Health & nutrition
Looking after your villagers’ health is extremely important; the overall prosperity of the village depends on it. Villagers in very poor health are unable to work or have children, and health in general affects a person’s chance of dying of disease or in childbirth. So without good health amongst the population, production and population growth suffer. Unhealthy people are also unhappy people, and the village’s overall happiness has a big impact on prosperity.
A person’s health depends on several factors:
- The health of their parents when they were born.
- Their age (health decreases with age).
- Their level of nutrition.
- The amount of work they have to do (this only affects health in the long term).
- The current season and climate (more rain and colder weather both lead to worse health).
- The location of the village (fresh mountain air leads to better health, whereas lowland areas have damp, fetid conditions).
- Any special buildings in the village.
Nutrition in terms depends on:
- The amount that they are eating.
- What food they are eating.
- The number of different types of food that they are eating (the more the better, even in small quantities).
So, in order to increase the health of the people, the key factors you can control are their overall consumption, the different foodstuffs available and the amount of work they are doing.
Food
The different types of food available to the villagers all have different levels of nutrition. Barley and rice are good staple sustenance, but adding things such as fish, salt and tea to the population’s diet will see an improvement in their overall health. The number of different types of food available will also have an impact, independent of each foodstuff’s nutritional value -- the more different types of food the better, as a varied diet leads to better health.
You can also control the overall amount that the villager’s eat -- again, the more the better, but be careful you don’t let them eat so much that stores run out! Reduce the level of consumption if poor weather threatens or stores otherwise run low. It is far better to have the villagers eat less for a few years than it is to let the village run out of food entirely, resulting in mass starvation.
Different types of food become available to grow, make or buy over the years.
Amount of work
Putting this up or down won’t have much impact in the short term. Its consequences are long term in nature - a lifetime of hard labour will wear a person down over the years and they will die young, whereas a life of comparative ease will give them a longer life, more children and leave them able to work long into their middle and old age. They will end up healthier and happier.
Clearly the best thing in the long term for the village is to set the level of work as low as you can while still producing enough crops and stores for the village to prosper. Lots of tweaking will be required! Set it to a high level in short bursts when stores are running low and more work has to be done.
Weather and seasons
Cold and damp weather has a negative impact on health, as does winter. This is an especially important factor for young children, who are more susceptible to disease. You can’t control the weather, but you can balance out its effects by raising consumption while things look grim.
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