- Give the option to pay NPCs to automate like 30% of the process at a high price and slow rate. Maybe these NPCs can be subject to RNG like pirate attacks so there's no guarantee that their progress will be consistent.
I like this one, with the caveat that construction material doesn't magically appear with the NPC. You have to tell them where to pick it up so if the source gets raided by FCs before your NPC gets there....