Getting colonists to go to their proper jobs

[psionyx]

Ok so, I've got a LOT of open slots in various facilities that would benefit from specialists, and I have the specialists in the population to work with, but I can't for the life of me, get them to all go work where I want them to.

Specifically, I have a research lab, that can have up to 9 people working, 3shifts of 3 staff. Fine, no problem. I've opened up the shifts, and I have 7 Scientists (the best type for that job), yet for some reason they don't fill the empy slots, and instead go work in the metal mines, or the fungal farms, which are better suited to other people.


I tried upping the Priority of the building, but all that did was make everyone and their grandmother decide to take a job there, and thus preventing my Scientists from taking the slots.

Anyone have any tips on how to optimize who works where? Because I'm not seeing any command/control button anywhere in the HUD to tell my people where to work based on their talents.

Thanks.

[frostie]

Its a case of micromanagement as far as I can tell. If you click on the colonist you want to move there will be buttons to assign them to a new home or workplace. They then replace one of the wrong specialities that work there it seems. I had to do it with about 20 scientists the other day.

[TAS04159]

For in-dome workplaces, colonists have to live in that dome to be able to work there.

Sounds like you packed one dome full of residentials, and another full of workplaces. Yea, not gonna work bud

[jussr]

You can use the priorities buttons on the individual buildings to set which ones you consider most important to keep staffed. Then as long as there are appropriate people in the dome, they should sort themselves out eventually so that ones with the right specialisation are working in the high priority places.

[psionyx]

Actually I found the answer in another thread. Apparently each colonist has a tab on their page where you can tell them where to work, but only for 5 Sols.

Originally posted by TocCo:

For in-dome workplaces, colonists have to live in that dome to be able to work there.

Sounds like you packed one dome full of residentials, and another full of workplaces. Yea, not gonna work bud

That's not at all what the situation was, but I've since found the solution

[The_Pastmaster]

You have to macro it. Close off workslots, increae and decrease priority.
The game logic is that the dome will try to run everything evenly.

[AngerIsAnEnergy]

Originally posted by psionyx:

Actually I found the answer in another thread. Apparently each colonist has a tab on their page where you can tell them where to work, but only for 5 Sols.

There's a mod on the workshop to extend that to 500 sols - so effectively permanent. I've installed but not enabled it yet. Next playthrough as I find the colonists moving jobs so frustrating.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1333147960

[RJ_Dobbs]

Two thumbs up for Get Back There! Makes them stay put, even if it takes a few times to make them like it! :D

[Bored Peon]

Try this.....

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1334579068

Do not need that mod if you set your dome filers.

[<unknown>]

I tried micromanaging my colonist between 2 domes, scientist in science lab inside dome #1, botanist in farm outside domes #1, geologist in excavating metals. After I done all the change and 2 Sol passed. My colonist said to me screw you we will do what we want.

Now Geologist work in farm, scientist move to dome #2 and work in excavating metals, my botanist work in diner and infirmary.

What the point in having specialist if they don't want to work in their specialize work?!?!?

[Nox]

It's really unplayable as is at end game. With hundreds of colonists there is just no practical way to fiddle with them individually. Also the colonists having only one speciality is an obstacle. It would be nice if they could learn on the job.

Some of the lower end buildings should not require speciality or benefit from it so that the new player doesn't have to diddle with this awkward mechanic.

[jussr]

Does it really matter that much at endgame if people are working in their area of speciality, anyway? I mean, I don't even have the tech researched yet that lowers the penalty for working in the wrong area, and I've still seen some colonists whose performance reaches 120, even with that -50. Most of them are still at around 80, which seems perfectly functional.

[Nox]

They don't though, at least 250 turns in with 1000 colonists they do not do sensible things. They go work in the mine instead of research, I have to repeatedly fire non-specialists until the staff fills up with specialists -

it's super awkward and exhausting and anti-fun.

[The_Pastmaster]

Originally posted by Nox:

They don't though, at least 250 turns in with 1000 colonists they do not do sensible things. They go work in the mine instead of research, I have to repeatedly fire non-specialists until the staff fills up with specialists -

it's super awkward and exhausting and anti-fun.

They will grab the first job they find and then gradually seek out a better one, kicking out other people without the specialization needed. However, the population always try to balance out the jobs of all the workplaces.
It becomes much easier when you work with the system rather than against it.

[☢Ｄιαмση∂ѕρι∂єя☢]

Originally posted by sparklecatty:

Does it really matter that much at endgame if people are working in their area of speciality, anyway? I mean, I don't even have the tech researched yet that lowers the penalty for working in the wrong area, and I've still seen some colonists whose performance reaches 120, even with that -50. Most of them are still at around 80, which seems perfectly functional.

This is my thought, it doesn't matter much, which is a shame. In any case, this doesn't bother me too much. What bothers me is how difficult it is to get colonists to move between domes at all unless they are very close or I have shuttles.

If they would tend to prefer what they are good at and that AI worked, I would prefer that to microing them... really not much fun to tell the botonist to farm.

[jussr]

Originally posted by The_Pastmaster:

Originally posted by Nox:

They don't though, at least 250 turns in with 1000 colonists they do not do sensible things. They go work in the mine instead of research, I have to repeatedly fire non-specialists until the staff fills up with specialists -

it's super awkward and exhausting and anti-fun.

They will grab the first job they find and then gradually seek out a better one, kicking out other people without the specialization needed. However, the population always try to balance out the jobs of all the workplaces.
It becomes much easier when you work with the system rather than against it.

This is my experience too; be patient, leave them to it, and so long as you have enough people and everything's set up sensibly, they'll sort themselves out in the end. I haven't manually changed a job assignment in over 30 Sols and almost everyone's where they should be.