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Workforce priority system is counter intuitive
Definition of priority:
the fact or condition of being regarded or treated as more important.
"the safety of the country takes priority over any other matter"
More accurate way to describe current priorities would be "industry status". It's either working or not.
It is redundant
Buildings already can be shut down in Planet Summary tab.
Why does current system demand too much micromanagement?
Case study: taking new agri-colony to 5 pops.
As you see, 1 colonist produces 1 food and amenities. 1 food is less than 4.5 from farm; and production bonus from amenities is irrelevant at this stage of the game. So we start building districts right away.
The whole process takes 4 steps:
1. Start building a district.
2. Four months later fire one colonist, so they will be able to work on farm right away.
Notice that I wrote "fire". I'm not setting a priority here. I'm closing work places.
3. Wait for colony to grow until it 6 months before it has 4th pop
4. Start building a district
Keep in mind that each of these actions require 3-5 clicks.
And it demands player to remember several variables:
1. How long does it take for pop to demote (and it may be different for some species)
2. Pop growth rate
3. District construction time
Not following this procedure will punish player with losses in energy/food from district maintenance and farm tiles not worked.
Perfect case scenario: build district. When there are 4 workers in colony, build another.
Better example
Caesar series had convenient system for labor management. Setting a priority on industry was exactly that - making it more important, so workers were allocated to it first. And shutting down separate workforce branches could be done in one click.
Let's look at this screenshot.
TL;DR
Current worker priority system is counter intuitive, redundant and demands excessive micromanagement. I included an example how it was done better in the past.
Definition of priority:
the fact or condition of being regarded or treated as more important.
"the safety of the country takes priority over any other matter"
More accurate way to describe current priorities would be "industry status". It's either working or not.
It is redundant
Buildings already can be shut down in Planet Summary tab.
Why does current system demand too much micromanagement?
Case study: taking new agri-colony to 5 pops.
As you see, 1 colonist produces 1 food and amenities. 1 food is less than 4.5 from farm; and production bonus from amenities is irrelevant at this stage of the game. So we start building districts right away.
The whole process takes 4 steps:
1. Start building a district.
2. Four months later fire one colonist, so they will be able to work on farm right away.
Notice that I wrote "fire". I'm not setting a priority here. I'm closing work places.
3. Wait for colony to grow until it 6 months before it has 4th pop
4. Start building a district
Keep in mind that each of these actions require 3-5 clicks.
And it demands player to remember several variables:
1. How long does it take for pop to demote (and it may be different for some species)
2. Pop growth rate
3. District construction time
Not following this procedure will punish player with losses in energy/food from district maintenance and farm tiles not worked.
Perfect case scenario: build district. When there are 4 workers in colony, build another.
Better example
Caesar series had convenient system for labor management. Setting a priority on industry was exactly that - making it more important, so workers were allocated to it first. And shutting down separate workforce branches could be done in one click.
Let's look at this screenshot.
- If workforce shortage happened, industry would shut down first, then government, then commerce. It's all in one screen, and player doesn't have to jump around town shutting down separate pottery workshops and whatnot.
- If we wanted to shut down salt production (say, somebody gifted us 5 years worth of it), we could just do so.
- Agriculture could be shut down during winter months. Somewhat useful in early game, but pointless in established economy.
TL;DR
Current worker priority system is counter intuitive, redundant and demands excessive micromanagement. I included an example how it was done better in the past.
