I recently tried a fortress with no dwarven trade, and it was fun for a while, but eventually I got very annoyed at the lack of basic control over the items in the fortress.
I can't melt things and I can't chasm things. Piles of small clothing and copper short swords are littering everything from the hordes of kobolds. Why should you be required to have a bookkeeper just to give an order to melt down or throw away an item?
So my suggestion is added functionality to the 'k' menu, where you look at items. It could be set up similar to the broker list in that hitting 'c' flags an item to be chasmed and puts a little grey C beside the item, and 'm' adds a red M and flags it to be melted. A similar functionality would need to be added to the container view, when you 'k' and select a bin or barrel to look at the contents. It could be set up the same way with 'c' chasming and 'm' melting. This way you could do basic tasks like getting rid of garbage or melting down specific items much more easily.
The broker would still be a desirable noble for the list of items he can display and the ability to see values of items, so it would not take away from his usefulness.
This change would also allow you to selectively chasm items blocking doors, such as rocks, or melt down/chasm items left by an invader without having to navigate through the broker list.
Extra functionality could also be added to generate hauling jobs on specific items, for instance a button to move an item from one place to another. You could highlight the item in the 'k' menu and press a certain key, and it would tell you to select a destination. You would then select the destination, similar to how you tell soldiers where to move or set which stockpile to take from, and the job would be placed into the job list for whatever item type you are trying to move. Then when a free hauler comes by he will move the item to the selected location. And if there was a coding problem with setting a location without being a physical building/stockpile, it could instead be set to a go to a specific stockpile or workshop, disregarding what the stockpile is set to store. For instance, I could press 'k', hit a key to move the item, for instance 'p', and then select a stockpile or workshop to move it to - this could be done by either physically clicking on the stockpile, or through a list of stockpiles similar to the list of bridges when linking a lever to a bridge.
Another function that would be very useful is the ability to claim items owned by dwarves. This could be done on the specific item's menu where it shows the owner, and it would erase the owner and make it a common held item again. This would also generate a unhappy thought based on the value of the item you are claiming from them. If it is a ragged piece of clothing that you are chasming, they won't mind too much. But if it is a valuable craft that they bought from the shop, they will be unhappy.
If these functions were added, it would greatly enhance the player's control over his fortress. I don't believe this has been mentioned before - I couldn't find a topic on it, but if it has I'm sorry.
Thoughts, opinions, criticisms?
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Topic: Basic Item Controls (Read 589 times)