Bay 12 Games Forum

i would also like the ability to change a stockpile active status like a zone.  lets say you have a master stockpile of booze, and you mark it inactive.  immediately every dwarf that has a personal booze stockpile in their room gets theirs filled.  this would essentially be a workaround for the fact that take from stockpile currently is bugged, and when it wasnt you could not have two stockpiles take from one master stockpile.

i really like the original suggestions too, for me improved stockpile management would be a godsend.

same problem here.  with body parts permitted it works fine, but i cant separate the shells from the bones.

i think workshop / stockpile management is a hugely ignored area where a little UI work could enable a dramatically awesome elimination of micromanagment.  this could also be used to prevent those little tiny subfortresses where you get your gem dorfs to actually do something useful (besides adding gems to pigtailed socks).

of course with burrows this should become doable albeit with some room for error, a longer UI interaction.

not to hijak but some other ideas (already discussed adnaseum) to smooth out production:

let two stockpiles take from a master one
let me add notes to any item, construction, workshop, or stockpile. (already exists for dwarves)
let me designate constructions without picking out specific items, but let me specify their type
let me designate constructions without picking out specific items, but let me specify their source stockpile.
let stockpiles generate custom jobs (to fill them)
let workshops have a repeat number next to its current job (instead of just repeat forever)

for the last two, maybe the the outpost manager could manager the orders in those situations, to approve job and such.  maybe another noble that would be in charge of general contracting, for the designate construction jobs.

if all of these are implemented (along with the original) mega fortress building should be a snap.  (maybe thats not the point?)

+1 i love this idea.

i think it would mesh really well with the combat teaching coming in the next version.  dwarfs dont have to start with any specific tricks, so a person would have to be a good teacher to for other dwarfs to gain these tricks (or they would work one job for a really long time to gain them).

it would also add more personality to dwarves (who unless they are in positions of power), dont really make their individuality stand out.  (although i did have one mason with like a -1 in excellence, and he had a zero percent chance of making an high quality item, until he got legendary).  a legendary crappy mason.  i was really mad at him till i figured out why he kept putting out such mediocre items.

blue area is 2 zlevels deep. when it was just one zlevel deep, i floored over the it (the moat, it still had ramps then).  then i dug out another z level  to the moat (by marking the one below it to be ramped out).  after this i was ready to remove the floor and build a bridge there.  but when i removed the floor i saw this monstrosity.  anyway to get rid of these down ramps?  with no matching up ramps on the bottom.

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Historically, things such as the behaviour/character of the alchemist were deemed important. To make pure metals, you were supposed to live a pure lifestyle. Which is why we talk about laboratories: laborare (working, practicing) + orare (praying, meditating).

maybe a masterful alchemical (sp?) potion gives the desired effects, while an average one does nothing. potions with no quality give opposite and adverse effects.  i sorta recall (or made up) that booze has a hidden quality that affects value, something similar could be used to hide the quality of the potion.  also if you use masterful ingredients (i know not all items have a quality yet), and mince/grind/chop/powder or whatever them masterfully, and blend/distill/boil (or whatever) them masterfully then you have a potion that has the desired effects.  maybe the formula for a potions potency is dictated by its value, the higher the value compared with its theoretical max, the more likely it is to work.

if you combine a system like that with the formulas being unknown at the start, then the power of alchemy should be reserved only for the most persistent of fortresses, and wont unbalance gameplay early.  you would have to spent lots of time playing with the formulas (or the dwarves would do this by themselves) and developing skill to actually unleash the power. maybe the alchemist could also be a noble position (like the philosopher), who works in the laboratory.

the raw ingredients for the most powerful alchemy should also be something that is not readily available at the start.  im thinking elephant ears, tigers tails, giant eagle eyeballs, titan toes, (they probably don't all have to be alliterations), etc...

when you pour water into a container, the water doesnt immediately settle into a nice flat form, there are waves that go from one end to another.

Not to mention being slower to render (even assuming that the multiple component overlays takes no overhead) due to vectors taking up at least as much, if not more, information at the scale we're discussing.

thats not true.  since the resolution isnt changing all the time, it would be very foolish not to cache the bitmaps once a rendering is done.  after that its the same as teh current system.