Listen to your baker folks

Bremidon · 2019-11-11 08:31:53

Bakers are one of the key people in a town. There are others, of course, but the baker might be the most critical of them all. The baker will know what in town is straggling behind. Need more plates and bowls? The baker will know. Need more wheat? Yeah, the baker will know. Even carrots and berries will come to the baker's attention if they start straggling. Sheep problems are almost always immediately clear to the baker. The baker can probably tell you if it makes sense to go rabbit hunting. The baker will know if kindling and even firewood is running low. The baker will also know if water is getting to be a problem.

The smith is probably the other contender for most critical position in town. The only reason I think the baker is even better positioned as an information hub is that that baking is needed pretty much continuously while smithing is a bit more start and stop. The continuous nature keeps the baker in touch with the current state of the town.

If you are looking for something to do, go to the baker: (s)he can tell you what the town probably needs the most.

Also: when the old baker come in and says: we need a new baker; get on that right away. That huge stockpile of pies will disappear fast if nobody is making sure that there is a continuous stream of stuff getting made.

Just to be clear: everyone in town doing something productive is important. I'm not saying the baker is "better" or somehow "superior". It's just the nature of that particular task that makes the baker a central information hub. In this game where communication is deliberately difficult, knowing where to get fairly up-to-date info on what is needed can be the difference between a successful town and one that is always on the brink of destruction.

Yesterday I had a town where I got to play as baker. There must have been a particularly large influx of experienced players on, because for the first time, I could just mention what I needed and someone got on it right away. By the time I died, the town was flourishing in all areas and I was happy to leave behind 4 solidly stacked containers of pies, plus a bunch of yum alternatives. This only worked because:

1. People were really playing together (not just with the baking, but everywhere)
2. People did not clutter the baking area with useless crap
3. All the basics were being dealt with efficiently (berries, carrots, sheep, and wheat)
4. People were really using yum like they should (using pies as the mainstay)
5. Oh, and people actually ate from started plates. Nothing really annoys a baker like 20 half-eaten plates.

This has been a service announcement from the Baking Association of OHOL: Making Better Pies for a Better Tomorrow

Kaveh · 2019-11-11 10:51:29

I might've been in the same town you were yesterday, or there's more like this. I was surprised to find a lot of different foods in the bakery (pies, mutton, turkey, bread, potatoes) and everybody working on stuff together. The town had a cute, different setup with just about enough for everyone, except clothes- so I decided to become a tailor since the town did have a loom already. My (only) daughter helped me out the entire time until I died of old age. It was really pleasant.

pein · 2019-11-11 12:10:38

80% of the town is baker, now with tools that are a waste of slots

and as far as I seen most bakers don't do composting, sheep, smithing

while the compost maker always makes meat and even cooks it when is too much

Toxolotl · 2019-11-11 21:07:48

Smith > farmer > baker

Each of theses jobs feed into each other and if any one of them fails the others atrophy into not being able to be done. Without a smith you cant maintain a farm. Without a farmer you cant bake. Without a baker sheep and wheat cycling has no pressure.

If bakers focus on compost management as well as baking the whole situation gets a lot more stable. The tech tree is also built for that to be efficient.

I find one of the most important things in this game is to give what you take. You use a bunch of iron, find more. You set up a mine, make a bucket instead of taking one. You use a ton of wheat, plant more and make soil for it.

Towns are quite fragile and deficits can destroy them. That's why its important to try to maintain a surplus whenever possible.

Last edited by Toxolotl (2019-11-11 21:21:18)

Bremidon · 2019-11-12 20:55:45

Toxolotl wrote:

Smith > farmer > baker
Each of these jobs feed into each other and if any one of them fails the others atrophy into not being able to be done. Without a smith you cant maintain a farm. Without a farmer you cant bake. Without a baker sheep and wheat cycling has no pressure.
If bakers focus on compost management as well as baking the whole situation gets a lot more stable..

I think we understand each other. Every job is important and all of them feed into each other.

I know when I am filling the baker role, I usually end up doing lots of odd jobs. Ideally, I would just be baking pies, because everything would be delivered to me as fast as I could make stuff and work the oven. It rarely works that way, though. Something is a bottleneck, and I'm either trying to figure out what happened to my mutton supply, or why the wheat isn't being grown. Each of those potentially leads to new questions about why carrots are missing or why there's no compost. So if I happen to be your baker, I can probably tell you immediately what the town needs the most.

And if by some miracle everything is going to plan, then I'll send you over to the smith to see what he needs.

When I'm doing any other job, I usually don't have a clear view of what the town needs. When I'm smithing, I can tell you if we need iron or possibly bowls and plates. If I'm scouting and gathering, I have no idea what is going on in town. If I'm farming, I might be able to tell you something about composting. Tending sheep will give me some insights into the carrots and berries. But somehow, no other task seems to force an overview quite as much as baking does.

Last edited by Bremidon (2019-11-12 20:55:53)

Tipy · 2019-11-12 21:30:08

I think you were my gma one life. You stabbed my ma because she was standing in the bakery and not listening to you. I healed her and then you hid pads stabbed her again and called it ''control'' so I killed you until you stabbed someone else for being on the kitchen and ruining your order. Look buddy being a baker and an elder doesn't make you an authority or give you power over the others. Being old in game doesn't mean shit, an experianced baby will always be better than a newbie gma. Bakers aren't really that important as you thing. They don't do much to progress the town's development just maintain it, at which composters are way more important than bakers. Everyone can be a baker. Don't think being a baker makes you more important than the others and you can boss them around because guess what baking is stupidly easy, I can do it, you can do it, everyone can do it, if you act so entitled to go and kill people for the slightless of inconviniance we will just replace you. Smiths/Engineers and just overall people that build the town's infrastructure (oil rig makers and even builders) help develope a town way more than a single baker can. Bakers are noobs, cooks are the real skilled players. A cook doesn't limit themself to just baking but cook all kind of food (fries, stew, buritos etc) which are really nice for yum and imo is way more fun to be a cook than a baker your whole life.

Kaveh · 2019-11-12 23:20:48

Tipy wrote:

I think you were (...)

Whoa whoa. Lemme quote OP

Bremidon wrote:

Just to be clear: everyone in town doing something productive is important. I'm not saying the baker is "better" or somehow "superior". It's just the nature of that particular task that makes the baker a central information hub.

Nothing about bossing around or killing people who don't listen. Just that bakers have a good overview of what's going on.
A baker doesn't necessarily know how to play the game, but if a baker is an experienced player they may def know the state of the town and what's needed to (indeed) maintain it. Can't progress a town if nobody survives.

Anyway I also wanted to reply to this (whether or not it was OP or not)

Tipy wrote:

You stabbed my ma because she was standing in the bakery and not listening to you. I healed her and then you hid pads stabbed her again and called it ''control'' so I killed you until you stabbed someone else for being on the kitchen and ruining your order.

Reminds me of when I put my gathered 2x latex, 2x sulfur and 2x palm kernels in the bakery to make 2 rubber tires for newcomens (one needed immediately for the well, the other for later), and then the baker lady carried all of it outside with the statement "I'm baking here". The kitchen was small but there was more than enough space for my stuff. Me saying that I needed the oven for this stuff didn't help. Me saying that I'd help her bake her pies first so it'd be faster didn't help. She was insistent on having the entire kitchen to herself.
After a while she left for a bit to go eat (no food in the building at that point), so I put my stuff back and went to get fire. We needed the well! Water is life! When I came back she had loaded all my stuff in a cart and taken it outside, hiding all of it behind several trees quite far away from the village. I found her after a while with one bowl of sulfur left in the cart, and got the village to help me search for the rest of the stuff, notably the two buckets. I told her she shouldn't hide things and then she called me a griefer. Eventually someone else killed her, but I wasn't able to finish the tire.
Sad life when your baker is a narcissist.

Bremidon · 2019-11-13 06:23:05

Tipy wrote:

I think you were my gma one life. You stabbed my ma because she was standing in the bakery and not listening to you.

Nope. I tend to be pretty pacifist. About the only time I get a little bit riled up is when someone is wasting meat with the sheep. Even then, I've never stabbed anyone over it.

As for the difference between baker and cook: I don't really draw a line here. Pies are definitely the backbone of the food management. Once those are sorted out, then yeah: making lots of yum alternatives makes sense. I do that all the time, but only when I feel like there are enough pies to hold everyone over if a griefer kills all the sheep.

Tipy wrote:

Smiths/Engineers and just overall people that build the town's infrastructure (oil rig makers and even builders) help develope a town way more than a single baker can.

You are absolutely right. Of course they develop the town more! If my point was to try to rank the importance of some jobs to others, then this would be a different thread. My point is that the baker (or cook if you want) is going to be a good place to go to find out what the town needs. This makes the baker/cook a critical part of information sharing. This does not mean his job is more important than anyone else's. Let me quote myself:

Bremidon wrote:

everyone in town doing something productive is important. I'm not saying the baker is "better" or somehow "superior". It's just the nature of that particular task that makes the baker a central information hub.

One other point that I wanted to make before but forgot: the other advantage that the baker has is that (s)he's usually easy to find. The bakery is almost always near the center of town and most everyone knows where it is. The person doing the cooking is almost always there. If not, they will be back really soon. So next time you're grabbing a pie and also wondering what to do next: just ask the guy in the funny hat.

One Hour One Life Forums

#1 2019-11-11 08:31:53

Listen to your baker folks

#2 2019-11-11 10:51:29

Re: Listen to your baker folks

#3 2019-11-11 12:10:38

Re: Listen to your baker folks

#4 2019-11-11 21:07:48

Re: Listen to your baker folks

#5 2019-11-12 20:55:45

Re: Listen to your baker folks

#6 2019-11-12 21:30:08

Re: Listen to your baker folks

#7 2019-11-12 23:20:48

Re: Listen to your baker folks

#8 2019-11-13 06:23:05

Re: Listen to your baker folks

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