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Author Topic: Separate boxes and bags?  (Read 2845 times)

Qev

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Separate boxes and bags?
« on: July 28, 2016, 02:14:41 am »

After probing the arcane mysteries of the new manager system :D, it would probably save much of what's left of my hair (the beard's fine, thanks for asking) if boxes and bags were categorized separately, given that they have entirely separate functions in-game.
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FantasticDorf

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Re: Separate boxes and bags?
« Reply #1 on: July 28, 2016, 04:14:18 am »

They are both containers that can hold smallish objects, the main difference being that boxes are specifically purpose built furniture while bags lean towards a usable stockpile container, in many ways they are functionally the same.

Bags are a poor-man's box when placed, a ramshackle collection of all their worldly goods in a sack.

There are no wood/stone/glass etc. bags (in vanilla game anyway) so using the cloth/leather material preferences can filter them out.
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SebasMarolo

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Re: Separate boxes and bags?
« Reply #2 on: July 28, 2016, 09:55:12 am »

But what about when you're furnishing your dwarves' rooms? I wanna place coffers, not bags!
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FantasticDorf

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Re: Separate boxes and bags?
« Reply #3 on: July 28, 2016, 10:37:48 am »

But what about when you're furnishing your dwarves' rooms? I wanna place coffers, not bags!

Its not much different between pear and peach wood. When placed down inside a room they are functionally the same.
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breadman

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Re: Separate boxes and bags?
« Reply #4 on: July 28, 2016, 11:18:53 am »

There are also certain tasks that only use bags, like seed storage and quarry bush processing.
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Qev

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Re: Separate boxes and bags?
« Reply #5 on: July 28, 2016, 04:53:37 pm »

They are both containers that can hold smallish objects, the main difference being that boxes are specifically purpose built furniture while bags lean towards a usable stockpile container, in many ways they are functionally the same.

Bags are a poor-man's box when placed, a ramshackle collection of all their worldly goods in a sack.

There are no wood/stone/glass etc. bags (in vanilla game anyway) so using the cloth/leather material preferences can filter them out.
They're entirely different in function.  One is storage furniture, the other is an essential job process item; look at how they're used, not at how their characteristics overlap.
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FantasticDorf

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Re: Separate boxes and bags?
« Reply #6 on: July 28, 2016, 05:20:07 pm »

They are both containers that can hold smallish objects, the main difference being that boxes are specifically purpose built furniture while bags lean towards a usable stockpile container, in many ways they are functionally the same.

Bags are a poor-man's box when placed, a ramshackle collection of all their worldly goods in a sack.

There are no wood/stone/glass etc. bags (in vanilla game anyway) so using the cloth/leather material preferences can filter them out.
They're entirely different in function.  One is storage furniture, the other is an essential job process item; look at how they're used, not at how their characteristics overlap.

But as i point out there is already a way to filter the two out. Its entirely irrelevant and just cluttering to give them divisive individual stockpile settings when via literally the smallest amount of navigation and effort on the stockpile screen, you can forbid all materials (by using the forbid category function) and manually enable silk/yarn/plant cloth and leather to enable bags on that pile exclusively.

If it was seperated, the additional options for the materials of bags/boxes would be pointless outside of modding, we would have cloth/leather boxes which is nonsensical in itself. The overlap is the only real thing that matters and even that is very small and insignificant.
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Bumber

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Re: Separate boxes and bags?
« Reply #7 on: July 28, 2016, 06:17:03 pm »

But as i point out there is already a way to filter the two out. Its entirely irrelevant and just cluttering to give them divisive individual stockpile settings when via literally the smallest amount of navigation and effort on the stockpile screen, you can forbid all materials (by using the forbid category function) and manually enable silk/yarn/plant cloth and leather to enable bags on that pile exclusively.
But the materials selection affects all furniture items in the stockpile, not just boxes/bags. That means you're going to need a separate furniture stockpile for just boxes.

It's also currently impossible to filter them for work orders. You can select "boxes and bags" as the item, but your choice of traits are "leather" or* "plant" (and there's no differentiating cloth vs wood.) Sure, Toady could add traits to differentiate boxes from bags, but it's better from a design perspective to separate them since bags are functionally different items.

*This is logically an "exclusive or". You can't check for both in the same work order.
« Last Edit: July 28, 2016, 06:24:59 pm by Bumber »
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ldog

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Re: Separate boxes and bags?
« Reply #8 on: July 28, 2016, 06:59:00 pm »

Yeah, not to mention, does anyone actually place bags instead of boxes? I'd just as soon not have to sort through bags when I'm placing coffers.
It's like a poor mans...no...actually...not even...because it's a good way into a forts establishment when I don't have a shortage of bags.
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LordBaal

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Re: Separate boxes and bags?
« Reply #9 on: July 29, 2016, 10:23:02 am »

They are fine like they are. Only I would like bags to be able to fit in bins and belonging to the finished goods piles instead of furniture (despite being able to be built like furniture) because empty bags shouldn't occupy the same room as a bed, a bin or a box (coffer, chest, whatever). Also I find that eventually you'll end up using more and more bags.
« Last Edit: January 25, 2017, 06:39:14 am by LordBaal »
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ldog

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Re: Separate boxes and bags?
« Reply #10 on: July 29, 2016, 03:13:06 pm »

They are fine like they are. Only I would like bags to be able to fit in bins and belonging to the finished goods piles instead of furniture (despite being able to be built like furniture) because empty bags should occupy the same room as a bed, a bin or a box (coffer, chest, whatever). Also I find that eventually you'll end up using more and more bags.

Heresy! Bins are just pure evil. They should be filled with magma, but that's too good for them. (yeah, I'm a quantum stockpile convert)

You do realize your suggestion, would require ops suggestion though, since that is more or less what is being proposed (bags to not be treated as furniture)
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Quote from: Dirst
For example, if you wanted to check if a unit was eligible to be a politician or a car salesman, you'd first want to verify that there is no soul present...

Quote from: gchristopher
The more appropriate question becomes, are they awesome and dwarven enough.

Loci

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Re: Separate boxes and bags?
« Reply #11 on: July 29, 2016, 04:21:48 pm »

in many ways they are functionally the same.

No, "functionally" they are different in every way *except* their usability as furniture. All bag-using tasks (collecting sand, milling, plant processing, seed storage) cannot use "boxes", bags differ in materials and should differ in weight and size (for storage in other containers), and creatures can only use bags to haul things around (e.g. children).


They are fine like they are.

No they are not. Combining disparate items into a single category needlessly complicates all sorts of things like stockpiling, job management, and furniture selection.

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ldog

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Re: Separate boxes and bags?
« Reply #12 on: July 29, 2016, 04:50:11 pm »

in many ways they are functionally the same.

No, "functionally" they are different in every way *except* their usability as furniture. All bag-using tasks (collecting sand, milling, plant processing, seed storage) cannot use "boxes", bags differ in materials and should differ in weight and size (for storage in other containers), and creatures can only use bags to haul things around (e.g. children).


They are fine like they are.


No they are not. Combining disparate items into a single category needlessly complicates all sorts of things like stockpiling, job management, and furniture selection.

This
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Quote from: Dirst
For example, if you wanted to check if a unit was eligible to be a politician or a car salesman, you'd first want to verify that there is no soul present...

Quote from: gchristopher
The more appropriate question becomes, are they awesome and dwarven enough.

LordBaal

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Re: Separate boxes and bags?
« Reply #13 on: July 29, 2016, 08:31:21 pm »

They are fine like they are. Only I would like bags to be able to fit in bins and belonging to the finished goods piles instead of furniture (despite being able to be built like furniture) because empty bags should occupy the same room as a bed, a bin or a box (coffer, chest, whatever). Also I find that eventually you'll end up using more and more bags.

Heresy! Bins are just pure evil. They should be filled with magma, but that's too good for them. (yeah, I'm a quantum stockpile convert)

You do realize your suggestion, would require ops suggestion though, since that is more or less what is being proposed (bags to not be treated as furniture)

Well, I would like them to be able to build like furniture, but storaged like clothing inside bins.
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I'm curious as to how a tank would evolve. Would it climb out of the primordial ooze wiggling it's track-nubs, feeding on smaller jeeps before crawling onto the shore having evolved proper treds?
My ship exploded midflight, but all the shrapnel totally landed on Alpha Centauri before anyone else did.  Bow before me world leaders!

Qev

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Re: Separate boxes and bags?
« Reply #14 on: July 30, 2016, 01:08:44 am »

See, I'm separating boxes and bags by game mechanics here, instead of by their 'realistic' categorical similarities.  Boxes are never used as reagents, they're never carried around to pick up things, they never get put inside other things.  Likewise (though I can't speak for all players, obviously), bags practically never get used as storage furniture because boxes are vastly easier to produce.

Gameplay-wise, they're very different things that shouldn't be lumped together.  Also, as they are now, they're a serious pain in the ass in the new manager.  :P
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