Key mechanics - KarbonKitty/sheep-incremental GitHub Wiki
The key mechanics of Sheep Incremental (the guide)
Population
Your sheep are a critical part of your civilisation. Catering for their needs is a main impetus for growing your industry, besides the era advancement; on the other hand, their work is also necessary for that same industry to grow. Population is tied to most other concepts, but most importantly Food and agriculture, Manufacturing, Culture and Spirituality.
There are three major parts of your population: workers, specialists and heroes. Workers are your basic sheep - they work in agriculture, resource extraction and manufacturing, and are interchangeable - you need to keep them happy and well-fed, but there is no need to train them. Specialists are trained to perform special roles - such as partaking in Expeditions, but other than that they have no identity; every Explorer is like every other one. Finally, heroes are expensive, unique sheep - such as Philosopher, who perform Research. They might have special skills and abilities that aren't easy to replicate.
Resource extraction
One of three basic forms of Industry (alongside Agriculture and Manufacturing). Resource extraction buildings produce raw materials necessary for manufacturing; most of them need a special Site, but other than that, only workers are needed to keep them working.
Food and agriculture
Agriculture is second of basic forms of Industry (with Resource extraction and Manufacturing). It is main venue of producing food for your sheep. How much food each sheep needs from you depends on how advanced is your civilisation - early on, sheep can be expected to find most of their sustenance grazing for free grass, but when you have nuclear reactors and major cities, you will need to ensure that everybody can simply buy a burger at a convenience store. Access to various types of food is also helpful in ensuring high spirits and good morale of the population.
Manufacturing
The third main branch of industry in manufacturing. This is a set of buildings that take raw materials and transform them into end products. Early on, there might be a single layer of manufacturing (such as stone tool maker creating stone tools from stone and wood), but later on there might be multiple layers to get from a raw resource to finished product. Manufacturing buildings need workers and inputs to work with full efficiency.