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[Tonren]

Howdy!  I know that a lot of interface improvements are already slated, but my brain started melting as I tried to cross-reference all hundred requirement docs.  I think I have a few good ideas here, so I hope they are not redundant.  I love this game, and I'd be delighted to see some of these changes made as it moves forward.

• Consistent Menu Navigation: Right now there are six different ways to navigate menus: the numpad arithmetic keys, the numpad number keys, the arrow keys, or any combination of the three.  Sometimes you can switch menus with Left & Right or 4 & 6, but sometimes you're supposed to control different parts of the screen with different scrolling keys.
  
  This is kind of useful when you're querying dwarves, because you can navigate between dwarves with the numpad keys while scrolling down their inventories or labor lists with * and /.  However, there needs to be more consistency between screens.
  
  Example 1: On the Custom Stockpile screen, why are there hotkeys for each column of selections?  There should be three keys only: Forbid Entire Column, Allow Entire Column and Toggle Current Item.  You can only focus your "cursor" on one item in one column at a time, and the controls should reflect that.
  
  Example 2: In the Stockpile options sub-menu, you must use (I think) cvCV and some other keys to change the amount of reserved bins & barrels.  This scheme should be brought into the consistency fold as well, using -+ to select which option and 4/6 or Left/Right to increase or decrease.
  
  Example 3: (credit to qwert) Designating a downward stairway is d-j, but building one is b-C-d.
  
  
• Labor Assignment: It should be easier to get a sense of how many dwarves are assigned to what.  When you build a workshop, you can see a count of how many of each shop you've already built.  Low hanging fruit: There should be a similar count on each dwarf's labor menu.  "Oh, I don't need to assign this dwarf to fish cleaning--there are already 6 of them!"  Wishlist: There should also be a better interface for querying labor settings and skill settings.  For example, a screen where you can find all dwarves that are above a certain skill level for, say, Farming, and bulk assign their labor.
  
  
• Searching: There is an excellent search interface... in 15% of the screens.  Implement the "type to narrow" search in as many screens as possible, because it rules.
  
  
• Power User Features: This will out me as a pedantic programmer type, but I'd love to be able to go into "Vim mode" and type "d<ENTER>10l<ENTER>" to designate a 10-long block of mining.  That is, the ability to type a number followed by a "command gesture" to perform that gesture an arbitrary amount of times.  This would make dumping swathes of leftover rock much easier, too.
  
  Also, in-game macros or building patterns are a must.  These should be persistent between regions, games, etc., and should be editable.  Once you decide on how to build a reservoir or how to design your dwarves' apartments, you shouldn't have to resort to third-party tools to avoid carpal tunnel as you replicate the design.
  
  
• Building Planning: It's easy to plan out large amounts of mined territory because you can designate as much as you want, even if the designated areas are inaccessible.  However, as soon as you try to build without having everything 100% ready, you're S.O.L.  You should be able to place "requisitions" for buildings whether you have to materials or not; if you don't have the materials, it should simply be reflected in the building's query message.  For example, "DOOR: Construction inactive: Needs door."  Or, "DOOR: Construction inactive: Needs adjacent wall."  Or, "DOOR: Construction inactive: Blocked."
  
  This way, you could designate entire building complexes in one swoop, without having to wait for materials to be completed.  You could even, for example, place a well without an open space, and construction wouldn't begin until you channeled out that space.
  
  
• Other Consistency Issues: t, q, z, c, b.  All of these can be used to zoom to a menu item.  As a result, figuring out WHICH zoom key you need to use, and which menu you want to zoom to, makes things go very slowly.  Maybe there should just be one zoom key, z, which changes use depending on the menu you're in.  In the rooms menu, it zooms to a query of the building; in the job view, it zooms to a view of the dwarf, and so on.
  
  Sometimes, you can escape a screen with F9 instead of Space.  Why?
  
  
• Saner default stockpiles: The game would be easier and more fun if stockpiles were based on buildings.  A kitchen stockpile could hold meat, but not seeds; a dining room stockpile could hold only prepared food; a fishery stockpile could hold raw but not processed fish.  You could still allow custom stockpile preparation for unusual cases, but the default stockpiles should be used to give players a sense of "what goes where".
  
  
• Nonstandard, Arbitrary Control Schemes: (credit to pilsu) The use of UMKH to interact with farm plots & embark locations is cumbersome.  I would recommend either removing this and replacing it with Shift + Standard key (shift + right to widen, shift + left to thin, etc.), or recalling the /-*+ scheme, or using another existing 4-way key standard, such as WASD or Vim's HJKL.
  

OK.  I'll probably end up with more eventually, and again, I hope I've brought some new ideas, instead of rehashing stuff in the requirement docs.  Thanks for reading!  What do you guys think?

Edit: You can vote for these improvements at Eternal Voting under "Interface Improvements II".  Just do a page search for ii and it'll come right up.

[Footkerchief]

There should be a similar count on each dwarf's labor menu.  "Oh, I don't need to assign this dwarf to fish cleaning--there are already 6 of them!"

This is an extremely good idea.  For maximum clarity, the number should immediately go up when you enable a labor, or down when you disable it.

Saner default stockpiles: The game would be easier and more fun if stockpiles were based on buildings.  A kitchen stockpile could hold meat, but not seeds; a dining room stockpile could hold only prepared food; a fishery stockpile could hold raw but not processed fish.  You could still allow custom stockpile preparation for unusual cases, but the default stockpiles should be used to give players a sense of "what goes where".

I like this too, but there is a slight ambiguity -- "kitchen stockpile," taken on its own, could mean either the input or output of the kitchen.  So maybe the names could be a little more explicit -- "uncooked foods stockpile," "raw fish stockpile," "raw hide stockpile," etc.

[Tonren]

Saner default stockpiles: The game would be easier and more fun if stockpiles were based on buildings.  A kitchen stockpile could hold meat, but not seeds; a dining room stockpile could hold only prepared food; a fishery stockpile could hold raw but not processed fish.  You could still allow custom stockpile preparation for unusual cases, but the default stockpiles should be used to give players a sense of "what goes where".

I like this too, but there is a slight ambiguity -- "kitchen stockpile," taken on its own, could mean either the input or output of the kitchen.  So maybe the names could be a little more explicit -- "uncooked foods stockpile," "raw fish stockpile," "raw hide stockpile," etc.

Glad you liked the other idea!  I think I could have been clearer for this one.  My intention was explaining that each stockpile would correspond to the building that would use its contents.  So a "kitchen stockpile" would have stuff that the kitchen wants to use: fat, unprepared meats & fish, etc., whereas a "dining room stockpile" would have "finished meals" only.  I think it probably comes down to a matter of preference - your naming convention is clearer, but "kitchen" and "dining room" are parallel to the room names.

[Nesoo]

Sometimes, you can escape a screen with F9 instead of Space.  Why?

Because the spacebar is a valid input key on that page, so something else needs to be used to exit it. (Though I will admit that I find this particularly annoying... every single time I'm in the trade depot screen I hit the spacebar when I'm done, then remember that it's F9 when nothing happens.)

This would make dumping swathes of leftover rock much easier, too.

You do know about the dump designation, right? (d, b, d)

That said, I can see uses for this as well

#5: Building Planning

Yes, please! As it is, I frequently just wait until I have all the furniture I'll need for a section before I go placing any so I can get it all done in one job instead of constantly going back there as miners dig out more area or more furniture is available, etc. I'd probably go a step further and say that you could place building plans in unmined areas and that they should be an implicit dig designation (or channel for wells). If you don't have materials of a specific category available (block, wood, stone, metal bar, etc.), you should be able to select the category and it will allocate the first materials in that category to become available (I say this largely because I want every workshop to be made of blocks, not rough stones).

[Tonren]

Sometimes, you can escape a screen with F9 instead of Space.  Why?

Because the spacebar is a valid input key on that page, so something else needs to be used to exit it. (Though I will admit that I find this particularly annoying... every single time I'm in the trade depot screen I hit the spacebar when I'm done, then remember that it's F9 when nothing happens.)

Exactly my point, good sir!   

This would make dumping swathes of leftover rock much easier, too.

You do know about the dump designation, right? (d, b, d)

You are my HERO.  You just saved me from early onset carpal tunnel syndrome!  Though to be fair, "Dump" is in no way implied by "Set Building Proper".  What does that even mean?

Thanks for the input!  Excellent ideas.

I say this largely because I want every workshop to be made of blocks, not rough stones

Why is this important...?

[Andir]

I say this largely because I want every workshop to be made of blocks, not rough stones

Why is this important...?

It's not.  Personal preference.

I like the idea of building a building where you want it.  There's a few catches.  How do you determine the materials available?  How would you designate a Masons Workshop if you haven't mined any stone yet.  (For instance, I like using colored stones so the workshops stick out.  What if I've only mined Dolomite [light gray]?)

It would also require an extra step to select the material type (like you do now without the blocks listed) and a material form screen (defaulted to raw) to select raw or blocked material for those that prefer to build this way.  It's just one extra step.  The game would have to determine the possible forms available for said material and present the player with a submenu.

[Pilsu]

You can probably link mass job editing to the job title since they can be customized

Resizing fields and embark locales with the umkh is a pain in the ass

[Jurph]

2. Labor Assignment: It should be easier to get a sense of how many dwarves are assigned to what.  When you build a workshop, you can see a count of how many of each shop you've already built.  Low hanging fruit: There should be a similar count on each dwarf's labor menu.  "Oh, I don't need to assign this dwarf to fish cleaning--there are already 6 of them!"  Wishlist: There should also be a better interface for querying labor settings and skill settings.  For example, a screen where you can find all dwarves that are above a certain skill level for, say, Farming, and bulk assign their labor.

I love being able to use the arrow keys to look at dwarves' status, but I think there's room in the interface for a few other options.  While in (U)nits, (C)lose-up view, (P)references, (L)abors, I'd like to be able to jump focus to

• Next dwarf with this profession name
• Next dwarf with the highlighted labor enabled
• Next dwarf on the population list
• Dwarf with the highest skill in the highlighted labor

The same interface could be extended to (U)nits (C)lose-up (W)ounds:

• Next slightly wounded dwarf
• Next grievously wounded dwarf
• Next unconscious/thirsty/hungry/flaming dwarf

(only active when looking at a dwarf with that specific problem, perhaps?)
[/list]

[Tonren]

You can probably link mass job editing to the job title since they can be customized

You mean, link a job or bunch of jobs to a particular job title, and then choosing from that list?

That's pretty cool.

Resizing fields and embark locales with the umkh is a pain in the ass

I agree.  If that kind of control scheme stays, it ought to be changed to an existing standard, like WASD or Vim's HJKL.  I'm going to add this to the OP, if you don't mind.

[Tonren]

I love being able to use the arrow keys to look at dwarves' status, but I think there's room in the interface for a few other options.  While in (U)nits, (C)lose-up view, (P)references, (L)abors, I'd like to be able to jump focus to... snip

This idea could be very convenient, but I think it also has the potential to add a lot of screen clutter and complexity to the interface.  I can't think of any great design solutions off the top of my head... maybe if you use chords like p] for next w/ profession, l] for next w/ labor, d] for next dwarf on the list, and p[, l[, d[ to go back?  Hmmm...

[qwert]

• Consistent Menu Navigation
  

I would like the designation and building constructions menus to be consistent.

For example a dug down stair is(d-j), but a constructed one is (b-C-d).

[scribbler]

I love being able to use the arrow keys to look at dwarves' status, but I think there's room in the interface for a few other options.  While in (U)nits, (C)lose-up view, (P)references, (L)abors, I'd like to be able to jump focus to... snip

This idea could be very convenient, but I think it also has the potential to add a lot of screen clutter and complexity to the interface.  I can't think of any great design solutions off the top of my head... maybe if you use chords like p] for next w/ profession, l] for next w/ labor, d] for next dwarf on the list, and p[, l[, d[ to go back?  Hmmm...

We don't need to show all the commands, I think there are a few places where letters that aren't show still work. Or what about an advanced tag option? Set to Basic, it shows only the basic commands (the advanced ones for more experienced players still work). Set to advanced it shows the advanced instead. Set to off it leaves all the commands out and uses the extra line or two.
Most games don't have lists of hot keys on screen, except as maybe tool tips. We need a hot key card (and consistent keys, why is making a coffin a p but setting it up an n?).

[Draco18s]

You are my HERO.  You just saved me from early onset carpal tunnel syndrome!  Though to be fair, "Dump" is in no way implied by "Set Building Proper".  What does that even mean?

The full command is:
Set Building/Item Properties

[perilisk]

It's not exactly the same aspect of the interface, though hopefully it would be easy to implement, but, on setting the window mode, it would be great if the displays all took advantage of the grid size settings. Right now I'm playing on a 200 by 100 grid and it's just sad seeing the world view scrunched up in the corner of the screen, or realizing that I have enough space on the trade screen to see full names, but can't, or that I could probably see most of the labors on one page, but still have to flip through all of them, and so on. There might be some bizarre init setting that I don't know of, but this should be automatic behavior. So much screen space is wasted right now.

Also, t should go away. Just... go away.

[SolarShado]

What's wrong with t? the only problem i have with it is that there's no easy way to switch between a building's t and q views.

I was thinking last night how nice it'd be to use the "filter on string" for adv. mode's wrestling.