Decorations and Villagers

[CMNJB14]

Ok, so when I go to the built-in towns I see NPC's interacting with "decoration items", such as butter churning, feather plucking, chopping wood, etc, etc.

We have the ability to place these in our own villages (which I have done)... BUT, none of my villagers are interacting with them - at all.

Is there a reason why?

[pdoan8]

One simple reason: villagers are at work most of the time. They spend the early morning and the evening to rest. eat, relax, ...

However, adding more villager activities has been a popular QoL request. We've got villager chatting added. He had bards visiting tavern. I have high hope for more villager activities.

Animal breeders could use some more animation. Hunter could interact with tanning stuff if they are not hunting. Farmer could checking, fixing, sharpening equipment. Fisher could fillet fish ...

Off work time: firewood chopping, washing clothes, cooking, ....

[CMNJB14]

It would greatly increase the feeling that the village was "alive" if NPC's did a bunch of those things, instead of just sitting or standing around.

Right now, it just seems a bit -- shallow, for a lack of a better term.

[*Morri*]

Originally posted by CMNJB14:

BUT, none of my villagers are interacting with them - at all.

Is there a reason why?

Lack of time. It was supposed to be in the co-op update but didn't make it in time. It will normally be added in the future, but this is high on my wishlist as well.

[TheRealMuehle]

Originally posted by pdoan8:

One simple reason: villagers are at work most of the time. They spend the early morning and the evening to rest. eat, relax, ...

However, adding more villager activities has been a popular QoL request. We've got villager chatting added. He had bards visiting tavern. I have high hope for more villager activities.

Animal breeders could use some more animation. Hunter could interact with tanning stuff if they are not hunting. Farmer could checking, fixing, sharpening equipment. Fisher could fillet fish ...

Off work time: firewood chopping, washing clothes, cooking, ....

Nice idea! May also be the easiest way to do it.
Have some after-work activitys (maybe),
as well as "secondary animations" for workers!
Like Woodcutters using nearby chopping blocks every now and then
or Hunters using the tanning workstation.
But for farming-related stuff, I'd use Barnworkers.
Farmers have to be physically present at their fields, so them operating a workstation
just for the look would be bad.

Edit:
Most work-intensive solution, but maybe workstations could be two-in-one.
So, a place to simply run an animation for NPCs,
but also a place to actually do things for the Player.
Like turning logs into the double amount of firewood (Chopping Block),
turning a surplus of fur into leather (tannery)
or threshing crops with no grain- but double straw-output (Hay-Stack).

But NPCs actually using workstations too
would require the Devs turning them from being decoration
into actual buildings you can manage.
Don't know, if that would be that great 🤔

[Divirt]

Originally posted by TheRealMuehle:

Originally posted by pdoan8:

One simple reason: villagers are at work most of the time. They spend the early morning and the evening to rest. eat, relax, ...

However, adding more villager activities has been a popular QoL request. We've got villager chatting added. He had bards visiting tavern. I have high hope for more villager activities.

Animal breeders could use some more animation. Hunter could interact with tanning stuff if they are not hunting. Farmer could checking, fixing, sharpening equipment. Fisher could fillet fish ...

Off work time: firewood chopping, washing clothes, cooking, ....

Nice idea! May also be the easiest way to do it.
Have some after-work activitys (maybe),
as well as "secondary animations" for workers!
Like Woodcutters using nearby chopping blocks every now and then
or Hunters using the tanning workstation.
But for farming-related stuff, I'd use Barnworkers.
Farmers have to be physically present at their fields, so them operating a workstation
just for the look would be bad.

Edit:
Most work-intensive solution, but maybe workstations could be two-in-one.
So, a place to simply run an animation for NPCs,
but also a place to actually do things for the Player.
Like turning logs into the double amount of firewood (Chopping Block),
turning a surplus of fur into leather (tannery)
or threshing crops with no grain- but double straw-output (Hay-Stack).

But NPCs actually using workstations too
would require the Devs turning them from being decoration
into actual buildings you can manage.
Don't know, if that would be that great 🤔

Implementing something like this would greatly benefit the game. This is a very interesting idea!