Will colonists only work one shift a day? If they will work more then that's one way to manage them, have separate morning and afternoon shifts to spread abilities around more.
Governing who works where
- Thread starter LeftyRighty
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Have you thought about having sectors/districts in each colony - see e.g. sectors in Stellaris and districts in Cities:Skylines? It'd be great to be able to be able to have info/settings on a more macro scale than individual domes, from the little of the game I've seen so far...
i have had a tough time managing my minions.
Specifically, i would love that if you searched for a specialty, you would be able to click on only those that have it. But also see those that do not work in that specialty, before you click on them instead of having to go through all 60 engineers to find those that somehow is not working where they should.
and have it per dome and per colony screens too.
Specifically, i would love that if you searched for a specialty, you would be able to click on only those that have it. But also see those that do not work in that specialty, before you click on them instead of having to go through all 60 engineers to find those that somehow is not working where they should.
and have it per dome and per colony screens too.
For those who don't understand why this is happening, the game decides how many slots to fill in each building before it looks at who is good at doing what. So it does not try to distribute everyone to their specialty, it tries to make sure that x people are working in building y.
For example, let's say you have a colony with four workers, three are botanists and one is a geologist. The colony has two jobs, one a farm and one mine, both are active and require four workers to fully function. Since there are only enough colonists to fill half the staff the buildings, the game decides that each building needs two workers. First it looks at specialties and assigns people to the jobs they're best suited for. We've got two slots for botanists and at least that many available, so the two slots are filled with botanists. There are two slots for engineers, but we only have one available so the other needs to be filled with an unspecialised worker. The third botanist doesn't work on the farm because the game values evenly filling work slots instead of being as efficient as possible with workers.
Suggestion
As for actually helping players manage things more, it would be nice to have things like setting a minimum number of workers and the option to assign people first to jobs that they're most well suited for and only if none are available fill out other jobs. This would allow me to say that everyone should do what they do best, as long as we have at least three farmers and a medic. Alternatively, all factories must have at least four workers and someone needs to be constantly working in the bar, but after that I want everyone to do what they do best.
For example, let's say you have a colony with four workers, three are botanists and one is a geologist. The colony has two jobs, one a farm and one mine, both are active and require four workers to fully function. Since there are only enough colonists to fill half the staff the buildings, the game decides that each building needs two workers. First it looks at specialties and assigns people to the jobs they're best suited for. We've got two slots for botanists and at least that many available, so the two slots are filled with botanists. There are two slots for engineers, but we only have one available so the other needs to be filled with an unspecialised worker. The third botanist doesn't work on the farm because the game values evenly filling work slots instead of being as efficient as possible with workers.
Suggestion
As for actually helping players manage things more, it would be nice to have things like setting a minimum number of workers and the option to assign people first to jobs that they're most well suited for and only if none are available fill out other jobs. This would allow me to say that everyone should do what they do best, as long as we have at least three farmers and a medic. Alternatively, all factories must have at least four workers and someone needs to be constantly working in the bar, but after that I want everyone to do what they do best.
I came here to post about this very issue, so I'm very happy to see it's being looked at.
It's kind of related, but some consistency on the uniform colors of the specialized colonists would be helpful. For example, I have botanists that are green and some that are blue. The blue ones look very similar to the unspecialized colonists. Also Engineers and Geologists look VERY similar. It would be nice to be able to click on a building and see at a glance what the work force looks like there. Right now, I have to hover my mouse over each worker to verify what they are.
Medics, scientists, and officers are all very obvious. It would be great if the others were the same way!
It's kind of related, but some consistency on the uniform colors of the specialized colonists would be helpful. For example, I have botanists that are green and some that are blue. The blue ones look very similar to the unspecialized colonists. Also Engineers and Geologists look VERY similar. It would be nice to be able to click on a building and see at a glance what the work force looks like there. Right now, I have to hover my mouse over each worker to verify what they are.
Medics, scientists, and officers are all very obvious. It would be great if the others were the same way!
Can you just run #4 more often? I imagine this would resolve 90% of the situations that generate complaints. Whatever cycle is being used feels like it adapts too slowly to the changing conditions - seniors leaving the workforce, children entering the workforce, people dying or being born.
they work once a day and look to fix their sanity and confort on the other 16hours. THis i can kind of confirm from personal experience.
0. Manually assigning hundreds of workers isn't a real solution, so let's move on.
1. Fully staffed from where? From the population pool of that specific dome? From that dome and domes that are within walking distance (not that we know how far that is)? From that dome and any dome connected by a shuttle hub?
2. Good to know, although the same questions from #1 apply.
3. Again, without the information from #1, this isn't as useful as you think. How large is the "net" for the internal systems to allot colonists appropriately?
4. Good to know.
Countless posters have pointed out that your systems simply aren't working. My suspicion is that it's because those systems aren't looking at colonists as a whole, but only that dome (or perhaps that dome and ones within walking distance).
That is not a viable late-game system, which leads us back to your #0 recommendation: assigning every colonist manually. No freaking thanks.
Hello! Based on my playthroughs, the building will only be staffed by the population who currently live in the dome where the building is located, even if there are other domes within walkable distance. Colonists will move in and out of domes based only on the filters set on the domes, and not based on individual building demands. Hope this helps! Cheers!
This is exactly what I have noticed as well. If a dome is underpopulated, it will just split the colonists as best it can..... which could lead to a very sub-optimal mix of colonists as described up here. As mentioned before, a 'specialists only' button would give 1 geologist and 3 botanists (which is what most players would prefer).
Yes please. The redshirt security guys are pretty obvious (and unique), but blue and yellow have two classes. How about grey for the unspecialized and purple for geologists?
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Unfortunately, that does help. It tells me that Surviving Mars, in its current form, has no viable mid-late or late game.
I'm only 50 SOLs into my latest map and I am deadened to the idea of clicking through 100+ colonists and micro-managing them to each individual spot. It wasn't fun the first 10 times I did it. Or the next 100 times. Or the hundreds of times after that as colonists died off or retired or I started new games.
This HAS to be addressed. You can't make a game where the systems require hundreds of colonists, split out over a half-dozen or more domes, and then require them to be sorted individually by going through a cumbersome UI process involving multiple clicks, zoom-outs, zoom-ins, and flaky targeting for EACH INDIVIDUAL COLONIST.
That is INSANE and I cannot believe this went through the QA process without raising any red flags.
Hi again!
I agree that the current system is not ideal, and I do hope it gets improved upon.
That being said, the system is not as bad as it seems, because micromanagement can be avoided by filtering your domes accordingly, so you have colonists with their respective specialization/perks where they are most needed. Once this is done, colonists are kind of "organically" distributed across domes based on your specifications, and that should avoid domes being underpopulated.
Additionally, the priority button does a pretty good job in focusing the correct colonists in a particular building in case of an emergency, again so you don't have to go through the hurdle of manually assigning individual colonists.
Cheers!
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I have an infirmary (necessary for health and the mid-game comfort benefit), farm (mid-game comfort benefit), and various facilities staffed by non-specialists in every dome. Can you explain to me how you can use the filters to split botanists, medics, and unspecialized workers across a half-dozen domes?
Guys, right now, on 1.0. Don´t try to fight much the " 1 Dome, 1 World" system.
This means, make every dome its own little world with everything you can fill there.
When you start doing that the game behave much better.
Im not saying im ok with this, i also would love to have domes working together, one for schools, one for science, etc. But right now the game will fight you if you try to do that and will ask for a number of micro that you just can´t sustain.
The good news is that bigger domes. (Medium, Oval, Mega, etc) does have space for every education building + all confort buildings you need and still have space for 1 or 2 factorys + science labs.
At least until a patch comes just stop fighting and avoid making colonists move from dome A to dome B unless they are homeless or unemployed.
Also its totally fine to have 2 domes close to one another so they can fill a factory or mine together. Specially useful for fungi farms and polymers factorys that demand lots of people. (but this can mess a little the specialization from both domes as they will try to fill all those slots alone, so you will end up with a little more geologists that will need to work at bars or restaurants).
This means, make every dome its own little world with everything you can fill there.
When you start doing that the game behave much better.
Im not saying im ok with this, i also would love to have domes working together, one for schools, one for science, etc. But right now the game will fight you if you try to do that and will ask for a number of micro that you just can´t sustain.
The good news is that bigger domes. (Medium, Oval, Mega, etc) does have space for every education building + all confort buildings you need and still have space for 1 or 2 factorys + science labs.
At least until a patch comes just stop fighting and avoid making colonists move from dome A to dome B unless they are homeless or unemployed.
Also its totally fine to have 2 domes close to one another so they can fill a factory or mine together. Specially useful for fungi farms and polymers factorys that demand lots of people. (but this can mess a little the specialization from both domes as they will try to fill all those slots alone, so you will end up with a little more geologists that will need to work at bars or restaurants).
Certainly! When I need one or more specializations across several domes, I thumb up said specializations in every dome. Once that is done, it may take a little while, but colonists will even themselves out so there is a somewhat balanced distribution across all domes.
Please let me know if that makes sense to you, otherwise I can explain better.
Cheers!
I just wanted to chime in and agree that mid to late game worker management, especially across domes, is a micro nightmare. I really hope that the devs are looking at a better way of handling this.
I just went into Surviving Mars and followed your advise. I have 2 medium domes and 3 small domes all in a cluster. Each has a farm. I have 24 botanists. I followed your advise and hit thumbs-up on botanists for every colony. After 3 Sols I now have 0 botanists in one medium dome, 9 in the other medium dome (4 of which are working in the farm), 7 in Small Dome A (3 on the farm), 8 in Small Dome B (5 on the farm), and 0 in Small Dome C.
As far as I can tell, that's the same number that was in each dome before I hit "Thumbs-Up" on botany in every dome.
I thought you wrote clearly, but obviously some part of your directions aren't making sense. Can you explain better?
Hi! It seems like you did it as I explained. Do you have enough housing space in every dome to accommodate all the moving colonists?
Cheers!
You're mad if you're even trying to do that. You need to operate on a dome level basis not a pop level. Have a dome that filters for biologists and fill it with farms, one that filters for engineers and is full of factories etc. You will eventually need a retirement dome that prefers seniors and set your working domes to kick them out etc