Citizens are idle when they shouldn't be

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#1

Summary:

Citizens will be idle even when there are things to do.

Steps to reproduce:
It seems to happen when I reach a certain amount of citizens.

I built a wall around my camp, it all was built except for a bit of one column. I saw that my citizens couldn’t get there, so I made it so they could finish. They finished, but the scafolding on the whole wall isn’t being taken down. They will do other things if I tell them to.

This kind of problem happens allot, setting plants (that were moved) to be gathered would not make the citizens do anything. They would do anything before the plants. When they have nothing left to do, they sit idle, though eventually (maybe after an ingame day) they will go collect some of the plants, but not all of them.

Expected Results:
To finish the wall and remove scaffolding.
Actual Results:
Citizens ignore the wall.

Notes:

Attachments:

Version Number and Mods in use:
Release - 549 x64
System Information:
Windows 10 Home, 64 bit
8 gb ram
amd fx™ 9590 8 core processor 4.70 ghz
nvidia gtx 770 gpu

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#2

This is generally a performance issue and happens to everyone at different population points depending on their computer (certain tasks, like mining, also load your CPU heavily and can lead to this). They’re working on it but it’s a general optimization fix that will take time (you should have seen how bad it was six months ago).

It happens because Hearthling AI runs separately from the rest of the game. Pause it for a second and they’ll catch up.

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#3

I was saving and reloading the game and this is so much easier!

#4

You’ll probably also want to save and reload about once every half-hour or so, as there’s also a memory leak issue that can cause similar problems.

In the meanwhile the only other thing that works is either 1) patience while we wait on dev optimizations or 2) faster computer.

Three months ago I couldn’t run more than 15 hearthlings at base speed without the whole town locking up. After they did the alpha 14 optimizations, that went up to about 25 hearthlings before I saw significant slowdown. Then I upgraded my computer to an i7-6700 and now I’m running a 31-hearthling town and the only times I get significant amounts of hearthling idle are when I’m running triple-speed or doing large-scale mining.

#5

If it was performance, then wouldn’t they be idle on everything? The only thing they won’t do is finish the wall, and have trouble with harvesting plants. And saving and reloading doesn’t change anything.

#6

Welcome to the forum, @123 :slight_smile:

I bumped your user level so you can attach files. If your save is too big, you won’t be able to upload it, however =(
In that case you can use a free hosting site (Dropbox, Google Drive, etc) to upload it and share the download link here.

It’s good when the bugs are reproducible on save-load, since sharing the savefile helps the devs to reproduce it and inspect it more easily.

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#7

Normally these performance issues don’t affect all tasks, the crafters will keep doing their jobs, only hearthlings which constantly need new pathfinding (eg. when building) will suffer, if your processor can’t keep up. It still might be something else entirely, so definitely follow Relyss’s instructions :slight_smile:

#8

Yup. People don’t always realize how massively intensive pathfinding calculations can be in a game like this. The problem is it’s an exponential problem; the more hearthlings, the more items, the more carved and built, etc., the more the computer has to do.

Dwarf Fortress has ASCII graphics and can still lock up modern systems, and it’s these same issues that do it.

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#9

Hey @123, loaded up your save. Happy to say there are no bugs or performance issues that I can see! The issue in both cases are the inability for Hearthlings to reach where they need to go. In the case of the half completed section of wall, the terrain was in the way. Giving the Heartlings a path to the next ground level, and removing a section of dirt was all that was needed to complete the wall. Then the Heartlings immediately take down the scaffolding.
Blocks that need to be removed:

blob.jpg1786×998 486 KB

Build a ladder so they can reach the blocks to be mined.
blob.jpg1773×993 528 KB

Wait for the wall to be finished and watch the scaffolding come down:
Pasted image1781×996 187 KB

Second issue was a non-built column. Once a path to the column is built, they work on it and then tear down the scaffolding:
Build a ladder near the red circle:

blob.jpg1774×993 450 KB

Column built, scaffolding gets torn down:
Pasted image1781×995 316 KB

Hope this helps, and welcome to the forums!

#10

Oh thanks, I already mined out those blocks, but didn’t notice the column by the water that wasn’t built.

#11

@123, I mined an additional 3 blocks. I noticed you had mined the blocks touching the wall, you needed to go back even further so the Hearthlings could climb up the ladder without hitting their heads.

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#12

All my citizens went idle…
And save and reload or suspens doesnt worked.
I have no idea how it happend or what triggerd the citizens to be idle…
I have 10 citizens, 1 large mining project and 1 building project (kind of a wall around futher camp)
Didnt found any other bugs reports like mine expect for this one… Does the devs maybe know what the problem could be?

#13

Check your inventory limit (in the town menu, perhaps your inventory is full) also make sure hearthlings can reach all parts of your building project and have enough wood to build scaffolding and enough materials to build the wall itself.

#14

I have all the resource i need.
And not at the inventory cap…
And for the building project everything was reachable.
But what it solved was just one ladder in my mining project…
Really bizzar :slight_smile: but thanks Reedo! becaus of you i started checking everything and building ladders :wink: haha

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#15

Glad it worked out for you :slight_smile: