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Post by Keith Heitmann on Sept 21, 2004 16:03:36 GMT -5
Weapons smith -- You choose whether a military equipment factory will produce armor, weapons, bows, or chariots by right-clicking on the building after you place it. You can change an existing shop's production orders after it's built, too. Soldiers visit weapons forges periodically to buy or replace their spears, swords and clubs. City guards also get their weapons here.
Like all government employees, the weapon smith gets his bread from your government’s bakeries or granaries. Both he and his children can gather acacia wood, from which he makes basic weapons. He turns copper and tin from the city’s Exchange or from government storage areas into high-quality bronze weapons that are issued to all soldiers, improving their combat abilities.
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Post by Keith Heitmann on Sept 21, 2004 16:04:32 GMT -5
Bricklayer -- Bricklayers are the skilled craftsmen who build most of your government’s structures, and your government pays them well for their services. They have the same appetite for services and household wares as other middle-class citizens. Bricklayers carry small loads of bricks themselves, but rely on the services of block haulers for large deliveries. They work most efficiently when they don't have to waste too much time traveling, so they walk the route that lets them move the most bricks over the shortest distance. To optimize efficiency, place bricklayers' houses near brickworks, which should not be too far from their anticipated work sites.
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Post by Keith Heitmann on Sept 21, 2004 16:05:03 GMT -5
Farmer -- The rich Nile floodplain underlies all of Egypt’s wealth. Though nobles own everything produced on their farms, they always allow the farm family to take what it needs to support itself, since the farmers are the ones who coax the crops from the fields. Everyone in the family works the wheat, barley and vegetable fields during the season of Peret and helps with the harvest in the season of Shemu, resting during the floods of Akhet. Efficient food production yields surpluses that enrich estate owners, enabling them to improve their townhouses and control more farms. Locate farmhouses near the floodplain, and give farmers convenient access to household wares and services so that they can maximize their time in the fields.
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Post by Keith Heitmann on Sept 21, 2004 16:05:32 GMT -5
Weaver -- Linen, the clothing material of choice, is an inexpensive common household ware that everyone who doesn’t wish to go around naked desires. The weaver makes linen at home, using flax that her husband and children gather from the wild.
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Post by Keith Heitmann on Sept 21, 2004 16:06:05 GMT -5
Papyrus Maker -- Writing on papyrus makes so many things so much more efficient that it can really accelerate the city’s development. Students complete their lessons much more easily with papyrus, enabling the priests in schools to educate more youngsters at once. Scribes with papyrus can serve a lot more customers simultaneously in the Exchange, while those who account for farm production can assess fields more promptly. In trade centers, scribes collect tariffs more effectively with the aid of papyrus. Papyrus is itself a lucrative export for many Egyptian cities, and as such a major trade good for your government.
Priests and scribes get papyrus, free of charge, from government papyrus mills, and store it in their homes. Build papyrus mills near the homes of the scribes and priests who will use the commodity, but not terribly far from the reeds from which it is made.
Quite apart from its utility in writing, Egypt's abundant papyrus reeds are sometimes used to make bricks where straw is unavailable. On most days you can see peasants fishing the Nile in reed boats that they make for themselves.
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Post by Keith Heitmann on Sept 21, 2004 16:06:37 GMT -5
Brick Maker -- Almost everything in Egyptian cities is made from either simple mud bricks, which form most private homes, or manufactured bricks, used to construct more permanent government buildings, including some types of tombs. Since mud bricks are universally available and cost nothing, they needn't be mentioned again.
The government pays brick makers to manufacture bricks at brickworks. Finished bricks are stored right at the brickworks where the brick maker lives, until a bricklayer takes them to a public construction site. Clay and straw (a byproduct of farming) are the usual materials from which bricks are made, although wild rushes or papyrus reeds can also be used. Your government sometimes trades in bricks. It's best to locate brickworks near anticipated construction sites, and then put one or more bricklayers' houses near the brickworks.
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Post by Keith Heitmann on Sept 21, 2004 16:07:03 GMT -5
Entertainer -- Everyone in this self-employed, middle-class family earns bread by amusing other people who can afford their services. In hard times, you can find them performing in the streets, but that's not much better than begging. An entertainer's real livelihood comes from performing at lavish feasts thrown by nobles at their townhouses, where the audience often includes many of a neighborhood's elite citizens.
Male entertainers can juggle, play music and wrestle; women dance instead of wrestle, but shopping takes up some of the time they could be performing. Even children can juggle. Entertainment satisfies nobles' need for leisure.
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Post by Keith Heitmann on Sept 21, 2004 16:07:47 GMT -5
Scribe -- Scribes are the educated government employees who ensure that you get the revenue you’re due. They monitor private estates to tally all food production so that it may be properly taxed. Scribes also operate Exchanges, where craftsmen and shopkeepers can acquire raw materials, and they monitor the importation and exportation of luxuries in trade centers, making sure that tariffs are paid. All of this record-keeping and ciphering is made much easier and more efficient with the employment of papyrus.
The scribe’s wife handles most of the household shopping, but the scribe himself will run errands when necessary. Scribes’ children attend school so that they can enjoy lives as professional adults themselves. Like all elite workers, scribes expect the best goods, services and leisure that a city offers.
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Post by Keith Heitmann on Sept 21, 2004 16:08:29 GMT -5
Potter -- Pottery is a common household ware – a basic, inexpensive commodity that everybody likes to have. The potter works in her home, fashioning all manner of vessels from the clay that her husband and their children dig from the shores of the Nile. When she is not actually throwing pots, the potter shops for household wares for her family.
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Post by Keith Heitmann on Sept 21, 2004 16:08:57 GMT -5
Sevant -- Noblewomen have an awful lot of shopping to do. Without hired help, they cannot hope to run a household in the elegant and carefree style to which they are entitled. Servants are so indispensable to a well-run estate that nobles often build servants’ quarters into their townhouses to house the help for the duration of their employment.
Despite their frequent interaction with the pinnacle of society, servants are peasants, and their homes are correspondingly modest. Like farmers and laborers, they are never more than a few missed meals away from becoming vagrants. A husband and wife both work as servants, and their children expect to grow into lives of servitude as well.
Servants’ shacks are best located near the townhouses of nobles and other elite citizens who will need their assistance. Some very successful luxury shops can afford to employ servants, too. You might also see servants pressed into building townhouses or constructing your palace, but that is not their normal role.
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Post by Keith Heitmann on Oct 6, 2004 3:49:56 GMT -5
Gardener -- Your government runs nurseries to raise pomegranate trees, date palms, and grape vines. Gardeners are middle-class government employees who generally come from the peasantry. The young plants are sold to nobles to enhance their townhouses with gardens and groves.
People whose residences sport private groves have a ready supply of fruit, from which they make wine. Fruit and wine represent such an investment of time and effort that, besides being a coveted culinary delicacy, they are quite a status symbol as well. Households that can make wine don't need barley bread to make beer.
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Post by Keith Heitmann on Oct 6, 2004 3:51:15 GMT -5
Pefumer -- Perfume is a luxury household ware made by the perfumer from oil mixed with flowers, henna, or myrrh. The perfumer's children collect these materials, while his wife sees to the family's shopping needs. When the family can afford to hire a servant to help with the gathering, perfumers' children might have enough free time to attend school and eventually become educated workers.
The city's wealthier residents patronize perfume shops, as do foreign merchants. Perfumers are members of the middle class who have risen from the ranks of the peasantry, or migrated from other middle-class occupations. Very prosperous perfume shops can enable their owners to move into vacant townhouses and become elite noble families, provided they have enough food to finance their new start. Locate perfume shops near the elite households that will buy their wares, but not too far from the raw materials, common wares shops and service facilities the perfumer's own household needs.
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Post by Keith Heitmann on Oct 6, 2004 3:52:13 GMT -5
Villager -- Villagers are the numerous native people living quiet, purposeless lives along the shores of the Nile in modest hovels, subsisting as simple hunter-gatherers without higher ambition. Inspired by your leadership, they are eager to join your growing society and become productive Egyptian citizens. Villagers don't have any skills or trades, and forage, hunt and fish for their food in the countryside. But they can join the lowest ranks of Egyptian society as farmers, laborers, servants or soldiers. Village women often rise out of their condition by marrying when a peasant forms a new household.
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Post by Keith Heitmann on Oct 6, 2004 3:52:54 GMT -5
More to come.
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Post by Keith Heitmann on Oct 20, 2004 11:24:21 GMT -5
Priest -- Priests provide valuable social services to your citizens. Like other government employees, they obtain their food, as salary, from your bakeries. Your prestige determines how many of these men you can lead, and only graduates or existing educated workers can become priests. Order a priest to focus his efforts on providing healthcare, teaching students at schools, tending the gods at worship facilities, or providing funerary services at mortuaries by right-clicking his home and selecting from the list that appears. If you give no such specific instructions, the priest will spread his efforts across all the social service facilities he can in the time he has available.
Priests like to acquire and use a modest assortment of household wares. Having a supply of papyrus on hand speeds up the educational process. As unmarried men without children, priests don't need to live close to a school (unless you intend for them to work at one). Locate priest apartments near the buildings where you expect them to work, but make sure they are also close to shops, as priests have no other family members who can help out with the shopping. They appreciate an invitation to a good townhouse feast as much as any other educated citizen.
One cannot overstate the importance of priests. They are integral to all stages of the lives of your people, from childhood to the tomb. Priests look forward to earning retirement after a number of years of loyal service. If there is an unoccupied townhouse in the city, and dissatisfaction among the nobility doesn't discourage people from managing new estates, the retired priest will move in, bringing all of his food and wares with him. After retirement, a priest may choose to marry, and possibly even have children. If there is no suitable retirement estate, he leaves your city to find one elsewhere in Egypt. An eager young graduate can move into the retired worker's now-vacant home and begin a career as a new priest - again, assuming that dissatisfaction doesn't keep people out of that occupation.
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