# NPC maintenance

**URL:** <https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/npc-maintenance/12347>\
**Category:** The Bunker\
**Created:** [August 11, 2016, 12:54pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/npc-maintenance/12347 "2016-08-11T12:54:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Sheb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@Sheb](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Sheb)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 5:18pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/npc-maintenance/12347/21 "2016-08-16T17:18:17Z")

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Probably a dumb question, but how do I get NPCs to craft batches?

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**Author:** ![survivornaginata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@survivornaginata](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/survivornaginata)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 6:20pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/npc-maintenance/12347/22 "2016-08-16T18:20:27Z")

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> [@Sheb](#):
>
> Probably a dumb question, but how do I get NPCs to craft batches?

they must have skill and you have to craft in batches-more than 1 item.

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**Author:** ![deoxy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@deoxy](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/deoxy)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 6:30pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/npc-maintenance/12347/23 "2016-08-16T18:30:22Z")

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> [@survivornaginata](#):
>
> [quote=“Sheb, post:21, topic:12347”]Probably a dumb question, but how do I get NPCs to craft batches?

they must have skill and you have to craft in batches-more than 1 item.[/quote]

And annoyingly, you can choose to “batch craft” only 1 of the item (with the batch crafting menu), but it doesn’t trigger the NPC helping you. They will only help when you make more than 1 (and less than 21 - can we ever get that increased to something bigger? say, 100?).

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**Author:** ![Sheb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@Sheb](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Sheb)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 7:08pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/npc-maintenance/12347/24 "2016-08-16T19:08:45Z")

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Oh, so they’ll do it automatically if you batch-craft? Nice to know.

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**Author:** ![Profound\_Darkness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/aeb1de/32.png) [@Profound\_Darkness](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Profound_Darkness)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 8:42pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/npc-maintenance/12347/25 "2016-08-16T20:42:01Z")

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Also if they can’t help with the batch they can watch and learn from you, increasing their skill.

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**Author:** ![Azrad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Azrad](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Azrad)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2016, 5:56am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/npc-maintenance/12347/26 "2016-08-17T05:56:56Z")

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In general, NPCs helping with batch craft is really only noticeable in long batch craft jobs. Like a batch of 20… sugar, I think, normally takes 30 hours and an NPC helping makes it 24 hours instead. And having more than one NPC doesn’t decrease the time further. That’s on a months-old experimental, in any case.

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**Author:** ![Sheb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@Sheb](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Sheb)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2016, 6:42am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/npc-maintenance/12347/27 "2016-08-17T06:42:04Z")

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Oh, so having two people doesn’t reduce the time by two?

Also, I’ve noticed than when batch-crafting clean water, making a batch saves a lot of time compared to crafting them one by one. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case for many recipes. Is that intended behavior?

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**Author:** ![X-PLODE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/d07c76/32.png) [@X-PLODE](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/X-PLODE)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2016, 9:24am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/npc-maintenance/12347/28 "2016-08-17T09:24:19Z")

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It’s a pseudo-parallel crafting feature, it’s more efficient the more you do.

Although some recipes are strange.

For example ;

Item1-60min \> Item2-40min \> Item3-40min \> Item4-40min \> Item5-40min \> etc.

Item1-200min \> Item2-10min \> Item3-10min \> Item4-10min \> Item5-10min \> etc.

Item1-480min \> Item2-480min \> Item3-480min \> Item4-480min \> Item5-480min \> etc.

Crafting is too realistic and too arcadelike at the same time.

I’m still annoyed at the amount of useless recipes and that 99% of them can’t be crafted in the dark with nightvision albeit with a time penalty.

“So you’re telling me i can craft hand wraps blind but i can’t craft a wooden spear with nightvision?” Fuck off.

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**Author:** ![Taberone](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/taberone/32/515_2.png) [@Taberone](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Taberone)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2016, 2:49am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/npc-maintenance/12347/29 "2016-08-21T02:49:29Z")

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[quote=“X-PLODE, post:28, topic:12347”]It’s a pseudo-parallel crafting feature, it’s more efficient the more you do.

Although some recipes are strange.

For example ;

Item1-60min \> Item2-40min \> Item3-40min \> Item4-40min \> Item5-40min \> etc.

Item1-200min \> Item2-10min \> Item3-10min \> Item4-10min \> Item5-10min \> etc.

Item1-480min \> Item2-480min \> Item3-480min \> Item4-480min \> Item5-480min \> etc.

Crafting is too realistic and too arcadelike at the same time.

I’m still annoyed at the amount of useless recipes and that 99% of them can’t be crafted in the dark with nightvision albeit with a time penalty.

“So you’re telling me i can craft hand wraps blind but i can’t craft a wooden spear with nightvision?” Fuck off.[/quote]

You can always post an “Issue” about it on Github, though. Someone will eventually notice it and fix it, probably.

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**Author:** ![McSpoon](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/mcspoon/32/5920_2.png) [@McSpoon](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/McSpoon)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2016, 3:26am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/npc-maintenance/12347/30 "2016-09-03T03:26:14Z")

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[quote=“Litppunk, post:19, topic:12347”]Zone stuff the game could use:

defend No-Pickup zones? Y/N?

Use items Zone: NPC’s will use any items in said zone as needed, including food, medicine, and exchanging more highly “valued” weapons with what they already have. They will dump any items they don’t want anymore in these zones as well, or alternatively more zone types could be created: Dump zone, maybe a tribute zone where NPC’s dump items they don’t need that might help “the community”

Also a Collect \_\_\_ type items option could be useful as well; sort of a "hey guys, we need (wood, plastics, weapons etc…) so you’re in charge of gathering “X”

Making it so that Vehicles, or individual tiles on a vehichle can be designated would be awesome too, it would allow you to use NPC’s to help loot places rather than just watching or stuffing their pockets and THEN just watching… like some kind of walking chest.[/quote]  
There most def should be a zone for NPC’s where they auto use things and upgrade their weapons/armor/etc if they can do so.

NPC’s should be able to follow autopickup rules. Or you should be able to set autopickup rules for them. That’s the Collect\_\_\_\_ option thing solved, idk if this would be hard to code or what.

Maybe they could also have a combo of the two, for example where you say that they should keep X portions of food in their inventory and they take that food from a certain zone. They could also prioritize the NPC pickup zone, and then second priority they could pickup items outside of your no NPC pickup zones.

As for the previously mentioned problem of runtime issues when NPCs scan for food, maybe it could be coded that when they are hungry they scan for food every X turns, making it higher if you still experience lag.

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