Workers lose their load if the collect another resource.

[fabio]

When a worker get some wood and the move to get food, the wood previously collected disappear. Is this the intended behavior?

[Pedro Falcão]

Indeed it is this way in every real-time based strategy game. Maybe, if you have a better solution, the developers accept it into the game.

[fcxSanya]

When a worker get some wood and the move to get food, the wood previously collected disappear. Is this the intended behavior?

Yes, this is intended. I'm not sure whether this is documented on the wiki or on the forum, but in ResourceGatherer.js there is the comment:

this.carrying = {}; // { generic type: integer amount currently carried }
// (Note that this component supports carrying multiple types of resources,
// each with an independent capacity, but the rest of the game currently
// ensures and assumes we'll only be carrying one type at once)

Also if I recall correctly the same behavior was in the 'age of' games.

[feneur]

It is indeed intentional. One small extra thing that can give you benefits if you tend to it (i.e. make sure they leave their first resource at a dropoff site before starting to gather the next), but which doesn't punish you terribly if you aren't careful.

[Ykkrosh]

The main reason for initially implementing it that way was that it simplifies the GUI (the unit details panel just needs a single resource icon and counter). It'd be possible to keep the GUI simply and have units drop little piles of food/wood/etc when picking up a different new resource, instead of magically losing their load, but that seems like more effort than it's worth.

[Mythos_Ruler]

The main reason for initially implementing it that way was that it simplifies the GUI (the unit details panel just needs a single resource icon and counter). It'd be possible to keep the GUI simply and have units drop little piles of food/wood/etc when picking up a different new resource, instead of magically losing their load, but that seems like more effort than it's worth.

Yeah, I don't see the need to go into that kind of detail. You lose the resource the unit is carrying if you don't drop it off first before moving on to another resource. Simple mechanic. Easily understood. Done. End o story.

[Android_]

I do see the original poster's intention; I too feel bad sometimes about losing a few resources, so having workers carry multiple types of resources seems attractive. However, I agree with Mythos that in the end it's no big deal.

Also imagine a farmer is tasked to chop wood; he'll not be able to drop off his food at the woodcamp so he'll carry it around for quite some time, so there's design-related problems with different resource types as well. As already pointed out Philip's suggestion is too micro-intensive/not worth the effort.

So all in all it's probably a low priority issue .

Edited November 29, 2011 by Android_

[fabio]

OK, just want to add that selecting empty units to assign at another resource is not very easy when you have many units working in your city, all moving one near the others. Implementing a pause mode that let you select units and give them orders would help (obliviously only in singleplayer mode).

[Thorfinn the Shallow Minded]

Maybe they could drop their resources, making them turn into treasures.

[historic_bruno]

Maybe they could drop their resources, making them turn into treasures.

I was thinking of something like this once, still it may fall under "needless complexity". For example, what happens if you have 20 units chopping wood, then you reassign them to farming, should they each drop their collected wood resources so you end up with 20 treasures littering the map, but it doesn't sound trivial to combine them all into one either. And since treasures don't require shuttling, I could see this as a cheat to avoid needing to build dropsites (when done collecting resources, just change gather type and you get a "free" instant dropsite anywhere on the map). Instead of a treasure, it would have to be some type of resource entity that's instant gather but needs to be shuttled.

[iap]

I think that a button to get back to the nearest dropsite and give the resources can be added.

Then this action can be automatically (or manually) queued before going to gather the next resource.

(anyway, this button will be very useful to me)

[feneur]

I think that a button to get back to the nearest dropsite and give the resources can be added.

Then this action can be automatically (or manually) queued before going to gather the next resource.

(anyway, this button will be very useful to me)

I haven't actually tested, but it should be possible to just shift-right-click on the dropoff point and then on the next resource to queue it automatically. (Iirc there are still some issues with the group code and queuing, at least for some orders, so perhaps it only works for single units.)

[Mythos_Ruler]

I haven't actually tested, but it should be possible to just shift-right-click on the dropoff point and then on the next resource to queue it automatically. (Iirc there are still some issues with the group code and queuing, at least for some orders, so perhaps it only works for single units.)

correct. Only works for single units right now, but will work for groups in the future.

[iap]

I haven't actually tested, but it should be possible to just shift-right-click on the dropoff point and then on the next resource to queue it automatically. (Iirc there are still some issues with the group code and queuing, at least for some orders, so perhaps it only works for single units.)

Oh, that's good. But a button in the unit panel will save me the search the place and shift+click and return to new resource position to click on it.

[feneur]

Oh, that's good. But a button in the unit panel will save me the search the place and shift+click and return to new resource position to click on it.

Not sure it would be all that much easier to search for a button. (Especially since the in-game area would have to be reduced in favor of the GUI if we add too many buttons ) After all, the first resource dropoff point should be close to where you are in the first place, and you'd need to move the mouse to the next resource anyway. The only good thing about a button imho would be that you would be able to memorize where it is and thus find it quicker because of that. You'd still need to move the mouse away though, so I doubt that makes it worth it.