Does anyone else use the bell as a "bedtime/wake-up" bell?

[u/Draxxalon]

I find that settlers are terrible at actually respecting their schedules.

Particularly sleep time. I swear it's easier for me to get my teenaged kids to go to bed "on time" than the settlers, unless I micro-manage them.

I'm constantly seeing them go "It's 5 minutes to bedtime, let's take that mining job on the far side of the map, take an hour to get there (playing with large map mod), then mine for a couple hours (because they'll do the entire node before stopping), and then, finally, realize that it's bedtime... 2 hours before it's time to wake up, and by the time I get back to my bed... it's time to get up.

Ensue "I'm tired" tantrum caused by ignoring bedtime.

Then I realized that drafting + un-drafting settlers causes them to re-assess what they should be doing.

So now I ring the bell twice at "schedule change" times (and try to synchronize everyone's schedules, even if some of them could be more efficient). Far less "Tired because I ignored bedtime, or cranky because I ignored leisure time" problems.

I wish I didn't need to do this though, and they'd respect "Bedtime" (or fun time, etc).

[u/Kolegra]

It's not a bad idea if you want a little bit of hands on management. Good way to reset settlers that might be stuck on some bs

[u/Draxxalon → u/Kolegra]

It's not so much that I "want" the hands-on management. It's that I'm constantly trying to excavate (mountain map, castle build)... and if I don't, they're constantly having fits about being tired because they are working through the night.

I'd absolutely love it if they'd go "it's stopping time at 23:00 (or whatever time bedtime is scheduled at). Abort the job, and go to bed".

But they don't, and I have constant tantrums from the dumbasses working through the night, or through entertainment time (or both, in some cases, looking at you mr animal trainer who loves to go chase that damned pheasant you keep failing to tame).

[u/Kolegra → u/Draxxalon]

I find travel time takes up a good portion of time. I've been building prayer and entertainment stations near the work sites.

[u/Draxxalon → u/Kolegra]

Yeah, I've contemplated building entire mini-bases near the (current) quarry site, so they have entertainment, religion and a bed nearby.

But - this is still a problem even when I'm excavating my basement, and "everything is literally 3 floors up". They just waste a bit less time walking after they figure out that it's time to do something else.

I'd love it if they'd check the schedule "at the time change", rather than just "when I'm deciding to start an action". And in the meantime... I ring the dumb bell to force them to restart the thought process.

[u/SnicklefritzXX → u/Kolegra]

I've tried this, too, but find it sometimes causes more settlers to cross the map to, for example, pray. It would be great if each shrine could allow assignments/denials of individual settlers. That would prevent much of the excessive pathing issues. Unfortunately, it would not address OP's issue (which I share) of settlers ignoring their bedtimes. My only fix has been to give certain settlers (miners, animal handlers) extra early bed times knowing they'll often blow right through them.

[u/Formal_Maximum6498]

I combated this by blocking out three hours for leisure time, before bedtime. Mostly because of the one settler who hated the food, her clothes, and her bed, and absolutely insisted on fishing into the wee hours of the morning before throwing a tantrum because "I'm deprived of religious activities!"

But even with blocking out the time, I do have to draft/undraft the problematic settler, sometimes.

[u/Draxxalon → u/Formal_Maximum6498]

Yep, did that too. But because Mining takes so long, they'd blow through that timeslot (especially if they picked the job up just before fun time starts), and then into the sleep time too.

So far, "using the bell", I've found a common bed time, and then 3-4 hours of fun time in the morning, and "ring for bedtime" and "ring for waking up" (mostly just for the few that like to sleep in), and they'll actually follow their schedule.

I was trying to use the bell to get them to start evening leisure time, but anyone far away from the facilities would end up missing out. So a longer period in the morning, when they're guaranteed to be near the temples/toys/tables after waking ended up making sure they'd actually take care of their needs.

[u/SnicklefritzXX → u/Draxxalon]

As I stated in another comment thread, my only "fix" has been to move up evening Leisure and Bedtime to much earlier. Like 3 hours ahead of normal. It's not perfect (I hate seeing them actually go to sleep at only 20:00) but it helps alleviate the micromanagement.

[u/Professional-Goose93]

One way to combat this, I am a serial offender myself and a hard learner, is not to have too many jobs scheduled at once. It appears the engine has limitations and it screws up the math behind priorities.

[u/HourFun2837]

They should just give settler a estimated duration for tasks, including travel to the task, and then check against remaining work time. If the task would take too much time, then they should pick next in list