When manually changing the job of a colonist to certain roles, the job title in the drop-down will cycle through a set of three or four jobs on its own until you close the colonist's information window. They will assume the next role in the cycle after the one displayed when you close the window. This doesn't happen with all job types, and there seems to be a common set among those that do. For example, if I go to set someone to be a doctor, they will cycle through doctor, technician, mathematician, astronomer and back to doctor again. For a botanist it goes botanist, driver, architect and back to botanist again. This cycling happens even with the simulation paused.
On a related note, I am curious to know how jobs are assigned by the game logic. I often find people assigned to the driver job who have high value in the sciences. Without knowing why certain roles are assigned as jobs, as opposed to just performed when needed (areologists driving while on a rock gathering mission, but remaining areologists for example), I'm unsure about what constitutes a bug and what is intended.
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Wow. That is weird. I didn't know the job drop-down was acting that way and I hadn't seen that before. I replicated the bug and I notice that it's changing the display of the job for the person in the Monitor tool as well when this happens.
I'm adding this to the top of my bug fix list and I'll hopefully have it resolved soon in the 3.07 development code. I bet it's something to do with how the drop-down is refreshed once a job is selected.
The expected behavior is that the job a person has may change in the simulation over time, but once it's set by the user with the drop-down selection, it's locked and won't change (except when changed by the user).
The simulation logic for assigning a job to a person is based on the person's current capabilities for each job and his settlement's current demand for that job.
A person's capability for the driver job, for example, is based on his driving skill and experience aptitude natural attribute (ability to learn from hands-on experience). The settlement's demand for drivers is simply the number of vehicles owned by the settlement.
A person's capability for the areologist job is based on his areology skill and both experience and academic aptitude attributes. The settlement's demand for areologists is based on the total sum of areology laboratories (lab space * tech level), including areology laboratories in rovers, at the settlement.
Other jobs have their own calculations for person capability and settlement demand. Science jobs are related to science skills, academic aptitude, appropriate research labs at the settlement, etc. Technician demand is based on number of buildings and equipment needing maintenance. Engineer demand is based on manufacturing capabilities..and so forth.
So to determine a person's job, the code goes through each of the 15 jobs and calculates the person's capability for that job times the settlement's unfulfilled demand for that job (not fulfilled by other people's capabilities with that job). Whichever job has the highest total value for that person is chosen.
So as a person gains experience and increases their various skills, they may change jobs that better suit their skills. Settlement demand for jobs may change as new buildings are constructed or arrive from Earth, vehicles are traded between settlements, etc. As people change jobs or emigrate to another settlement, the unfulfilled demand for jobs at the settlement changes and people will change jobs to accommodate the needs of the settlement.
A person's job determines the focus of his activities. There are tasks and missions associated with each job, and a person is more likely to choose to perform tasks or start/join missions associated with his job. The person can do other tasks as well, but are more likely to do job related tasks, or general tasks, such as eating, sleeping, relaxing, etc.
The science jobs: areologist, biologist, botanist, physicist, mathematician, astronomer, chemist, meteorologist, and doctors are all focused on doing scientific research in labs (some do field work) and collaborating on and publishing research papers. Botonists are the primary tenders of the greenhouses to produce the settlement's food. Doctors provide medical help for any injuries or other medical problems. Areologists focus on rover missions to explore and mine sites with ore minerals.
Technicians focus on repairing and maintaining all of the settlement's buildings, vehicles and equipment. Poor maintenance leads to increased chances of malfunctions and accidents.
Engineers focus on manufacturing parts, resources and equipment.
Drivers focus on helping with any rover missions and repairing and maintaining vehicles, assiting with loading/unloading vehicles, etc.
Architects focus on construction of new buildings or salvaging old buildings. They also manufacture construction materials.
Chefs focus on cooking meals for the settlement. Eating cooked meals improve moral by reducing stress over the normal hastily prepared food.
Traders focus on starting trading missions with other nearby settlements and negotiating barter trades.
I think that's all the jobs we currently have in the simulation. Let me know if you have any specific questions or have ideas for new jobs we could add.
Thanks,
Scott
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Hi Scott. I hadn't seen this great post until the new release drew me back to the sim, so thank you very much for taking the time to provide the insight.
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Let me know if you have any specific questions or have ideas for new jobs we could add.
Hi Scott,
I think a new job of "Prospector" might be a useful addition. A Prospector would automatically create missions to go and collect regolith and ice. I know these missions are sometimes created by random settlers anyway. Perhaps a Prospector might create these missions 5-10 times more often than a regular settler. Assigning someone a job of Prospector would enable the base commander (me) to encourage the settlers to collect more raw materials to be used later in constructing new buildings.
Thanks for mars-sim. It's an awesome project.
johno
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I apologize that I hadn't gotten back to you on this. We actually already have a job that is functionally the same as what you describe for the "Prospector". The Areologist (Geologist on Mars) has a much higher chance of starting and joining missions to collect regolith and ice as well as exploration, mining, and areology field missions. I'm not sure how a prospector job would differ practically from a areologist as the sim is currently implemented.
People can also go outside their settlements to dig local regolith and ice, and the Engineer job is more likely to perform this task. This is another way to collect construction material.
Thanks,
Scott
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When manually changing the job of a colonist to certain roles, the job title in the drop-down will cycle through a set of three or four jobs on its own until you close the colonist's information window. They will assume the next role in the cycle after the one displayed when you close the window. This doesn't happen with all job types, and there seems to be a common set among those that do. For example, if I go to set someone to be a doctor, they will cycle through doctor, technician, mathematician, astronomer and back to doctor again. For a botanist it goes botanist, driver, architect and back to botanist again. This cycling happens even with the simulation paused.
On a related note, I am curious to know how jobs are assigned by the game logic. I often find people assigned to the driver job who have high value in the sciences. Without knowing why certain roles are assigned as jobs, as opposed to just performed when needed (areologists driving while on a rock gathering mission, but remaining areologists for example), I'm unsure about what constitutes a bug and what is intended.
Hi Ano,
I posted this bug ticket on our new project ticket tracker:
https://sourceforge.net/p/mars-sim/tickets/2/
Wow. That is weird. I didn't know the job drop-down was acting that way and I hadn't seen that before. I replicated the bug and I notice that it's changing the display of the job for the person in the Monitor tool as well when this happens.
I'm adding this to the top of my bug fix list and I'll hopefully have it resolved soon in the 3.07 development code. I bet it's something to do with how the drop-down is refreshed once a job is selected.
The expected behavior is that the job a person has may change in the simulation over time, but once it's set by the user with the drop-down selection, it's locked and won't change (except when changed by the user).
The simulation logic for assigning a job to a person is based on the person's current capabilities for each job and his settlement's current demand for that job.
A person's capability for the driver job, for example, is based on his driving skill and experience aptitude natural attribute (ability to learn from hands-on experience). The settlement's demand for drivers is simply the number of vehicles owned by the settlement.
A person's capability for the areologist job is based on his areology skill and both experience and academic aptitude attributes. The settlement's demand for areologists is based on the total sum of areology laboratories (lab space * tech level), including areology laboratories in rovers, at the settlement.
Other jobs have their own calculations for person capability and settlement demand. Science jobs are related to science skills, academic aptitude, appropriate research labs at the settlement, etc. Technician demand is based on number of buildings and equipment needing maintenance. Engineer demand is based on manufacturing capabilities..and so forth.
So to determine a person's job, the code goes through each of the 15 jobs and calculates the person's capability for that job times the settlement's unfulfilled demand for that job (not fulfilled by other people's capabilities with that job). Whichever job has the highest total value for that person is chosen.
So as a person gains experience and increases their various skills, they may change jobs that better suit their skills. Settlement demand for jobs may change as new buildings are constructed or arrive from Earth, vehicles are traded between settlements, etc. As people change jobs or emigrate to another settlement, the unfulfilled demand for jobs at the settlement changes and people will change jobs to accommodate the needs of the settlement.
A person's job determines the focus of his activities. There are tasks and missions associated with each job, and a person is more likely to choose to perform tasks or start/join missions associated with his job. The person can do other tasks as well, but are more likely to do job related tasks, or general tasks, such as eating, sleeping, relaxing, etc.
The science jobs: areologist, biologist, botanist, physicist, mathematician, astronomer, chemist, meteorologist, and doctors are all focused on doing scientific research in labs (some do field work) and collaborating on and publishing research papers. Botonists are the primary tenders of the greenhouses to produce the settlement's food. Doctors provide medical help for any injuries or other medical problems. Areologists focus on rover missions to explore and mine sites with ore minerals.
Technicians focus on repairing and maintaining all of the settlement's buildings, vehicles and equipment. Poor maintenance leads to increased chances of malfunctions and accidents.
Engineers focus on manufacturing parts, resources and equipment.
Drivers focus on helping with any rover missions and repairing and maintaining vehicles, assiting with loading/unloading vehicles, etc.
Architects focus on construction of new buildings or salvaging old buildings. They also manufacture construction materials.
Chefs focus on cooking meals for the settlement. Eating cooked meals improve moral by reducing stress over the normal hastily prepared food.
Traders focus on starting trading missions with other nearby settlements and negotiating barter trades.
I think that's all the jobs we currently have in the simulation. Let me know if you have any specific questions or have ideas for new jobs we could add.
Thanks,
Scott
Hi Scott. I hadn't seen this great post until the new release drew me back to the sim, so thank you very much for taking the time to provide the insight.
Hi Scott,
I think a new job of "Prospector" might be a useful addition. A Prospector would automatically create missions to go and collect regolith and ice. I know these missions are sometimes created by random settlers anyway. Perhaps a Prospector might create these missions 5-10 times more often than a regular settler. Assigning someone a job of Prospector would enable the base commander (me) to encourage the settlers to collect more raw materials to be used later in constructing new buildings.
Thanks for mars-sim. It's an awesome project.
johno
Hi John,
I apologize that I hadn't gotten back to you on this. We actually already have a job that is functionally the same as what you describe for the "Prospector". The Areologist (Geologist on Mars) has a much higher chance of starting and joining missions to collect regolith and ice as well as exploration, mining, and areology field missions. I'm not sure how a prospector job would differ practically from a areologist as the sim is currently implemented.
People can also go outside their settlements to dig local regolith and ice, and the Engineer job is more likely to perform this task. This is another way to collect construction material.
Thanks,
Scott