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[Sabin Stargem]

A long time ago, I posted some visual mockups on the Gnomeria forum for a interface to permit better tracking and control of creatures.  The biggest part of it is the use of a folder system to separate groups of creatures, such as wildlife, besiegers, and friendly visitors.  What with Toady focusing on Premium Dwarf Fortress, I figured trotting out this idea again was appropriate.

To clarify the colors in the Creature Tracker, here is a list of what they represent.

Green:  Allied creatures.  Members of your fort aren't listed here.
Blue:  Friendly creatures.  Merchants, visitors, tamed animals (but not domesticated), ect.
Yellow:  Wary creatures.  They usually don't attack other creatures, unless provoked, approached, or hungry.
Red:  Hostile creatures.  Besiegers, thieves, ect.  They indiscriminately attack or steal.

On the bottom-right, the mini-map has shortcut tabs that the player can set according to Z-level.  DXX is "depth", while SXX means "surface".   Adding tabs to the Creature Watcher would be helpful for tracking beings of special interest.  Those tabs can flash a color according to events that happen to them.

[Shonai_Dweller]

A long time ago, I posted some visual mockups on the Gnomeria forum for a interface to permit better tracking and control of creatures.  The biggest part of it is the use of a folder system to separate groups of creatures, such as wildlife, besiegers, and friendly visitors.  What with Toady focusing on Premium Dwarf Fortress, I figured trotting out this idea again was appropriate.

To clarify the colors in the Creature Tracker, here is a list of what they represent.

Green:  Allied creatures.  Members of your fort aren't listed here.
Blue:  Friendly creatures.  Merchants, visitors, tamed animals (but not domesticated), ect.
Yellow:  Wary creatures.  They usually don't attack other creatures, unless provoked, approached, or hungry.
Red:  Hostile creatures.  Besiegers, thieves, ect.  They indiscriminately attack or steal.

On the bottom-right, the mini-map has shortcut tabs that the player can set according to Z-level.  DXX is "depth", while SXX means "surface".   Adding tabs to the Creature Watcher would be helpful for tracking beings of special interest.  Those tabs can flash a color according to events that happen to them.

Hmm. Yellow and blue are basically the same things aren't they? Attacked, provoked and otherwise upset visitors will attack you along with all their friends.

And merchants from the Mountainhome are also "allies". Except that you can attack them making everyone in the fortress sparkle both red and green at the same time in a glorious loyalty cascade.

But yes, when you have a siege of 50, various wild critters roaming on the surface and in all 3 cavern layers, plus visitors the current list is a bit unweildly.

What were you thinking goes in the green list if not members of the fortress?

[Sabin Stargem]

Green creatures are things like Dwarfs from your home civilization (assuming good relations), friendly foreign kingdoms, visitors with a close bond to a fortress member, ect.  Basically they want to help out the fortress, but don't call the fortress their home.

Blues and yellows are different:  Blues are essentially neutral creatures who can trade, attend social events, and so on.  They are strangers who socialize with other creatures, who don't put your fortress on a pedestal.  Yellows are wild, isolated, or insane creatures who rarely interact with society, acting on fight or flight instincts.

[Shonai_Dweller]

Green creatures are things like Dwarfs from your home civilization (assuming good relations), friendly foreign kingdoms, visitors with a close bond to a fortress member, ect.  Basically they want to help out the fortress, but don't call the fortress their home.

Blues and yellows are different:  Blues are essentially neutral creatures who can trade, attend social events, and so on.  They are strangers who socialize with other creatures, who don't put your fortress on a pedestal.  Yellows are wild, isolated, or insane creatures who rarely interact with society, acting on fight or flight instincts.

You'd need these things to exist in the game first. Right now that's not how visitors and immigrants work.