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[Twinkler]

Hi,
I really like DF, it is a great creative outlet with the necessary complexity that other base building games do not offer to feel like so much more than just a sandbox.

Been playing it for 2 years off and on and am still a newbie..

One big issue I have with this game is stock management. I like to know how much of every item I have across my fort but the UI won't give up that information easily to me.

For example, I want to check on how my textile industry is doing. Then I check the stocks screen, scroll down to thread, scroll up again to cloth and then go to the kitchen screen and check how many pig tails I have left. And this is just to check on 3 materials. Now I also want to know how much of each piece of clothing I have? Forgetaboutit. The way sorting is done makes it impossible to get the number of unworn pig tail socks in my fort at a glance. In dfhack it's split up by quality, so I have to count everything together to get a total, doing this for all pieces of clothing is so tedious I never bothered to check my clothing stocks in my last fort. (Can I change that in dfhack?)

I really wish there was an easier way to quickly get the amounts of items in your fort. Rimworld does it well, for what it's worth. The items are broken up by category and sorted by item count. You just expand a section and get a good overview over the most abundant items in your base. Trying to do the same in DF takes me way too long.

This really puts a break on my enjoyment of the game. How many times have I thought "Gee, I wonder how many weapons/smeltable items/specific meals I have by now?" but the thought of the effort required to extract that info from the game hit me like a brick wall every time.

How do you guys manage to stay on top of your production chains?

[Starver]

When (if?) you expand the stocklist with the Tab¹ the individual items may get coloured to indicate owned/worn vs not-owned/not-worn. It still means tallying up those 'free' by cursoring through², but it's doable.

Alternately, use the new Job Automation feature to set up a faux-job that works only if there are N-or-more(/less) unused socks? Use a figure of interest, to start with and it'll tell you if it's currently "true". And if you want to find out the exact figure, change that by halving the difference between that and other bounds³. If that works for 'free socks' or whatever you need.

If it does and it is, then you could go the extra hog and actually keep the automation job (for the "not enough end-product? Then make some if there's the component materials", leaving you just to check the root (or limited chain of) components that are also necessary but haven't managed to chain-automate in turn.


I think that works. But I'm sure someone not currently on the move can confirm or refute anything/everything I've suggested.


¹ Is it tab? I think so, but I'm not there to check, just going by what feels right in my free-floating fingers.

² Luckily, I think the list gets primarily sorted by the colour, before sub-sorted by quality or MATgtype. But, even if not, you can skip over the reds (visitor socks?) onto the next set that you need to count, easily enough. Unless you're talking triple-digits of interest embedded around quadruple-digits of all possibilities, maybe.

³ Initially you might use zero or double the first value, according to direction you need to head. And may have to double again (multiple times) if you severely underestimated the count. But as soon as you've leapfrogged it then just go half-way between the two established near-but-different figures. It's a fairly efficient search. But you can use multiples/divisors of 10 or other handy jumps if you prefer easier head-calculations along the way.

[Twinkler]

This is totally an answer I would expect from a fellow DF player. But is that how you personally keep track of stocks? Maybe my issue is caring about such things in the first place.

If other players play the game without knowing exactly the whereabouts of every sock in the fort, then I'd like to hear your perspective on it too.

I just want to get this thorn out of my butt in whatever way

[TubaDragoness]

The issue is mostly the sheer amount of information the game has to offer, I think. Perhaps a search filter on the stocks screen would help, along with a toggle to only count available items (not in a building, forbidden, or belonging to a visitor)? That shouldn't be too crazy, given that the game already knows to color code them and can search for particular units/materials/creatures in other menus.

As for how I personally stay on top of things, I don't worry so much about exactly how many I have as much as "do I have enough?" I use the job manager to produce a set amount of brand new clothes of each type every month, and then occasionally check dwarves to see if they're mad about worn clothing. If they are, I look at how we're falling short and increase workers, slated jobs, or raw material production. Things like furniture and mechanisms are easy to check by trying to place one, and tend to be required in bursts as I expand rather than constantly draining.

You could also use stockpile settings to finely sort items. This pile has ONLY socks that are considered wearable, this one has robes, etc. Ones that are worn out hang out on the bedroom floors or in the refuse stockpile, so they shouldn't interfere with "eyeballing" your stockpile. Obviously works better in more mature forts, since it takes a lot of real estate.

[Starver]

This is totally an answer I would expect from a fellow DF player.

Imagonna take this as a compliment, ok?

But is that how you personally keep track of stocks? Maybe my issue is caring about such things in the first place.

Sometimes: never quite what you asked about, and the thing I mostly count is available booze/foods of no particular type (which is explicit enough before stocks) and named-stone blocks (If it's less than 99, I can discover that fact by trying to build something and get the count in the Construction-MAT chooser - and switch to specific-item-chooser mode to discover the closest distances even).  But I check the detailed stocklist every now and then and I've played with Job-Automation rules to start a job at slightly-off-the-cut-off levels because I want it to kick in/not kick in straight away with the current value just being found to be half-way between where I will put it and where I start it at.

And maybe it is: but I don't see it as an 'issue'. I like building consistent FOO-block walls/floors, etc, to a CDO¹ pattern, even where it doesn't matter and might never matter and (in my decision that it does matter) doing so makes it more awkward or time-consuming. I care less about clothing (except maybe a single-species of leather as a 'fortress speciality' for leather things'n'thongs). It's all horses for tanning courses, as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway, yes, that was just me and my ideas. If others have something different in mind (especially while sat in front of the game to check details), I'm sure they'll add/amend.  (As happened, while this was sitting unsent during my late lunch.)

¹ Like OCD. But in alphabetical order!

[Sarmatian123]

Book Keep with precise count bean assigned to a chair with table. Then z and stock in menu. That's how I do it. Else I have quantum stockpiles and I don't panic for running out of storage space. Only issue left are food things with their perilous barrels/pots.

[sketchesofpayne]

The extensions of DFhack in the Lazy Newb Pack offer a more in-depth, searchable stocks screen.  You can sort by name and flags.  For instance you can search 'trousers' then filter out those currently worn or owned.  You can further filter by how worn out they are.

For certain items I track them visually by looking at the stockpiles.  If my clothing stockpile is getting empty I order up new sets of clothes to be made.  Have very specific stockpiles helps with this.  I don't have general 'food' stockpiles.  I have seed stockpiles with barrels set to zero, I have a meat stockpile, plant stockpile, prepared meals stockpile, and booze stockpile.  I also subdivide my furniture and finished goods stockpiles.  (Also ban or limit the number of bins in a stockpile.)

The thing I check most frequently in the stocks menu is the 'bars' category.  Metal bars are difficult to track visually in a stockpile as many of them are the same color. 

Honestly the thing I'm working on is curtailing over-production of goods.  Cutting down on the total number of items keeps your FPS high.  By not running industry at full capacity all the time leaves dwarves more time to socialize.

[mikekchar]

I don't really keep track of things very well, but the way I satisfy my OCD is by having *very few things* in my fortress.  I play without containers (with a few exceptions) and no QSP.  I have very specific stockpiles and I know exactly how much is in there because I can see it.  For example I have 5 pig tail thread.  In my whole fortress.

Again, it's my personal playing style (which was asked for, so I'll oblige), but I automate everything I can with the manager.  I also keep my stock levels super low.  I don't make pig tail thread unless I need pig tail cloth.  I don't make pig tail cloth unless I need clothes that need pig tail cloth (I arbitrarily decide which clothes are make out of which cloth -- trousers are made out of wool, shirts out of pig tail cloth, shoes out of rope reed cloth, etc).  I have manager orders that kick in when my inventory gets below a certain level -- so for cloth and thread, I usually keep 5 of each around.  When I make a shirt, it uses a pig tail cloth.  This generates a manger job that makes another pig tail cloth.  This uses a pig tail thread which generates a manager job for processing a plant (at a farm workstation that *only* processes pigtails).  This uses a pig tail in a stockpile linked to the workshop (which is usually only 2-3 tiles).  This stockpile takes from the main pigtail stockpile (which unfortunately can't use containers due to "works as designed, but I think is a bug" issues ;-) ).  I can see how many pigtails are in there and judge if I need to fallow the fields in the next season.

I do that with *everything* in my fortress.  Unfortunately there are still a lot of things you can't inspect (for example, how many shirts you actually need :-().  For things like shirts, I make a stockpile which can take containers.  I take from the clothes shop (and *don't* take from anywhere) and only allow shirts.  Occasionally I look in the container and I can see how many shirts are in there -- it will only be new ones that I made.  If I'm getting low, I manually order some more. 

I often use the Stocks screen too, but when I want specific answers, I look in stockpiles.  If the stockpiles aren't organised well enough to answer my question, then I blame myself.  I often say that DF is a bit like a "tidy simulator".  My fortresses are *far* more tidy than my real house.  I think my wife's jaw would drop if she saw what I do in DF...

[Starver]

As well as eventually (well, beyond the played limit of a game, but aspirationally so!) having highly specific stockpiles for absolutely all things, in cases (for example) where two reagents are needed in a production then 'that' production source stockpile is often made to be two stockpiles, checkerboarded. Define an area for (say) copper bars, then destockpile every other tile of it and lay an area for tin over it (to refill the gaps just made), making both as the bronze-maker's source. One glance shows how comparatively healthy the respective supply chains are, and where efforts or resytraints might be necessary.

(If Cu/Sn are desired for other paths, I suffer a bit of alternation or favoured-restocking elsewhere, usually I only go into this enterprise when I'm certain I can boost extraction/whatever to ensure even a second/third-choice of logistic supply gets a share. For one-to-many supplies, like the containers needed for all possible alcohols, I might just 'hub' the production facility(/ies) with that common element and surround that with equal-to-hub splotches dedicated to the specific variations of counterpart reagents.)

Not that this applies to socks. As I said, I'm much less focussed on that, though I may do some JIT methods, or maybe JTL

[Schmaven]

I usually just overproduce what I need, then trade the most worn items each season for anything steel to melt into weapons and armor.  To keep track of steel armor inventory, I have individual stockpiles for each armor type disallowing bins so I can visually see it quickly.

[Twinkler]

Now I feel stupid because I was using stockpiles for checking on stocks visually but then one guy made fun of me on reddit for not using bins and I stopped doing it.

Thank you for your replies, especially mikekchar. I will read over everything a few times and hopefully I can find a system for myself to fully enjoy DF

[Sarmatian123]

Now I feel stupid because I was using stockpiles for checking on stocks visually but then one guy made fun of me on reddit for not using bins and I stopped doing it.

Bins are evil. I stay away from bins. They just spam-generate canceled jobs warning messages. I use quantum stockpiles instead. You should too. Then you can ridicule that one guy in reddit back with vengeance. 

[anewaname]

Bins work, QS work... Choose for yourself!

[Starver]

Qubins?

[sketchesofpayne]

Now I feel stupid because I was using stockpiles for checking on stocks visually but then one guy made fun of me on reddit for not using bins and I stopped doing it.

Bins are evil. I stay away from bins. They just spam-generate canceled jobs warning messages. I use quantum stockpiles instead. You should too. Then you can ridicule that one guy in reddit back with vengeance. 

Bins are fine for most things.  Excellent for bar/block stockpiles, thread, cloth, leather, gems, and goods you intend to sell.  There is a bug at the moment where dwarves sometimes have a blind spot for clothes or armor in bins and will fail to equip them.  Hopefully it will be fixed in the next update.