Will we be able to demote citizens?

Simple question: will we be able to demote citizens? What are your opinions on the matter?

Pro: If you accidentally promote someone, things aren’t set in stone and you have a second chance

Con: If an already-promoted person joins in a scenario (eg footman) you can just demote him and promote him to what you want (too easy)

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Radiant has expressed a few times about adding demoting. They hadn’t quite figured out how they’d like to go about it the last time it was mentioned. However they did say that they’d like there to be some sort of pay off for it so that it isn’t something you do constantly and on the fly.

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Dwarf Fortress certainly lets you re-assign people, but then it has the whole skill-levelling system that Stonehearth doesn’t have (or at least, not yet). If there was something like this implemented, then I’d go down the DF route and let players re-assign on the fly.

However… if it’s a case of rookie carpenters being as good as veteran ones, there should definitely be a penalty and/or cost attached to doing so, because otherwise the player is too free to mix and match as required. Managing your population is a key part of the game after all.

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this is a tough one… and I like that you’ve considered pros as well as cons…

but surely we have a thread on this? @Geoffers747, aid me!

I thought we had, it’s probably a discussion housed in a massive general discussion thread on jobs.

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perhaps if a weaver was to pick up a sword they would drop the weaver promotion item on the floor and become a footman. to counter losing experienced weavers for example if you notice it wasn’t the rookie weaver you have the ability to swap back without experience loss in a time frame of a day or two (in game time). this to me makes sense time wise as irl you wouldnt forget that quickly but in terms of crops will grow in that time after that time frame irl of crops growing you would have got a tad rusty at least.

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During my latest play, I promoted 2 footmen, and later a 3. join my ranks.
That gave a bit too many footmen. So why not be able remove a current job and “repromote” your workers. That will make it possible to always cover your current needs and be most effective.

Sorry for my bad english, hope this makes sense.

hey there @Xalakas… welcome aboard! :smile:

I’ve merged your thread here, as it was inline with the general (requested) topic…

Well great, thx Steve! :smiley: I really couldn’t believe I was the only one with that idea :wink:

But I really think it could be a good idea, because we will experiment on different jobs and styles. And to loose an entire village because of 1 wrong promotion, would (and is) kindda sad.

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Just going to throw my 2 cents in, some people i see share this thought.

I do agree the way it currently is could be problematic if you lose some villagers or make a bad choice, but i am very much of the mind that you shouldn’t just be able to swap jobs a willy-nilly without some serious consequences or at least some consequences.

Perhaps this will make itself more known when the concept of leveled villagers comes in. Master Carpenter Tom, changes to a Weaver… but he has 0 experience with it and is terrible and slow. Or you put Legendary Farmer Steve as a Carpenter and he nails himself to a sign…

So in short… As long as you make us suffer some for it… i’m all for it. :wink:

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I apologize in advance if this post is too presumptuous of me, I’ve just recently hopped onto the bandwagon so I’m probably not very informed regarding some points I bring up in this post.

You could work on a GUI for managing equipped items such as tools/weapons and clothing to manage citizens more efficiently.

Implementing equipment mangament sooner rather than later, I believe, would not only solve the current problem but also open up possibilities for multiple tools and clothes for each job currently available which would make it possible to have different sets of tools and clothes which give different bonuses and maybe penalties to suit different management strategies and to ease in to the eventual Job progression which was mentioned in the past.
It would be nice if you focus more on the Job progression and not a lot on gear progression to keep everything viable in their own special ways. (aside from the obvious stuff like upgrading from a wooden sword to an iron sword)

As mentioned by Silas you could have Job levels reset if you have a Citizen change his/her job.
For example, using the original proposed job system, if you were to Have your Hunter switch Jobs into a Carpenter you’d have to start over as a Trapper and meet the requirements to level up into a Hunter once again to discourage switching.

Side Note: While I’m talking about Job levels and such I’d like to voice my objection towards how having a job which splits into two different options upon progressing ending up as the same job in the end anyway like how it doesn’t matter which route you go down as a Farmer since in the end you’ll just end up as a Physician either way http://puu.sh/aPUSW/d40611c390.png. It kind makes you feel like your choice didn’t matter so I hope you have more plans for Job branching because I personally am not liking what I see in terms of progression.

Criticism aside, I enjoy the game a lot and there’s not much else to complain about other than the usual bugs which I know you all do your best to tackle asap.

I pretty much agree with @Silas, but I believe the individual craftsmen should get better and better at their job, but they would be really bad at a job to start with. That way, early game job switching would be simple, but after a while it would really affect you to switch jobs.

Perhaps something like:

Brutus McHamfist:
-Swordsmanship: Champion (88/100)
-Weaving: Apprentice (0/100)
-Carpentry: Journeyman (12/100)
-Mining: Walking JCB (88/100)

Like Dwarf Fortress, in other words. You can swap your people around willy nilly, but they’ll be slower and won’t make artefact items etc unless they get a chance to focus at a job.

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I think any Dwarf Fortress player knows by now Stonehearth is similar enough that when in doubt, just copy Dwarf Fortress.

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Agreed.
This also seems to be the general consensus.

Without reading trhough all posts:
Would be nice!
Now a Caravan approches and brings me… a Farmer! Yay… I already have 2 Famers and with 8 Poeple I dont need 3 of them at all.
Or I get a Footman, but do not want to have some at this stage.
Or I get another Carpenter… sorry folks but two are useless until the City will grow into 40-50 Poeple I guess.

For such reasons it would be nice when you could demote them, maybe you will lose the item you needed for promote or it is only possible when he is at “level 1” and had not worked in her/his job much?
Or the Worker receives a penalty for 2-3 Days in his new job, because he is used to the old job…

But PLEASE add this feature… it would really be a step up!

OK how do i explain this in a way people that are not me understand… :confused:

to my understanding jobs will have levels and exp at some point, and as much as i don’t see your carpenter suddenly becoming a farmer just because u don’t need a carpenter right now, i also get that if your farmer died to a raid u might need someone to look after the crops.

its my opinion that you should be able to demote a person but they would lose all exp in that field, i feel that a skill system could still lead to a few people in your town becoming quick swapers who you constantly change the job of so they gain xp in all of these jobs, ie what if u rotated the sword around your people so they all became good at combat and just had spare swords in storage for when u got attacked. suddenly your whole village are knights, but they can do there normal jobs too?

also to put you at ease and i might be wrong on this but its my interpretation that one does not “upgrade” from a farmer to a brewer, but merely you require a farmer to be able to make the tool for a brewer, you still would need a farmer to tend the crops, so its not that it don’t matter which job you take but rather do u want your town to have lots of beer or be flower hugging druids :slight_smile: or even both if you want too.

on that note though id say that some skills from a farmer would help a brewer do his job, so i believe that you should have the option to upgrade from a job to a better one, with only losing say 50% xp meaning that if one had a legendary farmer he would become a great brewer as he knows what a good grain looks like and can pick the best for his brew ^_^.

this then gives the player a further choice of do u make that worker who only knows how to drink beer the brewer and only be able to make the lowest grade of beer, or do u lose your awesome farmer but get a better brewer?

this could work with many jobs for instance footman would know a bit about combat so any other combat role would be and upgrade, but using a new weapon would take some getting used too, so he would take the xp loss, but if he was to stay a foot man and get better gear like a shiny new sword and some armor he could be come a good footman too. but having a foot man could still be a requirement to making a worker say a great weapon user, as the blacksmith would need help as to where to make the pointy end?

anyway that’s probably a wall of text >.<
have fun
moon

When people are joining your town, its always nice. im always happy to get new people.

but sadly in my last test i had the luck that from 15 people, who joined my town, 12 where a Footman :angry:
i accepted the first 5 but then i always declined them because they where useless for me.
on the otherside i tought "why do i just cant rechange their job?

i was lacking of workers and farmers, so i was wishing in this moment i would be able to change there job from Footman to Farmer or Worker.

i would like this option :smile:

Greetings
Tepoo

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Wow, you got a game to last long enough to get 15 people arrive? I have always had errors occur too often for that?

Edit: On topic, that would be a very convenient feature, but I don’t think they will add it till people can gain experience in a job, so there is some meaning behind the change.

Moved you over here @tepoo as the discussion fits in with this :slight_smile:

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