New Class: Teamster

[Josh_Patton]

The Problem:
Oftentimes, when working on large projects - especially far away from base - workers spend more time walking back and forth to get or drop off supplies than they do actually working on stuff. This is also true when collecting from far-flung mines or large clear-cut forests, or during harvest time.

The Proposal:
Create a new class - The Teamster. Teamsters possess improved movement speed, diligence, and carrying capacity thanks to their customized tool - The Wheelbarrow. Crude Wheelbarrows may be created by either the Carpenter or the Potter (Both providing a whopping +8 to carrying capacity), and better ones may be created by the Blacksmith (+12 carrying capacity).

Having a Teamster in the village unlocks a new zone “Loading and Unloading Area”. These zones serve as special storage zones - instead of long term storage, Teamsters will gather loads intended for other loading/unloading zones and collect them here before hauling them long distances in large batches. Additionally, workers can drop stuff off at loading/unloading zones or pick up items from them. Note that Wheelbarrows only move stuff between zones, otherwise Teamsters are bound by their backpack limit.

Under the hood, the loading/unloading zones serve as hint areas for the pathfinder algorithm - pathfinding may be drawn from these zones to create a map of the “nearest zone” every time a zone is added or removed, and are also drawn between all accessible zones. Workers will weigh their current route length versus the length of the route to the nearest zone to them + the length of the route to the objects target location when determining whether to hoof it themselves, or let the teamster handle it. Additionally, teamster’s will look at buildings under construction and attempt to move construction materials closer to the building, if they can do so in bulk.

Teamster Class Perks:
Can only haul items.
Apprentice: Nervous reaction - Teamsters haul objects over long distances, and understand the dangers of the wild lands. - Teamsters gain a +10 speed bonus for 1 minute after spotting an enemy, or when running to safety after hearing the town bell.
Lv 1: Hoofing it - +5 Max Health, +5 Speed.
Lv 2: Cart Maintenance - Teamsters do not drop their carts when fleeing.
Lv 3: Unburdened - When not pushing a cart, Teamsters gain +10 Speed when not pushing a cart.
Lv 4: Deliveries Must Get Through! - +5 Max Health, +5 Courage.
Lv 5: Cart Maintenance - +2 Cart capacity.
Lv 6: Long Haul - +5 Diligence, +5 Curiosity

[MoonSight]

I like the idea!, it’s rare that i don’t have a… well, ‘technical’ critique of an idea but this is a rather interesting suggestion

I believe a concept of a hauler that has high backpack size was brought up multiple times in the past, but the gripe seemed more on the less manageable stockpiles and not really the functionality of said class

But you bring up a interesting concept of a… what should i call it… a conveyor?
The biggest part has to be the Loading and Unloading zone concept, i should say having them Not double as stockpiles would be better, since if the hearthlings put stuff there, there’s might not be space left for them to put the load on (okay on the loading zone, though) so only the Teamster should acces the uloading zone as a place to put stuff, and the other hearthlings get them to containters and stockpiles.

But, my critique on this idea whould be the Need of a Class for it(like many crutiqes i make on classes) because it could just be a cart, and a vacant hearthling will take and use it, there should be ways to make sure not all hearthlings take the carts, and to prioritize, but despite the perks of having a class, it may be better off as a function than a dedicated class because you still don’t lose general labour and it may be a more smooth play experience for the player

I bet this class idea; though actually good, would lack priority in development, and we still need a way to link entities to act together (mounts and carrages will need some tech)
I personally wouldn’t expect this to be exactly what a class for this would be like, if it even goes in, but i find it quite interesting

And by the least, if we get interactions and mobile storage properly, we could always mod for it right?

[Josh_Patton]

@Hyrule_Symbol, You are correct on having them not double stockpiles, I could have phrased that better. What I intended was that they are placed like stockpiles and items can be dropped off there like stockpiles, but they are not intended as storage - items would only be added to the zone if the item was intended to move in another direction.

As for the need for a class… I see the point you are making, yes, the regular Worker can already haul stuff around, so why make a class that is merely specialized in something they can already do? My counterpoint is that that hauling tends to be a very large portion of the Hearthling’s time. The specialist would essentially allow the other hearthligns to focus on what’s important, be that harvesting, chopping, mining or building, while eliminating the amount of time that they spend hoofing it around.

That said, perhaps if we drop the class form the proposal, and simply make it an object. A placeable loading dock, as it were, with a cart that can hold 12ish objects and a second placable receiving dock. Workers could then load objects onto the waiting carts at the loading dock, then a single worker could push it over to the receiving dock.

No class needed.

[Fornjotr]

I really like this suggestion! At the moment i usually build these “dropzones” at strategic locations and have some crates placed, at for example the forest dropzone accepting only wood. When they are full i send them back to the towns dropzone and then manually change them to accepting no ressorces. Then when they are emptied out by the workers in town, ill have them haul the empty crates back out to the wood dropzone and manually change them to accept only wood again… There is alot of micromanagement involved in this procedure and this suggestion with the teamster, would free up some of my focus to the actual building, designing, fighting, optimizing the other production chains and so on… the sheeps still need to go to the butcher… manually…