Hi Everyone,

For Update 5, I focused on getting the Clanfolk to get jobs done better. There are lots of bug fixes and tweaks listed below as well, so please take a look if you are interested in the fine details :)

Let's dive into the changes.

Experimental Non-Strict Skill Priorities

So there has been a lot of discussion about what I will call the Strict Skill Priority system on both Discord and the Steam forums. Here is the relevant question from the poll.


Assume Cooking Skill at the top, Crafting skill under Cooking, Haul at very bottom for the Unit.
Assume Cooked Eel Task Priority 2
Assume Craft Stone Axe Priority 7
...11 other skill entries here....
Assume Haul Large Rock Priority 10

1. Highest priority TASKS are always selected first - All level 10 tasks done first regardless of associated Skill type. Haul, Craft, Cook
2. All Tasks within the highest priority SKILL are always completed first - Then all tasks of the next highest priority SKILL are completed. Cook, Craft, Haul
3. The priority of both the Tasks and the Skills are combined to guide picking with the highest combined value being picked first. Craft, Cook, Haul


The question was, how did the priority system work. The answer (was) #2 That was Strict Skill Priorities and they still can be used by selecting Settings/Gameplay and ticking the box, not to worry. This system works quite well for about half the people, but is not friendly to newer players who expect the priority on individual tasks to play more of a global role.

SO, this brings us to NON-Strict Skill Priorities, which are a new experimental feature that has been defaulted to as a test. As I say, turn Strict Priorities back on in settings/gameplay if you run into problems with it as it is quite a different method of handling tasks scheduling.

The new system is #3
So Skill priority AND task priority work together to create the task ordering. This means that you should not have to touch the skill priorities very often and instead manipulate task priorities more. So a very high task priority will be seen by more people and sooner. The rule is, to jump in front of a higher priority skill, the task needs to be 1 priority level higher that and task for the higher skill.

Reports on this new system so far have been positive, but it is an adjustment for people who understand #2 really well. I would like to hear your thoughts as well in the forums. I have not decided which should be the default system.

#2 (old) Task ordering localized inside of skill ordering
#3 (new) Task ordering more global but influenced heavily by skill ordering

Smarter Priority Boosts

Priority Boosts also get an upgrade (Soon to be called Emergency Boosts.) They used to all be equal and picked by the next available unit based on distance, but now they are weighted by the unit's own skill priorities. So this means in general the more correct/skilled person for the job will work on the priority boost, and they will less often all get locked down doing a nearby job, ignoring all other boosts.

That being said...

Priority Boosts are not a good long term solution. There is another poll about this in the forums discussing the dangers of overuse. They are really meant to be used to quickly achieve a task and then turned off since they completely bypass the normal task selection procedure and are very inefficient long term.

The combination of large numbers of tasks and large numbers of boosts to complete tasks seems to be the root of many of the complaints about the AI not doing what it is told. I am looking at ways to make it more clear that large task counts and boost overuse is dangerous.

Task Chaining

Another new experimental feature is task chaining. This is used to have jobs serviced in groups. There was a problem of cutting a single tree, then dragging the logs home right after due to hauling being a higher priority than lumber, or perhaps there was a new boost task that becomes available. Anyhow now most job types will try to chain to the exact same task nearby.

The Clanfolk do get fixated on similar tasks nearby now though, so it is a much better to select 10 trees to chop vs 1000 or else that unit will be locked down for a very long time once they start to chopping.

V0.241

• Updated Hungarian Translation
  
• Upgrade to the Trade window to allow scrolling in the buy and sell portion. - This one ended up eating up way more hours than expected. I will try to get a set of smaller bugs fixed next that take less time. This bug was a priority because it hid items off screen.
  

V0.242

• Increased Bread Oven's heat output from 6c over 27 tiles to 7c over 48 tiles
  
• Guests no longer tend fires. It sometimes put them in situations that lowered satisfaction too much.
  
• Fix for case where all Clanfolk would stay awake if there were humans or animals needing doctoring but there was not bed to place them in.
  
• Fixed case where Workers who joined the family left their clothing marked as not droppable, causing they to stay on in the wrong times of year.
  
• Fixed case where Clanfolk could get forever stuck when they were trying to clean or collect poop from hard to reach locations
  
• Fixed a case with task indecision where the Unit would want to sleep, but travelling through the cold would make them too cold to sleep so they would do something else and warm up, then want to sleep again. Happened when had to walk long distances in winter to get to their bed.
  
• Wood Ash recipe 1:1 with the Bark consumed now. So doubled the output. More fertilizer!
  

V0.243

• Fix for carried humans and animals having their priority reset each time they are picked up.
  
• Added Toggle in Settings/Gameplay for Strict Skill Priorities, currently defaulted to off. Strict Skill priorities is how priorities worked prior to v0.243. Definition: "ALL Tasks within the Highest Priority SKILL are always completed first"
  
• Note: Non-Strict Priorities are experimental currently, but are currently Active. Please turn Strict Priorities back on if you run into problems or dislike it. I am just trying to get lots of testing on this experimental system
  
• New Smarter Priority Boost System. Instead of just looking at distance for priority boosts, it also uses the Units skill priorities to pick what
  the next boost to attempt should be.
  
• Auto Water and Auto Fertilize tasks given neutral priority (5) instead of low priority (2) This should lead to these tasks being picked more
  often now.
  

V0.244

• Added a Sanity check to Abort Tasks if the task cannot progress due to a loss of pathfinding.
  
• Fix for case made much more visible in v0.243 where testing a potential Haul task could cause the Unit to drop their carried item. This could happen at a time when the item was already expected to exist by another task causing all manner of hard to find suffering for the Dev. From the player perspective this was the reason Clanfolk stood there forever holding a poop basket.
  
• Upgraded Hauling Task to prioritize hauling carried tools back.
  
• Skill Priority has 1.5x the weight of Task priority vs 1:1 before
  
• Hauling skill weight is not so heavily tied to distance when it comes to non strict skill priority mode, so far hauling tasks do not need to be so heavily weighted to be used.
  

V0.245

• Added a sanity check for poop collection that in the case where the task started with the the wrong tool being held, it was possible that the task could get locked up for a long period of time.
  
• Fix for Manure Basket Collecting such that the entire local area will be cleared of poop until the basket is full before it is hauled back.
  
• Added Task Persistence to Harvesting Tasks such that when a harvest ends, Units will try to find another similar task within 15 tiles. There was a problem of units being pulled off of their harvest tasks after harvesting 1 tile, this was due to boosting intercepting the unit's task priority before the next similar task could start.
  
• Task Chain will now break the task series if the Unit is too hungry, tired, etc. Units won't work to death stuck in a task chain.
  
• Clear Tile Tasks like Cutting Trees or grass or mining all try to chain now as well.
  
• Auto Harvest base priority increased from 2->5
  
• Fixed a case in the evaluating the haul task that could cause paths in active tasks to be stopped, causing the active tasks to pause out indefinitely.
  

V0.246

• Fixed priorities for cleaning tasks not being evaluated correctly when comparing to other tasks using non strict skill priorities.
  
• Fixed Doctoring priority such that with non strict priorities, Doctoring and baby care are less easily bypassed for non emergencies
  
• Lowered Task Chaining range from 15 to 7 tiles. Don't want units fixated to the same task over such long distances.
  
• Lowered Gong(Manure) Collector task chain range from 20 tiles to 12
  
• Add/Auto Water and Fertilize will now also Task Chain within 7 tiles to keep the jobs more persistent
  

Next Top Priorities

• Getting Hunters to Haul Bunnies when they are cold [DONE Update 2]
  
• Preventing personal needs from breaking chained tasks [DONE Update 2]
  
• Keeping fires lit overnight [DONE Update 3]
  
• Automating burying loved ones [DONE Update 4]
  
• Fixing bed owners stealing unclaimed beds, blocking them [DONE Update 4]
  
• Wells duplicating water jugs somehow [DONE Update 4]
  
• Upgrading the Boost System to also read skill ordering for decision making [DONE Update 5]
  
• Any and all cases of a movement stuck problem causing starvation [DONE Update 5]
  
• Carrying Tools back home better
  
• Performance upgrades for very large homesteads 40+ Clanfolk 100+ Livestock
  
• System to make large task counts and over boosting less attractive to new players
  

Thanks again people on the testing branch. It helps keep the main branch stable. If you like quicker daily updates, come join us in the testing branch too :)

Library->Clanfolk->Properties->Betas->testing

Diving back into the code now.

Andrew Hume (Blorf)
MinMax Games Ltd.