The trouble with levels.

[Bloodly]

Bought recently, enjoying it, but I keep running into the same problem, again and again.

At the start, you simply cannot afford to take people out from the town-they're needed to work and keep the town going by making food or arms or whatnot. So you solo, or semi-solo if you're lucky. Things move on, your town grows, you secure more lands, but you never really have anyone spare.

And so we come to this-even with good(...ish) equipment, the followers are too weak in terms of HP/defence to help you either out in the wild or against raiders, and can't level up to fix this because they can't deal with the foes.(Seriously, it's like 1-2 hits and dead.) And soloing is impossible. You last a while, but 4 on 1 doesn't always end well, especially when you're dependant on random drops for potions(I've had TERRIBLE luck with Herb fields and never been able to plant them.)

Effectively, I am stuck. Can't progress, doomed to failure through Fame loss and raids.

What am I missing, here?

[Ghiladden]

Hey,

I've been through a few Difficult/Long games and have found that it's almost necessary to bring as many town-folk on adventures with you early in the game, even if it's your only farmer. It's do-able because not everyone is ever really needed all the time, especially trappers, guards, and priests (but it all depends on your play-style). If bringing that farmer out will lead to a loss in food over a few days, it's not a big deal. The gains for clearing a couple monster-infested areas will be well worth it. Any time you need to sit in town, you can release the farmer so he can put in a day's work and top off your food stores.

Good luck!

[ESatire]

It isn't really as hard as it seems at first.
It gets easier with experience (Yours, not the character's).

Due to the random nature of events, some beginnings can be a lot tougher than others, but I try to follow some general rules:
Get farmers - They are the cheapest food producing followers.
Herders and trappers are second priority.
Hope to get food producing items from the low level sites around town.
Depending on your character class, you might need more food producing followers, or have to take one follower with you at start.
If you pick a good combat oriented class, you can usually clear out the surrounding areas yourself, and earn enough money to buy a few more followers.

Each farmer/herder/trapper can at least feed another follower, so you'll be fine in the food department after a few days.

Taking them with you is a risk, but when you have a healer with you it goes a lot easier, so look for an acolyte in the visitors list. Getting them is first priority after those first few hectic days.

You might lose some on your travels and that costs you fame, but a lot less than getting killed yourself. With the right equipment, they'll get pretty tough, and they can be replaced (Because the levels of visitors get higher along with yours).

You'll learn how to balance all this with time, after some experimenting. Then the game will be a lot more fun, and less frustrating :)

[Ouijdani]

Also, later visitors are higher level. I make do with trappers and herders early on, then switch to the higher level guards as they arrive/I can afford them. I rarely risk my merchant or innkeeper, but might take them out a few times.

I've been playing the non-combat classes, since the combat class don't seem to be as challenging.

Ouij

[Gizza]

By the time you are level 3-4 you should easily be able to spare a couple of followers to come adventuring with you. You really only need enough farmers etc to be producing 5 or so more food than you're eating each day and will will quite quickly build up a surplus.

By the time you've soloed 2 or 3 regions you should have made enough gold to get 3 or 4 food producers so by this time you should already be able to take at least 1 of them with you.

If you get some guards don't bother ever leaving them in town as they're useless until a raid party is actually attacking (and even then they're useless if you haven't levelled them up anyways).

Herbalists, Doctors, Acolytes and Priests all cast healing spells so are very handy to have adventuring with you.

[arafelis]

The most important followers you can get are Herbalists. Don't upgrade the first few; you want at least 3-4 producing potions constantly.

Don't forget 1-4 hotkeys healing potions to party members, and space pauses the game. Using those two two things, you should be able to level up any follower as long as you practice good 'pulling' technique. If you use ranged weapons, make sure to level up a guard as a 'tank' to help you level up other followers... and having a healer on hand never hurts.

Oh, and -- to level up your acolyte or priest, you're going to need to hand them a weapon. Healing spells just don't cut it. Make sure you can afford to pull them off've healing duty first.

[Ruffalo]

I'll agree that leaving healers only to heal doesn't level them up very fast at all. Flaming pumpkins are a pretty good way to start them leveling, but any weapon will do. I've found that when playing my character as a tank, hunters can level up very fast, just be sure to focus on any monsters giving them too much attention.
In general I've not really had many issues with leveling followers up. As your character increases in level, the level some of the visitors increases too, though it does cost more gold to recruit them. I've quite often replaced any dead followers with much higher levelled visitors as the game progresses.

[Xarne]

The most important followers you can get are Herbalists. Don't upgrade the first few; you want at least 3-4 producing potions constantly.

Don't forget 1-4 hotkeys healing potions to party members, and space pauses the game. Using those two two things, you should be able to level up any follower as long as you practice good 'pulling' technique. If you use ranged weapons, make sure to level up a guard as a 'tank' to help you level up other followers... and having a healer on hand never hurts.

Oh, and -- to level up your acolyte or priest, you're going to need to hand them a weapon. Healing spells just don't cut it. Make sure you can afford to pull them off've healing duty first.

Smart man right there :)
I usually have have 3-5 doctors (not herbalists for me because I find more speed producing items for the docs that the herbalists) grinding away at rejuv and health potions asap.