Ive always been invested in doing what i thought was most useful for my village at the time, and as a result i have came up with a 5 question value system to determine how useful what you are making/doing is for your village at the time:
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How long does the Product last: 0 1 2 (0: short 1: medium 2: long) Ex: (0: A gooseberry 1: Steel Tools 2: Clothes)
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How many uses does the product have: (0: one 1: a few 2: many) Ex: (0: clothes 1: backpack 2: Steel Ingots)
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How Important are these uses to the overall village: (0: Optional 1: Preferred 2: Priority) Ex: (0: Floors/Walls 1:New Comen Wells 2: Pies)
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Are there any alternatives that complete the same desired outcome: (0: Many 1: a few 2: none) Ex: (0: Gooseberries 1:Backpacks/Carts 2: Smithing Hammer)
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How much work is required to make the desired product: (0: couple minutes 1: 15 minutes 2: close to a life)
Ex: (0:Baskets 1:New Comen Wares 2: Building/Pathing)
(1-3 Below Average) (4-6 Average) (7-10 Above Average)
(Backpacks 6): This is because the new inventory space allows for carrying food and tools that otherwise would need to be single-handedly picked up off the ground that can now be stored on person, making for a much more efficient worker to help their village.
(Clothes 6): Clothes stack up the same with backpacks, as while they only have one use, and that being to keep the players warm, warmth is a really big mechanic in One Hour One Life as that determines how long it will take before you need another slice of that pie in your backpack. Sure backpacks give extra space but if your having to fill all that space with pies because your butt naked you dont really get much of a ROI for it in the first place.
(Gooseberries 5): While gooseberries do provide a reliable source of food, in later villages they mainly serve as a place holders for other item combinations, i.e pies and sheep fodder making them by their-selves fairly useless. But its the fact of how many uses that the food has that gives it a 5.
(Iron ingots 7.5): Iron is probably one of the most important items in One Hour One Life, any civilization worth their salt will eventually be going through bath tubs of the stuff. It has several uses, and most of its products can last from fairly long to several generations. Theres also the fact that the only way to get it is to go into the badlands, a place filled with loads of animals that would like to call you dinner, making it even more lucrative.
(Long Wooden shafts 8): Fairly easy to make, yet invaluable to any civilization at any level of the tech tree. If you’ve played the game long enough, you can expect any of these within a 5 km radius to either be stolen for use making a tool, fence, clubbing baby seals. Sometimes you might even see people taking ones being used for fires just because all of them got used up. Its basically the letter stock for the entire game, or the wood logs in Minecraft: in that if you wanna get something done, your most likely gonna be using a version of this at one point or another.
Of course depending on what your village needs at the time the values of a object can be worth more or less, so its important to asses what you think your village needs the most THEN compare it this value system with that information. Enjoy!