Villager skill leveling

[Schalimah]

Is there any consensus what the best methods are to level your villagers skills?

Extraction - Mining tin got them to 10 within 12-15 days (good enough for me)

Hunting - Not to many options but I needed leather so that is what they did and they leveled reasonably fast

Farming - No idea what to do. The only one with any progress to speak of is the pig sty going from 3 to 6 in 5 or 6 years

Diplomacy - Sell the tin you mined for extraction and they will be 10 within the same time period.

Survival - Again, not to many options. The fishing hut seems to be slightly better than the herbalist.

Production - So many option but none have really deliverd so far. stone knifes seemed reasonable from what I saw on the wiki (I know not always up to date), but I haven't tested it yet.

[AfLIcTeD]

Recent patches has changed leveling of some skills for some buildings.

Extraction: Woodshed may be the fastest now. Then excavation, then mining. They will all level pretty fast though.

Hunting: Like you said not much options. Leather is the fastest.

Farming. Working the fields levels them the fastest, but it's limited as they won't always be planting them. The pigsty is quite fast and consistent.

Diplomacy. Selling anything will level insanely fast.

Survival. Herbalists collecting herbs will level very fast now. Fishing is definitely doable but it requires spears.

Production. Workshop is by far the fastest now.

[Schalimah]

Originally posted by AfLIcTeD:

Extraction: Woodshed may be the fastest now. Then excavation, then mining. They will all level pretty fast though.

I don't know man.
I started my recent playthrough about two weeks ago.
Extraction hut did go much faster than woodcutter but the mine blew them both out the watter.
Mining Iron or copper was slow going, but tin, man.
A single miner, alone, went from 3 to 10 in about one standard year.

Originally posted by AfLIcTeD:

Production. Workshop is by far the fastest now.

Workshop doing what?
Buckets?

[AfLIcTeD]

Originally posted by Schalimah:

Originally posted by AfLIcTeD:

Extraction: Woodshed may be the fastest now. Then excavation, then mining. They will all level pretty fast though.

I don't know man.
I started my recent playthrough about two weeks ago.
Extraction hut did go much faster than woodcutter but the mine blew them both out the watter.
Mining Iron or copper was slow going, but tin, man.
A single miner, alone, went from 3 to 10 in about one standard year.

Originally posted by AfLIcTeD:

Production. Workshop is by far the fastest now.

Workshop doing what?
Buckets?

Thing is the woodshed is unlocked very early so you can level them from the get go. The mine won't be unlocked until at least year 5 at default tech values. I didn't have the mine unlocked at the time of testing so I can't compare with it. Although with a total of six workers, production will be sky high along with levels I'm guessing.

Was doing a mix of clay and wood. I think when I tested it I was doing about 50% buckets, some wood bowls, plates and vials and the rest clay vials. Sewing hut used to be fastest but now not so much.

[Morri]

Keep in mind that it might get changed up again (or so I hope), since some things are going absurdly fast atm.

[AfLIcTeD]

Originally posted by Morri:

Keep in mind that it might get changed up again (or so I hope), since some things are going absurdly fast atm.

Even at your levels?

[galadon3]

Yea I was kinda shocked to see how fast the lumberjack leveled up, I mean some were really slow after the update, but now they are really fast.
Tbh I think they should at least take 10 years to reach max level, potentially rather more, you don't become a master (as in as good as it gets) in your craft over night.

[brown29knight]

Speaking of leveling up, not your villagers but yourself, currently, filling one bucket at the well gives you as much extraction exp as chopping down 25 trees.

This does not work for villagers, only for players. Filling a bucket also only gives you as many technology points as felling a tree, so it will not unlock buildings quicker, just level your extraction skill very quickly.

[Schalimah]

Originally posted by galadon3:

Yea I was kinda shocked to see how fast the lumberjack leveled up, I mean some were really slow after the update, but now they are really fast.
Tbh I think they should at least take 10 years to reach max level, potentially rather more, you don't become a master (as in as good as it gets) in your craft over night.

fair enough, but on the other end of the spectrum, I have a farm hand tending a total of 218 farm tiles (one cycle per year each) for 8 years straight and gaining a single skill point.

4 people in the barn making animal feed for 2 years straight and only one of them managed to actually get a skill point.

My tool smithy is setup for 40% iron bars and the rest is spread to various iron tools, fishing spears, copper hammers (for quests), ...
Two people with skill 3 and no skill gain over several years.

[Schalimah]

Originally posted by brown29knight:

Speaking of leveling up, not your villagers but yourself, currently, filling one bucket at the well gives you as much extraction exp as chopping down 25 trees.

This does not work for villagers, only for players. Filling a bucket also only gives you as many technology points as felling a tree, so it will not unlock buildings quicker, just level your extraction skill very quickly.

I noticed that as well, pun intended.
40ish extraction XP for a water bucket.
I guess someone put the decimal point in the wrong place.

[galadon3]

Originally posted by Schalimah:

Originally posted by galadon3:

Yea I was kinda shocked to see how fast the lumberjack leveled up, I mean some were really slow after the update, but now they are really fast.
Tbh I think they should at least take 10 years to reach max level, potentially rather more, you don't become a master (as in as good as it gets) in your craft over night.

fair enough, but on the other end of the spectrum, I have a farm hand tending a total of 218 farm tiles (one cycle per year each) for 8 years straight and gaining a single skill point.

4 people in the barn making animal feed for 2 years straight and only one of them managed to actually get a skill point.

My tool smithy is setup for 40% iron bars and the rest is spread to various iron tools, fishing spears, copper hammers (for quests), ...
Two people with skill 3 and no skill gain over several years.

As Morri already kinda implied, its not really balanced. And when I say I think they should need about 10 years or even more, I mean that in general, meaning if they take way longer thats where the XP-gain should be increased.
(and ofc I mean at the standard XP-gain, if people want that to go faster they should have the option to use the XP-gain setting, but for that too a kinda balanced XP-gain between the jobs is important too, otherwhise you for example want your farmhands to level faster, put the XP-gain up but suddenly end up with other jobs at max way faster then you might like.)

Honestly I think binding the NPC-XP to the value they create with their work is not a really ideal way to handle it. I would just flat out give them XP for time they are working in a job. That way you should have about the same XP-gain for all villagers as long as you keep them busy.
(and in the spirit of gender-equality I think parenting NPCs should at least get some diplomacy-XP, and that just because there isn't any "patience-skill"^^)