Unoptimal pathfinding for gardener critter.

[なかの31]

I left a critter watering the plants I left throughout Critter Cove, and I noticed something regarding that: They disregard distance when watering them.

In my case, I have 3 planters in front of 3 houses by the square of Critter Cove, and have a few medium planters on the opening in front of the workshop.

What I witnessed is: Boyd came to the Planter in front of my house (square), and then watered it, then he run all the way to the opening in front of the workshop, and watered one of the planters there. Then, he run all the way back to the square, watered the planter in front of Pokee's house (which is on the northeast of the square), and then ran all the way back to the workshop opening to water another planter.

Like, the critter assigned to Gardening, doesn't check which planter is the closest, they seem to take any random planter without watering and then go to it to water.
And that's unrelated to placement order, since the planters by the town square, were placed on the beginning of my playthrough (months ago), while planters at the workshop I placed earlier this day.

The screenshots shows better the case.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3372636297
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3372636467

[Amayeha]

I noticed the same and the assigned critter is always missing to water one row.

[Queen Droxxanna]

ya, but then they come back and water the others, although I have lots of planters in different locations and some time my gardener misses a few.

[Syrris]

This happens even if the planters are all in the same area. I've got them all in the yard around the workshop and the critter nevertheless criss-crosses the place for each watering rather than moving to nearby ones, and inevitably ends up leaving some unwatered by the end of the day (or just walks off around mid-day and leaves half of them dry).

[なかの31]

Ah, so they can end up leaving watering plants dry too if it passes midday?
Then the issue is quite direr. Not only they can end up taking too long to water the planters, but also can delay the watering for long enough to skip the rest of them.

[Steelfleece]

I haven't seen Pokee leave any dry just yet on my new save, and am up to 160 small planters. Ahh, unpaid lizard farmers. Takes me back to Morrowind it does.

[Tand]

Do you have any medium planters, or all small?

[なかの31]

The screenshots actually show them. In front of the houses have small planters, while in front of the Workshop has medium planters.

[miss dibley]

Sorry, could anyone clarify: is the gardener missing plants entirely (as in they don't get watered at all throughout the entire day), or is it that they aren't watering the plants in a logical order, going back and forth to various plants, but all the plants eventually do get watered?

[AP]

Originally posted by miss dibley:

Sorry, could anyone clarify: is the gardener missing plants entirely (as in they don't get watered at all throughout the entire day), or is it that they aren't watering the plants in a logical order, going back and forth to various plants, but all the plants eventually do get watered?

Speaking for myself here;
Boyd, in my case, is a worse neurodivergent scattermind than I am! He waters one plant in a medium planter, runs off to another medium planter and does the same, then runs/swims to my underwater plants (at least I have seen him coming up at the shore near where I have my plants a couple of times, so I assume he is attempting to water them as well!) then he runs off to water something I watered already because I have a an enormous amount of planters to produce all the needed items. I made a comment about this in your wishlist post as well. That is how things run in my game at least. So plants does get watered but in my case most of them don't because the npc uses more time running around like a maniac rather than just start watering in one area and finishing that off, before moving onto the next one. I thought maybe you guys had programmed the game to choose the planters closest to the npc's home to be watered first and then branch out from there, but right now poor Boyd is running his legs off! I hope this clarifies my issue at least. I'm okay with having to water something due to my farm size, but right now I have to water everything because Boyd might only water 1 plant in 1 medium box and then run off to water something else as described.

[mskitty]

Originally posted by miss dibley:

Sorry, could anyone clarify: is the gardener missing plants entirely (as in they don't get watered at all throughout the entire day), or is it that they aren't watering the plants in a logical order, going back and forth to various plants, but all the plants eventually do get watered?

The gardener is missing plants entirely, even when they are in a row, he will water some and skip others.

[mmel1313]

Originally posted by mskitty:

Originally posted by miss dibley:

Sorry, could anyone clarify: is the gardener missing plants entirely (as in they don't get watered at all throughout the entire day), or is it that they aren't watering the plants in a logical order, going back and forth to various plants, but all the plants eventually do get watered?

The gardener is missing plants entirely, even when they are in a row, he will water some and skip others.

some do not got watered at all. since hiring ive lost a poconut 4 flowers and 5 pitcher plants. i let him bat clean up after i take care of it myself.

[miss dibley]

Ok, follow up question (and just to ask and eliminate the easiest answers) -- did you all select a critter who wants to garden (as in they have the gardener tag in the relationship page)?

As to critters watering underwater plants, that was supposed to be fixed in a patch -- be sure you're on version 207 and then if you get a chance, let me know if your gardener is still comically watering the ocean?

[なかの31]

I choose Boyd for that. He had the watering can icon on his avatar so I guess he likes to do gardening.

[mskitty]

i have Bambo and he has watering can for job preference.

[Tand]

Originally posted by miss dibley:

As to critters watering underwater plants, that was supposed to be fixed in a patch -- be sure you're on version 207 and then if you get a chance, let me know if your gardener is still comically watering the ocean?

Boyd, and I haven't seen them swim to water the underwater planters.

Boyd is, however, still running around without doing 'nearest planter' logic. Still one side of the 'garden' to the other. Granted, I do have ... a few planters.

Boyd also seems to be going back to water my medium planters a second time, even if there are planters in need of watering. So I've taken to coming back in the evening and checking to make sure the pathfinder logic didn't miss any. Usually it misses quite a few.