Thank you for the attention, and now on with the topic...
let's face it, stockpile is one of the core elements in Dwarf mode gameplay and it is far from perfect. Try creating a stockpile to accept only fat and not extract and you get what I mean.... LOL
Of course, stockpiles weren't the most serious problem.. Labor management is... or was, until the coming of Dwarf foreman/manager/Therapist. I think that is an example of how a tool becomes integral to game play (no labor manager, no gameplay for me.... at least not without restricting total population to like 20...) Now, I was hoping that stockpiles could be similarly tackled.
To start of, this is a modest list of features that could be helpful, other more advanced ones can be built on later... Only the first point is essential at the moment. The 2nd point onwards are just for ideas and Christmans wishes...
1) Copy/Paste/Import/Export stockpile settings. Sometimes, after you've taken like 10 minutes like going through the list of "fat"s of a hundred creatures, you don't want to go through it again when you find you need to create another similar stockpile. The custom stockpile is not really that useful for this. It would be useful if we can just say point a cursor at a stockpile and copy the settings (export to external files if need be to be imported in later if we want) and then point at another stockpile and "paste" the settings. I think that exact stockpile structure is only static per world-gen, but we can expect that users will only copy/paste/import/export within compatibles... bonus if tool can persistently remember preset/previously-exported stockpile settings e.g. "Bins", "Barrels", "Masterwork Steel Weapons", "Artifacts-Only" etc.. a good library of stockpile settings is .... well, I'll leave it for you to judge how useful it could be to you.
2) Extend/Merge stockpile (and of lesser priority, reshaping/moving stockpile). This is actually more of a convenience if the 1st point is already available. Currently, to "extend" a stockpile.. we have to remove existing one and rezone another on top, then proceed to laborously copy the stockpile settings from human memory. 1) relieves the player memory part, by pasting in complex settings previously captured. To take it even a step further, let player just indicate where to extend (or in general, reshape or even move the stockpile to another place entirely) with all the settings in-tact.
3) Potential advanced/dangerous options (Not likely to be feasible, but just for fun...)
Currently stockpile taking from other stockpile have the following limitations:
a) Each "giver" stockpile can be the source of only exactly one "taker" stockpile. No "distribution".
b) There is no control over the quantity in the stockpile.
Without requiring new in-game features, we can make use of the stockpile's "take from" if we can somehow gain a list of items from within each the stockpile (help from mem hackers). Then have the utility set up simple checking rules that activate periodically and changes the in-game "take-from" accordingly if conditions are satisfied. e.g. A master "distributer" stockpile could me made to supply a number of "retailer" stockpile, where the retail stockpile that needs the goods most will "take from" the master stockpile. (And if everybody have above at least some threshold number of items, the "take from" will be broken).
We can set up relationships like :
i) auto-balance across N stockpiles (e.g. for food/booze and ammo, or something like feeder stockpile for different workshops which are not close together). Goods are moved from high density area to low density area if difference exceeds a safety threshold (won't want to keep having the stockpiles take from each other non-stop, unless until hauler gains skill/attribute for hauling)
ii) distributor-retailer which is a special variant where goods are only taken from a master stockpile by the child stockpile with the greatest need.
hope I get the idea across...
Now, back to that never ending list of forgotten beast fat and extract...
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Topic: (request) stockpile utility (Read 1070 times)