Edit: By the way, I accidentally discovered a method to control births in Banished. Don't build new houses for people who have newly turned adult. They will continue to live in other people's houses, even after an apparent marriage has taken place, and no children will be born to any of the four people living there. I am sure it is a bug, but it certainly was convenient for me.
I'm pretty sure this is intended. If not, there would be no way to control your populations leading to mass starvation cycles every few years.
Would be FUN though 
I did that cause lack of resources and by year 15th people started to die of old age, I went from 50 to 25 citizens and stopped playing after that as most of the remaining guys where 65+ years old.
Needs a Sinister biome, will try a harsh mountain next.
I was watching for the "no house" symbol to appear over people's heads and time got by me when it never appeared. In the ninth year or so I realized I had an aging population and no new children for some time. The timeframe, aging 4 years for every real year, also took me by surprise. My second town is doing much better. I split the groups in about the third year, going from five houses to 12. I think I will hold it there until my log production catches up. I made a bunch of silly mistakes in the first town, anyway. I wasted quite a few resources moving buildings because I didn't realize what a pittance of material you got back when you demolished something.
One strange thing I discovered happening was that if you build six houses, one of your original pairs will split. I thought I saw this happen in the first town but I didn't really know what I was doing. I had an intermediate town that I did not keep because it only came with one type of crop seed. Now I wish I had saved it, because maybe it had some kind of livestock instead? Anyway, I had built six houses, and again one of the couples split. The funny thing is that the old guy who had split from his mate in the first town eventually, in about year ten, got a new one. Or maybe he got his old one back. Three of the oldest had already died by then and I had not kept track.
Another thing that can ruin the food production is the food limit. I realized there was one in my last year playing the first village, when the fishing wharf got that symbol over it that said it was full. I wondered how the heck that could happen when I had recently built a second barn. That was when I noticed the limit, and raised it. The thing is, I think that limit could make your crop fields give less produce each year without showing any symbol over them. So if you had a lot of fish in your barn, then you might not be getting the grain and vegetables that your people need to go with the fish. I noticed in my second village that my yields from the crop fields were poorer than they had been in the first village, with twice the fields. I went in and doubled that food limit and the crop yield went up dramatically. I now have it set to 10,000, with two barns. Little things like this can really ruin someone's experience with a game if they don't bother to read everything that can be displayed on the screen. There is a reason why I play mostly at 1x speed.
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Topic: Banished, a Survival Village Builder: Now with legible title! (Read 52220 times)