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[JujuBubu]

Since I just sparked this Idea I write it down without checking around first.

I remember the great and wise Toady One once wrote on the topic of restacking in some voting poll that there are problems with quality, material and some other stuff concerning bolts and arrows which prevents him from putting stacks of bolts together again.

I remember him talking about virtual containers or data loss.

My Idea is to use Quiver as actual containers.

If this is old news, just stop reading, tell me so and I will shut up, if the idea is actual worth reading go on

If you use them like Barrels and Seed-bags the dwarfs could collect the bolts or arrows and put them into an empty or not completely filled Quiver. This way all the ammos information is kept, but one dwarf can still take a large number of stacks with him.
The Quiver would the be called Arrow Quiver or Bolt Quiver and put away in an ammo stockpile. There it can be stacked in bins like seed bags in barrels.
I don't know how seeds are handled, if there are no empty bags, but I suggest if there are not enough quivers the ammo should just be put in bins like it is  now.

I suggest a maximum of 100 bolts to fit into an quiver ( since with size 20 creatures, this is the largest stack possible ) and the same maximum for stacks .. so a dwarf can take 100 single bolt stacks with him.
I understand this will give quite a boost to the archers, but I want to avoid the problem large stacks of prepared meals have.

For sorting I suggest two things.
First make an option like the mixed food barrels .. every bolt goes into a quiver, no matter whats it made of or they are sorted by combat bolts ( metal ) and training bolts ( bone and wood )
Second : Custom Stockpiles.

I hope this could work in a way, that as much code as possible can be reused without making big changes. I think this would make the community really happy.

[JujuBubu]

I'm leaning toward not suppressing the information by using some extra objects (could use the same ones as the interface would I guess, though there are all sorts of ways to think about it).

Can't you just create a new "stack" container that would be created by stacking two objects of the same types (bolts, coins, ...) and destroyed when it contains only one object?

This is roughly what I meant by "extra objects", except for the "just" part.  The main point is that it's not only an interface problem.  If items are potentially contained in fake stack items, all the job handling needs to be revised to support that.  It's a bit less of a pain if you restrict to only coins or bolts say, but there are still things to be considered.  Take bolts for example.  Your guy wants to equip some.  First it needs to recognize the container as a valid ammo object.  Depending on exactly what you choose to stack, some members might not be as eligible as others -- what if some in the stack were forbidden, or tasked for a job, prior to stack formation, for example?  Those cases would need to be disallowed or handled.  Then the equipment checker needs to realize he's got the bolts when he places the container in his quiver.  Not so bad, possibly handled by current code, but something to check.  Now he wants to fire a bolt -- shooting needs to be rewritten to support bolts in the fake objects.  Sort of a piece of the quiver code already, maybe nothing needs to be touched at all, but takes some checking and testing.  There are side issues like valuations and stocks screen stuff, which might be handled already, and other thises and thats (environmental functions would need to be taught about fake containers -- rain for example should get the bolts wet, but currently there's no mechanism for jumping through a container on the ground to get the inside stuff wet, I think, since containers are generally real -- not hard, but yet another issue), as well as any applicable storage jobs, which run into some of the first problems I mentioned.  As you get to other objects, like food, you inherit more difficulties (vermin need to see and realize that they can eat food in stacks for free, etc. etc.).  As far as I can tell, the problem is not super difficult, and a lot of the issues just need a nudge one way or the other, or no nudge at all, but there are a Lot of issues that turn this into a tedious and long haul.  There's generally more to do and check than people expect.

found it ..  not so good idea after all *sigh* .. I should have checked first

[Draco18s]

My Idea is to use Quiver as actual containers.

They are.
They hold several dozen bolts.
Marksdwarves will pick up multiple stacks in an attempt to fill the quiver.
Sometimes (most of the time) it doesn't work.

[JujuBubu]

Yeah, I thought more of a storage container, not a carry container like water skins ..
but since the topic is done for anyways

[Star Weaver]

I don't know, there's a large difference between treating quivers and arrows like seeds and seed bags (what you suggest) and creating a totally new kind of meta-container used to make the concept of "a pile of stuff that's not in a container but is all together" (what toady was talking about).

I mean, you'd still need to change some things (e.g. making dwarves swap full quivers on the ground for getting-low quivers in their inventory periodically, and players would probably have to make a a bunch of spare quivers to stock a magazine chamber), but it *sounds* like what you're talking about is different, simpler, and could only affect ammo rather than being obviously extensible to all items.