So, we do have tons of different categories of slaves, but yet we miss something. My friend has asked whether we do have an option to send our slaves to mine rocks/iron or chop down wood. Then I came up with an idea.
What if we had a structure similar to the wheel of pain, which looks like a small pit for 2/4/8 slaves with same kind of animation as wheel does(I mean like doesnt matter how many slaves are there actually, model showes 2/4/8 working persons) and they are mining ore with different chance of success, like 60% - rock, 25% - iron, 10%- silver and 5% - gold OR it could be differnt kind of quarries like rock quarry, iron quarry etc. Additionaly if you manage to replace your old blacksmith II with blacksmith III you can still make use of elder one! Just make him dig/mine.
Just a small thought…
I like the idea of thralls taking over some of the busy work. I would suggest a slightly different mechanism. Gathering basic material myself is fine at the start but gets repetitive so suggest a system that means when you are ready for tier 2 building, tier 1 materials can be auto gathered,when you hit tier 3 then tier 2 can be.
For example
Level 30 feat : unlocks stone/wood/ plant fibre resource gathering by thralls ( by way of a crafting station I assume would be easiest to implement)
Level 45 feat unlocks iron,coal,bark,branch gathering
Level 55 feat unlocks brimstone, and some plants.
Resources that cannot be auto gathered by thralls: black ice,star metal,gold,silver, obsidian.
I like this idea.
Although I would say that we should have to deploy mining thralls in the location of the resource you want.
He/she would have a set radius to mine depending on tier. He/she would harvest at a rate dependant on the tools given and tier.
You would place chests for them too fill.
Of course this would be dangerous work and you would have to deploy some archers or fighters to guard them.
Eg. If you want to deploy a miner at the silver mine he would need some serious protection from the scorpions and rhinos.
Or the snakes and stone demons when mining gold and obsidian.
I like both the original idea by @gaara5q and your thought about that.
However, I think allowing to build both gardens for trees or quarries should be on the same levels as the wheels are. Meaning lvl 10, 30 and 50.
I agree on those non auto gathered materials.
As for the size of said “station”… I think the highest tier might become a lil bigger than the maproom.