Lively villagers

Living Villages: Villager Overhaul Proposal Villagers are transactional NPCs. This proposal makes them active world-modifiers tied to their job title. A lumberjack harvests trees and replants them. A lumineer patrols for darkness and places torches. A mason gathers stone and repairs structures. A farmer expands and irrigates fields. Each profession becomes a behavior loop that transforms the village over time. Four baseline upgrades support all villagers: expanded inventory, ability to modify the world(limited by job), chest storage access, and the ability to craft their own workstations from stored materials. The system includes player-defined zones (Forestry, Farming, Protected), resource budgets so villagers can't act infinitely, a blueprint layer where players set directives villagers execute, and a skill progression from Novice to Master. Critically: the entire feature is a world toggle, OFF by default. Existing worlds are never affected without consent. Villages stop being vending machine districts. They become living settlements that grow with or without the player. Full proposal with per-job loops, governance layer, skill tiers, and toggle implementation available on request.