Villager Workers 2

Villager Workers

Hireable workers to automate your village!

Workers

Workers is a Minecraft mod that turns idle NPCs into a productive workforce for your base, town, or faction. It is built directly on top of the Recruits mod and is fully compatible with every Recruits feature — grouping, naming, ownership transfer, factions, morale, sieges, payment and upkeep all carry over and apply to workers as well.

Unlike the previous generation of the mod, a Worker is now only the labour. What the work actually is gets defined by a Work Area that you place in the world. Assign a worker the matching job, place the matching Work Area, and the worker walks over and does the job.

Requires: Recruits. Workers are a content/feature extension of Recruits and will not run without it.

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Table of Contents

1. Core Concept
2. Quick Start
3. Work Areas
   • Storage Area
   • Crop Farm
   • Lumber Area
   • Fishing Area
   • Animal Farm
   • Mining Area
   • Building Area
   • Kitchen
   • Market
   • Workshop
   • Worker Home
4. Worker Professions
5. Storekeeper
6. Craftsman & Orders
7. Couriers
8. Merchants & Trading
9. The Building System
10. Core Mechanics
    • Needed Items
    • Upkeep & Provisioning
    • Ownership & Faction Access
    • Morale
    • Worker Homes & Sleep
    • Sieges
11. Configuration
12. Compatibility
13. FAQ

Core Concept

A Worker on its own does nothing useful — it is workforce waiting for an assignment. The loop is always the same:

1. Hire/obtain a worker of the profession you need (workers are Recruits, so everything you know about hiring and commanding Recruits applies).
2. Place a Work Area of the matching type and configure it in its GUI.
3. The worker walks to the nearest suitable Work Area it has access to and starts working.
4. Workers pull the materials they need from nearby Storage Areas and drop their output back into storage.

Because workers are Recruits under the hood, they obey the same ownership, faction, morale, payment and upkeep rules — see Core Mechanics.

Quick Start

1. Place a Storage Area and put a few chests inside its bounds. This is where workers stash and fetch items.
2. Place the Work Area for the job you want (e.g. a Crop Farm) and configure it.
3. Assign a worker of the matching profession and let it roam near the area.
4. Optionally give the worker a Home (bed + chest) to keep its morale and health up.
5. Optionally hire a Storekeeper to keep your storage sorted.

That's it — the worker will find the nearest area it is allowed to use and begin.

Work Areas

Work Areas are placeable entities that mark where a job happens and hold its settings. Most areas scan for nearby chests/containers automatically and respect the access rules described under Ownership & Faction Access.

Storage Area

The foundation of any workforce. Define a storage first — nearby workers will deposit their output and fetch their needed materials here.

• Put chests (and other containers) inside the area's bounds; the area aggregates them.
• You can restrict which worker types may access a given storage, letting you build dedicated storages (e.g. a kitchen-only storage, a building-materials storage, etc.). New storages allow all worker types by default.
• Kitchens, Markets and Workshops can use nearby storages (within 64 blocks) to restock and store their goods.
• A Storekeeper can sort the storage and unload parked vehicles.
• Storages are also used by the Needed Items and Upkeep systems.

Crop Farm

Defines where crops are planted and harvested. The area is 9×9.

• In the UI you choose which seeds the workers should use.
• Place multiple Crop Farms to scale up production.
• A Farmer automatically walks to the nearest free tile and works it: tilling, planting, and harvesting.
• Farmers also use bone meal (if they have any) to speed up growth after planting; if they run out, bone meal is fetched opportunistically without blocking work.

Lumber Area

The tree-farming counterpart, worked by Lumberjacks. They plant and fell trees within the area. Configurable behaviour:

• Strip logs before chopping.
• Replant saplings after felling.
• Shear leaves with shears before chopping.
• Bone meal is applied to freshly planted saplings (when available) to speed regrowth.
• Dynamic Trees support: if the Dynamic Trees mod is loaded, Lumberjacks can fell, strip and plant dynamic trees by default.

Fishing Area

Used by Fishermen to define where they cast their lines.

• Deeper water makes them catch fish faster.
• Fishermen are far more skilled than the player, so their rods break much more slowly.

Animal Farm

A pen where selected animals are bred and managed.

• Set the maximum number of animals allowed in the pen. Surplus animals beyond the limit are slaughtered.
• Many species are supported, including rabbits, camels, horses, wolves/dogs, and goats.
• Species-specific options: shearing sheep, collecting eggs from chickens, milking cows, and more.
• Animal Farmers breed and grow animals much faster than a player can.
• Gather animals (new, on by default): the Animal Farmer leads matching animals from the surroundings to the pen on a lead — up to 4 at once. He also picks up animals he passes on his way. Named animals, tamed horses and animals in other pens are left alone.

Mining Area

Defines a volume for Miners to excavate. Adjustable height, width and depth.

• Optionally fill the floor where holes exist or appear, to stop Miners from falling.
• Water and lava sources are plugged automatically.
• Ores exposed in the walls are mined.
• When it gets too dark, Miners place torches.
• Miners fetch the right tools (pickaxe, and a shovel for shovel-mineable blocks) from storage when needed.

Building Area

The most advanced feature in the mod, worked by the Builder.

• Build pre-saved or self-scanned structures. The Builder gathers the required blocks from nearby Storage Areas and constructs the building.
• You can scan your own structures and save them as NBT files. Maximum size is 32×32×32.
• Saved structures can include other Work Areas in the NBT, so a building can come pre-fitted with farms, storages, etc.
• A bundle of default vanilla buildings (some modified) ships as presets.
• Build status (new): the build screen shows the current status, the assigned Builder and the progress (placed / total). While waiting for materials, hovering shows the missing items.
• Finished items first (new): if finished stairs, slabs, fences, doors, carpets etc. are already in storage, the Builder uses them before requesting the raw material.
• Building availability is governed by the BuildMode setting.

Kitchen

The work area for the Chef (Cook). A Kitchen needs at least 1 Furnace and 1 Chest.

• Chefs produce food, smelting/cooking using the furnaces and the kitchen's containers — up to 8 items per furnace at once.
• Crafting (new): with "Use storage" enabled, the Chef also crafts simple food recipes by hand (bread, cookies, pumpkin pie, soups, and matching modded recipes). He takes at most a quarter of each ingredient from storage.
• Cooked food can be given to villagers to boost breeding (see below). Villagers get cooked food first, raw food only if nothing else is available.
• If configured in the kitchen, the Chef will hand out items that supply the saturation value villagers need.

Villager breeding change: breeding is now based on the nutrition (saturation) value of food items rather than only vanilla bread/carrots/etc. A villager combines the saturation of its food items until it reaches the threshold (default 15) and then breeds. This can be turned off in the config (VillagerBreedMixinEnabled), and the threshold is configurable (VillagerBreedSaturationThreshold).

Market

The work area for the Merchant. A Market needs chests. A nearby Merchant will move in, after which it can trade long-term using the market's stock and store its earnings there. See Merchants & Trading.

• Use storage: the Market restocks goods from nearby storages and stores bought items there.
• Emerald reserve: this amount of currency always stays in the Market.
• Foreign traders: allow or forbid travelling Merchants of other players to trade at your Market.

Workshop

(New) The work area for the Craftsman. A Workshop needs at least 1 Crafting Table, 1 Furnace and 1 Chest. Blast Furnaces are optional and used automatically for ores. See Craftsman & Orders.

Worker Home

Not a job, but essential for upkeep of morale and health — see Worker Homes & Sleep.

Worker Professions

Every profession is a Recruit specialised for one Work Area type.

Storekeeper

(New) The Storekeeper looks after one of your Storage Areas. There is nothing to configure — he just keeps the storage in order. Only one Storekeeper works per storage.

• Sorts the chests into categories: armor, tools, mob drops, farming, food, ores, wood, building blocks and misc. Items you have in large amounts get their own chests. Once everything is sorted, he waits.
• Unloads parked vehicles up to 8 blocks around the storage: donkeys, mules and llamas with chests, chest boats, chest minecarts, Small Ships and horse carts. Saddles and carpets stay on the animal.
• Vehicles with a player or a Courier on board and animals of other owners are left alone.
• If the storage is full or a vehicle can't be reached, the owner gets a message.

Craftsman & Orders

(New) The Craftsman works in a Workshop and produces items from orders (up to 16 per Workshop).

• Each order is a crafting table or furnace recipe. Set it in the ghost grid or pick it with the recipe search. If an item has several recipes, clicking it again picks the next one.
• Keep stock (default 64): the Craftsman keeps the target amount in the Workshop and storage. Make once: the amount is produced one time.
• Allow variants (on by default): the Craftsman may use any item the recipe accepts (e.g. any planks).
• Orders are worked through in turn. Missing ingredients are shown as "Missing" in the order list, with a tooltip.
• He smelts with coal, planks or logs. Items that can be blasted go into the Blast Furnace first (twice as fast).
• Use storage (on by default): he fetches missing ingredients from storage and brings finished products there. The storage needs the "Craftsman" flag.
• Items no active order needs anymore are put away into storage.
• Click a working Craftsman to open the order list (sneak-click for the normal menu).
• His working speed depends on his morale.

Couriers

Couriers deliver items to and from waypoints defined in a Recruits route. A dedicated GUI lets you edit the route with actions — each waypoint can hold up to 8 actions, executed in order.

Each action is a task plus a nearby location (and, where relevant, an item + amount). At a waypoint the courier searches roughly 16 blocks around the waypoint for a matching location.

Example — Take · Chest · 3× Apple: at that waypoint the courier looks for a nearby chest holding apples and takes 3 out.

Tasks

Put Fill vs. Take Fill — the difference is what gets measured. Put Fill fills the target up to the amount; Take Fill fills the courier up to the amount. If the goal is already met, the action is skipped.

Locations

For Storage, Market, Kitchen and Workshop you can choose "Any" or a specific Work Area by name. If the chosen area is gone, the action is skipped and the owner is informed.

Extras

• Amounts: set them with the mouse wheel on the item slot (Shift ±10, Ctrl ±64). Amounts above 127 are supported.
• Waypoint list: shows the waypoint names; the courier's current waypoint is highlighted green.
• Vehicle inventory option: when mounted on a mule/donkey (and, in future, siege-weapon horse carts), the courier can be told to use only the vehicle's inventory.
• Chunk loading: Couriers load chunks along their route, so deliveries keep running even where no player is present.
• In-GUI tooltips: hovering an action or location in the dropdowns shows a short description of what it does — even while the dropdown is open.

Merchants & Trading

Merchants can trade with both players and villagers. The owner creates the trades in the Merchant's GUI.

• A player trade has a currency item and a trade item.
• A villager trade has only a trade item — the currency is dictated by the villager.
• Trades can be limited, disabled, or deleted.
• An item search next to the trade screens lets you pick items quickly.

Long-term trading needs a Market. Place a Market (with chests); a nearby Merchant moves in. The Market holds the Merchant's stock and stores earnings.

Trading with Villagers

You can define trades the Merchant does with nearby villagers. These trades are only visible to the owner and must be flagged as "Villager Trade." With a Market placed and the Merchant moved in, when a nearby villager has a matching offer, the Merchant invites it over to trade.

• Sell — "Keep X": sells only while Market + storage hold more than X.
• Buy — "Up to X" (new): buys from villagers until Market + storage hold X.
• The trade editor shows a price info: what villagers pay or ask for the item.
• If a mod replaces emeralds as villager currency, the Merchant uses that currency.

Example: the Merchant sells clay. A nearby Mason buys 10× Clay → 1 Emerald. If the Merchant has 10× clay in the Market's containers, it invites the Mason; the villager walks over and trades until the stock runs out or the villager stops buying. The emeralds end up in the Market.

Far Traders (new)

Turn on "Far trader" in the trade screen and your Merchant travels to other players' Markets during the day.

• He sells and buys only what is in his own villager trades, at the item's value. "Keep", "Up to" and the emerald reserve apply on both sides.
• Long distances are covered quickly; his Recruits escort travels with him.
• He remembers the markets he visited. In the "Markets" screen you can mark favourites or markets to avoid.
• When he returns home, you get a trip report.
• Enemies and markets under embargo are never visited. Markets can block foreign traders.

The Building System

Saving structures

Scan your own builds and save them as NBT files (max 32×32×32). Other Work Areas placed inside the scanned region are saved into the NBT too.

BuildMode (new)

For servers it's often important to control which buildings players may place. Three modes:

Set the mode with the BuildMode config option. A set of default buildings (vanilla structures, some modified) is included as presets.

Core Mechanics

Needed Items

While working, a worker tracks every item it needs. Each need is flagged as blocking or non-blocking:

• Blocking (most cases): the worker pauses and goes to fetch the missing item from the nearest Storage Area. If it isn't there, it checks the next storage, and the next — until all reachable storages have been searched.
• Non-blocking (e.g. bone meal): the worker grabs it opportunistically but never stops working for it.

If a blocking item can't be found anywhere, the owner gets a message.

Upkeep & Provisioning

Because workers are Recruits, they share the Recruits upkeep system (food, equipment/tools, payment). Workers integrate this with their storage system:

• A Storage Area can be assigned as a recruit's/worker's upkeep source.
• When upkeep is due, the worker walks the storage and only visits chests that actually contain something relevant — food, the payment currency, equippable gear (weapons/armor/tools), or ammunition for ranged units. Chests with nothing useful are skipped.
• It opens each relevant chest, takes what it needs, and moves on — the same items the Recruits upkeep system normally handles, gathered across multiple chests.

This lets a whole workforce feed and re-equip itself from a central storage instead of from a single container.

Ownership & Faction Access

All Recruits ownership features apply: create/name/edit groups, hand workers to other players, hand Work Areas to other players, and set faction access per Work Area.

Faction Access on Work Areas (new) controls whether faction workers (workers that don't belong to you) and faction players may interact with a given area. With access off, faction players and faction workers cannot use that storage, market, etc.

Morale

As in Recruits, morale matters. It does not slow workers down directly under normal conditions, but:

• Low-morale workers work less efficiently and take longer on tasks.
• Inside claims, low morale can trigger unwanted resignation.
• See Sieges for how morale decides a worker's behaviour under attack.

Keeping workers homed (and paid/fed) keeps morale healthy.

Worker Homes & Sleep

Workers need a home to restore health and morale by sleeping; without one, morale drifts down and efficiency suffers.

A worker home requires, at minimum, a bed and a chest, in an enclosed space (roughly 3×3, walled with a roof and a door). Once valid, a worker can move in. A worker without a home loses morale over time.

Sieges

When a siege starts (or the village bell is rung), workers head to their assigned homes and take cover. They stay until the siege is repelled or the player orders them to follow/wander. If a siege succeeds, Work Areas immediately shift ownership to the claim's new owner.

Worker behaviour under siege is morale-dependent:

• High/normal morale: the worker flees the claim and holds position until the player picks it up — fighting back only if attacked.
• Low morale (< 20): the worker disbands and switches to the claim's faction.

Configuration

Server-side options (names as they appear in the config file):

Compatibility

• Recruits — required. Workers inherit and remain compatible with all Recruits features (groups, ownership, factions, morale, sieges, payment, upkeep).
• Dynamic Trees — optional. When present, Lumberjacks handle dynamic trees (fell, strip, plant) automatically.
• Small Ships — optional. The Storekeeper unloads parked ships at the storage.

FAQ

My worker isn't doing anything. Check that (1) a matching Work Area is placed and within range, (2) the worker has access to it (ownership/faction settings), and (3) there is a Storage Area nearby with the materials it needs.

My worker keeps stopping and walking off. It is probably fetching a Needed Item from storage. If it can't find the item, you'll get an owner message — restock the storage.

Why is my worker slow? Low morale. Give it a home, keep it fed/paid, and morale will recover.

Can workers feed/re-equip themselves? Yes — assign a Storage Area as their upkeep source and they will restock food, tools and payment from the relevant chests.

My Craftsman doesn't craft an order. Open the order list (click the Craftsman). The status shows if ingredients are missing or the stock target is already reached.

How do I unload my donkey/ship automatically? Hire a Storekeeper for the storage and park the vehicle next to it for a few seconds.

Coming Soon

• Smith Update
• Leveling Update

Installation

1. Install Minecraft Forge
2. Install Villager Recruits Mod
3. Drop the mod into your mods/ folder
4. Launch the game and hire your first worker!

Feedback & Issues

Join the community on Discord for support, bug reports, and suggestions.

My Other Mods

Villager Recruits:
Command your own Villager Army into war! Now with Diplomacy and Factions!

Villager Workers:
Hire Villagers and let them work for you!

Small Ships:
Explore the oceans in your own sailable ships!

Siege Weapons:
Prepare for war. Build your siege weapon. Dominate the battlefield!

Hire your villagers. Automate your village. Dominate your economy.

Villager Workers

Hireable workers to automate your village!

Workers

Workers is a Minecraft mod that turns idle NPCs into a productive workforce for your base, town, or faction. It is built directly on top of the Recruits mod and is fully compatible with every Recruits feature — grouping, naming, ownership transfer, factions, morale, sieges, payment and upkeep all carry over and apply to workers as well.

Unlike the previous generation of the mod, a Worker is now only the labour. What the work actually is gets defined by a Work Area that you place in the world. Assign a worker the matching job, place the matching Work Area, and the worker walks over and does the job.

Requires: Recruits. Workers are a content/feature extension of Recruits and will not run without it.

Play with Friends!

Want to play together with your friends? Check out DatHost for the best performance and easy setup!

How to Get Started

1. Go to DatHost using my Link
2. Register your account.
3. Once registered, choose the plan that fits your needs
4. The 30% discount will be applied automatically at checkout. Important: The discount only works if you order your server using this ** my Link** !

Table of Contents

1. Core Concept
2. Quick Start
3. Work Areas
   • Storage Area
   • Crop Farm
   • Lumber Area
   • Fishing Area
   • Animal Farm
   • Mining Area
   • Building Area
   • Kitchen
   • Market
   • Workshop
   • Worker Home

• Worker Professions
• Storekeeper
• Craftsman & Orders
• Couriers
• Merchants & Trading
• The Building System
• Core Mechanics
  • Needed Items
  • Upkeep & Provisioning
  • Ownership & Faction Access
  • Morale
  • Worker Homes & Sleep
  • Sieges
• Configuration
• Compatibility
• FAQ

Core Concept

A Worker on its own does nothing useful — it is workforce waiting for an assignment. The loop is always the same:

1. Hire/obtain a worker of the profession you need (workers are Recruits, so everything you know about hiring and commanding Recruits applies).
2. Place a Work Area of the matching type and configure it in its GUI.
3. The worker walks to the nearest suitable Work Area it has access to and starts working.
4. Workers pull the materials they need from nearby Storage Areas and drop their output back into storage.

Because workers are Recruits under the hood, they obey the same ownership, faction, morale, payment and upkeep rules — see Core Mechanics.

Quick Start

1. Place a Storage Area and put a few chests inside its bounds. This is where workers stash and fetch items.
2. Place the Work Area for the job you want (e.g. a Crop Farm) and configure it.
3. Assign a worker of the matching profession and let it roam near the area.
4. Optionally give the worker a Home (bed + chest) to keep its morale and health up.
5. Optionally hire a Storekeeper to keep your storage sorted.

That's it — the worker will find the nearest area it is allowed to use and begin.

Work Areas

Work Areas are placeable entities that mark where a job happens and hold its settings. Most areas scan for nearby chests/containers automatically and respect the access rules described under Ownership & Faction Access.

Storage Area

The foundation of any workforce. Define a storage first — nearby workers will deposit their output and fetch their needed materials here.

• Put chests (and other containers) inside the area's bounds; the area aggregates them.
• You can restrict which worker types may access a given storage, letting you build dedicated storages (e.g. a kitchen-only storage, a building-materials storage, etc.). New storages allow all worker types by default.
• Kitchens, Markets and Workshops can use nearby storages (within 64 blocks) to restock and store their goods.
• A Storekeeper can sort the storage and unload parked vehicles.
• Storages are also used by the Needed Items and Upkeep systems.

Crop Farm

Defines where crops are planted and harvested. The area is 9×9.

• In the UI you choose which seeds the workers should use.
• Place multiple Crop Farms to scale up production.
• A Farmer automatically walks to the nearest free tile and works it: tilling, planting, and harvesting.
• Farmers also use bone meal (if they have any) to speed up growth after planting; if they run out, bone meal is fetched opportunistically without blocking work.

Lumber Area

The tree-farming counterpart, worked by Lumberjacks. They plant and fell trees within the area. Configurable behaviour:

• Strip logs before chopping.
• Replant saplings after felling.
• Shear leaves with shears before chopping.
• Bone meal is applied to freshly planted saplings (when available) to speed regrowth.
• Dynamic Trees support: if the Dynamic Trees mod is loaded, Lumberjacks can fell, strip and plant dynamic trees by default.

Fishing Area

Used by Fishermen to define where they cast their lines.

• Deeper water makes them catch fish faster.
• Fishermen are far more skilled than the player, so their rods break much more slowly.

Animal Farm

A pen where selected animals are bred and managed.

• Set the maximum number of animals allowed in the pen. Surplus animals beyond the limit are slaughtered.
• Many species are supported, including rabbits, camels, horses, wolves/dogs, and goats.
• Species-specific options: shearing sheep, collecting eggs from chickens, milking cows, and more.
• Animal Farmers breed and grow animals much faster than a player can.
• Gather animals (new, on by default): the Animal Farmer leads matching animals from the surroundings to the pen on a lead — up to 4 at once. He also picks up animals he passes on his way. Named animals, tamed horses and animals in other pens are left alone.

Mining Area

Defines a volume for Miners to excavate. Adjustable height, width and depth.

• Optionally fill the floor where holes exist or appear, to stop Miners from falling.
• Water and lava sources are plugged automatically.
• Ores exposed in the walls are mined.
• When it gets too dark, Miners place torches.
• Miners fetch the right tools (pickaxe, and a shovel for shovel-mineable blocks) from storage when needed.

Building Area

The most advanced feature in the mod, worked by the Builder.

• Build pre-saved or self-scanned structures. The Builder gathers the required blocks from nearby Storage Areas and constructs the building.
• You can scan your own structures and save them as NBT files. Maximum size is 32×32×32.
• Saved structures can include other Work Areas in the NBT, so a building can come pre-fitted with farms, storages, etc.
• A bundle of default vanilla buildings (some modified) ships as presets.
• Build status (new): the build screen shows the current status, the assigned Builder and the progress (placed / total). While waiting for materials, hovering shows the missing items.
• Finished items first (new): if finished stairs, slabs, fences, doors, carpets etc. are already in storage, the Builder uses them before requesting the raw material.
• Building availability is governed by the BuildMode setting.

Kitchen

The work area for the Chef (Cook). A Kitchen needs at least 1 Furnace and 1 Chest.

• Chefs produce food, smelting/cooking using the furnaces and the kitchen's containers — up to 8 items per furnace at once.
• Crafting (new): with "Use storage" enabled, the Chef also crafts simple food recipes by hand (bread, cookies, pumpkin pie, soups, and matching modded recipes). He takes at most a quarter of each ingredient from storage.
• Cooked food can be given to villagers to boost breeding (see below). Villagers get cooked food first, raw food only if nothing else is available.
• If configured in the kitchen, the Chef will hand out items that supply the saturation value villagers need.

Villager breeding change: breeding is now based on the nutrition (saturation) value of food items rather than only vanilla bread/carrots/etc. A villager combines the saturation of its food items until it reaches the threshold (default 15) and then breeds. This can be turned off in the config (VillagerBreedMixinEnabled), and the threshold is configurable (VillagerBreedSaturationThreshold).

Market

The work area for the Merchant. A Market needs chests. A nearby Merchant will move in, after which it can trade long-term using the market's stock and store its earnings there. See Merchants & Trading.

• Use storage: the Market restocks goods from nearby storages and stores bought items there.
• Emerald reserve: this amount of currency always stays in the Market.
• Foreign traders: allow or forbid travelling Merchants of other players to trade at your Market.

Workshop

(New) The work area for the Craftsman. A Workshop needs at least 1 Crafting Table, 1 Furnace and 1 Chest. Blast Furnaces are optional and used automatically for ores. See Craftsman & Orders.

Worker Home

Not a job, but essential for upkeep of morale and health — see Worker Homes & Sleep.

Worker Professions

Every profession is a Recruit specialised for one Work Area type.

Storekeeper

(New) The Storekeeper looks after one of your Storage Areas. There is nothing to configure — he just keeps the storage in order. Only one Storekeeper works per storage.

• Sorts the chests into categories: armor, tools, mob drops, farming, food, ores, wood, building blocks and misc. Items you have in large amounts get their own chests. Once everything is sorted, he waits.
• Unloads parked vehicles up to 8 blocks around the storage: donkeys, mules and llamas with chests, chest boats, chest minecarts, Small Ships and horse carts. Saddles and carpets stay on the animal.
• Vehicles with a player or a Courier on board and animals of other owners are left alone.
• If the storage is full or a vehicle can't be reached, the owner gets a message.

Craftsman & Orders

(New) The Craftsman works in a Workshop and produces items from orders (up to 16 per Workshop).

• Each order is a crafting table or furnace recipe. Set it in the ghost grid or pick it with the recipe search. If an item has several recipes, clicking it again picks the next one.
• Keep stock (default 64): the Craftsman keeps the target amount in the Workshop and storage. Make once: the amount is produced one time.
• Allow variants (on by default): the Craftsman may use any item the recipe accepts (e.g. any planks).
• Orders are worked through in turn. Missing ingredients are shown as "Missing" in the order list, with a tooltip.
• He smelts with coal, planks or logs. Items that can be blasted go into the Blast Furnace first (twice as fast).
• Use storage (on by default): he fetches missing ingredients from storage and brings finished products there. The storage needs the "Craftsman" flag.
• Items no active order needs anymore are put away into storage.
• Click a working Craftsman to open the order list (sneak-click for the normal menu).
• His working speed depends on his morale.

Couriers

Couriers deliver items to and from waypoints defined in a Recruits route. A dedicated GUI lets you edit the route with actions — each waypoint can hold up to 8 actions, executed in order.

Each action is a task plus a nearby location (and, where relevant, an item + amount). At a waypoint the courier searches roughly 16 blocks around the waypoint for a matching location.

Example — Take · Chest · 3× Apple: at that waypoint the courier looks for a nearby chest holding apples and takes 3 out.

Tasks

Put Fill vs. Take Fill — the difference is what gets measured. Put Fill fills the target up to the amount; Take Fill fills the courier up to the amount. If the goal is already met, the action is skipped.

Locations

For Storage, Market, Kitchen and Workshop you can choose "Any" or a specific Work Area by name. If the chosen area is gone, the action is skipped and the owner is informed.

Extras

• Amounts: set them with the mouse wheel on the item slot (Shift ±10, Ctrl ±64). Amounts above 127 are supported.
• Waypoint list: shows the waypoint names; the courier's current waypoint is highlighted green.
• Vehicle inventory option: when mounted on a mule/donkey (and, in future, siege-weapon horse carts), the courier can be told to use only the vehicle's inventory.
• Chunk loading: Couriers load chunks along their route, so deliveries keep running even where no player is present.
• In-GUI tooltips: hovering an action or location in the dropdowns shows a short description of what it does — even while the dropdown is open.

Merchants & Trading

Merchants can trade with both players and villagers. The owner creates the trades in the Merchant's GUI.

• A player trade has a currency item and a trade item.
• A villager trade has only a trade item — the currency is dictated by the villager.
• Trades can be limited, disabled, or deleted.
• An item search next to the trade screens lets you pick items quickly.

Long-term trading needs a Market. Place a Market (with chests); a nearby Merchant moves in. The Market holds the Merchant's stock and stores earnings.

Trading with Villagers

You can define trades the Merchant does with nearby villagers. These trades are only visible to the owner and must be flagged as "Villager Trade." With a Market placed and the Merchant moved in, when a nearby villager has a matching offer, the Merchant invites it over to trade.

• Sell — "Keep X": sells only while Market + storage hold more than X.
• Buy — "Up to X" (new): buys from villagers until Market + storage hold X.
• The trade editor shows a price info: what villagers pay or ask for the item.
• If a mod replaces emeralds as villager currency, the Merchant uses that currency.

Example: the Merchant sells clay. A nearby Mason buys 10× Clay → 1 Emerald. If the Merchant has 10× clay in the Market's containers, it invites the Mason; the villager walks over and trades until the stock runs out or the villager stops buying. The emeralds end up in the Market.

Far Traders (new)

Turn on "Far trader" in the trade screen and your Merchant travels to other players' Markets during the day.

• He sells and buys only what is in his own villager trades, at the item's value. "Keep", "Up to" and the emerald reserve apply on both sides.
• Long distances are covered quickly; his Recruits escort travels with him.
• He remembers the markets he visited. In the "Markets" screen you can mark favourites or markets to avoid.
• When he returns home, you get a trip report.
• Enemies and markets under embargo are never visited. Markets can block foreign traders.

The Building System

Saving structures

Scan your own builds and save them as NBT files (max 32×32×32). Other Work Areas placed inside the scanned region are saved into the NBT too.

BuildMode (new)

For servers it's often important to control which buildings players may place. Three modes:

Set the mode with the BuildMode config option. A set of default buildings (vanilla structures, some modified) is included as presets.

Core Mechanics

Needed Items

While working, a worker tracks every item it needs. Each need is flagged as blocking or non-blocking:

• Blocking (most cases): the worker pauses and goes to fetch the missing item from the nearest Storage Area. If it isn't there, it checks the next storage, and the next — until all reachable storages have been searched.
• Non-blocking (e.g. bone meal): the worker grabs it opportunistically but never stops working for it.

If a blocking item can't be found anywhere, the owner gets a message.

Upkeep & Provisioning

Because workers are Recruits, they share the Recruits upkeep system (food, equipment/tools, payment). Workers integrate this with their storage system:

• A Storage Area can be assigned as a recruit's/worker's upkeep source.
• When upkeep is due, the worker walks the storage and only visits chests that actually contain something relevant — food, the payment currency, equippable gear (weapons/armor/tools), or ammunition for ranged units. Chests with nothing useful are skipped.
• It opens each relevant chest, takes what it needs, and moves on — the same items the Recruits upkeep system normally handles, gathered across multiple chests.

This lets a whole workforce feed and re-equip itself from a central storage instead of from a single container.

Ownership & Faction Access

All Recruits ownership features apply: create/name/edit groups, hand workers to other players, hand Work Areas to other players, and set faction access per Work Area.

Faction Access on Work Areas (new) controls whether faction workers (workers that don't belong to you) and faction players may interact with a given area. With access off, faction players and faction workers cannot use that storage, market, etc.

Morale

As in Recruits, morale matters. It does not slow workers down directly under normal conditions, but:

• Low-morale workers work less efficiently and take longer on tasks.
• Inside claims, low morale can trigger unwanted resignation.
• See Sieges for how morale decides a worker's behaviour under attack.

Keeping workers homed (and paid/fed) keeps morale healthy.

Worker Homes & Sleep

Workers need a home to restore health and morale by sleeping; without one, morale drifts down and efficiency suffers.

A worker home requires, at minimum, a bed and a chest, in an enclosed space (roughly 3×3, walled with a roof and a door). Once valid, a worker can move in. A worker without a home loses morale over time.

Sieges

When a siege starts (or the village bell is rung), workers head to their assigned homes and take cover. They stay until the siege is repelled or the player orders them to follow/wander. If a siege succeeds, Work Areas immediately shift ownership to the claim's new owner.

Worker behaviour under siege is morale-dependent:

• High/normal morale: the worker flees the claim and holds position until the player picks it up — fighting back only if attacked.
• Low morale (< 20): the worker disbands and switches to the claim's faction.

Configuration

Server-side options (names as they appear in the config file):

Compatibility

• Recruits — required. Workers inherit and remain compatible with all Recruits features (groups, ownership, factions, morale, sieges, payment, upkeep).
• Dynamic Trees — optional. When present, Lumberjacks handle dynamic trees (fell, strip, plant) automatically.
• Small Ships — optional. The Storekeeper unloads parked ships at the storage.

FAQ

My worker isn't doing anything. Check that (1) a matching Work Area is placed and within range, (2) the worker has access to it (ownership/faction settings), and (3) there is a Storage Area nearby with the materials it needs.

My worker keeps stopping and walking off. It is probably fetching a Needed Item from storage. If it can't find the item, you'll get an owner message — restock the storage.

Why is my worker slow? Low morale. Give it a home, keep it fed/paid, and morale will recover.

Can workers feed/re-equip themselves? Yes — assign a Storage Area as their upkeep source and they will restock food, tools and payment from the relevant chests.

My Craftsman doesn't craft an order. Open the order list (click the Craftsman). The status shows if ingredients are missing or the stock target is already reached.

How do I unload my donkey/ship automatically? Hire a Storekeeper for the storage and park the vehicle next to it for a few seconds.

Coming Soon

• Smith Update
• Leveling Update

Installation

1. Install Minecraft Forge
2. Install Villager Recruits Mod
3. Drop the mod into your mods/ folder
4. Launch the game and hire your first worker!

Feedback & Issues

Join the community on Discord for support, bug reports, and suggestions.

My Other Mods

Villager Recruits:
Command your own Villager Army into war! Now with Diplomacy and Factions!

Villager Workers:
Hire Villagers and let them work for you!

Small Ships:
Explore the oceans in your own sailable ships!

Siege Weapons:
Prepare for war. Build your siege weapon. Dominate the battlefield!

Hire your villagers. Automate your village. Dominate your economy.