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design: increase worker cap through food and housing tradeoffs #133

@itsmiso-ai

Description

@itsmiso-ai

Add a way to increase the worker cap as a meaningful decision rather than a free upgrade.

Proposed direction:

  • Base workers remain 2.
  • Hut or upgraded housing increases max workers.
  • Each extra worker adds ongoing food pressure.
  • If food is low, extra workers slow down, pause, or prioritize food rather than causing harsh failure.

Keep this as a soft idle-sim tradeoff, not a survival spiral.

Possible model:

  • Worker cap = base workers + housing bonus.
  • Each worker consumes or reserves food periodically.
  • Adding a worker improves throughput but increases food upkeep.

Acceptance Criteria

  • Define worker cap rules.
  • Define food upkeep rules.
  • Add a clear player-facing decision to recruit/add a worker.
  • Prevent adding workers when the colony cannot support them, or warn the player clearly.
  • Add tests for cap calculation, recruiting, food upkeep, and low-food behavior.

Note: Worker/task reservation bugs should be fixed before worker cap/upkeep implementation if still unresolved, because worker scaling will amplify duplicated task/haul behavior.

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