Base worker distribution

[Cikomyr]

So I realized yesterday evening that I was really struggling needlessly in my Genocidal SkyNet game. Base city districts and starting Colonies often created Maintenance jobs that gave amenities. Ok, sure.

I then worked to develop the planets along mineral or energy production. Still so far so good.

But then, I realized the following in my available jobs:

Maintenance: 8
Mining: 1/6
Technician: 2

Elsewhere:

Maintenance: 7
Technician: 2/8

I had plenty of amenities surplus on both planets, off course. But my energy and mineral economy have been struggling mightily until I realized what was happening:

It seems that the laborers will automatically fill as many amenities job as possible before filling up other jobs.

Can't we change that? Have an option that automatically balances job allocation so that amenities are always as a certain minimum (when possible) so other jobs gets filled first?

I don't mind workers going all in amenities if they happen to have no other jobs available. But the default distribution should be.. More distributed, perhaps?

Just a thought.

 

[Wyldshot]

I either turn off the extra maintenance jobs entail I need them or do not build the maintenance building or city district entail I need it.

 

[Cikomyr]

I either turn off the extra maintenance jobs entail I need them or do not build the maintenance building or city district entail I need it.

That's obvious. And this is what I did once I realized what was happening.

My question is: why?! Why is one job type prioritized over all others?

 

[AlazkanAssassin]

My question is: why?! Why is one job type prioritized over all others?

Do your workers have the trait that makes them better at that job?

 

[Derp]

Do your workers have the trait that makes them better at that job?

irrelevant, amenities should not be prioritized unless they're actually needed

 

[Wyldshot]

Pops tend to favor the jobs they are better at if they one is open.

 

[Stars_and_Bars]

So I realized yesterday evening that I was really struggling needlessly in my Genocidal SkyNet game. Base city districts and starting Colonies often created Maintenance jobs that gave amenities. Ok, sure.

I then worked to develop the planets along mineral or energy production. Still so far so good.

But then, I realized the following in my available jobs:

Maintenance: 8
Mining: 1/6
Technician: 2

Elsewhere:

Maintenance: 7
Technician: 2/8

I had plenty of amenities surplus on both planets, off course. But my energy and mineral economy have been struggling mightily until I realized what was happening:

It seems that the laborers will automatically fill as many amenities job as possible before filling up other jobs.

Can't we change that? Have an option that automatically balances job allocation so that amenities are always as a certain minimum (when possible) so other jobs gets filled first?

I don't mind workers going all in amenities if they happen to have no other jobs available. But the default distribution should be.. More distributed, perhaps?

Just a thought.

Maybe you shouldn't build more districts or buildings if there's no unemployment?

 

[Cikomyr]

Maybe you shouldn't build more districts or buildings if there's no unemployment?

Thanks for a useless post!

In the same vein, why have the ability to right click and "survey system" if you can select every item to survey yourself?

Or have the ability to construct "all mining stations".

Or allow a fleet to automatically reinforce! After all, you can just manually build the missing ships and merge.

Jeez. Why would anyone desire the quality of life automation that minimize the tedious micromanagement?

 

[Chthon]

Thanks for a useless post!

In the same vein, why have the ability to right click and "survey system" if you can select every item to survey yourself?

Or have the ability to construct "all mining stations".

Or allow a fleet to automatically reinforce! After all, you can just manually build the missing ships and merge.

Jeez. Why would anyone desire the quality of life automation that minimize the tedious micromanagement?

That you find good advice useless tells me that you don't actually want help.

As for job balance, that is still being worked on, but while massive unemployment is a problem, so is massive under-employment. Economies have to grow in measure with the growth of the empire as a whole or a recession can start. If you fail to realize that, there is no fix that can correct that.

So in short, the problem you are experiencing is being worked on, but don't throw out bad advice because you don't like it, because you face another problem as well. One of your own making.

 

[redrum68]

While I think the base prioritization algorithm could be improved a bit, the bigger issue is that there needs to be a way for players to prioritize jobs (I believe the devs have indicated that they are most likely pursuing this). As no matter how good the base prioritization algorithm is, there will always be times that I want energy instead of minerals or vice-versa based on my current situation.

 

[Cikomyr]

While I think the base prioritization algorithm could be improved a bit, the bigger issue is that there needs to be a way for players to prioritize jobs (I believe the devs have indicated that they are most likely pursuing this). As no matter how good the base prioritization algorithm is, there will always be times that I want energy instead of minerals or vice-versa based on my current situation.

Something like "prioritize energy production to prevent deficit", or "prioritize amenities to avoid being in the negatives", etc..

 

[Stars_and_Bars]

Thanks for a useless post!

In the same vein, why have the ability to right click and "survey system" if you can select every item to survey yourself?

Or have the ability to construct "all mining stations".

Or allow a fleet to automatically reinforce! After all, you can just manually build the missing ships and merge.

Jeez. Why would anyone desire the quality of life automation that minimize the tedious micromanagement?

Look. Building a factory with nobody to work it is only slightly less ridiculous that selling a product that no one will buy. Of course in this case it's kind of the opposite, because pops will usually move to the factory and abandon the farms.

Your examples are nonsensical, because those "quality of life automation" improvements are all one dimensional choices that have to be made. For all of those choices, the question isn't "What do I want to do?" but rather "When do I want to do it?" You will always build mining stations, but the question is when? You will always survey systems, but the question is when? You will always reinforce your fleets, but the question is when?

For building the districts and buildings on a planet, the question is not only when will I do this? but also what will I do? What is my desired distribution of districts? What buildings will I build on this planet. There is no way to automate that in a way that won't piss off the majority of players.

There are some improvements to be made I'll admit, like for example always upgrading capital buildings, but most other things are linked to playstyle differences. Strategic resources like motes, crystals, and gasses are expensive and rare, so it's not always a simple decision that you want to always upgrade buildings if the the upgraded buildings will require an expensive upkeep of strategic resources.

 

[redrum68]

Something like "prioritize energy production to prevent deficit", or "prioritize amenities to avoid being in the negatives", etc..

That would probably be a good default especially for amenities which are local to each planet. But there are also plenty of cases that I've gotten better bonuses for 1 resource production vs the others where I'd rather put all my workers on say Agriculture Districts and just sell food for Energy even if I run a large energy deficit (this is actually very common before galactic market since Agriculture Districts produce a base of 6 vs 4 for Generator and I can trade at 70% in the local market).

 

[Stars_and_Bars]

Something like "prioritize energy production to prevent deficit", or "prioritize amenities to avoid being in the negatives", etc..

Aren't there already ways to tell AI controlled sectors to prioritize certain things? Did that change in 2.2? I never use Ai sectors and I compulsively micromanage everything, so I honestly don't know.

 

[permeakra]

irrelevant, amenities should not be prioritized unless they're actually needed

Not possible. Amenities provide slight increase in stability, so the optimum number is shifted with how much said stability would benefit you. Teaching AI to estimate this is a sisyphean task

 

[Cikomyr]

Not possible. Amenities provide slight increase in stability, so the optimum number is shifted with how much said stability would benefit you. Teaching AI to estimate this is a sisyphean task

OK. How about a mere pro-rated distribution between the available jobs? So a planet with:

6 Clerks
8 Technicians
2 Miners

Would automatically allocate this way:

Technician (1/8)
Clerk (1/6)
Miner (1/2)
Technician (2/8)
Clerk (2/6)
Technician (3/8)
Clerk (3/6)
Technician (4/8)
Technician (5/8)
Clerk (4/6)
Miner (2/2)
Technician (6/8)
Clerk (5/6)
Technician (7/8)
Clerk (6/6)
Technician (8/8)

Formula is simple: pick the job that has the lowest % of filled position, in case of % tie, pick the job that has the highest number of empty positions.

 

[redrum68]

OK. How about a mere pro-rated distribution between the available jobs? So a planet with:

6 Clerks
8 Technicians
2 Miners

Would automatically allocate this way:

Technician (1/8)
Clerk (1/6)
Miner (1/2)
Technician (2/8)
Clerk (2/6)
Technician (3/8)
Clerk (3/6)
Technician (4/8)
Technician (5/8)
Clerk (4/6)
Miner (2/2)
Technician (6/8)
Clerk (5/6)
Technician (7/8)
Clerk (6/6)
Technician (8/8)

Formula is simple: pick the job that has the lowest % of filled position, in case of % tie, pick the job that has the highest number of empty positions.

That would probably be worse than how it works now given that most of the time you fill all of one job type first then the next then the next (the obvious exception being clerks which you might choose to work if you need amenities). That also completely ignores cases where you have multiple pop types on the same planet.

 

[Cikomyr]

That would probably be worse than how it works now given that most of the time you fill all of one job type first then the next then the next (the obvious exception being clerks which you might choose to work if you need amenities).

"All of one job then the next" is the very thing I am complaining about. I dislike it.

That also completely ignores cases where you have multiple pop types on the same planet.

That's easy: just allow free automated reshuffling within the same economic class. If you had two pops with no bonuses, a miner and a technician, and then a pop with a bonus to mineral production is created, but the pecking order would mean a Technician job should be filled, then just assign the old miner to the technician job and then the new pop to a miner job.

That would also mean that in a planet with 8 jobs: 4 Technicians, 4 Minerals, a mineral-bonus specie wouldn't only take the mineral jobs by default. They would if they were competing against other specie for these post (so a mineral boost specie would get all the mining jobs while another specie would fill the rest). Racial bonus helps determine the allocation of jobs between races, but not overall job selection.

If you wish less Technician jobs taken that goes outside of the pro-rated order of things, then you manually reduce the number of available technician jobs.

 

[permeakra]

That's easy: just allow free automated reshuffling within the same economic class.

We already have performance problems, we clearly don't need more.