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[amul]

I see a lot of people making comments that imply a basic misconception around how manual priority works.

Manual priority mode does not supersede the basic task priorities. It modifies them. With Manual Priorities unchecked, every colonist prioritizes tasks on the left over ones on the right. With the option checked, you create tiers of priority, with each priority tier respecting that basic left-to-right hierarchy.

Example:
Lorenzo is my researcher/cook/warden. By the normal mode, he will almost never research (since researching is to the right of everything, even hauling and cleaning). It's early game, so I need everybody to be willing to do everything, but I'd still like him to start researching more often. I set his priorities to:

Firefighting 3 Doctoring 4 Warden 3 Cooking 3 Hunting 4
Constructing 4 Repairing 4 Growing 4 Mining 4 Plant Cutting 3
Crafting 4 Art 4 Hauling 4 Cleaning 4 Researching 3


Lorenzo's task priorities are now, in order:
(tier 3) Firefighting, Warden, Cooking, Plant Cutting, Researching
(tier 4) Doctoring, Hunting, Constructing, Repairing, Growing, Mining, Crafting, Art, Hauling, Cleaning

Lorenzo will now research whenever there are no fires, prisoner responsibilities, there are enough meals to satisfy my bills, and no trees to cut. He will occasionally engage in lesser tasks, but only rarely. In particular, he will almost never choose to do medical tasks but I can still assign him to do them if my primary doctor gets hurt, so I can manually select him to heal my doctor.

Note that Lorenzo's task selection is independent of the other colonists' choices. Also note that nothing needs to be selected as Tier 1 or Tier 2 in order for this system to work this way.

More complex example:

Firefighting 1 Doctoring 4 Warden 3 Cooking 2 Hunting 1
Constructing 4 Repairing 4 Growing 4 Mining 4 Plant Cutting 3
Crafting 4 Art 3 Hauling 2 Cleaning 1 Researching 2

In order from most likely to least likely, Lorenzo's task priorities are now:
(tier 1) Firefighting, Hunting, Cleaning, (tier 2) Cooking, Hauling, Researching, (tier 3) Warden, Plant Cutting, Art, (tier 4) Doctoring, Constructing, Repairing, Growing, Mining, Crafting


Understanding the nuances of the manual priority system really helps alleviate my micromanagement needs, while still allowing me a great deal of flexibility when I want to direct-assign tasks. I see a lot of Let's Play videos where players are constantly returning to the Work tab during emergency situations. If you set colonists to do every task they can at tier 4 while organizing their workload based on skillset and colony needs at the higher tiers, you will pretty much only need to return to the Work tab when you acquire new colonists.

I hope this helps your gameplay, and if I've misunderstood the system, please let me know.

[virgin_lance]

that's very helpful. Thanks!

[Tasty]

Thank you! You posted some very helpful information. I've always wondered what other factors come into play when you have multiple tasks on the same tier. I was confused as to why my researcher would haul/clean before researching.

[milon]

That's a good point about using tier 4 for anything/everything they're capable of to allow manual assignment.  I wouldn't have thought of that myself.  I'm going to start using that right away. 

[Element4ry]

I usually use manual priorities to set up tasks when they need to be done. So to speak - always. Firefighting, Doctoring and Patient are always forst priority. Then mining, growing, cooking or constructing (repairing is always 1 for everyone) are always 2. Hauling is set as high as it can be, depends on other skills I need. I tend to use high cleaning, researching and hunting when I can afford any spare colonist to do it. For crafting, art or plant cutting I usually use colonists which I recruit - ofcourse if they are lame with anything else. Otherwise I reconsidering everything.

[amul]

Yeah, it's exactly that kind of micromanagement that I try to avoid, @element4ry, but if that's what you enjoy, go for it!

[Element4ry]

I actually don't micromanage it that much - I do changes to priorities two or three times within ingame year. Switching from growing and stockpiling food in the warm seasons to crafting and constructing new stuff in the winter, while I'm using stockpiled supplies. I'm usually playing in cold tundra biome, this way of managing works pretty efficient for me there

[Kinakin]

Helpfull post. Thumbs up from me. Could maybe use some good formatting to make it easier to read tough.

One last thing.
I was looking around the game files some time back and i do belive certain items have a desirability rating on them. Thats why pawns prefer far away survival meals over closer plain meals. Might the same be true for certain items when it comes to hauling and/or jobs?

[amul]

Probably. Unlike most of the players I see on Let's Play, I don't personally mass-assign jobs, so the only things in my queue are the things I want done next. And I've given up trying to control the survival meals. I unforbid them right after breakfast and manually assign people to pick them up. It's pretty micromanagement-ish but I just don't see a way around it.