Assign homes and workplaces for NPCs (for storytelling and immersion)
I would like the ability to assign houses and workplaces to NPCs. For instance, if you've taken over a ruined town and decided to renovate it (or if you're building your own), I want to be able to select a home and workplace for each NPC. During the daytime, they could travel to their jobs, interacting with various workstations. For example the blacksmith might be hammering tools, while the farmer tends to the fields.
At night, they would return home.
I believe this would enhance storytelling significantly, especially if you assign multiple NPCs to live together as roommates or couples. It would also make settlements feel much more alive.
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28 Aug, '25
PaulJExactly, right now NPCs are missing routines - they have ONE, i.e. at night they will return to their beds to sleep.
They do have some animations, for example they'll sit on chairs, or do that "looking around" animation. The problem as op points out they don't have specific interactions with crafting stations. They might happen to end up standing near a crafting station but they don't have any specific animation, like hammering at a forge, or pouring reagents into other beakers at the alchemy lab, or using the spinning loom, etc.
We need to be able to combine separate items into specific combinations that will mean something to NPCs, e.g. bench + table + platter = place to eat, they will sit there for a while at breakfast/lunch/dinner times. Or bookshelf/table + books placed on it = NPCs who like reading should hang around and do reading animations.
This also helps give meaning to furniture, no longer merely decoration but specific combos can provide context for NPCs.