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Author Topic: Mining Notification Alternatives  (Read 1359 times)

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Mining Notification Alternatives
« on: December 10, 2008, 12:25:30 pm »

Hello everyone, just wanted to make a tiny suggestion which i feel might ever-so-slightly improve the most amazing game ever:

I would humbly request that the Toady One implement some options (a sub-menu in the "o: Set Orders and Options" screen) that would allow for some customization of the mining notifications.

On my computer, the game gets a little slower as the fortress grows, and i sometimes leave the dwarfs unattended to do some exploratory mining. It would be great if I didn't have to return to press a key every few minutes because I keep hitting some Orthoclase or Microcline etc. (which aren't particularly rare or exciting).

Perhaps a switch like "Pause for mining notifications" / "Do not pause for mining notifications"
While the pause is enabled, a sub-menu could be accessible, where in the same fashion as the custom stockpile screen, the player can select only the stones/ores/gems that they would like to be notified of when discovered.

Thank-you for listening and please keep up the great work.
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Neonivek

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Re: Mining Notification Alternatives
« Reply #1 on: December 10, 2008, 12:37:24 pm »

No arguements here... Personally I wonder why it already hasn't been implimented.
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Martian

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Re: Mining Notification Alternatives
« Reply #2 on: December 10, 2008, 01:39:50 pm »

This sounds good and simple to me.

Maybe not being able to disable a notification for every stone as that would be a long list. Categories would be nice e.g. "Metal ores" or "Semi-precious Gems".

Also, what about an option that makes it only pause once for each type of stone/gem. E.g. the first time you strike microcline it pauses, the second time it doesn't.

EDIT: Spelling
« Last Edit: December 10, 2008, 01:47:53 pm by Martian »
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Warlord255

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Re: Mining Notification Alternatives
« Reply #3 on: December 10, 2008, 01:50:16 pm »

Likewise, turning off the pause for warm stone/damp stone would be useful.
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Demonic Gophers

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Re: Mining Notification Alternatives
« Reply #4 on: December 10, 2008, 02:16:12 pm »

Likewise, turning off the pause for warm stone/damp stone would be useful.

Either that or better differentiating between warm/damp stone that is actually dangerous, and warm/damp stone that isn't a threat.
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Granite26

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Re: Mining Notification Alternatives
« Reply #5 on: December 10, 2008, 02:22:08 pm »

erm, that's a tough one, since you shouldn't KNOW what's safe or not.

I'd like to think that any open space should show you what's above and below it (thus you wouldn't get the discovery of warm/wet pause every square if you dug under the river because you'd KNOW), but some people like their forts to look perdy.  Maybe 'know' that any stone under the magma will be hot but don't show it?

Demonic Gophers

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Re: Mining Notification Alternatives
« Reply #6 on: December 10, 2008, 02:41:42 pm »

Yeah, that's the sort of thing I meant.  Not having to redesignate everything when digging a tunnel under a river, or carving out rooms for your magma-based industry.  It's admittedly a bit less realistic, but 'warm' and 'damp' stone are already rather vague, and it would get rid of a major nuisance that adds virtually no risk and difficulty.
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Warlord255

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Re: Mining Notification Alternatives
« Reply #7 on: December 10, 2008, 02:53:12 pm »

erm, that's a tough one, since you shouldn't KNOW what's safe or not.

I'd like to think that any open space should show you what's above and below it (thus you wouldn't get the discovery of warm/wet pause every square if you dug under the river because you'd KNOW), but some people like their forts to look perdy.  Maybe 'know' that any stone under the magma will be hot but don't show it?

The display thing is one thing, but for rivers, I agree. For damp stone, only do the warning for bodies of water which you don't know the edges of, such as aquifers.
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scribbler

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Re: Mining Notification Alternatives
« Reply #8 on: December 11, 2008, 02:51:30 pm »

It's been suggested, by myself among others, that all the notifications should have this option and more should be added including rock subtypes, completed designations, excessive or key idlers, etc. just so we can leave our system with a pile of work orders and not have to worry about it pausing for no reason or ignoring something important.
Only real problem, is that we can't sort the jobs list or construction/mining designations so the large selections slow the game down even more and cause dwarves to run all over instead of acting rationally (exploring while there are more pressing matters).
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Footkerchief

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Re: Mining Notification Alternatives
« Reply #9 on: December 11, 2008, 03:17:03 pm »

I'd be happy with a 3-setting option:
  • Notify whenever a new cluster is struck
  • Notify if it's the first time that rock has been struck
  • Don't notify
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scribbler

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Re: Mining Notification Alternatives
« Reply #10 on: December 11, 2008, 03:44:35 pm »

As a strictly mining option maybe it should be tacked onto the mine the vein suggestion and various options to override warm/damp stone.
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Re: Mining Notification Alternatives
« Reply #11 on: December 12, 2008, 01:20:18 pm »

I don't see why it has to stop the game at all. why isn't a message enough?

Just add "Kivish Grfblbberrenckle, Miner, has struck Orthoclase", so if i really want to see where this happened, I just hit U and select the dwarf.

The other day I set 3 legendary dwarfs to mine a new Z level. Paused every 3 seconds. Annoying when you arent' at the PC, and just as annoying when you are because it steals focus from what you are looking at and you have to find your way back.
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LegacyCWAL

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Re: Mining Notification Alternatives
« Reply #12 on: December 12, 2008, 03:10:42 pm »

Hell, Orthoclase and Microcline aren't even the worst.  At least there's some use that specifically requires them (making things out of different colors).  There's several rocks, however, that aren't even good for that, since they automatically lay within rock of the same value and color: calcite, chromite, serpentine, ilmenite, and puddingstone.  Talc and periclase also sit within stone of their color, but which are more valuable than them.
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TettyNullus

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Re: Mining Notification Alternatives
« Reply #13 on: December 12, 2008, 08:32:18 pm »

I don't see why it has to stop the game at all. why isn't a message enough?

Just add "Kivish Grfblbberrenckle, Miner, has struck Orthoclase", so if i really want to see where this happened, I just hit U and select the dwarf.

The other day I set 3 legendary dwarfs to mine a new Z level. Paused every 3 seconds. Annoying when you arent' at the PC, and just as annoying when you are because it steals focus from what you are looking at and you have to find your way back.


tell me about it, I once sent 6 inexperienced miners to explore a level, game got paused every couple minutes for every damn thing from ore, to gem, to coloured rocks. I swear strip-mining actually does that LESS often.
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0x517A5D

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Re: Mining Notification Alternatives
« Reply #14 on: December 13, 2008, 04:33:11 pm »

I envision something more general, because there are other messages (birth reports) that zoom to the location.

I would like to just have the report messages with no pauses, but I also would like all messages in the 'a' message page to have an X/Y/Z coordinate that can be manually zoomed to.

This would help in locating deaths and such, without getting in the way for each birth and mineral discovery.
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