# \[Dev Blog\] Introducing the Weaver
**URL:** https://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/dev-blog-introducing-the-weaver/6698
**Category:** Development
**Created:** [July 30, 2014, 4:54pm UTC](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/dev-blog-introducing-the-weaver/6698 "2014-07-30T16:54:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Solus](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/u/Solus)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2014, 7:38pm UTC](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/dev-blog-introducing-the-weaver/6698/21 "2014-07-30T19:38:12Z")
> [@Geoffers747](#):
>
> Hopefully … I’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard to make your ‘best’ units have priority for gear! It certainly makes sense.
Yeah, this is what I was getting at. You just said it better. 😛
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### Author:  [@Geoffers747](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/u/Geoffers747)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2014, 7:52pm UTC](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/dev-blog-introducing-the-weaver/6698/22 "2014-07-30T19:52:14Z")
> [@Silas](#):
>
> Yeah, this is what I was getting at. You just said it better.
It’s a gift 😛
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### Author:  [@Wroz](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/u/Wroz)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2014, 8:32pm UTC](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/dev-blog-introducing-the-weaver/6698/23 "2014-07-30T20:32:08Z")
Anyone else notice the mini door stuck inside the regular door after it was placed? Just thought I’d point that out and with that… I can’t wait for Alpha 4 someone make time go faster!!
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### Author:  [@Teleros](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/u/Teleros)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2014, 9:02pm UTC](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/dev-blog-introducing-the-weaver/6698/24 "2014-07-30T21:02:51Z")
[quote=“Geoffers747, post:20, topic:6698”]Hopefully … I’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard to make your ‘best’ units have priority for gear! It certainly makes sense.
@Tom any word?[/quote]
I’d like to see something a little more complex personally. Particularly WRT mods and customised gear. For example, you craft a steel chestpiece, which just gives bonus armour. Both swordsman Brutus McHamfist and archer Lewis Egolas will want it - fine. But supposing you create a steel chestpiece of +3 bow accuracy - you wouldn’t want Brutus picking that one up.
At least in terms of _military_ units & upgrades, I can see it working out better if the player has to fiddle around manually a bit. It’s not like there won’t be far fewer soldiers compared to civilians in the game after all, so a bit more micro here shouldn’t hurt much.
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### Author:  [@SteveAdamo](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/u/SteveAdamo)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2014, 9:20pm UTC](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/dev-blog-introducing-the-weaver/6698/25 "2014-07-30T21:20:19Z")
good point @Teleros… and there is a fine line we’re dancing around here… we know the team wants to avoid an excessive amount of micromanagement, but situations like this need some sort of solution (which I’m sure the team is considering/has already considered)…
I believe timber & stone uses a unit toggle, where some units will always grab the best gear, while others will grab whatever is available…
perhaps our units will just continually “shuffle” the gear as and when it’s available? newbie drops his armor so that Brutus can grab it?
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### Author:  [@Tom](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/u/Tom)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2014, 12:07am UTC](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/dev-blog-introducing-the-weaver/6698/26 "2014-07-31T00:07:12Z")
Re: gear
We’re pretty sure we can make your units smart enough to grab crafted gear on their own. Eventually, we will probably add the ability to assign units to squads and assign a gear to the squad, but that’s pretty far down the road.
Here’s how the system works now.
- Each class is tagged with a set of roles. For instance, the footman has tags: melee\_fighter, combat
- Each piece of gear is tagged with the roles that it is useful for. A sword is tagged with “melee\_fighter”. Armor is tagged with “combat”. The worker suit is tagged with “worker\_profession,” which indicates that it’s applicable only for that specific profession
- Each profession (worker, carpenter, footman, etc) is also tagged with a set of roles.
- Every piece of gear has a “power level” rating. If you play WoW, this is exactly like iLevel. Better gear has a higher rating.
When a new piece of gear is crafted, everyone checks to see if that piece of gear is usable by them (according to the role tags on both the gear and the unit’s profession). If there’s a match AND the piece of gear is an upgrade (according to the power level rating), the unit will try to grab that piece of gear and equip it. If multiple units all want to upgrade, one of them randomly (more or less) wins.
It’s pretty straightforward to enhance this with a lot of the decision-making you would do as a human being when assigning gear. So this way you can just craft a bunch of gear and your town will get better, without you having to micro manage exactly who gets what.
And like I said, eventually we will add some kind of micro-management UI for those of you who really want that level of detail. But that will come once the game is much more fleshed out, with a lot more classes, mining, advanced scenarios, etc.
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### Author:  [@Avairian](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/u/Avairian)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2014, 12:25am UTC](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/dev-blog-introducing-the-weaver/6698/27 "2014-07-31T00:25:10Z")
I’m really loving what I’m seeing! I can’t wait until Alpha 4 is officially debugged and launched. So many new and amazing features!
Now this solves one of three of my issues. Now to wait for mining and the smith and I’m thinking and my next step is. . . .
Oh and some freetime would be useful as well. lol
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### Author:  [@Swift\_Cube](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/u/Swift_Cube)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2014, 12:54am UTC](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/dev-blog-introducing-the-weaver/6698/28 "2014-07-31T00:54:33Z")
You just gave me the idea of a Celtic settlement! Can’t wait to snigger awkwardly at my half dressed citizens!
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### Author:  [@SteveAdamo](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/u/SteveAdamo)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2014, 1:34am UTC](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/dev-blog-introducing-the-weaver/6698/29 "2014-07-31T01:34:51Z")
> [@Tom](#):
>
> So this way you can just craft a bunch of gear and your town will get better, without you having to micro manage exactly who gets what.
I love how my concerns over gear assignment, if they could really be labeled as such, sort of boiled away after reading this comment… sure, I may want to earmark that special piece of armor for Brutus… but who cares if he doesn’t get it, just make some more! 😄
and thanks for the additional insight into the profession ➡ gear process… 👍
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### Author:  [@voxel\_pirate](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/u/voxel_pirate)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2014, 5:11am UTC](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/dev-blog-introducing-the-weaver/6698/30 "2014-07-31T05:11:01Z")
@Tom just keep in mind that there might be units with very poor gear and others with less poor gear. In such a case the “iLevel” with the poorest gear should have priority to be upgraded… but you already thought about, didn’t you 😉.
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### Author:  [@Teleros](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/u/Teleros)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2014, 9:54am UTC](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/dev-blog-introducing-the-weaver/6698/31 "2014-07-31T09:54:45Z")
> [@Tom](#):
>
> We’re pretty sure we can make your units smart enough to grab crafted gear on their own. Eventually, we will probably add the ability to assign units to squads and assign a gear to the squad, but that’s pretty far down the road.
That should work fine IMHO. Worst case scenario:
1. You make Awesome Breastplate of Awesomeness.
2. Put Brutus McHamfist into his own squad of one.
3. Assign breastplate to his squad.
4. Once he’s equipped it, reassign Brutus to his old squad.
For the rest of your post @Tom, I think this’ll sum up my response…
😃
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### Author:  [@Teziokz](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/u/Teziokz)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2014, 10:19am UTC](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/dev-blog-introducing-the-weaver/6698/32 "2014-07-31T10:19:19Z")
Will armor be crafted as a set, or will you have to craft individual pieces such as boots, helmet .etc further down the the development stage, or will it stay just as it is with the weaver?
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### Author:  [@SteveAdamo](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/u/SteveAdamo)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2014, 11:01am UTC](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/dev-blog-introducing-the-weaver/6698/33 "2014-07-31T11:01:43Z")
based on some early blog posts/prototype images, we know the intent was to allow for units having individual inventory pieces…
not sure how this may have changed however, given the latest on crafting gear…
**edit:** here’s the old quote on inventory slots (still looking for the image):
> We will have individual slots for gear, but probably less slots than you see in an MMO, where there are like 13 gear slots! Something like: head, body, hands, feet, main hand, offhand. So you will be able to craft and mix-n-match gear.
**edit #2:** better yet, found a post here, where we were discussing the old blog post/images… 😄
> [@Retro dev blog - curious about the current state](http://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/retro-dev-blog-curious-about-the-current-state/2682):
>
> with recent discussions surrounding the various looks of the characters (between in-game models and in-game portraits), as well as all the UI work being done on crafters by @sdee, this seemed like a worthwhile topic to discuss… im curious about the current state of the character portrait and “character sheet”… and i’ll admit, somehow i completely missed the character sheet screenshot the [first time through](http://stonehearth.net/2012/11/16/this-week-ui-updates/), let alone this little nugget: An additional bar for quick-use of items in the characte…
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### Author:  [@Hogwartscat](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/u/Hogwartscat)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2014, 4:17pm UTC](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/dev-blog-introducing-the-weaver/6698/34 "2014-07-31T16:17:42Z")
I am excited that we can grow silkweed. When will the sheep make their entrance into the game, idk why that’s important to me, id just like to see them about.
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### Author:  [@Atralane](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/u/Atralane)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2014, 8:27pm UTC](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/dev-blog-introducing-the-weaver/6698/35 "2014-07-31T20:27:02Z")
I’m hoping for a checklist of options for producing new equipment.
- **Send to Squad** –We already mentioned this, but again, it’ll be a nice feature. Just select a group, and done.
- **Upgrade Closest** –Probably the default setting, compared to the squad setting? Calls the closest unit that can use the upgrade, gradually spreading outward from the Weaver’s station (there could also be some way to limit the range of this). This could be good later on for a general item most troops can use, like an accessory (anti-poison, faster speed, etc.).
- **Upgrade Strongest/Leader** –Tailor-made for the Brutus McHamfists out there. Keeps those epic units stocked and alive so you can boast about them that much longer. (Inversely, you could set it to **Upgrade Weakest** instead)
These could then be switched on and off, such as **Upgrade Closest** _and_ **Strongest** , so if you have one decent military hero in town and a _legendary_ hero unit somewhere halfway across the world, you won’t call the latter back by mistake!
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### Author:  [@blackArcher52](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/u/blackArcher52)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2014, 11:44pm UTC](https://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/dev-blog-introducing-the-weaver/6698/36 "2014-07-31T23:44:11Z")
does that mean we get the shield back 2?
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