Distribution of Labor for Efficient Dupe Staff?

[Atlas888]

Im curious what other players have learned from experimenting with labor specializations using the "Jobs" function. For myself, i typically assign 1/4 - 1/3 of all Dupes on staff as "base/errand duty" (Delivering, Harvesting, Maintenance, Aid) and the remaining majority do primarily two things: Build & Dig. The former group does not build/dig so they tend to hang around the core of your base. With this arrangement--and with selecting higher Learning-traited dupes--I get to around a staff of 20 filthy Dupes and they tend to finish tasks so quickly that if you don't always have a large dig or construction project going on then the Builders will become idle. Of course, there *always* seems to be the next project/renovation in the pipeline to keep these animals busy at an elevated priority level

I would love for others to share what they do and any insights you've gleamed.

Thanks in Advance!

Atlas

[SquirrelTeeth]

I start off with everyone doing everything, and then I drop tasks that they aren't good at OR as someone get better at something I'll specialized them to job with that skill.  Miners do all the tasks that depend on digging; architects are primarily on dig/deliver/build, dups at the bottom half of both are on tinkering, and only my chefs do the harvesting. 

I've also been putting a high value on cooking; while other tasks may be completed or automated, everyone needs food, and fast chefs don't spend so much time on it.  I will usually print out one specialist each for art and aid; and then I don't let anyone else do those tasks.

I also put my dig/builders on delivery because the building process is 1) dig out the material underneath 2) deliver the material for the structure 3) actually build the thing; any given built job could be done by the same duplicant.

[Notconcluded]

Strength right now is king, followed by learning.  Everything else is not worth taking since it can be trained and leveled up with high learning.  Always pick charicters with 8+ str, then divided up the the research till about 8 dupes have 7+ learning and the rest of the skills will level like mad.  Its kinda dumb since all dupes under 8 str are garbage atm.

[Incosto]

 At the start i take a sientist, a cook and an artist becous sometimes its hard to print one of them when you need him later. I make 2 teams dig/build team and other duties team.  Reserch, art, aid and cook only opened for traind dups, and later i make cooks more like a 3rd team. So my goal is 24 and then after i get plastic 30 dups, after 30 they are tend to have a clone  . So i make 8 diggers/ builders and 3-4 are normally cooking all the time other 12 are focused mostly at delivering. Dups after 24 are +1 cook and 5 more delivers.

[Lacost]

My setup on 10 dupes currently is:

 

2 Artists

5 Builders

1 Scientist

0 Chefs

0 Aid

10 for all other jobs

 

I'm currently playing with the thought to rotate the scientist so that every dupe gets to level up a bit of learning which then increases their other skills faster.

[Nascarlaser1]

I always make sure to spawn my 3 starting dupes with high levels of learning, cooking and the highest level of art that I can find in a reasonable amount of time. I always seem to have issues when it comes to find art later on, so even if I only have a lvl 3 artist its good enough for me. I make it so that the high levels are the only ones to do that certain job, so that time isn't wasted. After the first 3 I start getting at least 1 high level medic since I have had issues with slime lung. Then comes tinkering so that all the other machines can be run fast as well, like the hamster wheel. After this I stop paying lots of attention to high levels and just grab whoever I need when I need them.

[Atlas888]

14 hours ago, SquirrelTeeth said:

I start off with everyone doing everything, and then I drop tasks that they aren't good at OR as someone get better at something I'll specialized them to job with that skill.  Miners do all the tasks that depend on digging; architects are primarily on dig/deliver/build, dups at the bottom half of both are on tinkering, and only my chefs do the harvesting. 

I've also been putting a high value on cooking; while other tasks may be completed or automated, everyone needs food, and fast chefs don't spend so much time on it.  I will usually print out one specialist each for art and aid; and then I don't let anyone else do those tasks.

I also put my dig/builders on delivery because the building process is 1) dig out the material underneath 2) deliver the material for the structure 3) actually build the thing; any given built job could be done by the same duplicant.

You bring up a *really* great point: in order to build anything, the materials need to be Delivered and that is a separate Job task. The reason I disabled Delivery from my Builder dupes is because often I would watch them dig/build something right next to a whole block of high-priority tiles, then stop after the first block to make a Delivery-task run on the opposite side of the map. This inefficiency is exacerbated when you use Exosuits. 

Im just not sure what is most efficient. I think the real root cause problem here is that job tasks are not assigned based on distance to/from the last job the dupe just finished (or was scheduled).

Do you think it's more efficient to have all your Builders *also* running Delivery jobs?

Thanks!

Atlas

I would add my observation that just simply the first step of dividing up the jobs into two categories is so significant that--if you havent done this yet--you will 'feel' like you've nearly doubled your staff of dupes in terms of their work efficiency. I can see that as the Job prioirity UI gets further developed by Klei this will continue to be an area for huge gains in productivity and time management of your Plebs.

[goboking]

Using the job menu, door permissions, and machine priorities I distribute my work load in the following manner.

• One dupe digs, builds, repairs, and operates industrial machinery.  Early game he spends most of his time digging out and building the base.  Late game, after exploration is more or less done and support apparatus (geyser pumps, oil wells, etc) are in place he spends most of his time running the metal and oil refineries.
• One dupe handles has research, aid, and disinfect.  She's also given the delivery job, but her access is restricted to the laboratory wherein the research stations and apothecary are located, meaning she produces the colony's supply of medicine.  She spends the overwhelming majority of her time idle, but I'm anticipating germs being more potent and injuries more prevalent in the release version of the game.
• One dupe cooks, harvests, and handles compost.  Composting is only used in the very early stages of the colony.  After farms are up and running he's given permission to deliver and allowed access to the farms, so he handles the fertilization of all my crops.  He's allowed to leave the base to harvest wild pincha peppers since they're the one crop I'm always in short supply of.
• I've got one dupe handling all the day-to-day upkeep for my colony.  She sweeps and mops, and she delivers filtration materials to the air deodorizers, slime to the algae distillers, etc.  She's not allowed to leave the base, otherwise she'd spend all of her time cleaning detritus from remote construction projects.
• I've got a dupe who is a placeholder right now.  Eventually he'll be responsible for hunting wild beasts, fighting off invaders, and extinguishing fires (I'm operating under the assumption that these things will eventually find their way into the game).  I've got him in the colony now so I can fine tune oxygen production, crop yields, living space, etc now instead of later.
• I have two general purpose dupes.  These individuals are assigned every job and given clearance to every room in the colony.  With careful consideration given to the priority system they are able to help whomever needs it so that the colony can run without a hitch.  They're also the ones responsible for creating all of the colony's art.
• I have an eighth dupe who exists simply because my rooms are designed to house two dupes each and an odd number of dupes would throw the symmetry out of whack and because I produce enough food and oxygen for eight dupes, so she siphons off excess O2 and grub.  I haven't decided what to do with her yet, but I'm thinking she'll run supplies to and from remote dig/construction sites or she'll spend her time fetching slime from the puft pen.

[Atlas888]

5 hours ago, goboking said:

Using the job menu, door permissions, and machine priorities I distribute my work load in the following manner.

• [stuff]

I appreciate your detailed post; *very* different play-style from the brutal servitude you'd find in my operation...but you now have me thinking about how i can use door-controlled access to further optimize distribution of tasks. 

[Lutzkhie]

i let them do everything except the research and art, now almost all of them have very high level at every task except those two

[goboking]

19 hours ago, Atlas888 said:

I appreciate your detailed post; *very* different play-style from the brutal servitude you'd find in my operation...but you now have me thinking about how i can use door-controlled access to further optimize distribution of tasks. 

I'd be interesting to hear what you decide to do.