That’s the gist yeah… like, I could create a directive that there needs to be a mine near some resource, and people would naturally go make the mine, but then make some houses, shops, roads, schools, etc. and eventually the mine becomes a village.
Or, I could assign specific people to do nothing buy build a mine, others to build houses, roads and so on. That would allow the projects to build faster and exactly how I want, but they would exclusively do the task assigned until they starve/revolt/etc. unless I pay flawless attention to assignments and re-assign workers to new tasks or put them on leave to take care of themselves.
Maybe have a research/policy tree that allows me to unlock things like work shifts, weekends/time off, resource allocation, markets, etc. all with their own benefits and ramifications.
that’d be fun, but I think people would catch on pretty quick unless there were some bottleneck events that can be achieved that way if things are well-planned, but would be “easier” done by going authoritarian… but that approach could have consequences further down the line. Just enough to keep that temptation going
i.e.: Town B needs resources from Town A, but they’re a long distance apart and nobody is building roads. You could plan a road and hope people build it in time, or you can force people to build it, at the risk of injury/death, which also increases anti-government sentiments. However, not building the road causes Town B to go into famine, but that could have been avoided if you placed the towns a little closer together or something