Workforce Query - need FULL Optimal Number before any benefit?

[Scoob]

Hi,

I'm just setting up a station with Workforce and glad to see the level increasing more quickly than previously. However, while my Station is now at over 85% of the Optimal Number of workers, I'm still getting ZERO production bonus. Additionally, in the Logical Station Overview Production column, it shows Workforce at 0% which is plain wrong. The station has 734 out of an optimal 855 Workforce aboard, with capacity for more.

Of course, there's ample Food and Medical Supplies, with several hours worth of each available, based on the displayed consumption rate.

While I dabbled with Workforce during the Beta, there were bugs, so I didn't use it extensively. Now I'm on my first proper game after a fresh 4.0 + CoH restart, I wanted to take advantage of the (hopefully working) Workforce mechanic. Either I'm not understanding things correctly - do we not get ANY bonus until we hit the Optimal level? - or there's a bug here.

How's it working for others?

Note: as I typed this, Workforce went up to 823 of 855 Optimal and is still showing zero percent Workforce.

Edit: I'm now well over the Optimal Workforce level - 960 / 855 - yet Workforce still shows as 0% If I select a Production Module, it shows "Workforce: ???" with efficiency at 100% I'm getting no benefit from Workforce what so ever. I guess this can't be a common issue, else it would have been fixed by now. My station is nothing special, just one producing Hull Parts - fully self-sufficient - based on ARG Blueprints.

I'm going to Save / Reload to see if this fixes things...nope, didn't help. Must be a bug. My game is modified, though nothing that does anything to Workforce, Stations or Production Modules - just your usual VRO, FOCW etc.

Edit 2: Update; my station finally shows as having Workforce! However it IS bugged as it only showed as having 100% Workforce, when Workforce hit 1,004 / 855, so 17% OVER the Optimal value. Yet, despite this, rather than showing the correct 117% Workforce, it shows 100% So things are still not shown correctly, though the bonus has now been applied to Production Modules.

In essence, this is a Bug from what I can tell. The Game shows ZERO Workforce, along with no production bonuses applied, until the station is well over the "Optimal" Workforce level. This "Optimal" level isn't even in fact a minimum level for the Workforce bonus to apply. Just a UI error? Is "Optimal" shown wrong? Do we indeed need the "real" Optimal amount before ANY bonus is applied? I really don't understand what's going on here.

Scoob.

[Raevyan]

It’s one of your mods that messes that up. I have now built 100 stations all with workforce and never seen this behavior.

[Scoob]

It’s one of your mods that messes that up. I have now built 100 stations all with workforce and never seen this behavior.

Perhaps, though I've not a clue which one might do it out of:

Better Kill Credit
Better Piracy
FOCW Corporations
FOCW
Mules, Supply and Warehouses Extended
Scaleplate Use All
TaterTrader
True Capture Vanilla
VRO
X4 Fire and Smoke
XR ShipPack
XR ShipPack VRO

I don't think any of them touch Workforce. Also, when I was testing during the Beta, obviously I was totally vanilla, and workforce wasn't working quite right then either.

So, question for you, do you gain any productivity bonus if your Workforce is below the Optimal level at all? I'm trying to understand how things are supposed to Work. I remember how it worked in v3.3 of course, with a partial bonus for a partial Workforce. I'm trying to understand what threshold my Workforce is hitting for it to work. To be fair, if I'd not been checking closely I may have not noticed there was a problem at all. Workforce is of course working just fine now, it just wasn't for a while.

Scoob.

[Imperial Good]

As the tooltips say, workforce bonus only changes every shift change (hour).

If that is not the case for you then you need to provide an unmodified save showing the issue. I extensively use workforce in all my production stations and it is working as described.

[Scoob]

As the tooltips say, workforce bonus only changes every shift change (hour).

If that is not the case for you then you need to provide an unmodified save showing the issue. I extensively use workforce in all my production stations and it is working as described.

Valid point, though I was of course waiting for the Workforce shifts and checking to see if there was a change. I cannot of course provide an unmodified save of this, as I'm not vanilla currently.

Perhaps you can tell me, should I get at least some production efficiency bonus with a partial (sub-optimal) Workforce level?

Scoob.

[Raevyan]

Yes you gain efficiency bonus before you reach optimal workforce.

[Scoob]

Yes you gain efficiency bonus before you reach optimal workforce.

Thanks for confirming how it's supposed to work - that's what I expected, based on how v3.3 worked. Still no closer to finding out why things aren't working quite right in my game. I've posted a query on the Modding Forum, to see if anyone there might be able to help.

My station is now working well, workforce holding at optimal levels after I allowed it to go a little over as I had another module queued up. If I'd not noticed those earlier issues, I'd be sure all was well. Building another station now, will see how that goes.

Scoob.

[Raevyan]

One of your mods is interfering with workforce. Mods sometimes can cause sideeffects which could lead to things like that.

[Scoob]

One of your mods is interfering with workforce. Mods sometimes can cause sideeffects which could lead to things like that.

Could well be, but none of them had issues with v3.3, but never say never lol.

One other thing I have noticed is how Habitat Modules already have some Workforce the moment they are constructed. For example, I just built the first Habitat Module on another station - one that Produces Food and Meds - and it had 14 Workforce already. Something is certainly a little screwy.

Nothing yet on my other thread re: which mods might be affecting workforce.

Edit: Interestingly, when the Second Habitat was finished on this second station, the numbers all updated just fine. So, will well under the Optimal Workforce, it shows "Workforce: 1%" (which is correct) and I get a 1% bonus to Food Rations production, though nothing for Medical Supplies. So, for my second station, things are working as they should. Curiouser and curiouser...

Scoob.

[Imperial Good]

Could be that one of the mods modified station behaviours in a way that is no longer compatible with 4.00 due to it also modifying station behaviours.

Note that production bonuses are usually well below 100%. As such 1% work force might not show as any production bonus (just 100%, base) due to rounding. This is especially the case with expensive end products like claytronics and computronic substrate which only get a bonus of a few percent at most with optimal workforce so need a significant population to show a 1% bonus.

In 4.00 you can now speed up growth rate by constructing more large habitats that necessary or building in a sector with a high population planet, even one you made via terraforming. This means that it is no longer required to build a lot of small stations or use habitation from multiple races to get optimal workforce in a timely way.

[Scoob]

Not sure what it means, but if you see my edit to my prior post, you'll note that all was fine when adding habitats to my seconds station. So, the first exhibited the odd bug, the second worked fine. In both cases Habitats were added after other modules and when the station was already productive, albeit with no Workforce. Very odd.

Scoob.