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Author Topic: Is it possible to label levers?  (Read 762 times)

vertinox

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Is it possible to label levers?
« on: March 25, 2012, 02:32:54 pm »

Often I find myself wondering if this lever will perform a simple task or open the fort up to the horde of invaders outside.

I try to put all my levers in one geographical location so the dwarfs have easy access but it tends to backfire when I forget which lever is which.

NecroRebel

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Re: Is it possible to label levers?
« Reply #1 on: March 25, 2012, 02:37:15 pm »

Not directly. However, you can use the (N)otes function. Very, very useful for levers whose use isn't immediately obvious.
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BigD145

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Re: Is it possible to label levers?
« Reply #2 on: March 25, 2012, 04:55:38 pm »

Make a room for levers and build a color coded mini version of your map.

also (N)otes
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Antalia

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Re: Is it possible to label levers?
« Reply #3 on: March 25, 2012, 05:20:25 pm »

I document all my levers with (N)otes. I also do this with any other "machinery" or processes I set up, that might mystify me later. If I find myself using a certain lever a lot, I make a macro that does the job of creating the Pull task for me. Macros can have pretty long names, preventing me from abbreviating and then having to decipher what I meant later :)

This is probably a little advanced for the question at hand, but here is how I make lever macros.
  • Make sure you have a hotkey bound to set your view to a specific location.
  • Start recording a macro (default Ctrl+R).
  • Press the hotkey to center the view somewhere.
  • Press Q and move the cursor to the lever you want to activate, then press Shift+P to pull it (and R or whatever else is needed). Do this for all the levers you need to activate for the task.
  • Stop recording the macro (default Ctrl+R).
  • (Run the macro with Ctrl+P to make sure it works. Then remember to cancel any lever jobs it created.)
  • Save the macro (default Ctrl+S) and type in a name for the task, such as "Start outer spike repeater", "Activate all entrance drawbridges", "Reset obsidian farm", etc.
  • To load the macro later, use Ctrl+L to bring up the macro list, select the macro you want and press Enter, and press Ctrl+P to run it.
In my last fort I had one macro that I'd run when a siege came. It took care of setting the alerts and pulling three or four levers to start up the trap system. This worked very well, and I almost forgot where the levers were even located, sometimes. But, enough tantrums were happening (the fort was cursed) that the levers got destroyed every few months, and I had to rebuild them. The Notes I left for myself proved very handy so that I could replace the levers exactly where they were before, and then I didn't have to change my macros. Hooray for (N)otes!
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FrankMcFuzz

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Re: Is it possible to label levers?
« Reply #4 on: March 25, 2012, 05:49:28 pm »

The best way to figure out what a lever does

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
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