Hey guys i'm new to the settlers series and i just bought the game today. Basically my concern is when i track settlers needs for food/clothes/cleanness etc sometimes they are all in the red.

I'm fairly sure i understand how the game works; the problem is my settlers aren't going to the produce stores to buy what they need. Even to the point where i'm seeing butchers in the red for food while his store is full of meat.

I think i might be missing something, how do i encourage my settlers to buy goods from the stores? I just finished mission 3 and had 3 butcher shops all 9/9 but still my settlers would always be in the red/yellow. I had 3 bread stores with the same 9/9. I had 2 basic shirts and 1 weaver and 2 of each cleaning product store. Yet even with this surplus of goods they still seem avoid buying any of them.

I should note they do go up into the green, but shortly fall back down. So i know they at least understand where the store is. Yet they spend barely any time in the green and a lot of time in the red, even when most of my stores have 9/9 products.

Any help would be great. So far i love this game. Much more immersive than anno. (not the time or thread to go into details as why i like it more.)

Thanks, Brad.

You might like to watch the videos http://www.siedler-games.de/fo...mpagnenmissonen.html and read the FAQs in the Useful Links and Information thread at the top of the forum.

Thanks for the reply. I think i understand how the need system works now. I was looking at the meters undernearth each need as "happiness" but it works more like a timer. They fill up their homes with the goods they need and the goods slowly run out, then when they're gone or almost gone they go collect some more. Again thanks for the videos i'm going to watch some now.