Villagers walking 10 miles out of their way to get to work.

[goodys31]

My villagers each morning at work-time, instead of walking directly to their place of work, exit the entire village and take a multi-hour detour outside of the village just to be able to walk on the pre-established road. But their work place isn't even near a road. Sometimes they never even reach it. They are just wondering around all day outside the village. This includes the villagers who are supposed to be in their workshop all day.

This is my second straight village with this happening, both on Oxbow. It kind of ruins the village for me because my village empties each day and I see no activity. Everyone is roaming around outside the village. Production still gets done due to game mechanics, but an empty village is no fun. I tried building a low fence around the entire village to try to keep them in, but no help.

Does this hurt anyone else's enjoyment, or does anyone even notice this?

And if so, how to you improve the situation?

My thoughts are to either try building a long, thin village on a pre-made road or to make my houses very close to the workshops.

I read on another thread that the developer changed villager pathing so that they prefer the roads instead of just bee-lining to their destination. I would prefer them to try to bee-line, allowing me to guide them on my own paths by using fencing to filter them along the intended route.

[Jaunitta 🌸]

Its just cosmetics if we walk away and dont look many times they stand in the home areas and work is magically collected and transferred to the resources bin.
The miners in my town have their owm houses at the mines yet they still walk back to the food chests to get food .
Yet at night they sleep in their beds or sit near the fire outside their house till bedtime everything works as intended.
This in the original Medieval not the new Oxbow

[Morri]

The pathing of the AI could be better. And if your farmers are impacted as well, they sometimes never reach the fields and won't do any work, since their production is physically tied to the fields, so with them it's even worse.

I'll pass it on to the devs again. It could be helpful for them to see if you could include a screenshot of your map maybe with an arrow indicating the detour they take.

[landersbleam]

Yes, it can be (for lack of a better term) visually annoying to see them out walking along existing roads, especially late into the night, although it has no impact on production with the exception of farming. Since I don't like the optics, I usually try to work with existing roads, especially areas where existing roads meet. In my "worst" experience with one Valley game, I tried building along the stream that runs from the mine near Baranica/Branica to the point where the stream empties into the river, and then rebuilt it as two villages with houses and assigned workplaces clustered near the existing roads at the bottom and top of the stream.

On a related note, do they actually "travel" along existing roads just to get to food or resource buildings (as opposed to workplaces) in another location? I'm under the impression they don't really need to do that; has anyone actually seen it? I usually start out with one of each in one location, then add them later at other locations because I like the convenience for myself and need the increased storage capacity.

[goodys31]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3176561637

Hopefully the screenshot shows. This is my newest try for a village, so it is in the early days. The location is the flat area east of the swamp in Oxbow. The villagers, as soon as work-time hits, ignore the fence, climb the rock cliffs behind their houses, and head to the road. Then they follow the blue arrows I have drawn. Sometimes the woodcutter reaches his station. The gatherer ends up across the bridge to the north sometimes. They way home is usually the same, although the woodcutter has walked across the village once or twice to get home.

[Morri]

Originally posted by landersbleam:

On a related note, do they actually "travel" along existing roads just to get to food or resource buildings (as opposed to workplaces) in another location?

Then never physically visit the storage buildings. Whatever material or ingredients they need from there materialises for them automatically.

Originally posted by goodys31:

Hopefully the screenshot shows. This is my newest try for a village, so it is in the early days. The location is the flat area east of the swamp in Oxbow. The villagers, as soon as work-time hits, ignore the fence, climb the rock cliffs behind their houses, and head to the road.

I think it is programmed that if they are within a certain range of a road when their workday starts, they will start taking that road instead of a more direct route.
For me it was very noticeable, because it depended on what bench they were sitting when the workday started. If they were on the "back" benches of my village, they would take the long detour through the road behind my village, but if they were on the bench a little bit more to the front (couldn't have been more than a meter difference), they ignored the road and went directly to the fields.

You could try to add some benches away from the road, so that hopefully they'll hang out there before their shift starts.

[goodys31]

That makes a lot of sense Morri. It can explain why once or twice my woodcutter went straight to work instead of the 10 mile scenic route. I'll incorporate that strategy.

[Danush]

Originally posted by goodys31:

My villagers each morning at work-time, instead of walking directly to their place of work, exit the entire village and take a multi-hour detour outside of the village just to be able to walk on the pre-established road. But their work place isn't even near a road. Sometimes they never even reach it. They are just wondering around all day outside the village. This includes the villagers who are supposed to be in their workshop all day.

This is my second straight village with this happening, both on Oxbow. It kind of ruins the village for me because my village empties each day and I see no activity. Everyone is roaming around outside the village. Production still gets done due to game mechanics, but an empty village is no fun. I tried building a low fence around the entire village to try to keep them in, but no help.

Does this hurt anyone else's enjoyment, or does anyone even notice this?

And if so, how to you improve the situation?

My thoughts are to either try building a long, thin village on a pre-made road or to make my houses very close to the workshops.

I read on another thread that the developer changed villager pathing so that they prefer the roads instead of just bee-lining to their destination. I would prefer them to try to bee-line, allowing me to guide them on my own paths by using fencing to filter them along the intended route.

Now it also happens in the first map (Racimir). So far I only have 4 houses, 2 x woodshed and 2 x excavation pit and right next to the main road. Still, they leave the village and travel far across the map. I don't like it either. Sorry for the English - translator.

[TheOriginalMark:-)]

Oddly enough the OP's picture shows exactly same route that my extraction worker follows to go to work. I have a mining settlement in that same spot and while all of the other workers (miners) go directly to the mine the extraction worker (who's shed is by the mine entrance) insists on the same long walk round the road. The only difference is that when he gets to about where the OP's last arrow is (in the woodland) he starts his "work animation".

I don't care particularly since the work is done regardless but it's interesting that the same weird pathing is occurring twice in the same location.

[goodys31]

Originally posted by TheOriginalMark:-):

Oddly enough the OP's picture shows exactly same route that my extraction worker follows to go to work. I have a mining settlement in that same spot and while all of the other workers (miners) go directly to the mine the extraction worker (who's shed is by the mine entrance) insists on the same long walk round the road. The only difference is that when he gets to about where the OP's last arrow is (in the woodland) he starts his "work animation".

I don't care particularly since the work is done regardless but it's interesting that the same weird pathing is occurring twice in the same location.

I started a new village in a different location and so far things are going better. I am building along a pre-established road from the outset. This way, they will be inclined to use it to get where they are going anyway. The same road will also be a main road in my village. I also used Morri's advice to install some benches along that road for the villagers to use before work, which gets them on the path I want them to be on. Now they no longer wonder around the map instead of reporting to work.

I still wish we didn't need work-arounds for the problem, because this essentially limits where I can build villages with efficient "traffic management".

[Morri]

Originally posted by goodys31:

I still wish we didn't need work-arounds for the problem, because this essentially limits where I can build villages with efficient "traffic management".

The pathing AI definitely could use a bit of a revamp.
If i remember correctly it was changed since I started playing because before they didn't use the roads so much and it was weird seeing them plough through the mud and snow when there was a perfectly good road right next to them. Memory is a bit fuzzy on that though, as it was years ago; maybe some other forum goers can correct me on it.

[simeon]

Originally posted by Morri:

The pathing AI definitely could use a bit of a revamp.
If i remember correctly it was changed since I started playing because before they didn't use the roads so much and it was weird seeing them plough through the mud and snow when there was a perfectly good road right next to them. Memory is a bit fuzzy on that though, as it was years ago; maybe some other forum goers can correct me on it.

You're right Morri.
Before NPCs got "attached" to the pre build roads they only walked a straight line (even through the wilderness) to reach their target.
Hopefully the devs will have the time someday to improve NPC-pathing a bit more.

[Anbellei]

I just bought the game and I am seeing the same problem people have commented about. The villagers take the roads that was built by the devs and not the roads I created. I was wondering if there was a way to get them to use the roads the same way they go sit on the benches I created. They even light the camp fire I created. Also, they seem to make it to my village even when I have not assigned them a house or job, maybe the same way i invite them to my settlement, I can invite them to use my roads…Those are just some thoughts.