Hi Keilah, welcome to Pharaoh Heaven.
I don't understand what you mean by "overseers in industrial areas" and probably by "overseers" in general.
As ken b suggested, you first need to understand "random" and "destination" walkers. Destination walkers are those with a specific destination, including cart pushers, bazaar buyers, firemen going to fight a fire, entertainers going from their "school" to a venue, and laborers (going to a floodplain farm or monument or storage yard). Random walkers are those that don't have a specific destination, including citizens (labor-seekers), priests, bazaar traders, firemen on patrol, and entertainers generated by a venue. Random walkers typically return to their building after a while, and turn into destination walkers during the "return" part of their walk.
Destination walkers will pass through a roadblock, but random walkers won't.
All buildings with labor access share in the city-wide "labor pool", regardless of where the buildings and housing is located, so if there are sufficient workers then all buildings with labor access will be fully staffed.
A building that needs employees sends out a citizen, who is a random walker. A building will have labor access if its citizen passes within 2 tiles of an occupied house, although the labor access will be poor if its citizen spends only a short time near occupied housing. Labor access decays with time, and a building will continue to send out its citizen unless labor access is quite good. A building should eventually have good labor access if its citizen passes by several tiles of occupied housing on every walk.
Clearly, if a building's citizen is prevented from passing by houses (because of roadblocks or anything else), then that building cannot have labor access.
Note that a work camp (like a meadow farm) needs employees and sends out a citizen. However, a floodplain farm does not need employees--it is farmed by a laborer generated by a work camp. A laborer goes from the work camp to a farm, and is therefore a destination walker who will go through a roadblock. Many players' first use of roadblocks is to prevent other walkers from going down roads that lead only to floodplain farms.
Perhaps the most valuable use of roadblocks is to confine random walkers (such as water carriers, bazaar traders, and teachers) to a housing block while allowing destination walkers (such as bazaar buyers and cart pushers carrying papyrus to a school) access to and from the block.
How do you supply labor access to other buildings (such as granaries, work camps, and clay pits), if the road going into a housing block is blocked by a roadblock? One way (used by many good players) is to put a few huts wherever they are needed to supply labor access. However, some of us don't want lousy houses in our cities, so we always supply labor access from houses on the edge of a housing block--this requires putting a housing block (sometimes a small one) not far from all industrial areas, which requires some planning. For example:
HHHH
HHHH
RRRBBRRRRRRRBRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
HHRHHRWWWW
HHRHHRWWWW
HHRHHRWW
HHRHHRWW
RRRHHRF
HHHH
HHHH
where: R=road, B=roadblock, F=firehouse, W=workshops or work camps, H=housing (or, in some places, service buildings such as bazaars or water supplies). The left side of the diagram is part of a housing block, with many buildings not shown. The road extending to the right might go to some floodplain farms. Note that without the rightmost roadblock, the rightmost workshop or work camp might not have labor access, since its citizen might always start walking to the right (and never go by housing)--random walkers usually don't behave that badly, but sometimes they do.
I suggest that you look at a few example cities (perhaps ones that you've already completed) from our Downloads. (Most players who put cities in the Downloads know how to use roadblocks effectively.)
The key to financial success is to concentrate on making money (perhaps along with food production and, sometimes, city defense) at the beginning of a mission. By the second year, you should be spending no more than you make. If you want more details on money management, just say so.
It's not clear whether you've already played the Pharaoh "family history". If you haven't, I suggest doing so (at least the first dozen or so missions). The "family history" missions introduce concepts (such as roadblocks) incrementally, and gradually become harder. Cleopatra is an expansion for Pharaoh, and is intended for a player who already knows the basics.
[This message has been edited by Brugle (edited 01-14-2004 @ 03:01 PM).]