Employees are frustratingly buggy

[Rusty]

There are so many issues with employees getting stuck in place, stealing shelf items, failing to move products, locking cauldrons. I reset the game nearly every day that passes in game to fix one property, just to have another property automation break thereafter.

one bugged out worker and the entire shop comes to a halt. I'm constantly running back and forth to each property doing nothing but fixing the automation over and over again, rather than running around making sales.

Automation should help you progress smoother. Instead, it slows my progression to a crawl.

[OneOfTheHomies]

Do you mean frustratingly?
That being said yeah, they really can't handle a lot of environmental variation, I found it best to try and keep things in various lines but that's just me.

[Rusty]

Originally posted by Bpat:

They are not perfect i agree, but considering its EA i assume Tyler(dev) is working on improvements, luckily its not a crucial bug and can be worked around it so we just have to be little patient for some nice updates.

Best regards

Don't get me wrong. I do love the way the system is intended to work. I just wish it did. I think I will have to minimize the amount of employees per location and simplify the workflow.

I'm only putting this out there in hopes that these issues are pushed to the forefront.

[Rusty]

Originally posted by OneOfTheHomies:

Do you mean frustratingly?
That being said yeah, they really can't handle a lot of environmental variation, I found it best to try and keep things in various lines but that's just me.

Fixed, Thanks.

I agree. I try and keep everything streamlined and as straight forward as possible, with as little pathing as possible, but they still manage to bug out. Specially now that I own all of the properties. The problem seemed to get worse over time.

[Spunk Mayo]

"Stealing shelf items" what? They don't just grab things unless you tell them to use the shelf.

[Rusty]

Originally posted by Spunk Mayo:

"Stealing shelf items" what? They don't just grab things unless you tell them to use the shelf.

You clearly haven't come across this bug. While the employee is assigned to move one item to another destination. The employee will empty the entire shelf instead, then walk back to it's spawn position without moving the product to the designated spot. Essentially deleting all the items that were on that shelf.

[Rusty]

Originally posted by Bpat:

Originally posted by Spunk Mayo:

"Stealing shelf items" what? They don't just grab things unless you tell them to use the shelf.

op probably meant, when workers are set to pick up items, they do get picked up and lost along the process(aka stealing)

yup.

[mrbebe™]

100% agree, Ive had thousands of inventory disappear because of bugged "stealing" employees

[Badstormer]

Given it's early access, the employees are a problem we're going to have to work around for now. Personally, I'd had the most success just giving them the simplest tasks imaginable and minimizing the amount of things that can go wrong in the routine, even if it means I have to do more of the labor myself. I'm sure it'll improve with time. For now, though, anything more complex than making the base product and packaging it is probably best done yourself.

[Rusty]

Originally posted by Badstormer:

Given it's early access, the employees are a problem we're going to have to work around for now. Personally, I'd had the most success just giving them the simplest tasks imaginable and minimizing the amount of things that can go wrong in the routine, even if it means I have to do more of the labor myself. I'm sure it'll improve with time. For now, though, anything more complex than making the base product and packaging it is probably best done yourself.

All of my properties have become a huge buggy mess with over 350k invested. I will either have to break everything down and reorganize everything which is insane because of the large volume of items i currently have at each location or I would have to start from scratch.

I am thinking the latter because running around fixing the automation is no longer fun, and it will take ages to move all the product to one corner of the property to make enough room to then organize sections at a time.

[WARandRUIN]

Would it be better to have 1 chemist do 4 cauldrons, and 1 chemist do 4 ovens? Or to split it where 1 chemist does 2 cauldrons and 2 ovens each? The cauldrons thing drives me crazy as I come to the warehouse and only 2 of the cauldrons are running and 2 are plumb full of product but not running and are either locked because the chemist is trying to complete the task but sitting out front or just plain not running. Everything else I’ve gotten to work by simplifying workflows and as you said saving and reloading. Problem now is saving and reloading it wipes out your XP you accrued for the day so I’m like well… I guess I’ll just live with the automation being broken so I can level up.

Eventually the chemists will get the other cauldrons running but it takes forever. And it seems most of the time only 2/4 are running. It’s a lot of time wasted.

[Fam]

My chemist is just standing in the middle of the chemistry lab and ovens without doing anything even though the stations are stocked, the destinations are set, and they are fully paid for.

Anyone else experiencing this?

[zencho]

Originally posted by Fam:

My chemist is just standing in the middle of the chemistry lab and ovens without doing anything even though the stations are stocked, the destinations are set, and they are fully paid for.

Anyone else experiencing this?

Im having the same issue rn, he's just standing infront of the workstation while looking at me all smug and shi

[Rusty]

Originally posted by WARandRUIN:

Would it be better to have 1 chemist do 4 cauldrons, and 1 chemist do 4 ovens? Or to split it where 1 chemist does 2 cauldrons and 2 ovens each? The cauldrons thing drives me crazy as I come to the warehouse and only 2 of the cauldrons are running and 2 are plumb full of product but not running and are either locked because the chemist is trying to complete the task but sitting out front or just plain not running. Everything else I’ve gotten to work by simplifying workflows and as you said saving and reloading. Problem now is saving and reloading it wipes out your XP you accrued for the day so I’m like well… I guess I’ll just live with the automation being broken so I can level up.

Eventually the chemists will get the other cauldrons running but it takes forever. And it seems most of the time only 2/4 are running. It’s a lot of time wasted.

I find that it's best to consider the workflow when setting up your automation. The bots perform everything in chronological order.

for example: If you setup your chemist to <cauldron> <oven> <cauldron> <oven> , it will perform those tasks in that order. if you have two chemist, break up the workflow so that they maintain a busier schedule.

for example:
Chemist 1 - <cauldron 1> <oven 1> <mixer 1> <mixer 3>
Chemist 2 - <cauldron 2> <oven 2> <mixer 2> <mixer 4>
The idea here is that the cauldrons will fire off first. If oven is ready for use then it will cook, otherwise it will start the mix, then return to the oven when it's ready to cook. Staggering the mixers allows the chemists to work side by side allowing the assembly line to move along quicker, without having to wait for a single chemist to do all the work.

The same goes for the handlers. Assign handler-1 to packaging station and handler-2 to refill that packaging station, instead of having the same handler fill it's own station. This allows the handler-1 using the station to work without stopping as the handler-2 refills the station simultaneously.

I think it's the way you setup that workflow that matters. The chronological order in which the items are placed on the shelf from left to right also matters, as much as the order you assign their tasks does.

[Rusty]

Originally posted by Fam:

My chemist is just standing in the middle of the chemistry lab and ovens without doing anything even though the stations are stocked, the destinations are set, and they are fully paid for.

Anyone else experiencing this?

I found a few fixes for this.
1. Save and reset, that's fairly universal.
2. at the end of the shift beat the npc until you knock them out and they reset in the morning.
3. unassign the bed to the npc to reset their workflow, or flat out remove the bed then set it back down.
4. Shut the game down and restart. (clearly the most tedious, and the reason for this post)
5. beat the npc to a bloody pulse and shoot em in the head and hire a new one.

I also found that certain npc models tend to lock up more than others. The bald one is terrible at sorting items. The male with the bun on his head, is terrible with racks. I can't tell which of the chemist models ruins the cauldron, they all look alike.

[Dailao]

Originally posted by Rusty:

Automation should help you progress smoother. Instead, it slows my progression to a crawl.

It's early access. Instead of being frustrated, try giving feedback on how to improve it.