dupes priorities and task management?

[tbo5owa]

my dupes never stay on one thing. they either do half the job and leave or just not even come around to doing the job, even though priority is on 9. 

other than that dupes always run around delivering items to machines. but they do it really stupidly honestly. I sometimes see 3 or more dupes collecting the same item and all storing it into one machine little by little. could someone fix that, so that dupes would go around collecting the total amount needed instead of going around gathering items bit by bit. it just wastes so much time and my colonies always end up dying because of that. never had any idle dupes they are always going around fetching items. its like I need 4 dupes for every machine. 

I've also noticed dupes that have a task like digging or building for example. one dupe comes to deliver the items then leaves? then another has to come to do the job. AND HE LEAVES AS WELL! then I have to wait for another dupe to get down just to deliver the items for the next build..... and so on... especially with pipes and wires. or even building a ladder, one dupe comes builds the ladder then leaves. then another dupe comes digs up the ground and leaves. THEN ANOTHER DUPE COMES AND BUILDS THE SECOND LADDER... it took me 2 cycles to build 10 ladders... that's really bad.

dupes need to get their priorities straight and have better task management. i expect a dupe to do the whole job since he's there already instead of doing one thing and moving on. 

[Speedois]

I know what you mean but their may be a few things to help. First off, do any of your dupes have high strength? This means they can pick up more resources and won't have to go too and from as much. Having at least 1 high strength dupe means that your construction and sweeping will be done SO much faster. Also, I find that building a storage bin near where your digging is happening to be worth it, if a bit untidy looking. Eventually when your Base is built you can just delete the storage, however if you do this, it will most likely take an age to transport the ejected resources to your main storage.

Hope this helps.

[heckubis]

If you have more things on 9 than workers to get to those tasks or with routs available to them they will proceed down the priority  list  should only use 9 for things like power wheels and food production(if you use it) 

[Speedois]

11 minutes ago, heckubis said:

If you have more things on 9 than workers to get to those tasks or with routs available to them they will proceed down the priority  list  should only use 9 for things like power wheels and food production(if you use it) 

Or as an emergency digging tool. Eg your dupe gets buried but you've got 20 tiles on priority 9 to dig out. If these tiles were instead priority 8 then you could use the 9 priority to dig the dupe out.

[Octyabr]

For now, the AI (if you could call it that) manages small simple tasks, building a ladder is in fact two or three small tasks (issue order of build a ladder; location obstructed by an undug tile, find a duplicant to dig it; tile free, find a duplicant to carry the appropriate resources; resources deployed, find a duplicant to start building it.) Every time the AI attempts to "find a duplicant" it seldom picks the same duplicant that was doing the previous task.

What could solve this problem is a more complex approach: batch/sequential tasks (received order to build a ladder, find a duplicant to perform the sequence: carry the appropriate resources to the build location; if the tile is obstructed, dig it; deploy resources; build. If in any step of the process the duplicant abandons the task (needs to pee or fell asleep) pick another duplicant to finish the task.)

[DuraLex]

6 hours ago, tbo5owa said:

I've also noticed dupes that have a task like digging or building for example. one dupe comes to deliver the items then leaves? then another has to come to do the job. AND HE LEAVES AS WELL!

dupes need to get their priorities straight and have better task management. i expect a dupe to do the whole job since he's there already instead of doing one thing and moving on. 

The way to achieve you last sentence is disabling the Sweep job for everyone and Deliver job for everyone but one or two Dupes, depends on the amount of Dupes you have and the amount of machinary you need stuff to be delivered to.

So, in a late game base with 6 dupes, I currently have 3 with Build and Dig jobs (the 3 Dupes with the highest skill in one of the two jobs, usually dig), 2 on Harvest and Deliver (I actually never harvest, I let plants overgrow and harvest themselves) and 1 jolly Dupe, which will join the group with the highest amount of stressed guys.

 

Prioritizing the buildings which needs a delivery is fundamental to make things go smooth. I have:

9 - the water purifier. dat sh*t better keep runnin' or someone in here will have a rough time.

7 - the coal generators

4 - biodistillery. I like having some more water, but I also like having some other works done (standard priority to new tasks is 5, so everything you say to do will be prioritized)

1 - every single storage compactor, except the ones you want to fill RIGHT NOW, which will be put on 9, and 1 afterward. Notice that if you set the 9 priority on storage compactors you dont need to give sweep orders, since the Dupes assigned to Deliver will prioritize that resource over everything. The 1 priority reason is the same of biostilleries and because as soon you see the delivery guys jerking around storage compactors for too long, you can assume they are just wasting their time and switch their job to dig an build. Care tho, since this can lead to abruptive disfunctions in your base.