Alright, some work can be done here.
Today I completed the implementation of the working system in its first version. Right now the characters can do jobs scheduled on the map. It’s still missing buildings as that will require them finding resources needed for building, and there is no way to control priority of the work per character, but it’s still major progress.
This is generally explaining the approach for building things in the game. You can tell that needs to be done and characters will do it. There is no direct control over the characters (at least not yet) and you don’t create things by a magical wand out of thin air.
Every flower/tree planted, every building built will have to be built manually by the characters from available resources.
You will be able to control per character the priority of the type of work (Farming, Cutting tree, Constructing, Ground Work, Factory, etc.) and you will be able to define if the character should pick the work in order of creation or based on the distance. Also you would be able to increase the priority of each work item to force some stuff to be done before others. But that’s it.
For example, if you want to build a simple construction.
You need first to mark a tree to be cut and create lumber, then have a “factory” to process the lumber into planks, then you can use the planks to build a construction.
So you create those three jobs – sorted by worker’s priority:
- Build simple construction
- Process lumber to planks
- Cut down tree
Now the worker will first try to build construction. He can’t as there are no planks. Then he tries to process lumber to planks. He can’t as there is no lumber. So he does the last job, cut down tree.
Once he cuts the tree, that job is done and removed from the list. And he starts again, build – can’t. Process – yes there is lumber. He takes lumber and processes it into planks. Process lumber is done, and maybe it will stay in the queue, but the worker will start again from the top of the list by priority. Build a simple construction – now he can as there are planks. He goes for the planks, brings them to the construction site and builds the construction.
Simple but very efficient.