Turning into a plant is excellent camouflage provided:
- You see the enemy before they see you, so you can do it unseen; or
- The enemy is as stupid as they frequently are in computer games and decide that since they can no longer see you it was nothing and the new plant replacing you probably has been there all along; and
- The enemy isn't likely to set fire to the landscape any second because another target has presented itself (Untrustedlife above); and
- You don't turn into something the enemy (or local wildlife!) is interested in eating or make fire wood out of (unlikely wildlife would do this, though); and
- You don't transform in the path of the main enemy force and get trampled; and
- You can transform back; and
- You can control when to transform back so you don't do it when the scout that you saw has been replaced by the main army (point copied from elsewhere); and
- You can see/sense the surroundings so your controlled turning back doesn't land you in the middle of the enemy column anyway; and
- You have the sense to use this spell only when it is a better option than to run away, attack, or hide conventionally to sneak away (this condition is sometimes met by players, but considerably harder for an AI to meet, and thus really is the main point); and
...
@therahedwig: I agree work material availability is a basic condition, but since repeats are going to be included in the first round I think the question is relevant.
I interpret "conditional workorders" as things like "produce plant socks when stocks are below 20", or even better "produce plant socks when stocks of masterworks [plant socks optional criterion] are below 20", and "shift usage of pig tails from thread to booze when the stocks of [pig tail | plant | any] masterworks socks are above 20", and certainly something I'd definitely want: "shear shearable creature when available; spin hair when available; milk milkable animal when available; make cheese when stocks of same kind cheese is lower than milk".