What causes RTS workers going idle when a resource node depletes?

Worker AI holds a hard reference to one node and has no fallback behavior when that node is destroyed, so the gather loop ends and the worker idles.

How do I catch this when it only happens for some players?

Capture it automatically from the player's device with the full stack trace, the device and OS, the build, and a breadcrumb trail of what they did. That turns a vague complaint into a specific, reproducible issue you can fix without owning the hardware it happens on.

How to Fix RTS Workers Going Idle When a Resource Node Depletes

Quick answer: On node depletion, fire an event that triggers each assigned worker to find and path to the nearest equivalent resource node automatically.

Nothing wastes economy like a dozen workers standing on an empty mineral patch. Workers should re-task themselves to the next node when one runs dry. Here is how to keep them gathering.

How to fix it

1. Detect depletion

When a node's remaining amount hits zero, raise a NodeDepleted event and destroy or disable it. Workers subscribed to that node react instead of looping on a dead reference.

2. Find the nearest equivalent node

On depletion, each worker queries for the closest node of the same resource type within range and assigns it. Prefer nodes near the same drop-off point to keep travel short.

3. Fall back to idle-near-base

If no node exists, send the worker back to the drop-off and mark it idle so the player can spot unemployed workers via an idle-worker indicator.

Catching the ones you can't reproduce

The hardest version of this to fix is the one you can't reproduce — it only happens on a player's hardware, OS, driver, or save state, under conditions that simply aren't present on your machine. A report that says “it crashed” or “it froze” gives you nothing to act on, so the bug survives release after release while quietly costing you players.

Automatic error capture closes that gap. Each failure arrives with its full stack trace, the device and OS, the build number, and a breadcrumb trail of what the player did right before it broke, so even a failure you have never seen becomes a specific, reproducible issue. Fold identical failures into one signature ranked by how many players each hits, and your worklist sorts itself worst-first instead of arriving as a stream of vague complaints.

This is where a tool like Bugnet earns its place. Its SDK captures every Unity error automatically with the full stack trace plus device, OS, memory, build, and game-state context, folds duplicates into one grouped issue with an occurrence count, and ties each to the build it first appeared on — so you fix the problem that hurts the most players first and confirm it is gone when its signature disappears from the next release.

Ship the fix, watch the signature disappear from the next build. That's how you know it's really gone.