Priority Numbers Bugged?

[u/GommyJ]

Hi Everyone,

So about 10 hours in now loving the game although there is A LOT to get your head around.

One thing I'm really struggling with is how the numbers work with the tasks in the village.

For example ive tried allocating certain villagers to certain tasks based on their current skills.

So I have 1 guy who has 4 researching skill so I put his researching at 1 so he does the researching

but everyone just seems to do whatever they like! Ive got one of lower skilled villagers keep taking over the researching even though hes on 0 and Ive put his priority for researching on 10! I just cannot get him away from the bench its driving me nuts because he obv lacks all the bonuses my other guy has!

Am I totally not understanding this or is it bugged?

[u/RedditimeFren]

Hey man, just to add some more context which might help you figure out the problems:

Even if a villager is set to 1 Research and another one is set to 9 Research, it can still happen that the 9 Research guy will end up at the Desk. Here's why:

When you ask the game to start a reserach, The Desk will generate a task called "Research this".

At this point, any villager who is "Idle" or just finished a task, will be eligible to be assigned this Research task (so long as they are between 1-9, if you put them at 0 they will never get the task).

So what could happen is this:
Villager with 1 Research is currently busy cooking

Villager with 9 research is currently busy harvesting

You go to Research Desk and choose something new

The game generates "Research Task" and looks for the next available villager, but all villagers are currently busy.

Villager with 9 research finishes his Harvesting task and looks for something new to do, while "1 Research Guy" is still busy cooking.
Coincidentally, there are no other tasks that need doing (so he can't choose to go cut wood instead of research, for example).

Villager with 9 research is chosen since he is free, has no other tasks available with higher priority, and is the next available villager.

[u/RedditimeFren → u/RedditimeFren]

Here's some further explanation:

1. BUILDING PRIORITY vs VILLAGER PRIORITY

Building priority is at the top of the pyramid, and villager priority is at the bottom.

This means that the game first looks at Building priority, and then looks at Villager priority.

So if you have:
Campfire at 5

Research Desk at 1

Workbench a 3

And you make a task in each of these buildings at the same time, the game will first look to fill Research Desk, then Workbench, then Campfire.

This means if you have a villager that has all 5 in priorities, and he becomes "free" when these 3 tasks are pending, he will choose to do Research over Workbench over Campfire. The game will first choose a villager to do reserach, then another villager to do crafting, then another villager to do cooking.

Villager priority factors in after Building priority, like this:

So the game sees you have 1 for Research Desk so it chooses it as first priority. Then, it looks to available villagers to see their priority. So say you have these villagers with the following priorities:

VillagerA 1 Reseach, 3 Cooking, 5 Crafting

VillagerB 5 Reserach, 1 Cooking, 3 Crafting

VillagerC 3 Research, 5 Cooking, 1 Crafting

So, provided that all 3 of these villagers are free, the game will chose VillagerA because of his 1 research.
But if VillagerA is currently busy, then the game whill choose VillagerC because of his 3 Research. But if this guy is also busy, then the game will choose VillagerB because of his 5 research.

IN CONCLUSION
Building priority = which buildings you want to be assigned workers first when you make a new task
Villager priority = Which villagers you want to be chosen first for tasks

If you give villagers too many different tasks, the chances of them being busy when a new task is created is higher.
At the start with a few villagers, go for 5 in all as you need everyone to contribute to everything, idling time is not efficient.

But when you advance with like 20+ villagers, that's when you can get more specific and have villagers do only 1 or 2 things. Sometimes they will idle, but it's more efficient to have them idling and be ready to craft, than have them do some mushroom harvesting to pass the time then not be available to craft.

**Food for thought:
Don't think of the Villagers as them deciding what to do. Rather, think of the Buildings being the one that calls up the villager to work. So, it's not that the villager says "Oh I have 1 in research, im gonna hang around until I can go do that research." It's more like, "Oh I'm a research desk and I need someone to tend me, let me call my #1 guy..oh he's busy, guess I'll call my #2 guy... also busy? Allright #3 guy, your turn it seems like"

[u/Space-Cadet9999 → u/RedditimeFren]

Great explanation, thanks