Why Your Settlers Are Idle - Going Medieval

The settlers in Going Medieval are pretty good about going about their business without your help — usually. Sometimes, they’ll end up idle even when you’ve got tasks waiting to be accomplished. Here are a few common reasons your settlers might be idle in Going Medieval:

You don’t have enough resources – This one may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how quickly you can go through wood just building a few walls and doors. Keep a close eye on the resources you have available (I recommend grouping them with the ‘]’ key). You can also check and see if you lack the resources for a planned piece of construction by clicking on it and then checking the box in the bottom right. Also make sure you don’t have resources your settlers need marked “Forbidden”.

not enough allowed resources going medieval — *Better find some limestone!*

Your settlers can’t get to their task – This is less likely, but still quite possible. Maybe you forgot to build stairs up to the 2nd story you want construction done on, or you forgot to put a door somewhere important. This can also sometimes occur with mining if it’s done near an obstacle (see below).

going medieval inacessible mining idle settlers — *The last few squares are unminable without stairs, as there’s no path to them*

They have nothing to do – This one is unlikely to occur if you have any meaningful amount of farming going on, but it is possible. To prevent your settlers from running out of tasks, its best to set all production facilities to “Until you have”, or even “Forever” if it’s something really useful like Alcohol.

production until you have going medieval 2 — *If you’ve got the space, more is more!*

They don’t have a schedule – Don’t forget to create a schedule for new settlers! They might not be doing nothing, but they’re much more likely to just drink and hang out if you don’t schedule them some work.