Bay 12 Games Forum

Quote from: Shurhaian on November 23, 2009, 03:05:52 pm

Changing that setup such that dwarves close those doors would still work so long as the doors are closed behind the towed animal, not on top of them - treat the dwarf+animal as a multi-tile creature.

That was my point

Except that your point is currently moot. Dwarves that are butchering animals have no trouble leading them through "tightly-closed" doors as it stands. It will only become an issue at such time as dwarves close the doors behind them(which they don't, now).

The permeability notion is redundant, precisely because the door stays open behind a dwarf; I've had my dwarves grab animals and pull them through a corridor of pet-impassible doors, no problem. Changing that setup such that dwarves close those doors would still work so long as the doors are closed behind the towed animal, not on top of them - treat the dwarf+animal as a multi-tile creature.

Having newly-assigned work animals not count as pets right away would be good as well; having them able to be unassigned while in this stage, also good. But as mentioned, long acquaintance(or not so long, prefs depending) would lead to the dwarf adopting the animal as a pet outright.

In general, the work animal system needs an overhaul. It's kludgy and can't be used on some of the dwarves who most warrant it(experienced military, and nobles). It'll do the basics for putting some extra protection on vulnerable dwarves, but forever after those dwarves' new pets will be adding to the FPS problem.

I think it'd be really nice if dwarves could pick up a work animal on their way out of the fortress, and return the animal when they're no longer doing an outdoor task. Possibly as a different assignment control - one for permanent companions(which become pets if not revoked before the dwarf grows to like them), one for "risky" labours(anything which inherently leaves the fortress - hunting, plant gathering, fishing) and on-duty military. When going on duty / activating a risky job, the dwarf will gather work animals up to the number set, go do it, and when that task is done, release the animals again. A designated "animal holding area", or perhaps the ability to designate a zoo like jails are currently(so that the animals get chained/caged automatically) rather than just as "a meeting room from a cage", could help with this.

All coins? Perhaps not. But there's no reason they wouldn't carry some of their wealth. In fact, when shopping, it makes sense. Exactly how much they try to carry might depend on their total wealth, and on personality.

A separate "coin purse"/"pouch" item would probably be the way to go, with one unit of cloth or leather yielding three of them, much as leather does for waterskins now. Having kobold thieves cut a purse rather than going for a specific item might be an intriguing way to handle the skulking filth.

Also, just to make sure you've got the simple thing, double-check init.txt to make sure GRAPHICS is set to YES and the resolution settings are filled in.

...For that matter, does anyone know a good resolution to use with the graphics set? I tried 800x600(laptop, screen is rather constrained) but everything was squashed funny.

Bummer about the string entry and such, but that wasn't what I was talking about. I put in issue 126 - splitting Grid Colors from the other Grid Options, so that the Options screen is small enough to fit on my 1024x768 screen.

(Ed) I see now that that's already been fixed for next build. Score.

I'd also like to voice my support for suggestion 31. Given that my most common task to toggle is hauling, which is all the way over to the right, not being able to see who I'm highlighting to change can be a bit vexing - and on my machine, DT is sluggish enough about mouseovers/right-click menus that identifying the dwarves with such means is a bit inconvenient.

No, no. Storing profiles with a simple yes/no for what items can be stored in a profile, that's fine. A submenu to select a stockpile profile would be great.

I mean getting into the details of how many can be stored in a stockpile. That's what I think would be excessive detail in the game engine, if it starts tracking every good for every stockpile.

The game doesn't exactly "ignore" the max settings, but they only apply when they are being used to store stuff, NOT when they are loose furniture. My furniture stockpile has a max of zero bins, and always has, and it's currently cluttered with bins that aren't otherwise in use. Since boxes and bins are at present the only containers used in that manner, nothing else is relevant.

It could be nice if loose cabinets could be used to store clothing, for instance, and then there would be a max cabinets setting too. But again, that would not apply to cabinets just waiting to be installed. Those still go in the furniture stockpile, which would not have any "max cabinets" by default.

I think, although I'm not 100% certain, that any stockpile which has its "max barrels" set greater than one will always have an empty barrel dragged to sit in it if one is available. Same for bins. This is what lets dwarves just drag something right to the barrel/bin in that stockpile. If all containers in that stockpile are full, and the stockpile is not at its maximum for that sort of container, the dwarves will put new items in a barrel/bin somewhere ELSE, and a task will be generated to drag it there(resulting in "job item misplaced" spam for any tasks to store something in that barrel/bin).

And a glassworks stockpile that carries pearlash, possibly potash, and rock crystal, sandbags optional(I like my sandbags in one pile, and the binnables in another)...

I wholly approve of this idea. As well, the profiles might be given an in-game name. Any stockpile that uses such a profile in its unmodified state could show up as a "{Name} Stockpile" instead of just a "Stockpile".

Alternately, let stockpile names be set by hand.