Hello, Ranchers 😀🧑🏻🌾🐮
It’s been a while since our last devlog, and we’d like to thank you for continuing to support Ranch Farm and Store Simulator.
Over the past few months, we’ve been carefully reviewing feedback from the community, especially around employee behavior and how they handle daily tasks on the ranch. Many of you shared insights about inefficiencies, task prioritization, and overall workflow, and those inputs have helped shape this update.
With that in mind, this update focuses mainly on improving the employee system to make it more consistent, balanced, and reliable during long gameplay sessions. Alongside that, we’ve also added a few supporting features to improve overall management and quality of life.
Main Updates
1. Employee Algorithm Overhaul
We’ve reworked how employees handle tasks to improve efficiency and ensure all tasks are handled more evenly.
a. Animal and Plant Harvesting
Employees will now harvest in rotation instead of prioritizing only the earliest placed animal pens or planter boxes.
For animals, harvesting is now balanced between tool-based actions (like milking and shearing) and non-tool actions (like collecting eggs), ensuring all harvestable outputs are handled more consistently.
b. Machine Worker
Employees will now process all available production tools instead of focusing only on the earliest placed machines.
c. Maintenance
Maintenance tasks will now be processed progressively from earlier to later placed animal pens and planter boxes, ensuring all areas receive attention.
d. Trap Worker
Employees will alternate between managing insect traps and fish traps, both for filling and harvesting.
e. Nutrient Worker
Employees will distribute nutrients in rotation across animal pens and planter boxes, ensuring more balanced coverage.
2. Employees Can Now Use Commodity Containers
Employees can now carry commodity containers purchased by the player.
This allows them to harvest up to 144 items depending on the container size, improving efficiency compared to single item handling.
As before, if the container is not full and similar commodities are still available, employees will continue harvesting from other sources before returning to storage.
3. Improved Nutrient Worker Efficiency
Nutrient handling has been optimized.
Employees can now:
Use nutrient containers when available
Organize nutrients into storage containers
Prioritize using containers when it allows them to carry more in a single trip
This reduces repetitive trips and improves overall workflow efficiency.
4. New Storage Containers for Containers
We’ve added dedicated storage containers for:
Nutrient Containers
Waste Buckets
Commodity Containers
Employees will now prioritize placing containers into these storage units if available. If no storage is present, they will behave as before and place items near the store area.
This helps keep your ranch more organized and reduces clutter.
5. Store Management Monitor Near Cashier
A new monitor has been added near the cashier to improve store management.
With this feature, you can:
View a list of commodities that have been sold
Check their selling prices
Adjust prices directly from the monitor
Filter to show only currently active items in your store
This should make managing your store pricing and performance more convenient.
Improvements
1. Employee Task Priority UI Update
We’ve updated the Employee Task Priority UI with additional descriptions.
You can now:
See clearer explanations for each task
View short information for currently active tasks
This reduces the need to memorize task roles and makes it easier to manage employee assignments.
Bug Fixes
1. Fixed Employee Behavior After Long Pause
Fixed an issue where pausing the game for a long time could cause employees to appear as if they were teleporting items or working from a distance when the game resumed.
2. Fixed Inaccessible Area Near the Lake
Improved accessibility around the lake area so employees can now navigate and work more reliably.
3. Fixed Employee Rename Issue
Resolved an issue where certain employee names could not be changed to specific inputs.
Thank you again for your continued support.
Since leaving Early Access, our approach has shifted slightly. While we may not introduce frequent large feature updates, we remain committed to addressing important issues, and improving existing systems based on feasibility, and also responding to meaningful feedback from you.
We truly appreciate everyone who continues to play, share feedback, and support the game.