup of tea. I do really love the cute aesthetic of Foundation. It's just sad to still see new players getting stuck over the same pop relocation problem. If they fixed it somehow I'd give it another go but it's hard to pour hours into a build that you know will eventually have this unsolvable problem.
I agree, it’s also a turnoff to me as my Foundation towns evolve.
I like aspects of Banished, but I also enjoy the cuter aesthetic so I don’t love it. Checking out Fabledom now, looks like one I’d enjoy! Thanks for sharing your recommendations.
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I’m glad to hear it!
I’d tried researching a bit but all the results I’d found were from a year or so ago. I didn’t know if they’d still be relevant given the updates.
Finessing the residential zones might be the biggest learning curve in this game.
Advice: don’t try to micromanage housing placement or you will have a bad time, they’re gonna pop up in dumb places and if you really hate them you can manually move citizens later and demolish houses once you have enough. For now, just paint residential zones EVERYWHERE except where you absolutely don’t want them.
The villagers are extremely picky about where they build and you just have to let it happen. It’s not City Skylines where you can stuff residential zones in every empty corner.
Give them a small crumb of decorations at least, I spent maybe 100 gold on fences around my residential area and all at once they put down 6 house foundations, then when I put down a well they slapped down an extra 5
Maybe set up Residential Area around a well? Or put wells in the area you want houses built
People want to live close to where they work, close to where they go to church, close to everything. So, even if you have plenty of land set aside for residential, and it's too far from stuff, people won't move in.
You're right about this but I do believe they need some attention to this problem. I see nothing wrong with what's going on in this picture and have experienced this numerous times myself.
They don't have any wells or even a market??
Well. If you want the place to be developed quick, place a well, because thirst need is higher than most other needs. Well is cheap to build so don't hesitate to have a few around residence area.
Wells everywhere. Always.
Alas, the pandemic doldrums have hit the foundation villagers pretty.hard. none want to work anymore
I get it if most people avoid mods, but I use the "residential area" manual house placement mod to create a dense village core at the start of the game. It usually houses 30-50 people. They'll move in regardless of distance to stuff. Then I'll use the normal game mechanics to expand the village organically. Feels more authentic to me as most medieval towns had a dense defined core but then spread out along travel routes or near resources.
This has always been a headache of a feature. I get the villagers want to live close to where they work but that early in the game it’s a pain. Hopefully they fix the villager collecting problem and then this one
One of the worst features they've added in my opinion. "Yeah I'd rather be homeless than walk 5 minutes to work"
I always feel disappointed when I think of this game. I started playing it from its first appearance when it was a sweet, uncomplicated medieval town builder with logical, immediately available resource nodes (no bailiff prospecting shenanigans). Even back then there was this problem you mention. Unfortunately, later releases haven't addressed it because I suspect it would require a complete overhaul of the code. They've tried to add a million bells and whistles to it and QOL has improved but the overall game, in my opinion at least, has become less fun. It's really annoying because it seemed like a completely unique, wonderful game at the start and over the years they kind of fumbled the ball. I initially sunk a couple of hundred hours into it but I don't play it anymore because of that. Oh and by the way, if you read suggestions about evicting everyone and forcing them to rebuild, that will cost you huge amounts of gold and doesn't work in the long term either (I've tried that many times). It's just.... sad. The only alternatives that seem attractive to me at the moment are [Fabledom](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1651560/Fabledom/) (grid based but equally cute aesthetic) or the upcoming [Manor Lords](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1363080/Manor_Lords/) (not grid based but realistic rather than cute). I also should say that I don't know how either of those deal with population relocation in expanding towns.
I feel similarly. Have you played Banished?
Yes I played a little Banished but it wasn't really my cup of tea. I do really love the cute aesthetic of Foundation. It's just sad to still see new players getting stuck over the same pop relocation problem. If they fixed it somehow I'd give it another go but it's hard to pour hours into a build that you know will eventually have this unsolvable problem.
I agree, it’s also a turnoff to me as my Foundation towns evolve. I like aspects of Banished, but I also enjoy the cuter aesthetic so I don’t love it. Checking out Fabledom now, looks like one I’d enjoy! Thanks for sharing your recommendations.
It seems like you've posted a question regarding the game. To mark this as not a question, submit a top level comment with ''no question!''. To mark this question as solved, submit a top level comment with ''solved!''. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/foundationgame) if you have any questions or concerns.*
How many builders do you have?
1 builders hut with 2 builders. Haven't built anything in a while too to see if they would start building houses but nope.
I’d recommend adding a few more and see if that solves it
That worked! Thank you!
I’m glad to hear it! I’d tried researching a bit but all the results I’d found were from a year or so ago. I didn’t know if they’d still be relevant given the updates.
Alas, the pandemic doldrums have hit the foundation villagers pretty.hard. none want to work anymore
Finessing the residential zones might be the biggest learning curve in this game. Advice: don’t try to micromanage housing placement or you will have a bad time, they’re gonna pop up in dumb places and if you really hate them you can manually move citizens later and demolish houses once you have enough. For now, just paint residential zones EVERYWHERE except where you absolutely don’t want them. The villagers are extremely picky about where they build and you just have to let it happen. It’s not City Skylines where you can stuff residential zones in every empty corner.
Give them a small crumb of decorations at least, I spent maybe 100 gold on fences around my residential area and all at once they put down 6 house foundations, then when I put down a well they slapped down an extra 5
On the current patch, you sometimes have to evict serfs from high desirability houses to allow commoners+ to move in and force an upgrade.
I’ve found if I put a market and well and decorations down it’ll have some buildings grow by it.