Priority

**Priority** in *Clanfolk* is a game mechanic allowing players to sort the order in which jobs are to be addressed.

## Task Priority

All Items, Objects, Buildings Blueprints, Stockpiles, Jobs, and Animals have a priority level, displayed at the bottom of their info card when selected.

The priority level determines the order in which tasks requiring the same Skill are performed. With strict priorities on, Clanfolk will first look at their own Skill priorities, and **then** at individual tasks' priorities. With strict priorities off (default setting), skill and task priority levels are both considered when deciding what to do next.

* The left and right arrows are for lowering or raising the priority level, respectively.
* The middle button displays the current priority level, and can be clicked to Boost that task. When the boost is active, the priority level is replaced by a red exclamation mark (which is also displayed on top of the item in the main world view).
	+ In some contexts, the boost button is not clickable. See the Types of tasks section below for more details.

### Boost

The Boost is essentially a universal priority override: Clanfolk will ignore all other tasks, regardless of their Skills priority or the boosted item's priority.
Boosted tasks will always be addressed before any other non-boosted task. Clanfolk will address the boosted task that is closest to them first.

* Carefully planned Skill Priorities help reduce the need for the boost function, which is better used sparingly.

## Skills Priority

Skills Priority is the order of Skills, visible in the Skills menu for all Clanfolk or to the right of each Clanfolk's info card when they are selected. With Strict Priorities on, they are always considered before the aforementioned task priorities, except for boosted tasks, which will override everything.

With strict priorities on, Clanfolk will first look at their own Skill priorities, and **then** at individual tasks' priorities. With strict priorities off (default setting), skill and task priority levels are both considered when deciding what to do next.

## Types of tasks

Depending on what type of game entity it is applied to, priority may have different meanings.

* **Items** priority determines the hauling priority. Haulers will haul the highest priority items first. The boost button is unclickable if the item is already in its highest priority storage.
* **Storage Objects** and Stockpiles priority determines which storage will items be hauled to first. When two storage objects or stockpiles have different priorities, Clanfolk will haul items from the lower priority storage, to the highest - however, this is considered a "low priority hauling task", and it will only be done after regular hauling. Storage objects and Stockpiles cannot be boosted.
* **Crafting Stations** priority determines which will be used first by crafters, tailors, farmers, hunters, or cooks, depending on the crafting station.
* **Building Blueprints** priority determines the order in which they will be built. Since Roofs require support, even higher priority roof blueprints won't be built until other roofs or walls can support them.
* **Animals** priority determines the order in which they will be sheared or milked by farmers. Being a Farming Skill related task, this priority is shared with other farming tasks, such as threshing hay, planting crops, etc. Animals cannot be boosted.
* **Jobs** priority determines which will be done first by Clanfolk with the relevant Skill.

## Strict Priorities

By default, strict priorities are off for everyone. This means Clanfolk will consider both their skill priorities **and** each task priority before deciding what to do next. In some cases, that means they may not always choose their highest priority skill for their next task, if a task from another skill has been set to a very high priority.

Turning strict priorities on effectively lowers task priorities impact on Clanfolks' decision making. Clanfolk will pick the highest priority task within their higher priority skill, regardless of other skills' tasks' priority levels. This is easier to understand and control, but is best used with a lower count of tasks, and specialized Clanfolk.

Strict priorities can be turned on for each Clanfolk individually, at the bottom of their info card, or via the Skills menu.

### Example case

Angus has Farming at the top of his skill priorities, and Mining second. So Farming is more important than Mining for Angus.
There is a "Mine Mountains" task with a priority set to 7, and a "Tilled Soil" task with a priority set to 5 (no other tasks or Clanfolk on the map, for this example).

* With strict priorities ON, Angus will choose the Tilled Soil task, because his Farming skill is higher than his Mining skill, in his own skill priorities. He doesn't consider the Mine Mountains task priority.
* With strict priorities OFF, Angus will choose the Mine Mountains task, because that task's higher priority (7 against 5) has overridden Angus' skill priorities and made the Mining task more important to him than the Farming task.
* With strict priorities OFF again, if lowering the Mine Mountains task to 6, Angus will choose the Tilled Soil task. This is because the Mine Mountains task priority (6), although still higher than the Tilled Soil task (5), is not high enough to override Angus' skill priorities.