Return-To-The-Roots
Woodcutter and Stone Mason buildings are slow to start
Just recently I was attempting to try out the RTTR and I noticed that at least woodcutters and stone masons take a very long time to start production. Based on my rough estimate it looks like they take at least a full production cycle to start doing anything. (roughly 30 sec) Compared to the dos version which appear to begin production after 2-3 sec (essentially immediately after occupation). This does not appear to afflict foresters, and I haven't tested hunters/fisherman as of yet.
Do you have some exact timers? As far as I remember in Settlers 2 there were fixed work cycles - so it depends on when the building is finished
I'm positive its not a fixed work cycle. I've been playing the GoG version recently, and although I haven't been exactly timing things I know for a fact: A) Not all woodcutters/stonemasons leave the hut at the same time. B) Generally speaking (there might be a small amount of variance) after a worker arrives at a building they will almost immediately begin working if there is work to be done (eg raw materials are in the building, or raw materials are within range to be harvested)
So it is possible there is a global "ping" cycle every few seconds that determines when a worker could commence work. I haven't observed this specifically, but I cannot rule it out, so maybe that is what you were remembering?
I was trying campaign mission 1.... I doubt there is a difference in other maps/multiplayer, but I haven't specifically tested that either.
If there is anything I can do to help, please let me know.
Speaking of RTTR.... I really love how smooth the animations are now. It reminds me of how when watching a 120hz tv the movie looks like its running faster than it should.
Just FYI: In RTTR all buildings have (independent) work cycles. E.g. some waiting time, then work, then wait, then produce, rinse and repeat. This is meant for a bit of realism: Workers need to prepare for work, sharpen tools, get some fresh clothes... before starting to work. With your request it would basically mean that we need to put the waiting time at the end instead of the start. This might be possible, but (I think) a lot of work. Not sure if worth it...
I see. I guess it was my understanding that any changes from S2 dos version to RTTR were to be options that could be toggled on or off. Obviously not a game breaking issue by any stretch of the imagination.
Well we don't have the source code of S2, so all that was implemented is basically based on guessing and observation. And it seems 10 years ago the original authors of that part got it the wrong way round especially as it doesn't matter at all for anything past the first work iteration, so the mistake is understandable. So your understanding is correct and this is (assuming your observation is correct, haven't checked myself) a bug. It's just not trivial to fix at this point
Gotcha. I'll do some more checking. See how many jobs are afflicted with this issue. Verify that woodcutter and forester behave differently... etc It seems odd to me that some external workers would start immediately and others wouldn't. I would have assumed the code for all such jobs would be essentially the same other than for the specific config (eg total cycle time, who the worker is, which resource they walk to and target, etc)
Unfortunately no, I have become sidetracked by other projects. This is still on my todo list when I circle back to playing settlers 2.