wellā¦ this actually was implemented in an unstable build awhile ago, but footmen never finish their patrolls, so they never slept or ate. it was promptly removed or im just going insaneā¦
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Insanity sounds more fun
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I think footmen would indeed probably be a bit of an issue in dealing with this. Then again, it does depend greatly on how the game is programmed.
I guess this is a suggestion which, although potentially beneficial, is likely to be fairly low priority.
Only problem Iāve had with this is when a hearthling drops the item while climbing a ladder. Then, I have to take down the ladder and put another up so that the item will fall to a reachable location. Iād just be happy if they made it so that they wouldnāt drop their items while climbing ladders.
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That or items canāt be within the same block as a ladder, meaning the items would fall around the ladder, but not actually on it.
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I actually like that idea better, partially because youād get to see them throw things off the top of a ladder if they were almost at the top which I would find most amusing. Hearthlings be like āIām 200% done with carrying this wood up this ladder, Iām goin to get somethin to eat.ā *chunks a block of wood off the ladder and sprints to the food stockpile.
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No sleep for footman! Footman always on job!
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no food for footmen! always on the job! i feel bad for them 
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Thanks for pointing this out! The bug underlying the suggestion is certainly also valid: that some tasks, like placement tasks, are issued with :once(), so if theyāre interrupted, they never get resumed. Noted!
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Thank you for giving it consideration. 
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bug:
- hearthlings will drop everything and stop working to eat
- this causes weired situations and a lot of flith around the building sites.
solution:
hearthling should finish work on current task
(e.g build until materials in their hands are gone)
(e.g finish crafting something)
This isnāt really a bug, it was a design decision to do it this way. However, I agree with you completely. I think they should finish what they started then do the next thing.
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2 design aspects:
-
satisfaction
to compare it with dwarf fortress: dwarfes like to finish their work, before eating.
easy question: Would you like to start eating on work on a 10 metres high ladder?
-
utilisation
its nonsense to drop your work in certain circumstances.
Youāll loose time, have to walk farther, do something twice.
easy solution: (pseudo code)
- if eating then check if hearthling has a task to do
- if yes, check if the task is interruptable
- if yes, interrupt and eat
/ to do so, tasks need a flag āinterruptableā
examples for interruptable tasks:
- farming
- cutting wood
- sitting on the camp fire
examples for un-interruptable tasks:
- holding building material / on way to building site
- sleeping
- fighting
well this was implemented in one of the alpha 10 unstable builds awhile back, the problem is, footmen never finish their job. meaning the werent allowed to sleep or eat.
i know there is another thread on this subject, i will try and find it to merge with.
edit: found it and merged it.
hearthlings should finish their immediate job on hand before going for food, e.g. kill all monsters in sight, finish restocking what they have on hand instead of dropping them randomly on the ground etc.
Agree, all this mess everywhere at noon is terrible! (and more seriously, the actual behavior isnāt cool at all, I do prefer what you are proposing here.)
the thing about the workers not finishing their restocking actually makes them drop their item on the spot where they were and the items are somehow registered as stocked and no one tries to put them back to the correct space, which messes up the storage
instead of writing it all over again, here,
mmaybe we could define footman finiishing their task as killing all monsters in range?
their main job is patrolling, they never stop patrolling.