New user. I have been plagued with low log supply, though many trees were cut. I just saw a laborer carry a load of logs past a storage pile (I have 4; none are full) walk out into the wilderness and dump them, where they vanished! This is not a building site, or any old supply pile... what???? I thought I'd seen several bugs, probably my mistakes - but this really, really seems like a bug. Is it, and how to I report it to the gamesmaker? Or does someone have a resolution?

Need info: OS, game version, installer used, mods installed, etc.

Developer's site.

Hi cathyMc

A laborer wandering off "nowhere" could be idling - that is, has got bored with work and is taking a break.

A laborer abandoning a load of logs could have been re-assigned to another role (apart from anything else, the roster is redrawn start of each month).

If the logs then vanished, maybe the ex-laborer found nothing waiting to be done in the new role so reverted to helping out with general labor, and picked the logs up again!

(This is based on what I've seen with levels 1.0.4 and 1.0.6 - I've not tried new 1.0.7)

Have fun, regards, Richard

maybe you should watch out they may be starting a rebellion and using the materials to build their base
:P



edit seriously though the guy above me probably has the right idea

It has been my experience that workers will stop gathering anything if there is no or low storage capacity available. They will leave crops and resources in the field for, seemingly, no reason. I now build a new barn or storage area anytime the existing appear near capacity. I find extra barns helpful, close to the work area, especially near fields and orchards. A storage flat works when out in the wilderness but the barns in or near the villages seem key to keeping the workers gathering. Distance from the work area seems to affect gathering as well with fields far from a barn being most affected.

There's always a reason - in my experience - but it may be a stupid one. Example: a laborer gathering stone works like this: break boulder, pick up stone, break boulder, pick up stone, break boulder, pick up stone, break boulder, pick up ... oops, cannot carry any more, have to leave stone on ground. Should have thought of that BEFORE going for the last boulder.

Sorry - I'm such a neophyte that I don't know to check back on these sites. I don't use any mods, I installed using GOG installer, I'm using whatever version GOG has, and Windows 8.1. I do have to "Troubleshoot Compatibility" and use those suggested settings in order to get the game to work on my desktop.

I'm still having these problems a year later, and though I LOVE the game, it's frustrating to see my work go to nothing...
I'm also getting a "reverse" glitch now - a builder is hammering at a building, then suddenly a box of fish (for ex.) appears in his arms and he walks off! But sometimes walks that box into wilderness and drops it. Any response very welcome!

Look at the inventory tab rather than what is in their arms. What is in their arms can change based on their current task but it does not mean that the item is gone (or appeared out of nowhere), it just means that they now have a new primary task.

I just wached a forester with wood in her arms get distracted to plant a tree, then walked past a storage area with space to cut down another tree, but couldn't hold any more so left a pile there, walked home, walked to the market to get clothing, walked home again, planted a few more trees, cut down another tree and left a pile, then delivered the wood she was carrying to the ground next to a full storage area. It only looked like she had wood briefly two or three times but it was in her inventory the whole time.

Similarly, individuals in the game change jobs all the time (I think mostly to try to get everyone, including laborers, to live as close as possible to where they are working) and they will often head off to the new job with whatever they have in their inventory. Or, like with the forester, if interruped they will forget to go back to whatever they were doing and only after attemting to do something else will rediscover that they need to drop off an item first. I'm guessing this is also part of why further away resources can take forever for laborers to pick up even when they are visiting the area with the resources.

I think there are two basic things that can be done to limit this inefficiency (as others have said): try to not have laborers do anything too far away from housing and try to have storage areas fairly close to where they are gathering resources. The bad part about having storage areas too far away is that other laborers will go all the way there just to pick up something to carry to a building site while the ones gathering the resources will often go back with empty hands, so having them somewhat closer than the resources being gathered might be best. I at least try to put a small storage area at the end of every road when gathering nearby resources.

During winter, anyone carrying items will drop them if they need to find somewhere warm - that I have found to be the main cause of abandoned inventory. It will be picked up later on though.

I would second/third/fourth comments about labourer inefficiency - all too often I see one loaded up with e.g. stone saunter past a stockpile to another producer to pick up one or two more items before heading back to the stockpile. Or a labourer carrying just one or two items when there are multiple piles waiting to be picked up. Or trying to hoard food when the storehouse is almost empty...

Really what this game needs is the equivalent of Dungeon Keeper's "slap" key where you can click on a figure to make them work harder/smarter...

Yes, laborers try to keep picking up part-loads, without delivering anything, until full up. Even then they don't always deliver everything, sometimes only the part-load most recently collected. They will finish eventually, but what prompts them to do so I just don't know. Whereas traders and vendors do the opposite, which can also be a problem.

Example: the trading dock wants 100 firewood. The market has several hundred, but the closest place with any is a stockpile, next to a woodcutter, which has 16. The trader (only one person is assigned) goes to the stockpile, picks up the 16 firewood, and returns to the dock with it (rather than continue to the market to add the rest of the order). By which time the woodcutter has deposited another 4 firewood in the stockpile, so the trader makes another trip to collect just that!

My big tip regarding laborers - anything left on the ground will be added to the BOTTOM of the list of things for laborers to do, so KEEP THE LIST SHORT. Do NOT send them to harvest gazillions of stone first.