Probably many versions of this reported (this bug tracking system is very hard to use).
x64 Alpha 8 Build 205 (HB) Win7
The farther away a mining site is from the village, the less likely mined ore will ever get harvested. I specifically draw harvest rectangles covering the ore and maybe someone will harvest a few but generally a lot is left untouched. In general, there seems to be huge leaks in the ‘to be harvested’ queue with blocks scattered all over that never get claimed. In the meantime, many workers stand around idle. I don’t know if the idle workers is a balance problem (do they have a forced probability to ignore their jobs?) or if they don’t know there is anything to do (the harvestable blocks are ‘forgotten’), or if there is a bug in the assignment algorithm that send 1 or 2 off to harvest and the rest stay idle.
As a comment, I think the vanilla workers need more options to direct their actions to force work similar to the village defense mechanic. workers should be assignable to a highest priority as individual laborers. Maybe harvesting, building, mining, would be a start. When a worker is assigned priority to something with no queue, they could pitch in with anything else. Anything that amounts to a ‘get to work, lazy’ would be good.
Funny, my problem is kind of the opposite. How do I tell a worker NOT to go grab those goblin token that have dropped 2 miles from base? I don’t want them venturing out that far on their own…
As you say, though, it will be good to have individual control over them with, perhaps, a right-click menu on them with options related to their field/class.
I can’t confirm this as a bug, even though I have experienced this. As far as workers go, if there is nothing else going on, i.e. No buildings being made, modules to be placed, they should be collecting all items not in a stockpile. I can prove this, because i can cut down a tree halfway across the map, and the hearthlings will grab the wood and take it back.
However, when it comes to ore, I’ve had very mixed experiences. I’ve chalked most of it up to the idle workers bug, but I can test this specifically when I get home.
EDIT:
Okay, with some testing, I can say this is not a bug, but the job assignment tool. Basically, any job will take priority over hauling, and those get priority based on proximity to town. Then, if they are idle, they will haul food first, then wood, then ore and stone. This was all done with some vague testing, so that might not be exactly how it works, but its a general guideline. So, if you have idle workers who are not gathering ore, and you have stockpile space, I would say you are dealing with the idle worker bug. I had some guys mine and haul rock from across the map, so they will do it, just not if there is anything else to do closer.
Still the single most aggravating bug in the game!!! There has been some improvement, but it’s still rampant. I appreciate the great improvement in goblin behavior and other new features but you still have some fundamental bugs that have been there for many months.
I’ve got loot and mined ore all over the map and 6 (6!) idle workers day after day.
Please (!!!) make collecting ore, loot, etc, a defined job assignment for workers or fix things so idle workers will scour the countryside if there is stuff waiting for collection. There is a desperate need for a mechanism to prioritize collection as well. If I need ore ‘right now’ I should be able to move it to the top of the queue by tagging it with the harvest mechanic or the loot mechanic or something to override any other non-specific task.
I even tried designating some loose ore as ‘loot’ and it is ignored. Of course, I also have some legitimate loot items not that far from the town that have been ignored for many game days despite being clearly tagged in game with the loot ‘flag’
I suspect this is a queue defect where items somehow are orphaned on the collection queue. This is central to gameplay and should be higher priority than new features. If I can’t reliably collect resources, I can’t do anything else. I want to love this game but basic bugs like this keep getting in the way!
BTW, therapist will not solve this problem. idle workers with nothing to do means they have ‘forgotten’ there is collecting to be done at all. No worker should ever be idle during working hours if there is something to do.
