Job center and specialists
The job center is a cooperative building where you hire seasonal specialists to repair fields damaged by hedgerow plants. Each specialist can boost the yield of one specific resource and at the same time cut the time penalty on the matching field type - waterlogged, rocky or dry. Hired specialists only work on one job at a time, have a limited number of jobs per season and leave the farm once the season ends.
The job center pays off mainly for active cooperatives that have plenty of fields hit by hedgerows and keep handing their specialists work - otherwise you pay for a whole season and the specialist only uses a fraction of his potential. The quality of the specialists on offer grows with the building's level, so it's worth investing in it together with the whole cooperative.
The job center stands in the cooperative village
You'll find the job center right in the cooperative village, so you need two things to use it - membership in a cooperative and the building already standing. If your cooperative doesn't have a job center yet, the game tells you straight away and hiring only opens up once it's built. Without being in a cooperative that owns the center, you can't get to the specialists at all.
The building goes all the way up to level eleven and the higher its level, the better the specialists it offers. Getting the center to the top level isn't a matter of a few days - the last construction step takes two weeks and on top of that it requires your farm to reach a high level.
| Location | Cooperative village |
| Plot size | 13×9 tiles |
| Maximum building level | 11 |
| Build time to the top level | 15 days |
| Farm level required for the final upgrade | 284 |
Three kinds of specialists each repair a different type of damaged field
According to the game's own help, specialists repair fields ruined by hedgerow plants and at the same time raise the yield of the resource that belongs to that damage. In practice there are three separate specializations, each for a different type of ruined field.
- Dewatering technician (the specialist for waterlogged fields) raises the clay yield and lowers the time penalty on waterlogged fields.
- Boulder excavator (the specialist for rocky fields) raises the boulder yield and lowers the time penalty on rocky fields.
- Sand carrier (the specialist for dry fields) raises the white sand yield and lowers the time penalty on dry fields.
Each specialist can only help with his own type of damage, so if your farm has trouble with waterlogged fields, neither the rocky nor the dry specialist will be any use. It pays to hire according to the type of affected fields you actually have, not according to whatever happens to be cheapest in the offer.
Hiring happens in the job center's recruitment department
The recruitment department is split into three tabs - specialists for waterlogged, rocky and dry fields. For each specialist you can see his level, how many jobs he can get through in a season, how long one job takes him and how much extra resource it brings in.
Specialists also wear badges that hint at what they're good at - a badge for handling jobs quickly, a badge for a high number of jobs per season, a badge for an above-average resource yield, or a badge that makes the specialist improve faster between seasons. The price per season is paid either in dollars, village dollars or gold, depending on the particular specialist.
From one specialization you can hire a maximum of three specialists at a time - once you've filled those slots, the hire button locks.
A specialist works on one job and finishes when the season ends
A hired specialist can only work on one job at a time - if you give him another task while he's still finishing the previous one, the game marks him as busy. How many jobs he's already completed this season is shown in the personnel department of the management window, which is also where you can dismiss him.
Specialists are seasonal - the hire only covers that one season and once it's over they automatically leave the farm. How much they get done depends on their attributes and on how often you hand them jobs, because an idle specialist won't make work for himself.
