Population
There is no greater measure of a town’s prosperity than its growing population, starting from a small settlement of twelve people to a bustling metropolis of hundreds.
A larger town can support more jobs, but it also means bigger needs for food and supplies. Balancing those two forces is a key to success in Farthest Frontier.
Professions
Each villager of adolescent age or older can perform a profession. What professions are available in town depends on what structures have been built. By default, all villagers start out as laborers, which means they are available for picking up and delivering resources, harvesting trees and stone, and for clearing build sites.
If build sites are in need of construction, some laborers automatically convert into builders, up to a maximum set in the Professions UI.
Professions UI
The Professions UI (default hotkey: P) offers an overview of all the jobs villagers are filling in the town. If you have no buildings that support a particular role, it is grayed out in the list. From here, you can decide where to distribute your people without having to select individual buildings. Laborers represent the work force available to be assigned to other more specialized roles.
However, your town will struggle to function without any laborers at all as nobody is then available to make deliveries or harvest certain resources. You may have less laborers than is advised if the number of laborers turns red.
Some buildings can support more work positions than they start with. You can increase the number of work slots in a building from its UI.
Note that it is not possible to assign more villagers to a job than your town can support.
Education
Education helps elevate society, teaching children the knowledge imparted by past generations. In Farthest Frontier, educated workers perform their roles more efficiently and are capable of filling a number of advanced positions that require an education.
A basic education is required in order to work in the Healer’s House, School, and Apothecary Shop. The requirement for the school may seem like a circular problem, but you will find that some arriving immigrants have a basic education and can impart their knowledge onto the town’s children.
Age
Villagers in Farthest Frontier age over time, and eventually die of old age, if nature or calamity doesn’t claim them first.
New births start out at 1 year. Infants and children age more rapidly, it must be something in the water. By the time children reach adolescence, they are capable of joining the work force. This is the frontier after all. Once they are adults, aging slows down to real time. Adult and older villagers age one year per frontier year.
Senior and Elderly villagers are still capable of work, but they are more fragile and susceptible to injuries or illness. Elderly villagers have a chance to die of old age, a mournful event for the town.
Immigration
As word of a town prospering in the wilderness spreads, other people may soon arrive seeking refuge and opportunity. How likely immigrants are to arrive depends on available housing and food supplies. Immigrants will not come to a town that cannot sustain them!
Small immigration events can occur randomly, and these visitors integrate seamlessly into the town population without further input. Periodically though, you may be faced with a large group that travels together and must decide whether to welcome them at the Town Center or reject their plea. Such immigration events can occur on their own, or be triggered by meeting certain criteria, such as fulfilling the town’s request for a Market.
Note that rejected immigrants may become desperate and even attack.
Births
If your people are healthy and happy, and there’s ample housing to support a growing population, then your town will soon be blessed with new births.
These children are the first generation to be born in the frontier and will never know the hardships of the life your people endured before venturing out to start anew deep in the wilderness.
How challenging their lives will be in the frontier is up to you!
Deaths
Whether by the cruel blades of raiders, a wild animal attack, the ravages or disease, or at the mercy of old age, death will inevitably strike.
Villagers can perish in many, mostly preventable, ways. Even the hardiest survivors will succumb to starvation or the elements if not properly prepared.
Sickness can rapidly sweep through a town teeming with filth, claiming the frail and vulnerable.
However your villagers meet their end, it is advised to build a Graveyard to accommodate the dead. Bodies left to rot in the streets attract rats, which are in turn bearers of further pestilence.
Combat
