First, I'll post the question I was about to ask (before I went off to check something).
I've often observed that, subject to there being enough stone available and enough stonemasons to keep a flow of orders going, a workcamp will generate a maximum of 4 stone-pullers at 1-week intervals. No further laborers will be generated from that camp until one of those four returns home 'invisibly'. Progress can be monitored over open ground by observing red squares passing across the green footprint of, say, a granary (selected for construction but not placed). The red square heads directly (under buildings, water, mountains, anything) to the spawning tile and the new laborer appears immediately it arrives there (if the workcamp is waiting to issue a laborer).
What is unknown to me is what determines the (sometimes very lengthy) delay between the stone-puller disappearing (having delivered his stone) and the start of his covert journey home. I thought I had quantified this at around 5 weeks (after watching a single workcamp on a large pyramid complex) but I've just been looking at a medium pyramid on the same map (CCK 'Sandbox' Pyramids) and this delay is closer to 10 weeks.
Does anyone have any further information on this?
(BTW - site preparation workers exhibit similar behaviour but seem to head home much more quickly).
While checking something in-game I found something new (to me). I was trying to establish where these 'invisible' walks start from and I found that (ex-)stone-pullers weren't starting from the construction site at all. They appear (if an invisible walker can be said to 'appear' at all) along the northern edge of the map and 'walk' from there to the relevant camp. If this is normal behaviour, it suggests that workcamps further north might re-generate stone-pullers more quickly than their more southerly neighbors, requiring less workcamps to do the same job.
In any case, I've been unable to reliably quantify how long it takes for a 'spent' laborer to start his invisible walk. I've seen everything from around three weeks to a couple of months, so my question stands.
I've often observed that, subject to there being enough stone available and enough stonemasons to keep a flow of orders going, a workcamp will generate a maximum of 4 stone-pullers at 1-week intervals. No further laborers will be generated from that camp until one of those four returns home 'invisibly'. Progress can be monitored over open ground by observing red squares passing across the green footprint of, say, a granary (selected for construction but not placed). The red square heads directly (under buildings, water, mountains, anything) to the spawning tile and the new laborer appears immediately it arrives there (if the workcamp is waiting to issue a laborer).
What is unknown to me is what determines the (sometimes very lengthy) delay between the stone-puller disappearing (having delivered his stone) and the start of his covert journey home. I thought I had quantified this at around 5 weeks (after watching a single workcamp on a large pyramid complex) but I've just been looking at a medium pyramid on the same map (CCK 'Sandbox' Pyramids) and this delay is closer to 10 weeks.
Does anyone have any further information on this?
(BTW - site preparation workers exhibit similar behaviour but seem to head home much more quickly).
While checking something in-game I found something new (to me). I was trying to establish where these 'invisible' walks start from and I found that (ex-)stone-pullers weren't starting from the construction site at all. They appear (if an invisible walker can be said to 'appear' at all) along the northern edge of the map and 'walk' from there to the relevant camp. If this is normal behaviour, it suggests that workcamps further north might re-generate stone-pullers more quickly than their more southerly neighbors, requiring less workcamps to do the same job.
In any case, I've been unable to reliably quantify how long it takes for a 'spent' laborer to start his invisible walk. I've seen everything from around three weeks to a couple of months, so my question stands.
[This message has been edited by Trium3 (edited 12-29-2008 @ 01:01 PM).]