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[OverrideB1]

Are there any plans to include a way of prioritising mundane tasks?

What I mean is:
I want my Dwarven minions to collect and store ore and wood, rather than collecting and storing stone. At present, every task seems to carry the same weighting -- although stone-collection seems to have a higher weighting than any other task.

I'm not asking for (or even expecting) a Dwarf by Dwarf schedule of mundane tasks - just a way of telling the bearded little twerps that now is wood collection time rather than stone collection time

[Metalax]

In the orders, o, menu you can select to gather/ignore wood, minerals (ore and stone) and various others. I'd preper if ore and stone were separated on this menu however.

[OverrideB1]

I can get them to totally ignore stuff -- which is fine after a fashion. But what I'd really like is a way to tell them:
If there's some ore, take that, if not, then take wood, then take gems, then take stone... etc. Rather than run the risk of forgetting what I've set in the 'O' menu and berating the screen because they seem to be doing something stupid.

[Rakoth]

Prioritizing priorities.  That'd be fairly useful, actually...  Set wood/ore collection to be higher than mineral, but lower than furniture construction (Although building/shop construction is more important than any.)  As for a instance.

That'd be very handy, now that we get down to it - That way you'd never have idle dwarves and everyone might get paid something for at least hauling.

[Momaw]

Suggestion:
On "Jobs" list, add the command "Rush this job". The nearest dwarf that can do this job will select as their next task, regardless of the internal priority logic.

Suggestion:
On "Jobs" list, before you have access to the Manager, allow the setting of broad priorities: Food, Industry, Construction, Hauling. Dwarves looking for a new job will prefer jobs under whatever category you assign. Once you have the Manager, you can also choose up to 10 tasks to be given special preference, like "Wood hauling", "Seed planting", or "Brewing".

[Chthon]

Doesn't the manager allow for this?

[segmose]

If you set a priority it could possible starve other tasks like cooking or mining or whatever.

The idea with rush this or maybe better have the manager also manage haul jobs sounds better.

[OverrideB1]

quote:Originally posted by Momaw:
<STRONG>Suggestion:
On "Jobs" list, add the command "Rush this job". The nearest dwarf that can do this job will select as their next task, regardless of the internal priority logic.

Suggestion:
On "Jobs" list, before you have access to the Manager, allow the setting of broad priorities: Food, Industry, Construction, Hauling. Dwarves looking for a new job will prefer jobs under whatever category you assign. Once you have the Manager, you can also choose up to 10 tasks to be given special preference, like "Wood hauling", "Seed planting", or "Brewing".</STRONG>

I really, really like the second idea - that's exactly what I was thinking

[Maximus]

Having rewritten much of the Hauling page on the wiki recently, I've been thinking about this problem too.  Based on how I keep tweaking all my dwarves' labor settings, I think all the Hauling labors could be jettisoned in place of just one ("Hauling"), with a separate menu where you could assign a priority to each type of hauling.  

This schema could probably be extended into a full job-prioritizing system (covering all tasks/labors, not just hauling).

[Markavian]

Prioritizing job orders sound great. I would have it work across all jobs, then keep the current 'job task' page (switching tasks on/off)

On that note, the job task pane could be neatened up... only list active jobs, and then 'add' jobs to the list with a 'type to find job type' filter (a post for the UI improvement thread me thinks).

[Valarauka]

Job priorities would be VERY VERY useful; right now there's way too much micro involved if you want any kind of efficiency from your workers. However, the best solution imo is individual dwarf-centric, rather than having to do with the overall fortress job-list:

In the dwarves' labor menu (c-p-l) along with being able to turn professions on and off, have the list be arrangable like the workshop job lists are; so if you want a weaponsmith you'll just put "Weaponsmithing" at the top, then Armorsmithing, Metalcrafting, then everything else in whatever order.

How the jobs then work is simple: each dwarf checks the outstanding jobs list for one matching his top priority profession - if found, he gets to work on it; if not, he checks for the next priority jobtype, and so on down the list.

This way, all the work gets done, by the dwarves you want doing the work; but they can also do other stuff instead of sitting around idle (or having to be micromanaged). The simplest (and most useful) example: you can leave "item hauling" on for everyone at lowest priority, and they'll automatically haul when they have none of their real work to do (and ONLY then).

[ February 27, 2007: Message edited by: Valarauka ]

[Tylui]

A priority labors list instead of selectable labors?  I think that would defeat the purpose of the idlers, and short of watching the units menu, how could you tell who's doing what they're supposed to?

Having just a haulers job that encompasses all of hauling doesn't sound like a great idea to me.  Then everyone would do one specific type of hauling, and I don't really think that's a great idea...  What if I WANT to have a few dwarves hauling stone while the rest haul food?

I think this thread has put together some good stuff in my mind, and so here's my contribution:

Change the labors list so that you can select which jobs they do(IE: How it is).  BUT!  When the labors are selected, they'll move to the top of the list.  Those that are selected can further be manipulated and moved to the top/bottom/middle of the list for priority's sake.  That way you can have a leatherer who will always butcher an animal only if the leathering AND tanning jobs are canceled.  Also, you won't have your legendary mason running out to pick up some dead body just to trampled by a herd of elephants.

It would also be nice if the jobs in workshops weren't cancelled when there aren't any ingredients left, but if they were suspended...

P.S.  This is my first post on the DF Forums!

[ February 27, 2007: Message edited by: Tylui ]

[ February 27, 2007: Message edited by: Tylui ]

[Valarauka]

@Tylui: You basically just repeated exactly what I said...

[Tylui]

Huh... Wow... I... DID say the exact same thing...  I didn't even notice. 

[Puzzlemaker]

We need job priorities!

Bleh!