Job Allocation: I don't get it

[Ghostlight]

I started with 7 people and the game immediately lets me setup multiple jobs (like fishing, flint gathering etc) and assign 5 people to each. What does that mean exactly? How does the game decide who does what when you allocate far more of a workforce than you have actual people? It's really confusing.

[swpauhk]

It is a big test for players since it is the city building and management game.(prehistory).
If u arrange the total no of workers over population = lower productivity (too heavy workload).Btw , i still new to the game and learning how to manage the job allocation well.

[Draken]

Basically, with F4 you have your global limits.
As long as these limits aren't reached, new tasks will be generated, for example in your fishing zone.

The number of people determins the number of tasks that are created at once.

So if you set your stick gathering zone to 3 people, then 3 stick gathering tasks will be created at once when your fall under the limit.

If you put down too many zones with too many people, this can cause you to suddently have +30 more resources than your limit.

All tasks go to your aktive tasks, or the task queue (press 7).
Task have a certain priority. Time critical tasks, like harvesting, have a higher priority then others.
Carrying stuff around has the lowest priority.

[swpauhk]

Originally posted by Draken:

Task have a certain priority. Time critical tasks, like harvesting, have a higher priority then others.
Carrying stuff around has the lowest priority.

Yes , i totally agree with u and i just learnt it from playing .

[jhughes]

Also, some tasks only happen at certain times (gather tannin (spring), gather berries (summer)), so you could theoretically assign the same person to both of those tasks.

You will also not assign people to a task if the limit is reached for an item. So, if you are at the limit for sticks and flint.. And if you assign 2 people to each job. The same 2 workers can likely do that job (do flint and get back to limit.. Switch to sticks (when they go down), build sticks up and then back to flint. Etc.

[Reaverbait]

You have to manage and prioritize. I see all sorts of people having issues with this. The secret is to not overwork your people and don't overload the AI with dozen of pending tasks.

You actually want to leave people with free time otherwise they tend not to have enough time free to eat, drink, worship or rest. Which affects health, happiness and they in turn affect productivity. So assigning too much work paradoxically can mean less gets done.

Initially set up work areas for fishing, gathering sticks, gathering flint and gathering food. One pop on each. That will keep five people busy until you reach whatever limits you set on each resource. Limits of 10 each, maybe 20 for sticks and hides initially. You probably want to build another tent and a storage tent fairly quickly. Also racks to dry hides and food. But don't order them all at once. And not until you have the resources to build them.

The other two "unemployed" can spell the ones working. Once you build another building you have two spares to do that, or to go on hunts which are also key. Hunting gets you food and hides and importantly knowledge to buy technologies so you can advance. You can't build without hides, you can't preserve food without getting that technology, and everyone wants to eat steak.

The AI can be guided by using the priority button for some tasks or buildings. Setting resource limits tells it when not to send people to the work areas for those tasks. Within those limits you impose the AI tries it's best to figure out what tasks have priority but there's a lot of factors and without parsing the code the only way you can figure out what it will do is to learn by experience

[Ghostlight]

Great explanations thanks.

So, for sake of argument, if I assign no tasks whatsoever except, say gather Sticks, then it would not matter how many people I assign to it, as this only affects how many new tasks are generated a ta a time, so I would reach whatever limit I set in the same time either way? So if my limit was 5 sticks then generating 1 gather task 5 times would be the same net result as 5 gather tasks once?

[Draken]

Originally posted by Ghostlight:

Great explanations thanks.

So, for sake of argument, if I assign no tasks whatsoever except, say gather Sticks, then it would not matter how many people I assign to it, as this only affects how many new tasks are generated a ta a time, so I would reach whatever limit I set in the same time either way? So if my limit was 5 sticks then generated 1 gather task 5 times would be the same as 5 gather tasks once?

Theoretically yes.
But you may not want to have all your villagers stop there other tasks to for sticks.
Or have all sticks gathered in one zone. They could run out and take a while to replenish.
Personally, I'm setting up around 3 zones with 1 person each. That way I probably don't have to care for sticks for the rest of the game. :-)

[Reaverbait]

Originally posted by Draken:

Originally posted by Ghostlight:

Great explanations thanks.

So, for sake of argument, if I assign no tasks whatsoever except, say gather Sticks, then it would not matter how many people I assign to it, as this only affects how many new tasks are generated a ta a time, so I would reach whatever limit I set in the same time either way? So if my limit was 5 sticks then generated 1 gather task 5 times would be the same as 5 gather tasks once?

Theoretically yes.
But you may not want to have all your villagers stop there other tasks to for sticks.
Or have all sticks gathered in one zone. They could run out and take a while to replenish.
Personally, I'm setting up around 3 zones with 1 person each. That way I probably don't have to care for sticks for the rest of the game. :-)

I agree. When I said one pop on each of sticks, fishing, food and flint that was just a base to start and will leave people available for spot assignments like building. If you need more sticks add a person and or prioritize the stick gathering work area. But only until you fix the shortfall.

If you prioritize everything you are really prioritizing nothing. If you assign 7 people each to sticks, fish, stone and flint work areas don't be surprised when you have a ton of fish rotting and no sticks to build your house, or a pile of sticks and starving people. And if you have 6 tasks per person, don't expect to do them right when you want or need them to - the AI isn't psychic, and it's not even very bright.