11 omg where to begin.
No, you do not have brain rot.
The game on Xbox attempts to simplify it for you, but it’s actually a very complex game.
Wood is needed for buildings, like houses, economic drop off points, military production buildings, and town centers.
Food is needed to produce villagers out of your town center.
The more gatherers you have, the more resources you’ll be able to spend.
Food is also used for producing military units, along with wood and gold.
Gold can be used to buy a resource at the market.
Gold is also used for stronger military units like heavy horse, heavy infantry, monks, or siege, and later technologies at the university.
The whole game is about balancing your economy towards what you want to produce, and when your economy is producing efficiently, you’ll have 0 resources floating.
It’s an impossible balance that we all try to achieve.
Just keep trying different build orders, watch tons of YT content, and have fun out there.