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Author Topic: New pernament squad: Civilians  (Read 4509 times)

Cerapter

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New pernament squad: Civilians
« on: January 13, 2016, 09:25:07 am »

Basically, a nifty way of bringing fashion into your fortress.
And, uh, the solution to obfuscated game mechanisms is putting them into even more obfuscated ones, and hoping that they cancel eachother out.

When you finally get a mayor elected, he opens up a new noble position for you: the Therapist. because injokes
Having a Therapist noble allows you to open up the (P)opulance menu from the main screen. It could go under (c)view civilisations, mainly to keep some semblance of order or whatever.

Opening it up, you are brought to a new, yet familiar menu. The (P)opulance menu would be an almost perfect copy of the military screen, except with a few major differences.

The (p)ositions menu would bring you to a list of every civilian squad in your Fortress. What are those? Why, civilian squads are groups like "Woodworker", "Miner", etc., plus the squad "All", that is totally unmodifiable, and is just a list of every member of your fortress. So basically, you would be shown a list of every possible assignable job in your fortress as squads. These squads have no size limit, and their members are dynamically made up of the dwarves you assigned the job to.

Of course, you could do the job assignments from here, too. Simply add and remove "squad"members as you would with a normal military squad. But there's a tiny difference. You have no third list to show potential members. Instead, when trying to add a new member, you are brought to a screen similar to the nobles screen, where the dwarves with the most experience in the relevant fields are put first. This allows for maximum control over the composition of your fortress, with the most information given to you.

You couldn't remove the preset squads, but you could make new ones, of course, as you would on the military screen. These wouldn't be auto-filled, however.

The (a)lerts screen, however, would be replaced by the (a)uto-assign.
(If you want to give specific groups of dwarves different behaviour during different alerts, you would go to the normal alerts screen. The new civilian squads would show in the squads list, but with a linebreak from the military ones to distinguish them.)
Auto-assign would allow you to have the game determine your fortress's composition as it wishes, but with some control over it. You would be able to choose:
  • How many (j)obs a dwarf could be given at most
  • Whether to ignore (h)ospitalised, n(o)bility, active (m)ilitary members in auto-assigning
  • The percentage of dwarves in your fortress to be given hau(l)ing jobs
  • And finally, you could use the /*-+ keys to navigate through a list of every preset civilian squad (except "All", i.e. every job), LEFT and RIGHT to choose between modifying the job's priority or ratio, and UP and DOWN to modify said category's value.

A job having higher priority value would mean it is assigned sooner than those with lower priority value, but a job with high ratio would have more dwarves doing it.

...Essentially Dwarf Therapist's optimiser, but come on, if you haven't realised that by the beginning, you fucking su-

The (e)quip tab... is literally the military screen's equip tab. You could slap some preset (U)niforms onto dwarves working in a squad, so you could have your miners be in pink thongs while mining if you so wish, AND FINALLY THE ALREADY IN-GAME MINER AND WOODCUTTER UNIFORMS WOULDN'T BE OBFUSCATED. They would be actual weapons given to dwarves through uniforms, and if you are playing a game with a variety of picks and axes, you could have your dwarves switch over to that, for example.

On this tab, you could also give your beloved dwarves some unique weapons. I mean, if Urist McMiner just mooded that pick (I don't even know if picks are moodable), then fuck it, let him wield it alone.

EDIT1: Forgot to mention, just like in the equip screen of the military screen, you would be able to see if the dwarves are wearing what you demanded them.

The u(n)iforms tab would similarly be unchanged. If there's anything to mention here, you could have dwarves dress differently depending on what job they're doing, or have the standard civilian wear include a handy knife for self-defence.

EDIT1: Of course, since you could have dwarves be in 2 or even 3 or more squads at once, all with their own uniforms, there would be an 'order' of sorts in the uniform regulations. Generally, profession uniforms (pre-set profession based squad uniforms) win against custom uniforms, and custom uniforms win against the "All" group's uniform. A dwarf being in two or more custom squads with their own uniforms will try to fulfil both demands, but might just end up with a mish-mash of clothes.

EDIT2: This would of course happen when the dwarf has got two different profession uniform requirements to fulfil, too. Though I believe this problem won't exist, or will be minimised, when the dwarven equipping system is fixed. As it is now, even in military it's better to set uniforms to replace, because dwarves have problems with dressing. As this is a different problem, I won't be (and can't, really) offering a fix to it.

Mind that just like the military screen's uniforms, these uniforms will be equipped OVER the current clothes of the dwarf, rather than replacing them, unless you specifically order them to. This also means that you could technically have a dwarf wearing the correct equipment to fulfil 2-3 squads' uniform demands at once, even.

The s(u)pplies would basically allow you to have dwarves keep reserves at their person, if you don't like them going on breaks every second day.
...That's it.

The (f)ammunition just sets the dwarves whose jobs requires ammunition what ammo should they use. And yes, this means Hunters will finally be placed here, rather than with the military.

Now, my favourite. The (s)chedule. The schedules would be, once again, quite similar to the military screen's, but with a few differences. Like, the alerts would be from the military screen's alerts, and (s)leep in... option is basically pointless here.

But the more important one is orders.
  • The Inactive order would have your dwarves behave as they would now. They only work when you want them, and only do what you want them to do.,
  • A new order would be introduced, the As wished. This basically makes the dwarves do their job even if you didn't as them to, if they had a thought regarding how they weren't able to practice their skills lately. This is essentially a self-given Train order. (see below)
  • The Train option would make dwarves... train. They'd do a new activity called "Practice X", where X is the skill they're practicing that is related to their job. These activities would be performed as usual, except (if they would use reagents) use no reagents and produce no products. So, basically, dwarves would pretend-smith, pretend-fish or whatever.
  • Another new option would be introduced, the Keep stocks at... (where it's applicable). When selecting this order, you could select an item and an amount. If you ever have less than the given number of that item (in your stockpiles), the dwarves will automatically produce new ones until you have the given number again.
    • You don't have to 'correctly' assign this order based on the jobs it's being assigned to, however. You could have your Miners fish in Granite, do carpentry in Slade, and have them at Inactive through the rest of the months, for example.
    • You could also have different "minimal" stocks in different months, in case you have some time-based resources, like, you would most likely want more meat in the winter if you lack seeds that sprout in that time of the year.

And that's it for now. I guess you could expand on this even more. For example, you know how military dwarves in squads hold training drills in barracks? You could have different civilian squads do the same in a new "classroom" location or whatever.

Thanks for your attention. If something's not clear, I'll expand on it.
« Last Edit: January 13, 2016, 01:40:34 pm by Cerapter »
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Civilian squads: a suggestion regarding Dwarf Therapist, maintaining stock levels, independent workshop-usage and the military screen.

Dozebôm Lolumzalìs

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Re: New pernament squad: Civilians
« Reply #1 on: January 13, 2016, 10:32:03 am »

YEEEESSsSSSsSss...

Solves problems: check

Similar enough to existing structures: check (to make it easier to implement)

Leaves room for more suggestions/development: check

Allows for more AND less micromanagement as wished: check

I love it!
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Dirst

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Re: New pernament squad: Civilians
« Reply #2 on: January 13, 2016, 10:42:56 am »

I like the idea, though I would call them "teams" or somesuch. 

The only complexity is if a single dwarf can end up assigned to multiple teams/squads.  Urist might be in "Miners" and "Recent Migrants" and "All".  Either prohibit this entirely (assigning to one team/squad removes the creature from any others), or rank-order them explicitly and only allow lower-priority assignments to affect slots undefined by higher-priority assignments.  In this case, "All" would need to be fixed to the very bottom.

So Urist grabs a pick and a helmet because he is a "Miner", and a dyed cloak because he's a "Recent Migrant", and a tunic and socks and low boots (but ignores the cloth hood assignment) from "All".
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Cerapter

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Re: New pernament squad: Civilians
« Reply #3 on: January 13, 2016, 10:51:59 am »

I like the idea, though I would call them "teams" or somesuch. 
Ah, yes, I only called them squads to get the idea that this is based on the military screen through better.
We could call them "classes" even, or whatever you want them to be.

The only complexity is if a single dwarf can end up assigned to multiple teams/squads.  Urist might be in "Miners" and "Recent Migrants" and "All".  Either prohibit this entirely (assigning to one team/squad removes the creature from any others), or rank-order them explicitly and only allow lower-priority assignments to affect slots undefined by higher-priority assignments.  In this case, "All" would need to be fixed to the very bottom.

So Urist grabs a pick and a helmet because he is a "Miner", and a dyed cloak because he's a "Recent Migrant", and a tunic and socks and low boots (but ignores the cloth hood assignment) from "All".
Ah, yes, this was something I wanted to include, but forgot.
I even referred to it, where I said "you could have your miners be in pink thongs while mining" but still forgot about it. :-\
I'll be editing the OP to put the order I thought them to be in:
Preset Profession squads > Custom squads > "All" squad
(Where > means the left side wins against the right side's regulations.)

Edit: done. EDIT1 details just that, and two other things I forgot (being able to instantly see if the dwarves fulfill their uniform regulations and the 'wear OVER clothes' / 'REPLACE clothes' problem).
« Last Edit: January 13, 2016, 11:01:20 am by Cerapter »
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Civilian squads: a suggestion regarding Dwarf Therapist, maintaining stock levels, independent workshop-usage and the military screen.

cdru

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Re: New pernament squad: Civilians
« Reply #4 on: January 14, 2016, 06:45:18 am »

Really good idea.It is annoying when civilians won't equip any weapons or armor.
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Dirst

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Re: New pernament squad: Civilians
« Reply #5 on: January 14, 2016, 09:30:16 am »

Really good idea.It is annoying when civilians won't equip any weapons or armor.
Have you tried installing the Second Amendment mod? :)
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Cerapter

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Re: New pernament squad: Civilians
« Reply #6 on: January 14, 2016, 12:09:43 pm »

Really good idea.It is annoying when civilians won't equip any weapons or armor.
Have you tried installing the Second Amendment mod? :)
Actually, as things are right now, you don't even need a mod. Even now you can put your dwarves into squads of ten, assign them "armour" of cloth (or just actual armour, they consider that as not-naked), have them wield weapons, and have them be inactive all the time. This'll also make them train sometime.

Still, it is annoying to maintain, miners and woodcutters still have invisible uniforms (that also conflict with eachother; this is the reason you can't have a dwarf be both), and might end up being a bigger hassle than having not-uniformed but unprotected civilians.
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My anaconda man don't want none unless you got 5,000 cm3 of [SELECT_BP:LOWER_BODY:REAR][SELECT_ADDITIONAL_BP:UPPER_LEGS:REAR] hun.

Civilian squads: a suggestion regarding Dwarf Therapist, maintaining stock levels, independent workshop-usage and the military screen.

Dozebôm Lolumzalìs

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Re: New pernament squad: Civilians
« Reply #7 on: January 14, 2016, 04:22:06 pm »

It's... a joke. I don't think it's a real mod, I think it's a reference to (drumroll please) the second amendment. It's just a joke. There is no mod that makes civilians automatically equip weapons.
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Cerapter

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Re: New pernament squad: Civilians
« Reply #8 on: January 14, 2016, 04:40:25 pm »

Ah. Thought someone DID mod that in (maybe with DFhack, or I dunno, never used that) and made a clever reference.
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My anaconda man don't want none unless you got 5,000 cm3 of [SELECT_BP:LOWER_BODY:REAR][SELECT_ADDITIONAL_BP:UPPER_LEGS:REAR] hun.

Civilian squads: a suggestion regarding Dwarf Therapist, maintaining stock levels, independent workshop-usage and the military screen.

BadLeo

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Re: New pernament squad: Civilians
« Reply #9 on: January 18, 2016, 05:03:08 pm »

PTW. I want a better, more controllable way to equip dorfs.

In a perfect universe, I would like a simgle overhaul to the whole system, putting all dorfs under a single place, enabling the player to put them together in groups of any size, assign any kind of equipment to them, have uniforms composed of clothing to be auto-replaced when worn out, having the ability to assign multiple weapons to dorfs and have them to pick the right one for the job to be performed, having a toggleable "is soldier" option for each dorf individually (enabling mixed teams of civilian and military)...

Of course, this isn't the perfect universe. So, anything that helps even just to fine-tune dorfs equipment will be of enormous help.
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