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Dwarf Fortress => DF Suggestions => Topic started by: Timst on August 30, 2009, 08:43:09 am

Title: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Timst on August 30, 2009, 08:43:09 am

I'd like to launch this thread to discuss about "small" suggestions, that is suggestions that meet most of these criteria :

- Relatively quick and easy to implement for Toady.
- Doesn't affect the gameplay too much.
- Isn't really needed, but will be fun / nice to have.

So no multi-tiles creatures, railroad, magic or boats discussion here, just things that (you think) could be implemented in a couple of hours by editing a few source files.

Here's the already suggested ideas :

Spoiler: Interface (click to show/hide)

- Assigning nicknames to the tame animals.
Category : Interface

Could be nice to differentiate breeding animals from zoo / guard animals, or other uses. Also, while we're at it, renaming wild animals or enemies, to remember which of the 25 cougars could be a threat to one of your facilities.
By Timst


- Separate "Coke / Charcoal" and "Bars" in the Stock screen.
Category : Interface

It would be nice to readily see how much fuel you have left, and after all, crowns, amulets etc. are all separated in the stock screen (they could be in a single "crafts" category). While we're at it, maybe separate economic and regular stone ?
By Timst


- Get rid of the {V}isualizer option.
Category : Interface

Seriously, this thing is useless, and it's just annoying when you want to look at a dwarf and launch the visualizer instead because your caps locks were on.
By Timst


- Separate unit list for friendlies, enemies, and deadies.
Category : Interface

As it says.
By Bricks


- Init options (or a new init file) to change the color of announcements.
Category : Interface

Could be useful to distinguish slaughters from accidental / warfare deaths, or make the "[building] toppled by invader" appear in another color than red.
By Timst


- Show gender of cage animals.
Category : Interface

Right now, it's a game of russian roulette.
By Warlord255


- Autopauses when trading.
Category : Interface

- Autopause when the last good designated for hauling to the TD has been hauled.
- Autopause when the broker finally arrives at the depot.
- Autopause just before the caravan leaves.
By Silverionmox

- Consistency in the display of metals.
Category : Graphics

Currently most ores are represented by british pounds.  Some, including native aluminum and magnetite are not.  This is potentially confusing for new players. 

My suggestion is to ither use the british pound for all metals or if the color space is inadequate designate an additional charachter for ore bearing rock and use one or the other for all ore bearing rock.  I think the Franc, Dollar are unused at this time as is a Pt ligature grouped with the currency symbols that I think may be the Peseta.  Any of these would be a logical extension of the current use of the pound for most metals.
By Atarlost

- Easily identifiable Dwarven happiness meter.
Category : Interface

Perhaps just a dwarf face next to their name, when view with 'v' or 'u' that's color coded. Green is happy, red is angry..
By cyclotis04

Spoiler: Jobs (click to show/hide)

- The ability to make metal mechanisms.
Category : Mechanics

Seriously this complete reliance on bauxite for magma related mechanics is very annoying.
By Kietharr


- Some sort of rudimentary blasting cap
Category : Mining

Or something else so I can remove the tile leading to the magma pipe safely, it's very annoying to lose a miner every other time you tap a pipe.
By Kietharr


- The ability to set some animal types to auto slaughter
Category : Food processing

So butchers go after them the minute they enter the map (ie kittens).
By Kietharr


- The ability to 'preserve' certain animals
Category : Hunting

So your hunters will not target them (which can also result in preserving your hunters if you have giant eagles or GCS).
By Kietharr

-  Dwarves doing something meaningful on break
Category : On break

Rather than just stand around, such as wash off all that blood and vomit and mud they acquire.
By Neek

-  Being able to made bed out of different material
Category : Materials

Bed are currently made of wood only. It would be nice if we could make bed out of stone or metal.
By Evil One

Spoiler: Nobles (click to show/hide)

- Maybe the lesser (= not noble) dwarves could issue demands also ?
Category : Demands/Mandates

They won't be too much pissed off if you didn't accept, but it will be a good way to reward dwarves when they did something good.
By Timst


- Less impossible mandates
Category : Demands/Mandates

It's absolutely ridiculous for someone to demand wolf bone items on a map that never even had wolves in the first place, there's no way to complete it so in the end it results as "random event decides to kill one random dwarf, is this awesome (Y/N)?"
By Kietharr

- Capping job management queues for greater than 30
Category : Manager

At least on certain types and generating a notice that it has been reduced to its cap if you ask for more.
By Neek

Spoiler: Water, magma, fire etc. (click to show/hide)

- Manual ignition of lignite bins
Category : Fire

Maybe with a lever ?
By Kietharr and Servu

Spoiler: Designations/Zones (click to show/hide)

- "Stockpile now !" designation
Category : Designations

Like the "melt" or "forbid" ones. When something is designated to be stockpiled immediately, it will be prioritized over other items. For instance, I want this stack of bolts to be immediately brought to the guard tower, but I know my item haulers will rather go pick up the lone sock at the other end on the map. If I designate the stack as "Stockpile now", the next time a dwarf will search for a hauling job, he will stockpile it instead of any other non-prioritized item.
By Timst

Spoiler: AI (click to show/hide)

- NPCs who are non-hostile should treat roads as having a high traffic designation
Category : Pathfinding
http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=35160.0

Basically, wagons, migrants, and traders would be more prone to pathing to a road and following it to your fort.

This:
-Helps give roads more of a purpose
-Means you don't have to build guideposts to keep things  on the roads
-Helps you plan your defence
-Makes the AI look like it has a bit of a brain
By ShadeJS

Spoiler: Stockpiles/Hauling (click to show/hide)

- "Expand Stockpile" option.
Category : Stockpiles

When painted over an area containing free ground and one (only one) stockpile, the painted area is added as a part of the stockpile. Good for oddly-shaped stockpiles and unexpected boons.
By Warlord255


- Permissions list for a stockpile.
Category : Stockpiles

Allows you to block persons from taking items or depositing them.
By Warlord255

Spoiler: Other Features (click to show/hide)

- Dwarves in moods use the most valuable materials, rather then the closest materials.
Category : Moods

If my weaponsmith is making the battleaxe /of his life/, I don't want him using bronze because it happens to be lying beside him when adamantine wafers are 16 blocks away.
By LastOfTheLight


- Easy way to open cage containing untamed animals / ennemies.
Category : Cages

I.E, without having to build a lever and link it to the cage.
By Silverionmox


- Trap doors.
Category : Traps

A false floor that when a creature steps on it, it gives and they fall down into the pit below (so it'd require an open space to designate).
By Neek

- Personal social history.
Category : Relationships

When were friends and grudges made? What parties did they attend? When was Urist married? When was Urist Jr. born? Etc.
By Neek

 
Do you have any simple, quick idea to make the game more enjoyable ?

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Bricks on August 30, 2009, 09:18:38 am

Separate unit list for friendlies, enemies, and deadies.

Not sure if your idea is already planned?  Ctrl-F here. (http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/dev_single.html)

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Vester on August 30, 2009, 09:30:18 am

Quote from: Bricks on August 30, 2009, 09:18:38 am

Separate unit list for friendlies, enemies, and deadies.

Not sure if your idea is already planned?  Ctrl-F here. (http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/dev_single.html)

Seconded. That would be nifty.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Kietharr on August 30, 2009, 11:26:04 am

The ability to make metal mechanisms, seriously this complete reliance on bauxite for magma related mechanics is very annoying.

Some sort of rudimentary blasting cap or something so I can remove the tile leading to the magma pipe safely, it's very annoying to lose a miner every other time you tap a pipe.

Less impossible demands, it's absolutely ridiculous for someone to demand wolf bone items on a map that never even had wolves in the first place, there's no way to complete it so in the end it results as 'random event decides to kill one random dwarf, is this awesome (Y/N)?'

The ability to set some animal types to auto slaughter (so butchers go after them the minute they enter the map) (ie kittens)

The ability to 'preserve' certain animals, so your hunters will not target them (which can also result in preserving your hunters if you have giant eagles or GCS)

More ways to create fire other than magma, dragons, and magma pipe related creatures (i want to manually ignite lignite bins)

Give skeletal giant eagles dwarf seeking missiles that can dig.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Grek on August 30, 2009, 10:31:51 pm

Also seconding the ignite designation.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Servu on August 31, 2009, 09:30:43 am

Quote from: Grek on August 30, 2009, 10:31:51 pm

Also seconding the ignite designation.

Me too. Would be swell if you could attach a lever to do this.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: LordDemon on August 31, 2009, 09:39:38 am

Quote from: Servu on August 31, 2009, 09:30:43 am

Quote from: Grek on August 30, 2009, 10:31:51 pm

Also seconding the ignite designation.

Me too. Would be swell if you could attach a lever to do this.

Maybe when alchemy is implemented, this will come feasible.
At least I hope so. I would love to have a last ditch defense mechanism, that sets the grass on fire, and burns everyone not safely underground.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: ShadeJS on August 31, 2009, 10:28:21 am

Here's mine: NPCs who are non-hostile should treat roads as having a high traffic designation. Basically, waggons, migrants, and traders would be more prone to pathing to a road and following it to your fort.

This:
-Helps give roads more of a purpose
-Means you don't have to build guideposts to keep things  on the roads
-Helps you plan your defence
-Makes the AI look like it has a bit of a brain

http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=35160.0;topicseen

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: lastofthelight on August 31, 2009, 12:13:55 pm

For dwarves in artifact moods to use the most valuable materials, rather then the closest materials. If my weaponsmith is making the battleaxe /of his life/, I don't want him using bronze because it happens to be lying beside him when adamantine wafers are 16 blocks away.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Timst on August 31, 2009, 12:56:50 pm

I edited the OP to make a summary of the suggestions. Continue on :p !

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Silverionmox on August 31, 2009, 01:02:03 pm

Quote from: lastofthelight on August 31, 2009, 12:13:55 pm

For dwarves in artifact moods to use the most valuable materials, rather then the closest materials. If my weaponsmith is making the battleaxe /of his life/, I don't want him using bronze because it happens to be lying beside him when adamantine wafers are 16 blocks away.

Well, for weapons and armour the most effective material. And there should be a little randomization within the top three materials, to allow some variation, instead of ending up with platinum artifact after platinum artifact.

As small suggestion: open cages without building them and hooking up a lever first. Sometimes, it's just a tame raccoon and not an elephant.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Timst on August 31, 2009, 03:51:09 pm

Bad example, since tame animal can be easily caged or uncaged. But I get your point, and I add it to the OP.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Warlord255 on August 31, 2009, 04:45:50 pm

I don't agree at all on the artifact thing. That said, it'd be nice if they tried not to grab multiples of the same item within an item type (i.e. granite with spikes of granite).

My suggestions:

-"Expand Stockpile" option. When painted over an area containing free ground and one (only one) stockpile, the painted area is added as a part of the stockpile. Good for oddly-shaped stockpiles and unexpected boons.

-A permissions list for a stockpile; allows you to block persons from taking items or depositing them.

-A "Sort Stockpile" command to rearrange items and place like items together. Especially helpful for sorting varieties of stone or wood.

-The ability to cover bodies with a cloth to reduce negative thoughts from death and/or decay.

-The ability to make cloth bedsheets and install them on beds to increase their comfort quality by a margin.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Timst on August 31, 2009, 04:59:48 pm

Quote

-The ability to cover bodies with a cloth to reduce negative thoughts from death and/or decay.

-The ability to make cloth bedsheets and install them on beds to increase their comfort quality by a margin.

Remember that this thread is aimed toward really simple suggestions that will likely not include a lot of code writing from Toady. Smaller than a Bloat, and more the size of a Req, if smaller.

Your bedsheets idea for instance, require the making of a new item, which raise the questions : "Made from what ? where ? which price ? what does the quality level do ?". Then these bedsheets must be installed on a bed, and again it's "how ? by designating ? by a new order in the bed menu ? in the clothier workshop menu ? by who ?", and there's the whole "confort quality" thing, which can be either raising the bed's quality, or adding a new thought related to bedsheets, and etc.

Programming is counter-intuitive. Great things can be achieved with some lines of code, whereas smaller add can be a headache to program. Try to think about it before suggesting something that, at first, doesn't seems complicated.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: neek on September 01, 2009, 02:05:39 am

Blasting caps need work; I can't imagine the power of an item that causes a fire made easily. We just want to blow up all tiles around it. But not a fuck the world device--you need magma and Fun for that.

- Dwarves do something more meaningful on break than just stand around, such as wash off all that blood and vomit and mud they acquire.

- Different trap types, such as an actual trap door that acts like a lever, opens up; requires a building material and a mechanism.

- Party interaction toggle; can find out the reason for organizing a party and what is being done. Can also be applied to meetings. While it's sometimes obvious, it might be fun to see what they're going on about. (You know, to find out how they got to the topic of naming all the caveswallowmen).

- Capping job management queues for greater than 30 on certain types and generating a notice that it has been reduced to its cap if you ask for more.

- Display cases. Sort of a storage device for a prized item that can set up and assigned a specific item from the fortress. Can be made out of any existing material, built as a Container, but can be assigned an item once built. Possibilities can be raised to creating a new room: Museum. Might seem a little too much.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Timst on September 01, 2009, 03:03:51 am

Quote from: neek on September 01, 2009, 02:05:39 am

- Different trap types, such as an actual trap door that acts like a lever, opens up; requires a building material and a mechanism.

Hm, I don't get it. You mean a door that act like a lever (on/off) when someone use it ? If that's what you meant, pressure plates already do that, sort of.

Quote from: neek on September 01, 2009, 02:05:39 am

- Party interaction toggle; can find out the reason for organizing a party and what is being done. Can also be applied to meetings. While it's sometimes obvious, it might be fun to see what they're going on about. (You know, to find out how they got to the topic of naming all the caveswallowmen).

Here's (http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=39236) a topic about parties and celebrations. And IIRC, Toady stated he would allow us to see what's going on during meetings and perhaps parties

Quote from: neek on September 01, 2009, 02:05:39 am

- Display cases. Sort of a storage device for a prized item that can set up and assigned a specific item from the fortress. Can be made out of any existing material, built as a Container, but can be assigned an item once built. Possibilities can be raised to creating a new room: Museum. Might seem a little too much.

Neat idea, but I don't know tough. There's no such thing in the game that a building which value raise up depending on what item is inside, but on the other hand it could be built like a multi-item building (wells, screw pumps etc.) : you will need an empty case (made at the carpenter / mason / smith shops) and a precious craft / weapon / you name it to put into. Then you could designate a room from it the way you do it already. Seems relatively simple, but I don't know about the specifics.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Silverionmox on September 01, 2009, 05:40:29 am

Quote from: Timst on August 31, 2009, 03:51:09 pm

Bad example, since tame animal can be easily caged or uncaged. But I get your point, and I add it to the OP.

You can cage the animal (if you can find it in the relevant screen), but you can't open a particular cage - not without building it, building a lever, connecting them, giving the pull order. Sometimes you just want to let the vermin out of a cage to empty a couple cages for use in traps.

Besides that, an auto-cage order for newly acquired non-pet tame animals.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Timst on September 01, 2009, 06:45:54 am

Ah yes, the vermin can't be evacuated from the cage. But if you got, say, a horse in a (built) cage, you can simply use the cage menu to release it. Soon a dwarf will come, release the horse and a few time after the horse will eventually leave to wander in the fortress.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Silverionmox on September 01, 2009, 07:55:10 am

Quote from: Timst on September 01, 2009, 06:45:54 am

Ah yes, the vermin can't be evacuated from the cage. But if you got, say, a horse in a (built) cage, you can simply use the cage menu to release it. Soon a dwarf will come, release the horse and a few time after the horse will eventually leave to wander in the fortress.

I don't always want to build the cage.. just free it up. It should be possible to make that same menu accessible, even when the cage isn't built.

A few other ones:
- Autopause when the last good designated for hauling to the TD has been hauled.
- Autopause when the broker finally arrives at the depot.
- A ball and chain to force the broker to stay in the Trade Depot until the caravan leaves.
- Autopause just before the caravan leaves.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Threlicus on September 01, 2009, 08:21:13 am

Have levers display what they are connected to somewhere.

Allow levers to be connected 'backwards', so that one lever pull can open one door/floodgate and close another.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: neek on September 01, 2009, 10:02:55 am

Quote from: Timst on September 01, 2009, 03:03:51 am

Quote from: neek on September 01, 2009, 02:05:39 am

- Different trap types, such as an actual trap door that acts like a lever, opens up; requires a building material and a mechanism.

Hm, I don't get it. You mean a door that act like a lever (on/off) when someone use it ? If that's what you meant, pressure plates already do that, sort of.

Sorry, what I was thinking of was a false floor that when a creature steps on it, it gives and they fall down into the pit below (so it'd require an open space to designate): This is what is commonly known as a "trap door."

[edit]copypasta fail.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Kietharr on September 01, 2009, 12:51:50 pm

Oh, another idea: Dowsing devices. Finding underground magma and water is such a crapshoot without reveal.exe and I hate cheating just so I don't end up making my primary fort on the opposite side of the map from my magma and water.

Some sort of device that can be given to miners that will give notification if nonrevealed magma/water/chasms are or may be nearby or on the same level would be peachy. Also, for added fun make HFS interfere with the readings so you dig into the pit while looking for magma.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Granite26 on September 01, 2009, 12:53:38 pm

Quote from: Kietharr on September 01, 2009, 12:51:50 pm

Oh, another idea: Dowsing devices. Finding underground magma and water is such a crapshoot without reveal.exe and I hate cheating just so I don't end up making my primary fort on the opposite side of the map from my magma and water.

Some sort of device that can be given to miners that will give notification if nonrevealed magma/water/chasms are or may be nearby or on the same level would be peachy. Also, for added fun make HFS interfere with the readings so you dig into the pit while looking for magma.

I know I'm in the minority here, but finding underground features and having to adjust my fortress as I build around them is 90% of what makes the game replayable to me.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Silverionmox on September 01, 2009, 02:45:35 pm

Quote from: Granite26 on September 01, 2009, 12:53:38 pm

Quote from: Kietharr on September 01, 2009, 12:51:50 pm

Oh, another idea: Dowsing devices. Finding underground magma and water is such a crapshoot without reveal.exe and I hate cheating just so I don't end up making my primary fort on the opposite side of the map from my magma and water.

Some sort of device that can be given to miners that will give notification if nonrevealed magma/water/chasms are or may be nearby or on the same level would be peachy. Also, for added fun make HFS interfere with the readings so you dig into the pit while looking for magma.

I know I'm in the minority here, but finding underground features and having to adjust my fortress as I build around them is 90% of what makes the game replayable to me.

Seconded.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Warlord255 on September 01, 2009, 04:05:56 pm

Quote from: Granite26 on September 01, 2009, 12:53:38 pm

Quote from: Kietharr on September 01, 2009, 12:51:50 pm

Oh, another idea: Dowsing devices. Finding underground magma and water is such a crapshoot without reveal.exe and I hate cheating just so I don't end up making my primary fort on the opposite side of the map from my magma and water.

Some sort of device that can be given to miners that will give notification if nonrevealed magma/water/chasms are or may be nearby or on the same level would be peachy. Also, for added fun make HFS interfere with the readings so you dig into the pit while looking for magma.

I know I'm in the minority here, but finding underground features and having to adjust my fortress as I build around them is 90% of what makes the game replayable to me.

Ideally, next version's abundance of features will allow people to not have to go hunting for things to have Fun™ with.

A new suggestion: FOR THE LOVE OF ARMOK, show the gender of caged animals. Right now it's a game of russian roulette.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Timst on September 06, 2009, 06:15:52 am

Updated. Also, the whole dowsing / prospecting / surveying / you name it stuff is both too complicated for this thread and too controversial to be added.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: bluea on September 06, 2009, 04:53:47 pm

1) Near-omnipresent "s-menu". When you go to select things for hauling to the depot, there's an "s-elect" menu option that allows you to type part of a name. So "s-sock" filters the list of everything to show just socks. There are a whole lot more places where that exact same sort of filter would be useful. In the trade menu itself, you could select all the giant eagle leather in one fell swoop. The construction menu, and several other places where you get a list of choices would be handy. (Especially if there's a standard shorthand for for different quality. "1bed" meaning "Only show beds of standard quality on my list" or any other pattern that makes sense.)

2) On Stockpiles: allow "Item is melt designated" in a similar fashion to 'usable' and 'unusable' for armor/weapons/etc. Or otherwise allow some sort of "Smelter" stockpile.

3) During trading: Allow "Mark all non-bins for trading" and "Buy out caravan". Macros may improve this, but marking ever single item in a "We love you, we brought a ridiculous pile of crap" caravan is excruciating. As is selecting enough socks to ensure a 50,000 coin profit just just make -sure- they love you. (Even if they do run into goblins. Frequently.)

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Toksyuryel on September 06, 2009, 05:45:37 pm

This qualifies (http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=41471.0), I think.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Atarlost on September 07, 2009, 07:46:17 pm

Consistant ore bearing rock representation. 

Currently most ores are represented by british pounds.  Some, including native aluminum and magnetite are not.  This is potentially confusing for new players. 

My suggestion is to ither use the british pound for all metals or if the color space is inadequate designate an additional charachter for ore bearing rock and use one or the other for all ore bearing rock.  I think the Franc, Dollar are unused at this time as is a Pt ligature grouped with the currency symbols that I think may be the Peseta.  Any of these would be a logical extension of the current use of the pound for most metals. 

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Craftling on September 07, 2009, 10:26:19 pm

Quote from: Atarlost on September 07, 2009, 07:46:17 pm

Currently most ores are represented by british pounds.  Some, including native aluminum and magnetite are not.  This is potentially confusing for new players. 

I wasnt confused about the ores when I was learning about the game at all. I just ran everything over with the "k" key to see what everything was and then I got used to what things were.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: neek on September 07, 2009, 10:48:15 pm

Likewise. You begin to learn the exceptions rather rapidly.

Also:

Personal social history. When were friends and grudges made? What parties did they attend? When was Urist married? When was Urist Jr. born? Etc.

[Edit]

Also, "wet" stone locations should leak after a while, seeping water in. This might cause negative thoughts. Patching it with stone might be a good idea, or patching it with some other substance.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: ShadeJS on September 16, 2009, 11:01:35 pm

My small suggestion: Keep this thread on the front page because it's good. :) (or 'bump'.)

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Evil One on September 17, 2009, 07:03:50 am

How about the ability to make beds from something other then wood?
Rolling boulder traps?
Crushing wall traps?

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: neek on September 17, 2009, 11:57:23 pm

I really like crushing wall-traps. Rolling boulders sounds like so much... Fun.

Would be nice for some sort of fencing. Weak constructive walls that're half-height (so they can hold up to 4/7 water before spilling over), with matching height doors. Could lead into creating "stabling" for mounted creatures.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: cyclotis04 on October 18, 2009, 10:14:27 pm

Easily identifiable Dwarven happiness meter. Perhaps just a dwarf face next to their name, when view with 'v' or 'u' that's color coded. Green is happy, red is angry.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Grendus on October 19, 2009, 12:00:04 am

Sort the animals in the stocks menu by species, then by ownership (owned animals go on top of their species), then by age, then by gender. Would make breeding so much easier if I could just look at all my lamas (dig deeper) and leave one stud animal then butcher all the other males, or count how many actual breeding llamas I have. My current fort has 8 pages of animals (down from 12, the butchery gave me 340 meat and 5 bonus FPS), and it's a random mix of horses, cows, llamas, chickens, donkeys, cats, dogs, and a yak or two. I can't make heads or tails of it.

Separate ores from regular and flux stones in the stocks menu. Usually when I brave the stones list in the stocks menu and the 3 minute lagfest as my computer counts every stone in the fortress, all I want to do is see how much malachite I have left or forbid all the horn silver so I can make electrum from the less valuable galena. I really could care less about how many chunks of granite I have.

Not a small suggestion, but it would be nice if marksdwarves would only take spent ammo as a lst resort. I hate to see my marksdwarves charge into combat carrying 1 fish bone bolt when I've been mass producing stacks of 40 from orcs/goblins, or picking up spent ammo marked for melting instead of a fresh stack of 25 iron bolts.

More of a bug fix, but it would be nice if when dwarves were switched from wrestling to a weapon they would check to make sure they have nothing in their hands but shields and gloves. Marking these items for dumping is time consuming. Just as important, they should check to see if they're completely covered (though I think they do this already).

Sort stones alphabetically, or put the order they appear in the stockpile in the raws somewhere. If you want to build out of a particular material, you have to check the entire list. Being able to scroll to the g's for gabbro or the m's for microline would be great.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Euld on October 19, 2009, 03:41:12 am

When ordering military dwarves to equip armor/weapons, allow us to choose specifically which armor/weapon they will use.  Or allow us to choose the materal of armor/weapon to equip.  Tired of the equip-forbid-unequip-equip dance  ;D

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: darkflagrance on October 19, 2009, 05:08:11 am

Quote from: Grendus on October 19, 2009, 12:00:04 am

Not a small suggestion, but it would be nice if marksdwarves would only take spent ammo as a lst resort. I hate to see my marksdwarves charge into combat carrying 1 fish bone bolt when I've been mass producing stacks of 40 from orcs/goblins, or picking up spent ammo marked for melting instead of a fresh stack of 25 iron bolts.

I believe that there is a way to set it so that the individual bolts that miss are automatically forbidden, if you're not already using it. It's not much, but it helps.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Grendus on October 19, 2009, 11:33:37 am

Quote from: darkflagrance on October 19, 2009, 05:08:11 am

Quote from: Grendus on October 19, 2009, 12:00:04 am

Not a small suggestion, but it would be nice if marksdwarves would only take spent ammo as a lst resort. I hate to see my marksdwarves charge into combat carrying 1 fish bone bolt when I've been mass producing stacks of 40 from orcs/goblins, or picking up spent ammo marked for melting instead of a fresh stack of 25 iron bolts.

I believe that there is a way to set it so that the individual bolts that miss are automatically forbidden, if you're not already using it. It's not much, but it helps.

They're forbidden automatically, but I usually end up unforbidding them post battle so my dwarves will get all the old armor inside for melting. I've seen dwarves pick up spent ammo marked for melting as well, which is irritating, and until your dwarves get around to melting it or they use it, they won't drop it for another stack. Regardless though, it would be nice if they would default to the largest nearby stack.

Actually, I had a longer suggestion where it's controlled inside the squad menu, where dwarves can choose ammo based on stack size regardless of material (so they'd take 40 orc bone bolts over 25 steel bone bolts), power regardless of size(25 steel over 40 orc bone), or overall killing power (would promote lag, but dwarves would try to find the stack that has the most damage potential). But this is a small suggestions thread, and dwarves deciding on ammo based on stack size is a small suggestion.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: yatima2975 on October 21, 2009, 08:44:08 am

Two small interface suggestions: being able to select areas for construction larger than 10 by 10 would be nice (up to screen size, maybe?). Also, the trading interface should use half the screen width per buy/sell area, not the currently used fixed width.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Linknoid on November 03, 2009, 09:19:56 pm

I discovered this game a few weeks ago, and have rapidly wasted many hour of my life since.  But there are a few UI issues that really drive me crazy.

One is the setting [KEY_HOLD_MS:150] in init.txt.  Why can't keyboard input in game work like normal keyboard input, where there's a delay before it starts repeating, and then repeats at a more rapid fixed pace.  If I increase KEY_HOLD_MS, it makes it easier to avoid undesired repeat keystrokes, but then repeat while holding becomes painfully slow.

Next issue is with focus stealing.  Often I send out my diggers and then go do other things.  They periodically report back that they discovered new mineral types.  It's not so bad if it's something like platinum or opals or whatever, but I get really tired of constant interruptions telling me that they discovered alunite or cinnebar or talc or whatever.  It never notifies me about stuff like obsidian, marble, granite, basalt, some of which I care about, so why does it have to steal focus for every worthless rock?

And another suggestion regarding focus stealing.  When I'm scrolling around the map, various events trigger a pause + jumping to the event location.  But since I'm in the middle of moving, the focused location is immediately lost.  I'd like to be able to scroll through the recent announcements and jump to the location where any message was triggered (such as a dead dwarf, an incoming caravan, a kobold thief spotted, etc.).


And finally I'd like to express my frustration with trying to navigate the build menu.  It feels like everything just got dumped in there, and I'm constantly having to scroll through dozens of items trying to find the right one.  A little organization would be nice.  I don't expect this to be followed exactly, but something along these lines:

Furniture: Armor Stand, Bed, Seat, Burial Receptacle, Cabinet, Container, Door, Weapon Rack, Statue, Table, Cage, Glass Window, Gem Window, Well (maybe)

Structural: Everything in Wall/Floor/Stairs, Farm plot, Paved Road, Dirt Road, Bridge, Support, Floodgate, Floor Hatch, Wall Grate, Floor Grate, Vertical Bars, Floor Bars

Buildings:
    Workshops menu, Furnaces menu, Kennel, Trade Depot, Seige engines menu, Machine components menu

Possibly put animal trap with traps



Oh, and it would be really convenient to designate certain weapons as practice weapons and other weapons for combat and automatically switch as needed.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Sir Reginald Bathwater on November 08, 2009, 12:39:16 am

Clearing stockpiles of non-stocked items (like PILES AND PILES OF USELESS STONE) immedeately.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Neonivek on November 08, 2009, 12:46:26 am

Heh

Treasure Vaults: Specifically a location to keep coins, gems, and other treasures. More then one kind wouldn't be terrible either. depending on the civilisation they should have a different amount of protection.

Actually more valuable locations in general. Why is it that only Player run Dwarves are required to make platnum statues and gold plated floors?
-I realise that the REAL reason is probably the Carrivan Arc and likely balancing (since realistic carrying limits don't exist)

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Amalgam on November 08, 2009, 09:26:23 pm

I'd like to see more context in Legends mode. Specifically, I often have trouble telling the difference between civilizations, groups, and cities. Perhaps just append "The city of" or "The nation" or "The elf" or whatever; another possible solution would be to color code different things.

EDIT: Hmm, apparently creatures are already differentiated. My bad.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Amalgam on November 08, 2009, 11:48:34 pm

Oh, another one. I'd like to see dwarves actively move foreign objects out of stockpiles they don't belong in (similar to how dwarves clear a building site before building there) to save the micromanagement of having to dump the stone out of every stockpile I carve.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Pikdome on November 09, 2009, 01:52:01 am

I'm not sure if this has been suggested before, but how about coral's for tropical coasts?
I mean, its not really game altering, it would just be a nice semi-valuable organic origin stone to gather.
Of course you'd have to devise a method of getting to it, with it being underwater and all. It also of course could come in various colors.
I feel it would add an extra little something for coastal fortresses.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: MrLobster on November 09, 2009, 07:07:06 pm

I would like...

* Configurable autozoom. At a minimum, a list of strings in an init file, and when an output message matches any one of those strings, it triggers an auto-zoom.

* Along with the above, an "alert" flag that can be set on traps via the (q) menu.  When the trap is sprung, it triggers a log message. Default on for most traps but not fluid-activated pressure plates.

* Unit list finding/filtering.
- Filter by string appearing in name or activity, of course. ("mood", "invader", "mayor", etc.)
- Filter by ENABLED JOB. (u)+(j)+MASON filters list to all dwarves with Masonry enabled.
- Ability to edit a dwarf's jobs etc. from the unit screen without aborting the unit screen would be nice.

* Confirm on embark AFTER preparing carefully, too.

* Invaders to have lots of wear on their clothing (and have less of it), especially in the case of goblins.

* Stockpile Auto-designate. When items are placed on the stockpile they receive an automatic designation like Forbid, Melt, Dump, Un-Hide. Un-Hide on by default.

* 'Killed by' line for dead creatures, also shows up on coffins.

* When engraving in an assigned room, use owner's preferences/info for what to engrave.

* Seasonal limits to aboveground crops.

* Toughen megabeasts somehow.

* Nerf trading prepared food somehow. Simply forbid trading it, or lessen its value, or greatly increase preparation times.. whatever.

* Escalating furniture (especially cabinets) requirements for higher levels of bookkeeper.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Amalgam on November 10, 2009, 12:15:11 am

Oh! I just thought of one. I often use notes to help me plan and visualize what I want to build, but often times when I'm marking something like the perimeter of a room I'm going to carve out it's very tedious to place notes around the corners of each room. I think it'd be nice if there was a way to make multi-tile notes by dragging out rectangles. Thoughts? :P

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: orbcontrolled on November 10, 2009, 01:05:51 pm

Managment queues

Quote from: neek on September 01, 2009, 02:05:39 am

- Capping job management queues for greater than 30 on certain types and generating a notice that it has been reduced to its cap if you ask for more.

Am I missing something here? The game already does this and it bugs me to no end, just because it feels so arbitrary.
I propose the exact opposite: Remove the cap on job management queues, or at the very least have the game split large tasks into smaller ones.
I have precisely 84 rooms, I need precisely 84 rock coffers. If the game wants that number split up into queues of 30, 30, 24, then the game can darn well do the integer/modulus division itself.


10x10 Constructions
Speaking of arbitrary limits...

Quote from: yatima2975 on October 21, 2009, 08:44:08 am

being able to select areas for construction larger than 10 by 10 would be nice (up to screen size, maybe?).

Putting in a vote for this.

I guess changing the construction and queue limits could become terribly involved depending on how the code is written, but I hope the code is flexible enough that it would just mean increasing a few hard-coded numbers and recompiling.


Descriptions on trade screen
In the trading screen: I play with a large window, so I have plenty of black space below the trading colums. Why not display the full name of the currently selected good in some of that space, in such a way that the text can span the whole screen. Basically just a quick hack to make it easier to see the full name of items that don't fit in the half-window space without having to view them.
Don't displace anything else though, if the player's window/monitor isn't tall enough (in this day and age?), then just let it get cut off.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Kobold6 on November 11, 2009, 08:21:18 am

Not a very serious suggestion but the idea struck me as a very Koboldish sport...


Kobolds should try to steal clothes off dwarfs and run away with them.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Amalgam on November 11, 2009, 07:01:55 pm

I would like a [VERMINHUNTER_CANNOT_ADOPT] option in the init.

Also, dwarves will only adopt vermin if they admire them. I think all dwarves should adopt vermin, unless they detest that particular creature. I want my pet hedgehogs, damnit!

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Amalgam on November 11, 2009, 11:10:30 pm

Hidden items should be unhidden when they're moved, so you don't get a bunch of phantom objects clogging up your stockpiles, among other reasons. Generally, hide is used to hide objects that the player intends to ignore and doesn't want to see. The player expects those objects to remain there, but if anything causes them to move the player should be able to see where they moved. Possible init option?

[Edit to avoid yet another double post] The screen where the liason "Finalizes the export agreements" should only list items that have a price other than 100%. It would make it alot easier to see what's changed.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Lord Shonus on November 11, 2009, 11:57:44 pm

I'd like to be able to get an afteraction report on sieges (who killed who,how many total invaders there were, etc.) without abandoning the fort to look at Legends.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Kobold6 on November 18, 2009, 01:45:48 pm

I'd like to see an ID assigned to mechanisms once they're installed in something. So with a bit of effort the effect of a level can be discovered.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: INSANEcyborg on November 25, 2009, 04:08:32 pm

To combine the suggestions about beds:

When making a bed from a workshop, change it to bed frames, and allow them to be built out of wood, stone, metal, or glass.  When building a bed in the build menu, make it take a frame and a piece of cloth.

This lets beds be built out of more things, and lets you use bed sheets.  You'll have more control over the value of the bedroom, tower-cap beds with pig tail sheets for peasants and a platinum bed with masterfully dyed giant cave spider silk for the nobles.  It also makes cloth more practical, a few pieces should added as default equipments for embarking.

Since there are already buildings that require multiple parts to make, I don't think this will be too hard to implement, just rename bed to bed frame and add cloth as a second component.  For simplicity's sake I'd stop here, but if you really wanted to, you could make weavers turn cloth into bedsheets and use those instead.






Floor/Vertical bars:  To make them less like grates, I'd change them to a type of construction.   The major changes being that you can build over them (One under a well could stop dwarfs from falling in) and they would support other constructions (You wouldn't have to leave gaps for support when making a large drainage areas).   If they can't be used with levers/pressure plates that's fine.   Of course, if they'd still work, I could put removable horizontal support to good use in my traps.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: nogibator on March 16, 2010, 07:52:41 pm

Can we have tag for skill levels required for dwarf to be appointed? Appointed champion that must have legendary weaponskill looks fairly realistic. And can such a noble be required to create something in workshop?
Can we have tag for workshop to be constructed only on water source, as with magmabuildings(someone requested already, so i'll just second this)?
Can we have possibility to create sentient creatures(controllable in the manner of dwarfs) in workshop?

Creature templates are already here, so we(I) can mod in complicated golem system, wich for example requires appointed legendary engraver as runecarver. Than various runes can be created in mason's workshop/jevelry(or some rune-shop) by that dwarf, and various golems constructed in some kind of golem forge, with properties of the construction material and various types based on said runes.
Semi-sentiet creatures able only to fight/haul things could be very helpful with new "fog-of-underground" system and random-generated-beasts.
And that's just one example.

Also, i suppose that it can't be done without some rewrites, but anyway:Is it possible to make item able to alter/add tags of/to wearer?

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: Silverionmox on March 17, 2010, 11:20:21 am

When selecting goods to be brought to the depot, and again when selecting goods in the trading screen: a key that selects the whole damn screen at once. Better would be to have persistent trade good tags (in the eternal suggestions list), so that you don't need to select all these trade goods again, again, and again for every caravan that arrives.

Title: Re: Small Suggestions Thread
Post by: gordy on March 17, 2010, 06:04:51 pm

I would like to be able to see which dwarf has achieved the military requirements i set (ie: weapon(s) and armor). It's not fun to set all your dorfs to use chain and then plate and then weapons, see them all running around to grab armor, but not know until some time later that there wasnt enough to go around or one or two were left weaponless, etc. I imagine they would work a bit like player-set mandates, where the dwarfs requirements are red when they are not met, yellow when they are partial and white when they are met or exceeded. They shouldnt need to suffer any good or bad thoughts for not meeting these requirements but at least it shoudl alert the player to make one more suit of plate or a few extra weapons to meet the requirements of your army.

My next suggestion is a similar noble screen to see if a dorf has been made happy or sad by their preferences lately. For example, a dorf who likes crossbows made into an archer, one who likes beds being able to crank them out in a  workshop, or one who likes horses being able to enjoy one as a pet or in a cage.  It could double as some sort of 'happiness' screen where you can more closely monitor your dorfs happiness (maybe not down to the exact number but maybe in happiness order from ecstatic to miserable)... this could even work in a psychologist screen where your chief medical officer establishes these values (in the same was as the hoardmaster settings determines the count accuracies of your stocks)..?