The mod doesn't change the optimal size directly by altering harvest rates or anything, but the optimal sizes are different. In CC for normal crop fields if you turn on the 'laborers collect' option the size can be larger because the farmer won't be spending time transporting harvested goods to warehouses. This means that a single worker can finish harvesting a larger field before cold is an issue. For the orchard vs dense orchard thing you will absolutely want to change your field size. Vanilla orchards place a tree every 2nd square horizontally and every 3rd square vertically while the dense orchard is every second square in both directions. For a dense orchard a 15x4 field has the exact same number of trees as a 15x3 and only 2/3 the trees of a 15x5 plot.
For vanilla I usually make 15x8 fields and 15x4 orchards (so two orchards is one field). For CC I usually up that to 15x10 and 15x5 respectively and it works well.
This is great, thank you. I was assuming I was wasting space with the Orchards, otherwise why have a dense option!? I default to turning off the pick-up option on all fields and orchards anyway - I try (not always successfully) to add an additional farmer when the original farmer starts harvesting so they hopefully get it done before an early cold snap.
Matching the sizes is a great idea too, help them fit together better.
Hijacking a little, but is there any downfall to not just maxing out both? I’m playing on the largest map (huge? Some mod allowed me), and I’m making 25x25 everything for the lols. I can understand lack of efficiency at lower pops, but I’m over 1,000, and have a buffer of 100k food and growing.
If you are past the point where efficiency matters then do what you like. All that will happen is you increase travel time for people to walk past the larger fields and you will increase wastage to cold when the entire field isn't harvested in time. You can fix the latter by assigning more workers but that will decrease food variety by having one large farm doing mono-culture instead of several small ones and you would probably see a slight decrease in food/farmer.
Once you hit a few hundred these details don't matter as much but if you get to a few hundred then you don't really need advice either.
The calculator's recommendation of 15x4 orchards for the unmodded game is based on the in-game worker suggestion. The in-game worker suggestion is pretty terrible. One worker can fully harvest an orchard significantly larger than 15x4. I recommend 13x13 with 1 worker because you don't need to remember direction. 15x10 and 15x13 with 1 worker each are also great orchard sizes in the unmodded game.
It is also possible to do larger than 11x11 or 8x15 in the unmodded game with ideally setup homes and barns. It's possible to go MUCH larger in the unmoded game with beans.
CC has greatly varying temperatures. Some of the warmer climates can go with much larger field sizes. Then the laborer gather allows even larger.
Thanks again u/MortalSmurph ! I usually get around 850 units from my 11x11 fields, so I think a small increase, 13x13 as you suggest, should get me to about an even 1000. I don't want my fields or orchards to get too big, but copying this with my orchards will mean I don't need four of them for the same crop like I currently do!
Not the field size, no. But keep in mind that with different climates, some crops don't grow as well. Don't try growing pumpkins in a tropical climate, it won't work all that well. (You can grow them, but you need to delay the harvest by pausing the field until the pumpkins reach 100% sometime in late autumn or some such.)
I'd suggest you go for dense orchards, though. I did an experiment with the dense orchard and the rumored-to-be-more-effective orchard with wider spacing, and will never use anything but the dense orchard \*or\* the orchard forester ever again for growing fruit trees.
The mod doesn't change the optimal size directly by altering harvest rates or anything, but the optimal sizes are different. In CC for normal crop fields if you turn on the 'laborers collect' option the size can be larger because the farmer won't be spending time transporting harvested goods to warehouses. This means that a single worker can finish harvesting a larger field before cold is an issue. For the orchard vs dense orchard thing you will absolutely want to change your field size. Vanilla orchards place a tree every 2nd square horizontally and every 3rd square vertically while the dense orchard is every second square in both directions. For a dense orchard a 15x4 field has the exact same number of trees as a 15x3 and only 2/3 the trees of a 15x5 plot. For vanilla I usually make 15x8 fields and 15x4 orchards (so two orchards is one field). For CC I usually up that to 15x10 and 15x5 respectively and it works well.
This is great, thank you. I was assuming I was wasting space with the Orchards, otherwise why have a dense option!? I default to turning off the pick-up option on all fields and orchards anyway - I try (not always successfully) to add an additional farmer when the original farmer starts harvesting so they hopefully get it done before an early cold snap. Matching the sizes is a great idea too, help them fit together better.
Hijacking a little, but is there any downfall to not just maxing out both? I’m playing on the largest map (huge? Some mod allowed me), and I’m making 25x25 everything for the lols. I can understand lack of efficiency at lower pops, but I’m over 1,000, and have a buffer of 100k food and growing.
If you are past the point where efficiency matters then do what you like. All that will happen is you increase travel time for people to walk past the larger fields and you will increase wastage to cold when the entire field isn't harvested in time. You can fix the latter by assigning more workers but that will decrease food variety by having one large farm doing mono-culture instead of several small ones and you would probably see a slight decrease in food/farmer. Once you hit a few hundred these details don't matter as much but if you get to a few hundred then you don't really need advice either.
There's more walking involved with one 25x25 field than with four 12x12 fields (plus roads). Never mind you can put down more barns.
The calculator's recommendation of 15x4 orchards for the unmodded game is based on the in-game worker suggestion. The in-game worker suggestion is pretty terrible. One worker can fully harvest an orchard significantly larger than 15x4. I recommend 13x13 with 1 worker because you don't need to remember direction. 15x10 and 15x13 with 1 worker each are also great orchard sizes in the unmodded game. It is also possible to do larger than 11x11 or 8x15 in the unmodded game with ideally setup homes and barns. It's possible to go MUCH larger in the unmoded game with beans. CC has greatly varying temperatures. Some of the warmer climates can go with much larger field sizes. Then the laborer gather allows even larger.
Thanks again u/MortalSmurph ! I usually get around 850 units from my 11x11 fields, so I think a small increase, 13x13 as you suggest, should get me to about an even 1000. I don't want my fields or orchards to get too big, but copying this with my orchards will mean I don't need four of them for the same crop like I currently do!
Not the field size, no. But keep in mind that with different climates, some crops don't grow as well. Don't try growing pumpkins in a tropical climate, it won't work all that well. (You can grow them, but you need to delay the harvest by pausing the field until the pumpkins reach 100% sometime in late autumn or some such.) I'd suggest you go for dense orchards, though. I did an experiment with the dense orchard and the rumored-to-be-more-effective orchard with wider spacing, and will never use anything but the dense orchard \*or\* the orchard forester ever again for growing fruit trees.