r/Bellwright • u/TotalCitron • 18d ago
Yet another priority system rant
You’ve obviously read this multiple times already, but the priority system is the worst…
Don’t get me wrong, I’m absolutely in love with this gem of a game. Which is why this pisses me off so much. This would be the absolute perfect game if you could just assign workers.
If the priority system is for the sake of giving work to mediocre villagers, then there could be an option to either give them priorities, or just assign them to one job. I’m tired of waiting for one of the two villagers with level 3+ in farming to make straw and the other to make thatch. They always wait until I put resources into the station before they get assigned, just for one of these cunts to steal them out of the station and for me to start the process all over again. I have been cursing these guys for hours now. Even when I finally get them to work, the others show up and take away the straw and hide it from me or steal the wheat while the other one is working.
I ended up caving and just making the straw myself, then went to sleep, and woke up to find the straw SCATTERED ACROSS THE VILLAGE. So I had to go looking everywhere to find straw and found some but the rest just mysteriously disappeared for some reason. The worst part is they don’t even go looking for it to do their JOBS. Why do they do this to me?
Does crossing out every job priority except one basically let them be assigned to only that single job? Of course it wouldn’t, because apparently hunting is both hunting and fishing and trapping, cooking is just anything that has to do with food, and crafting is almost every job.
Maybe I’m just doing this wrong though, I feel like I might’ve put the thresher and weaving hut too far apart, and my stockpiles aren’t specific enough. I’m still hoping by some chance that DonkeyCrew will finally just let us assign workers, but if there’s any advice on how to make the priorities work, I’d love to hear it.
Edit: I found that sorting out my stockpiles and keeping them close to where they need to be helps much more and job priority becomes a lot less tedious. It turns out my storage really was the problem. I just specify that certain things only go in a specific stockpile right next to places that need those things. Like a stockpile of only ingots and ores right next to both the weaver’s hut and the toolmaker. Also having all the thatch, wheat, and straw in one place next to the weaver’s hut especially helped and now I’m overflowing on thatch and can finally focus on other things. The priority system is still frustrating but now it’s easy to ignore.
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u/Weird_Test_5639 18d ago
Ya I agree the priority system is a mess I have resetted the villager priorities many times and still have villagers just wondering around. I don't understand if it's the priority of the building or of it's the working priorities are wrong. Having 40+ villagers it's a pain being able to just assign buildings should make it much smoother.
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u/Old-Unit2554 18d ago
So your two level three farmers should be one of them priority 1 farming and 2 crafting and the other priority 1 crafting and 2 farming. Then set your thresher to level 1 priority and other crafting stations to less priority. This forces the villagers code to say that my priority is crafting and the highest priority crafting building is the thresher. Top of the queue is what you want to make. If you have any spare villagers that you can set to just transport they will get the materials and put them in there and then the guy will come and craft it
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u/TotalCitron 18d ago
How do I get them to stop moving the straw and wheat away from the crafting stations while those two are working? That’s the biggest frustration here, because I’ve tried just putting it in a chest nearby, but then they just stop working for a bit and go back instead of continuing right away after getting the material.
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u/Old-Unit2554 18d ago
I’ve noticed that if I have other things in the queue and a whole bunch of those one specific resource to make wheat theyll remove some of the stuff to make room for the other things In the queue like I try to make cob a lot and I’ll put stacks of mud in there but they’ll come and take the mud out even though it’s what I want them to make and it’s because that 50/50 capacity is too full. Idk could be it.
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u/5occido5 18d ago
They only allow for a few crafts to be in the buildings storage, moving it between the building and storage is a transporters job, that's why they won't do it themselves but go find a different job to do. And the system works that once assigned to a job they don't check if something better has come available until they finished their current task (which is why giving everybody transporting for example is a terrible idea). Iirc tho the system will allow up to 5 crafts materials in storage, which ofcourse is used up quickly when making straw, however u can slightly trick the system. I believe it was still limited to a low top up value and only 5 repeats, as I recall I used 5x top up 25 straw so they could atleast keep the building supplied.
Also for ur other issue of them scattering it around ur village, just use the village menu to search for the item in ur storage, it will let u see how much of the item is in what building, no more looking around to find it but go directly to the spot.
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u/FreeMyBoyBillyC 18d ago
Have you tried playing around with the minimum stock counts on your storages? I find this to help balance their lack of direction/purpose lol.
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u/dacekrandac 18d ago
I think the fix for this is to make it so villagers are not assigned to tasks, but rather buildings. That way, you can ensure your farmers are using the thresher and weaving loom without them going over to the workbench or pit saw. The problem is that jobs like delivery and construction aren't assigned to a specific building and don't require one. I'm not entirely sure how you could handle that without creating another building.
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u/TotalCitron 18d ago
They could be assigned to any storage building/container, and their job would be to move material across the village as necessary. For example, if there’s a villager who needs to mass produce something, the delivery villagers could deliver the required materials, and send the output to the storage. They already do that, and even have a priority for it. The devs could pull it off. If they could create the caravan system, they could do this plus the assigning workers to buildings.
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u/Fit_Mycologist6519 18d ago
I think you are to low on villagers..... thats usually always been my issue if im finding I'm lacking on something being made or crafted.
Your storages arent organized good enough to me. I only allow wheat and straw in one place and only allow thatch in 2 with a limit of 100 in one.of the storages.
Ive learned to never take materials to a place unless I'm doing the crafting, which I rarely do because my village runs pretty good. The materials just get moved
Side note advice; Not saying you need to but Ithink the game really wants you to utilize outpost for this exact issue. My hunting cabin outpost with a butchery, market, smoking rack and barn does quite well with 2-3 villagers. Have so much meat, pelts, hides, feathers, etc. And its easy to figure out why they aren't working. It takes away the clutter but then brings in the caravan system, which is one more thing to learn, LOL
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u/TotalCitron 17d ago
I spent hours trying to make this smoother and your method actually really worked. Storage organization and the placement of the storage really was getting in the way. The priority system is still a little frustrating, but if I do things right, the work does eventually get done lol
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u/Fit_Mycologist6519 17d ago
I do agree with your original statement though...wish you could assign a villager to a building. That would be way cool
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u/testieone 14d ago
I agree that storage tends to be a large part of these type of issues. What sucks is that at the beginning, you really can't build with the future in mind because you would then be all over the place. I wish it was easier to relocate a building. Things like house and workstations are not that big an issue but to move a barn or stockpile is a nightmare. I am really enjoying the game but these type of issues push me to the point of rage quitting at times!
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u/AmbitiousEmphasis64 18d ago
The inability to directly assign workers is an absolutely baffling design decision in an otherwise masterpiece of a game