Solid foundation, but management and automation need serious work

[jaimegr]

I’ve played for over 50 hours, and while I’m really enjoying the game, I’m writing this review to point out some key areas that I believe need improvement. The core gameplay is solid and full of potential, but there are several aspects that directly affect the player experience once you reach mid-to-late game progression.

1. Employee menu and confusing assignments
The current employee management system is not intuitive at all. Every time I want to reassign someone, I have to unassign everyone first, because all storage cabinets and workbenches have the same name. This makes organization frustrating and chaotic. I suggest:

Allowing players to rename cabinets and workstations.

Highlighting the corresponding cabinet or table when an assignment is selected.

Improving the UI to make employee reallocation easier and clearer.

2. Employee cap in larger buildings
When you buy the last building, you expect a significant boost in capacity and efficiency. However, the employee limit remains the same as in the "BARN" (I believe it’s 10 in both). It would make sense to allow at least 2 more employees in this final stage to scale up production properly.

3. New employee roles for true automation
Automation feels incomplete. There are no roles for essential logistical tasks. Some ideas:

Employees who can automatically request items.

Someone to unload delivery vans.

Workers assigned to vans to move materials between your properties.

Roles to handle repetitive logistics so the player can focus on strategy.

4. Upgrade system
It would be great to have a way to upgrade workbenches or employees. For example:

Increase work speed.

Allow employees to manage more than one station.

Improve workstation efficiency or item capacity.

A progression system through upgrades or experience wouldn’t be overkill—it would add depth and reward long-term play.

5. Dealer system improvements
The dealer system has potential, but it feels too basic right now. Some suggestions:

Let us renegotiate commissions to boost daily sales.

Assign lockers to dealers where they can pick up product and drop off money.

Avoid the constant need to run around the map looking for them.

Adding these features would make sales management smoother and more strategic.

6. Minimap
A minimap is badly needed. As your operation expands, navigating the map to find things becomes a chore.

7. Inventory and item management
Item handling is one of the most frustrating parts of large-scale production:

Cabinets quickly become too small once you automate a bit.

There’s no fast or efficient way to move large amounts of items.

Since there’s an employee cap, you often end up manually transferring items yourself from one cabinet to another.

This needs to be improved so players don’t spend 80% of their time doing basic logistics.

8. Performance and future content
Lastly—although this probably goes without saying—bug fixing and performance optimization should continue to be a priority. I’ve seen the developer mention upcoming content updates, and that’s exactly why the points I raise here are so important. As the game becomes more complex, having solid automation and efficient systems in place will be key to managing multiple things at once without disrupting production.

Conclusion:
Scheduled 1 has a ton of potential, and it’s clear that the developers built it on a strong foundation. But to prevent the experience from becoming repetitive or frustrating in the long run, improvements in management, control, and automation are essential. I hope this feedback helps push the game to the next level.