It's HERE! You can now hire AI employees to help around the farm.
Currently they can Harvest crops by hand, and store goods into designated storage zones that you can build, under the new Build > AI category in the Building menu. They can be found near the Farm Store. The available workers will change every day.
It took a while to do this update because it is such a major addition to the backend engine of the game. The new Workers react to their environment dynamically through an improved AI pathfinding and navigation system. They will automatically find which goods they can store and which crops are ready for harvesting.
You pay them $40 a day to work full time in the farm. They will work from 8am-6pm every day. You can talk to them like any other NPC and you can tell them to follow you, or fire them. Harvesting and Hauling uses up their stamina, so you'd want to build comfort furniture like chairs and coffee stations so they can take energizing breaks.
To have them store goods automatically, go to the Building menu > AI category, then choose between the storage shelves available. Then, just carry whatever goods you want (tools not included) and either press the Interact or Action button while highlighting the storage zone, to set whatever you're carrying as the Type of goods that will be put into the zone.
I feel like this update really adds a lot to the game in different avenues. Spouses, expanded NPC interactions, stuff like that. However, in the near future, the new AI system will go well in hand with my plans to implement a more in-depth economic system, a more 'tycoon' type gameplay. Of course, the player will be able to choose between what playstyle they want. They can still have a small farm, or they can decide to grow it massively to compete with the big boys (or girls). AI workers will go a long way towards this goal.
In the near future I will be adding more functionality to the AI workers - foremost of these will be being able to automatically load goods into processors, like the Fuel Refiner and the Wine Maker. You will be able to have a fully automated fuel refinery or winery, in addition to a few other business ventures I'm planning to put in with the planned Tycoon update. They will also have more traits and characteristics like different working speeds, motivation, happiness, and other factors like that.
Anyway, thank you all for supporting the game and I hope you enjoy this new update. Please report any bugs you notice and share any suggestions you may have. Thanks again!