How to make NPCs work?

[Antimon]

Has anyone created a guide on how to start up a functioning base where NPCs gather and then create items on their own?

I created a farm sign and placed it in the middle of my crops. I placed a shared box near the crops with a water can, shovel and a hoe with a few seeds inside. But it didn't look like my NPCs were gathering/planting anything.

They would occasionally go to the crops, say, "Heave hoe," or something, then wonder off. It didn't look like they placed anything in the boxes or did anything.

[Cain]

you can check at the base shields if they have everything they need to work, they do work slow because they are bad at it and get better with time. It will take a few years until they start making money in my experience. Treat this game as a long time project (in my opinion)

[twitch.tv/GFYE]

I bought a fishing NPC right when I got the game yesterday. JUST NOW about 8 hours after getting them did I start seeing any fish in my shared chests. NPC skill and efficiency seem to take a LOT of time to improve, measured in months and years in-game. Just be patient

[Imagine]

Adding to twitch.tv/GFYE, if it's in a shared chest (as far as I know) the other NPCs will eat from it. But yeah, the amateur fisher is slow as hell.

All info below is what I figured out so far, I could also be wrong about some parts feel free to yell at me

Things you need:
1. Dedicated Zones for them to work in (i.e Fishing sign near water / Lumberjack sign near mature trees)

2. Containers for them to put stuff into. (shared storage or stockpile sign depending on the job)

3. Some jobs require certain furniture (Musician needs a placed Mic or instrument for example) most of the time if you hover over the job icon in the Resident menu it will tell what it needs / whats missing.

some extra info:
a. You can make signs in the Signboard workshop.

b. for cooks (or anything that uses fire) you'll need a fuel storage sign as well and a shared storage with something burnable in it

c. Some jobs (like farming) don't really do anything without the related policy (in farmings case the delegated farming policy)

Still figuring out how the administrator and other jobs function but this should point you in the right direction