Strategy for the random Red Container tasks
basically this reward is a way to motivate you to task all craft earning characters all the time (and it encourages you to play the game super frequently and on a super strict timer)
if you don't want to think as hard about it try it this way (lesser rewards, less planning)
keep all characters earning crafting materials (according to whatever schedule fits your life, I prioritize the 3 and 6 hour dna tasks)
watch the timer and see when it next completes
try your best to reenter when the timer next completes (ie don't say well everyone will be done in 4 hours if the red box timer is done at 3 hours 55 minutes reenter at like 3 hours 55 minutes) (there is always some natural spread in the timers due to the annoying task closing glitch, I haven't found a need to assign in any particular order or wait between characters, I do sometimes have to decide which task to put people on, some characters wander before they enter)
when you click completed on the red box timer wait until the next one appears (the craft materials need to be autocollected)
if you are lucky, the next red box timer will be a task that has a short length left
(ie someone's already been on that job for a couple of hours)
sometimes, the red box timer will say 2 hours 5 minutes until job complete
in that situation, I would think about waiting to assign the 2 hour jobs until the red box timer was under 2 hours (but that's only if you know you can return at the two hour mark exactly) I don't wait on the 1 hour tasks as I like all tasks to be done at the same point in each hour (currently I'm at 20 -25 minutes past the hour)
you can ensure that someone is always on the job by assigning a variety of tasks
but you don't have to think that hard some people only have one task (I choose DNA over corn, I'm sort of neutral over fertilizer and corn as I have a lot of kids that can only do corn jobs)
(even though the glutton 16 hour task has very few people who can do it, I basically don't run that task since characters have gained DNA jobs (it slows the red box down some)
if you don't want to think as hard about it try it this way (lesser rewards, less planning)
keep all characters earning crafting materials (according to whatever schedule fits your life, I prioritize the 3 and 6 hour dna tasks)
watch the timer and see when it next completes
try your best to reenter when the timer next completes (ie don't say well everyone will be done in 4 hours if the red box timer is done at 3 hours 55 minutes reenter at like 3 hours 55 minutes) (there is always some natural spread in the timers due to the annoying task closing glitch, I haven't found a need to assign in any particular order or wait between characters, I do sometimes have to decide which task to put people on, some characters wander before they enter)
when you click completed on the red box timer wait until the next one appears (the craft materials need to be autocollected)
if you are lucky, the next red box timer will be a task that has a short length left
(ie someone's already been on that job for a couple of hours)
sometimes, the red box timer will say 2 hours 5 minutes until job complete
in that situation, I would think about waiting to assign the 2 hour jobs until the red box timer was under 2 hours (but that's only if you know you can return at the two hour mark exactly) I don't wait on the 1 hour tasks as I like all tasks to be done at the same point in each hour (currently I'm at 20 -25 minutes past the hour)
you can ensure that someone is always on the job by assigning a variety of tasks
but you don't have to think that hard some people only have one task (I choose DNA over corn, I'm sort of neutral over fertilizer and corn as I have a lot of kids that can only do corn jobs)
(even though the glutton 16 hour task has very few people who can do it, I basically don't run that task since characters have gained DNA jobs (it slows the red box down some)
