Alpha 7

Fixed NPC pathing #7
Fixed Swimming #6
Fixed base skin texture #12

Alpha 6

To make an NPC into a Hauler you now need to put a Writable Book in their hand.

Improved Base and Hauler UI:
When a Writable Book is in the NPCs hand, a new menu will appear to the right of the NPCs inventory. This new menu is a list of all the blocks the Hauler will interact with, along with some toggles to tell the NPC how to interact with that block; to insert or extract and the side to interact with. To the left on the Insert toggle is a blank button that acts as a fake inventory slot. This fake slot is used as the new item filter. When the slot is empty, that interaction is unfiltered and they will interact with all items in the container and their inventory, while clicking the slot with an item will set the filter to that item only.
Clicking the + button to the left of the new window will add a new field to the list, and clicking the x on that filed will remove it.
Some compatibility will be added later so Item Filter items, like those used in the Create mod, can be used for better defined container interactions.

NPCs can now be converted to solders by placing a Sword, Axe, or Bow in their main hand. Crossbows are not supported atm due to some potential limitations that I didn't have time to work on. Bows don't need arrows but I'm thinking about changing this later, if only to allow for potion arrows.
Solder NPCs are currently set to follow the player when they're not killing something, but I'm wanting to add toggles/settings to the base NPCs where the old hauling inputs were.

I have confirmed that Armourer's Workshop items don't render their custom skins when worn/held by the NPCs. I'll work on fixing this later, but that's more of a stretch goal.

On the other hand; all interactions, with the exception of the Item Filter, that I have tested with the Create mod have all worked without needing any special care.

While this mod is still in Alpha, it should be mostly playable in survival as it stands. Just keep in mind that any major changes I make to the NPCs will cause them to despawn when you update the mod.

Backup your saves before using this mod, not only because you may loose the resources need to craft the NPCs, along with all items in their inventories, but there may be unforeseen issues that could corrupt your worlds. You have been warned.

Alpha 5

Changed the mod name to HelpfulNPCs

Alpha 4

Added Worker Contract item that acts as a spawn egg. Later it will have more features
Added recipe for Worker Contract (1 Paper + 1 Gold Ingot)
Added background to Worker UI
Workers now drop inventory on death

Alpha 3

NPCs are not craftable ATM.
You can get NPCs with /summon simpleworkers:worker

This release isn't intended to be used in an actual playthrough, please backup your saves.