Hello!! In the last streams, Tom told us that they’re making the Hauling skill (this is just the behaviour to pick raw materials or crafted items and place them in the corresponding stockpile) avaiable for everyone;
Initially, only the workers would do this labor, but because the lack of workers once we start to have a carpenter, and a trapper, and other classes, there’s wasn’t enough workforce to build and gather materials fast enough. I think it’s a good decision to let all the clases to haul objects from here to there. But i think it’s even better to have an option to choose if i want that character (either it’s a worker or another class: carpenter, trapper, weaver, farmer…) to be able to haul things.
This can be a small button in the portrait interface when we select that worker; but i’m sure you’re thinking: “ey!, and what happens when i have 50+ people on my town!?? i can’t click on each one of them!.”, well, the solution for this would be to implement somekind of Tab/window, where you can access all the people in the town, and then you can sort them by class, by atributes (like, Int, or heatlh), by name, or by whaever; and in that tab, there would be a little button to toogle if that person can haul things or not.
I think this can be really useful, because with this option, we can focus the effort of our city in what we need: like: “i need the blacksmith to make weapons now, not to carry some wood” or “I need that my carpenter makes tables non-stop”, or “i want this worker to build all the time, so stop carrying heavy things”.
I think introducing the option for other units to perform the most basic task will be very helpful… I also like the idea of being able to toggle this off for one or more units…
I can see the scenario where I have my carpenter all setup in her lovely new workshop, just waiting for “business”, when she is suddenly pulled away to haul a few pieces of lumber… while this can absolutely be helpful in the early game, being able to toggle this behavior off would certainly make sense in the later stages…
but as you mentioned, having an easy means of doing this across multiple units might be something to consider as well…
A toggle for hauling would probably be the easiest thing, however it might get a bit fiddly if you change it often … especially if say you have 15 or 20 classed units that would currently not haul, to enable each of them individually to haul, and then perhaps toggle it off again once you’re done could be slightly time consuming?
So perhaps just a hauling behaviour that is standard for all units (except combat units perhaps?) which obviously when the unit is idle is taking priority so they will help out, as soon as they receive an order related to their current profession however they will complete their current hauling action (rather than drop everything and run) and then proceed to carry out their standard duties which will always take priority over hauling.
That way, you don’t need to mess around with toggling stuff (although perhaps a “do not haul” option could be there for specific units you don’t want to leave their job) and hauling gets done!
have you played DF?? xDD since i use Dwarf therapist to manage 50+ dwarfs with it’s jobs, i think that a window with only the hauling skill it’s pretty easy to manage xD.
And yes, you don’t want fighting units to haul things, because imagine that in the middle of a fight, your soldies goes like: “Oh! gold coins from that dead goblin i’ll pick th-” the head of the soldier pops when it’s cut because of the goblin besides him xD; you don’t even want any unit at all (workers and such) to haul things in the middle of a combat, it can be a disaster xD. but i think team radiant will manage this.
Anyway, the hauling when the class it’s idle it’s a very good option too; but i’d apply this only to the classes, so the workers can haul all the time.
[quote=“Raistlin, post:4, topic:5821, full:true”]you don’t even want any unit at all (workers and such) to haul things in the middle of a combat, it can be a disaster xD. but i think team radiant will manage this.
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I know the way that the game Cultures 2 (A game VERY similar to Stonehearth) handled it, it was to have a “Panic button” that when activated, all of the non-Combat oriented villagers would retreat into their homes until the Panic button is turned off.
I have indeed! The same system applies for Gnomoria, the thing is though, without those external utilities, managing your dwarves/ gnomes is a complete pain! So it’d be great if there was a really intuitive function inbuilt to the game
Oh definitely, I mentioned the priorities in my previous post, we already know that there is this priority system in place for unit behaviour (that is right isn’t it @SteveAdamo?) and so if you just have that system in place where units are involved with hauling during idle periods (although that perhaps removes idle animations) and then return to the duties which are at the top of their respective priority list when one of those tasks is queued up.
Seeing as hauling is a pretty basic function you could also perhaps mark out an area that all non-default hauling units will know to help out with, essentially prioritising that specific area, although that might become a bit fiddly …
I’m definitely interested to see how this system develops!
yes sir, i believe so - the system of “motivations” that govern how a unit will prioritize all the actions he is capable of taking… getting food, sleeping, hauling, crafting, fighting, fleeing, etc.
Hauling for professions other then the basic worker will be lower priority then their profession task. So they will just stop carrying, when you give for example a carpenter order. Just like they drop things now when they are hungry. It makes no sense to make hauling higher priority then the actual profession job. So I doubt a toggleable button will be needed.
well, it wasn’t so much to save on the wasted effort (for me, at least), it was more about maintaining the “immersion”… if i get my settlement all established, and i’ve decked out my carpenters workshop (for example), i don’t want Sasha Ironsides leaving the shop to go haul lumber to and fro…
obviously not critical, but i wouldn’t be upset if i did have the option…
If it was for me, I would have a neat little table, each row a citizen, each column a task, and neat little checkboxes for each. Then we would also have checkboxes on the top of the table for each class and each column has a select all/deselect all button.
That way you could quickly and efficient re-assign tasks from all or some workers. You could have your carpenters temporarily leave their “primary work” to join the “construction work” and later have them focus just on carpentering.
This might be a bit too micromanaging though (and somewhat surely is possible to create as mod, to some extent, as the current AI allows that… a bit) so I’m not sure if it fits into their game design.
but completely optional… the player isn’t forced into this play style, an simply has the option if they are interested (very similar to the farming system)…
Definitely a good idea IMHO. I’ve also been wondering about priorities for hauling - little things like workers prioritising the (full) carpenter’s stockpile etc.
You could argue how “forced” players are though. It’s one thing to go the extra mile for farming to have 5% more efficient production and another to have workers being not completely useless most of the time.
This is, after all, not just one side-aspect of the game, it’s how the whole thing is handled. Your town/city/kingdom rises and falls with how efficient you can use your units, and especially there it was said to be kept simple.
i’m curious though, will a units list of priorities take into account the distance to a particular task? if Sasha is located roughly in the far southwest section of town, will she still pick up a task to haul lumber that is available in the northeast section, clear across town? or ignore it entirely?
if proximity is taken into account when determining which tasks to add to a units priority queue, it seems we could consciously design a town’s layout such that certain units are within certain distances to specific types of labor… or am i over-complicating this…
OMG!! Tom answered!!! aaahhh!! i’m so excited!! haha;
If this works, then i’ve no problem, and the whole city will be efficient enough for me. I understand that you want to avoid DFT, because it can be a headache when you have a lot of citizens.
Also the idea that some professions can help to build things related to their profession it’s really good!, i just hope that if a carpenter it’s buildings something, and then it has to do another thing and lefts half wall builded, then another worker comes and finish his work;
Great. Are you thinking of taking it a step forward (if possible?) and have say the carpenter only haul wooden items, the mason haul only stone items, etc.? Or is that a step too far?
This might be a moot point seeing as this system works perfectly fine in DF and Gnomoria, but will there be any impact upon the standard worker unit? Obviously they still prioritise hauling and construction but are they ‘devalued’ in a way by opening up construction and hauling to other units?
Any thought in the possibility of upgrading the standard worker unit? Improve speed/ abilities etc.?
Great, my initial thoughts are that a system like that would not sit well with Stonehearth, everything just becomes a bit clunky and complicated when you need to use something like that, although if it is necessary I place all my trust in you all to produce some in-built intuitive system - don’t let me down, I’ll cry.
