ISSUES WITH WORKERS GOING IDLE SINCE 1.07 UPGRADE

[brads3]

     after too many tests and resets,i think i have this narrowed down.this is so subtle it is hard to notice at times.i will try to explain it carefully.i found this while checking production outputs of the new pine mod upgrade. after i dropped back to the previous version of the pine mod,i noticed the issue was still affecting pine mod workers and then went on to affect other mods and their workers also. i eneded up spending today testing to find this gremlin.grrrrrr
i took all mods out and dropped back to vanilla,then loaded the 103 pine mod,then added the new nat div,and finally put all my mods back in.it has been a process to get this far.
     as i say this is subtle. what happens is workers go to idle and  become laborers. they do not go idle and stand still and go back to their jobs. this seems to happen to everyone except farmers.let me explain farther. if you happen to be looking at the worker when it happens they go idle and then "picking up resources". when they pick up a stone they go " working". when they put the item away they go back to "picking up resources". if you happen to click a random worker who is assigned it will read "working",even though that worker is not at his post.at some point this worker will return to his workplace. it may be a season later,i have not figured how long yet. it is not a short time though.the happiness is full,health reads down a heart.
    i tested things by debugging gatherers and herbalists onto maps and let the game run. all in the 1st year.the herbalists will go out and collect a few herbs.once their area was empty f herbs they went to laborers. same with gatherers. when items appeared they went back to their posts and collected the items.i did this to vanilla,then added the pine and ran the same tests. everything seems fine with the pine mod. in those tests i did not add a firewood chopper or any blacksmith.
     i put the mods back in the folder and rebooted the game. adjusted the mod order and again rebooted the game.x out and restarted. i then debugged and placed a crop,mini chopper and bs,vanilla gatherer and herbalist,mini forester and pine vanila gatherer.all with the game still paused. just to be sure the workers would go their jobs,i turned off the debug and sent workers to clear land.unpaused and let game run. all assigned workers went to their jobs and did what they were suppose to.once the herbalist collected a few herbs,he became a laborer and started to clear land.just to check i ran the remove herbs over his area. there were no more herbs.i had changed the limits herbs to 1000,tools up 150,firewood to 2000.nobody had reason to stop work.by summer the woodchopper went idle and stood still for a minute and then went to collect resources being logs and stone from where land was to be cleared. he had over 300 logs in the pile and had only cut about 217 firewood.next the Bs did the same thing.he had 80 tools made.
      after i gave up the tes,i started to think back to the different towns i have played. i have had issues with firewood and thought i was not moving logs to the cutter enough.now i think this issue has been affecting maps since i did the upgrade.as i say it is subtle and with the workers reading"working" even when collecting resources as laborers it is hard to spot.

[brads3]

vanilla tested the vanilla wood cutter. no issues. i'll go bang my head on a wall now.

[ancientmuse]

Okay, I'll be the first one in this thread to admit it:

I'm totally confused and have no idea what you're trying to get at....??

[brads3]

for no reason the workers are going idle and then going to work as laborers instead of doing their jobs. take a woodcutter,he goes idle then switches to "picking up resources" and then delivers the stones or whatever item he has. he stays working as a laborer even though he is assigned to be a woodcutter.this happens even though he has logs to cut and a high firewood limit.it is costly since the worrkers refuse to do their assigned jobs. you are short firewood and food,etc.the only worker i know it doesn't seem to affect is a farmer.
   i am in the process of rebuilding the entire mod list slowly to narrow it down farther.hopefully i can find what mod is causing this.how i noticed it was the pine workers were leaving the forest and supplying the builder.each time i noted a 200 drop in food count from my gatherers.as i say it is subtle cause when they pick up an item to carry,it reads they are "working".only when they are empty and going to pick up resources does the worker window read different.so i end up staring at the workers and hope to catch them.wanta play???

[embx61]

Don't think a mod can have influence how the laborers/professions work in the game.

The code for professions is rather short.

Code Select Expand

Profession laborer : "base"
{
String _text = "ProfessionLaborer";                             <=== just string text for sprite
String _toolTipText = "ProfessionLaborerTip";              <=== just string text
String _deathText = "ProfessionLaborerDeath";           <=== just string text

int _sortPriority = 100; ====== sorting in the profession list
bool _transient = true;  <========= This set true for only laborer and builder. All the other professions in Vanilla it is false;

RandomSelection _deathSelector
{
float _years = 50;                   <===== when a change to die
float _population = 100;          <===== How much population is needed before the above can kick in
}
}

Then in the template file of a building there are only two lines for a profession.

Code Select Expand


WorkPlaceDescription workplace

Profession _profession = "Game/Profession/Profession.rsc:cutter";
Profession _pickupProfession = "Game/Profession/Profession.rsc:cutter";  <==== In my mods I set this to laborer.


That is it. The rest is the AI code in C++ we cannot access.

[brads3]

i don't understand it either,EB. why would a woodcutter go idle at full happiness and only down 1 heart? why would any worker become a laborer when they have work to do? it is like they go idle and then go on strike.still assigned to the original jobs but don't function.

[embx61]

All what I can think of is that maybe some modders have set the bool _transient to true for professions by accident and that have something to do with it?
Just spin balling here as it is the only value I see what maybe can have an impact but not sure about that.

We do not know how Luke have programmed the AI. Maybe it is done in such a way that certain activities have priority over others and for example if a player want to build something huge or clear a huge piece of the land that the game decides to pull in some profession workers to help bringing/clearing resources?
I have no clue.

I think the game should never pull a profession from a job unless they are idling because they run out of resources and/or the limit of what they produce is reached so have nothing to do anyway. Or of course the player change them to a laborer.

Maybe Luke with the latest update broke something but I highly doubt it because I don't think he changed anything in the AI AFAIK.
Sent Luke a bug report and explain to him what is happening in your games so he can take a look into it.

But again, besides maybe the bool _transient I see nothing in the code we can change what can have influence over the professions behavior and I am not even sure if that Boolean makes a difference.

[brads3]

i agree with  your thinking. i actually did try to test vanilla and it passed that test.i then added mods slowly to try to narrow down the gremlin. i am not finding it yet.i have about half my mods put back in and the 103 pine mod.firewood cutter stays at his post, not going idle.bs same thing. herbalists leave when they have nothing to gather but do go back to work as items appear.i even sent out building projects to see if that would change it.have not found it yet.my head and eyes are tired.