Clay Pit

The Clay Pit is a raw-material extractor: it digs clay out of clay deposits along the Nile and ships it to workshops. Clay is the raw input for two of the city's earliest industries — the Pottery Workshop (clay → pottery) and the Bricks Workshop (clay → bricks).

Like floodplain farms, a Clay Pit must sit on low ground beside the river, so it is swamped during the annual flood: while the Nile is in inundation the pit stops working, and a flooded pit cannot be demolished until the waters recede.

It is a 2×2 building and, like all extraction industry, it lowers the desirability of its surroundings — keep it well away from housing you want to evolve.

Clay Pit

2×2Size

8Workers

−3Desirability

---

Cost (Normal)

30 Db

Cost by difficulty

VE 8 · Easy 15 · Normal 30 · Hard 50 · VH 100

Labor category

Industry & Commerce

Terrain

Clay deposits, near water

Produces

Clay

Fire / Damage risk

None / Low

Output

---

Each batch of clay is carried by a cartpusher to a Storage Yard, then drawn from there by a Pottery or Bricks workshop.

Overview

Clay was the foundation of everyday Egyptian craft — the material for pots, jars, and sun-dried mud bricks. In the game the Clay Pit is one of the very first extraction buildings a city builds, because the goods it feeds (pottery and bricks) are needed both for housing to evolve and for the earliest brick monuments.

The pit works the clay deposits that appear on the riverbank — visible on the resource overlay. Diggers extract clay continuously while the pit is staffed and the deposit beneath it still holds clay; a cartpusher then carries each finished load away to storage.

Mechanics

Digging clay

While the pit is staffed it searches the tiles under its footprint for the richest clay deposit and digs there, producing raw clay and depleting that deposit as it goes. Clay deposits are a finite map resource: if the ground beneath the pit runs dry, output stops even though the building is otherwise healthy. Place the pit over the thickest clay you can find.

The flood

Because clay sits on low riverbank ground, the Clay Pit is caught by the annual inundation. When the flood reaches it the pit is swamped: its workers are sent home, production halts, and it switches to a flooded sprite. A flooded pit cannot be demolished until the water recedes. With the optional collapse-cost rule enabled, a swamped pit also triggers a 250 Db disaster expense. Once the flood passes the pit returns to work on its own.

Output rate & staffing

Production speed depends on how fully the pit is staffed — a fully manned pit digs at its base rate, and output falls off as the worker percentage drops. Keep the pit connected by road to a housing block with spare labor, or it will throttle down.

Risks

The Clay Pit carries essentially no fire risk and only a low collapse (damage) risk, so it needs little fire-marshal or architect coverage compared with most industry. Its real hazard is the flood, not fire.

Production chain

Every leg runs on roads: clay is carried from the pit to a Storage Yard, and from there the Pottery and Bricks workshops draw it as they need it. One clay pit is enough to keep a single workshop fed; if your workshops idle for lack of clay, add pit capacity or a second pit on another deposit. Clay can also be imported over a trade route when no local deposit is available.

Info window

Right-clicking the pit opens its info window, showing the workers employed, how much clay is in stock, and whether the pit is currently flooded or producing. It is the quickest way to spot a pit that has run its deposit dry or been caught by the flood.

Tips

• Build the Clay Pit before its workshops — a Pottery or Bricks workshop with no clay just sits idle and wastes its workers.
• Site the pit over the thickest clay deposit (check the resource overlay); deposits are finite and a thin one will run dry.
• Expect the pit to stop every year during the flood. Plan a small clay buffer in a Storage Yard so workshops keep running while the pit is swamped.
• Keep the pit close to a Storage Yard and its workshops to keep cartpusher trips short; long hauls slow the whole chain.
• Industry drags desirability down (−3, fading over 2 tiles). Keep clay pits on the industrial, riverside edge of town, away from housing you want to evolve.
• No local clay? Set up a clay import route instead — workshops will draw imported clay from the Storage Yard just the same.

building_clay_pit {
  output { resource : RESOURCE_CLAY }

  progress_max : 200
  production_rate : 100
  building_size : 2
  labor_category : LABOR_CATEGORY_INDUSTRY_COMMERCE
  cost [ 8, 15, 30, 50, 100 ]
  desirability { value[-3], step[1], step_size[1], range[2] }
  laborers[8]  fire_risk[0]  damage_risk[1]
  needs { nearby_water : true }   // must be placed beside the river
  flags { is_extractor: true, is_industry: true }
  info_sound : "Wavs/clay.wav"
  meta { help_id: 92, text_id: 121 }
}