Hm, no, that isn’t even close to what I said. @YetiChow got it right on; it’s not even about my off-the-cuff suggestion being a good fit for the game, but that an action should be implemented so there’s something to do.
Games are essentially Skinner boxes; you push the lever and you get a snack. This sort of short-cycle reward system is really what gets a player involved in a game. Otherwise, you end up with a screensaver - remember that game, Mountain? Even strategy games which reward the long play give the player meaningful things to do along every step of the way, so that they feel personally invested in the situation and its resolution. So that’s the suggestion; make the game feel more alive by giving the player just little slivers of control here and there. There are many ways to do that without trivializing the mechanic.
I could list dozens of ways that the game plays itself and doesn’t give the player the detailed control needed to overcome the broad, high-level AI decisions. In fact, I did just that last year, at length: Soldiers, experience, delusions, and wasted time
Right, because Stonehearth started out as an ant farm, which is sort of quintessentially macromanaged. I’m with you so far. But macro without individual interaction is Populous (which is an amazing game) or that SSI game Stronghold (which was also pretty fun, I recall). Those games didn’t have individual personalities; they didn’t have citizens that stopped following orders to do things that they cared about. This is why I said in that other thread that I’m having such a hard time understanding how to give constructive feedback. You’re putting an increasing amount of personal attention touches on a game that doesn’t handle micro well at all. You’re asking about emergent storytelling and gameplay narratives. So is it more helpful to talk about what details will encourage player investment and interaction, or about what mechanics will streamline the process of guiding your Hearthlings to complete high-level tasks? And if the real goal is for that not to be a binary choice, then how are you going to build that bridge?