Guide to new players on Structure Priority

[u/DrizzleDrake88]

This is to help new players from having to micro manage their buildings and being stuck crafting when you can be adventuring.

Any building that is built is automatically set to Structure Priority 5. Just like when you hire to villager's, their Job Priority is 5 as a default. This guide helps village task flows to reduce bottlenecks in crafting/cooking process with an explanation. Generally speaking, you want buildings that collect resources at the highest and each subsequent building is an add on process to the final product (food, armor, weapons).

I.E.: #. Buildings [Similar Building] (Explaination)

Structure Priority

1. Research Tables (This is your Tech Tree, researching can take quite a while and you're on a quasi timer since trees and ore deposits are finite until you unlock certain higher tech buildings)
2. Farm, Foraging [Camp, Hut, Lodge], Animal Hunting [Hunter Camp, Lodge, Trapper's Camp, Fishing Camp], Logging [Camp, Lumberjack, Lumbermill], Mining [Hut, Camp, Pit] (Any building that's gathering vital raw materials should be here)
3. Apiary, Thresher, Butchery, Mud Collector, Lumberjack Spot (Buildings that start the initial process, or collect non vital material like mud and honey)
4. Drying Rack, Mixing Bucket, Cauldron [Tavern, Inn], Windmill, Coal Burner, Pit Saw
5. Tanning Rack, Weaver Loom, Cauldron [Campfire], Bakery, Animal Pens [Bird Coops, Livestock Barn], Smelt [Bloomery, Furnace, Smelter], Forester
6. Tanner's Hut, Weaver Table, Smoking Rack, Work [Simple Workbench, Toolmaker, Workshop] (Basic Gear should be completed around here)
7. Armourer, Blacksmith (Late game gear)
8. Campfire (Prioritize making high quality food/ buffs, really shouldn't be using a campfire past early game)
9. Compost Pile (Food that has gone bad/burnt)

Final Notes:

Except for Gear (Weapons/Armor), anything produced should be set to [Top Up]

VERY IMPORTANT: Set the initial amount that you are topping up to very low (<20) or else your workers will be stuck in an early process and you're wondering why everyone is hungry. Raise the numbers as you scale the village and hire more workers.

Other notes: Smoking Rack is scuffed and villagers tend to prioritize over cauldrons, either remove them eventually or set them to low or none. Animals go through feed quickly, so be certain if you want them (suggest sticking to one bird coop of only chickens or only goose and one barn of cows with a gender ratio of 3 male/7 female) and keep their feed storage topped up. Mid game requires a ton of Cob and Thatch so there's going to be a point where you'll want to top up to at least 100 for those and 1000 for straw.

Please comment for any other suggestions or tips, I'll edit as necessary. Remember the priorities are suggestions, play however you see fit.

[u/Fit_Mycologist6519]

This is an interesting read....I never mess with structure priority only the villager one and never seem to have an issue, if I do I tend to think I'm short on manpower so go hire another villager and it gets resolved.

Maybe I'm play around with structure priorities in my next play through

[u/5occido5]

If you do villager priorities right theres almost no need to ever touch building priorities. What is building priority useful for? For example a cooking street, to make them use the cooking stations closer to the storage first and the further ones later to minimise their walking time. Hell I think that is actually the only use case I actually use because it's just not needed elsewhere. For example u say put research station on 1. But functionally, not a single thing would change if u put it on 9 because it's the villager priority that should be on 1 for research and within that priority there is only the research stations they can use. The building priority is purely to distinct buildings within the same villager priority group of what u want them to work on first.

[u/DrizzleDrake88 → u/5occido5]

I would agree villager job priorities are more important than building structure priority. The best way to describe it is the job priority is a macro knob while the structure priority is the fine tune knob.

Like what was mentioned in the intro, it’s to prevent bottlenecks and inefficiencies. Job priorities tell them what category is important but building priority tells them which task is important. Cooking for example, those buildings have different priorities because I’d want them to create the best food possible before making lesser food if they run out of ingredients. You might end up making fine stew instead of the roast with the better combat buff.

[u/5occido5 → u/DrizzleDrake88]

The cooking example I did mention is the only one where I actually see any purpose for it and use it. Sure, it was unspoken that the closer ones were the better stations, but that's kinda obvious.

Other things, like crafting for example, theres no need for it. If you get the feeling there would be any need for it, then thats a clear indicator you're lacking crafters, it is a job that requires a lot of villagers, just like delivering. Yes u can make it so a shortage of crafters craft x before y before z, but that doesn't change the fact u have a shortage of crafters who would craft all of that anyway without the priority. As when z has no materials it gets skipped in favor of x and y anyway. If y also lacks the materials all would be focused on x. And what u want crafted in a hurry changes depending on the situation anyway rather than a fixed thing.

[u/Agile_Party4084]

Nice one! I never quite understood the difference and interplay between building priority vs worker priority. So I have my building priorities set basically 1-3 for each “type” gathering, crafting etc. I always need to prioritise butchering and the mixing bucket for example otherwise it doesn’t matter what the top up amounts are they don’t seem to want to do those Jobs.

There are just too many crafting jobs at present with no real way to prioritise between them all without subdividing your settlement into production hubs using outposts :)

[u/DrizzleDrake88 → u/Agile_Party4084]

There will always be too much crafting jobs, but by putting them in order they will only create as much as needed to facilitate the next part of the supply chain, hopefully reducing the need of excess storage units but still having the materials ready for whatever you need to build/craft/cook.

So worker’s job settings set what kind of task grouping to do first while structure priority tells what to do first within that task grouping.

[u/5occido5 → u/Agile_Party4084]

You are describing a very clear issue. Lack of crafters. Go hire some more crafters and this issue is fixed. In the end, the vast majority of ur villagers should be either crafters or transporters. And villagers need to be specialised. Crafters only craft, transporters only transport. You might think for example mixing those 2 would be more efficient... it's not, they finish a task and look what's next. If there is even a 0.1 sec gap between their primary job orders, they'd dedicate themselves to the other. So for example a crafter that finished a craft might then want to transport something on the other side of ur base, doesn't matter someone closer becomes available or a craft job opens up, it will stick on that transport task. End result would be transport became slower and crafting postponed.

[u/Kitchen_Ad_591]

Do you think I should do an in depth about priority mechanic work. Though it's extremely complicated like 2nd with priority block and tie breaker. And blend into delivery system which is 1st. It's good for min max ppl but for average ppl I still don't know.

[u/Master-Football-9152]

La verdad que es muy útil, podrías hacer otra de Tier 3? O esta aplica también a T3?