Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Erasmus Darwin]

At the same time that I was keeping a text file full of bugs for the "Lots of bugs" thread, I also came up with a number of issues that weren't bugs but were areas for improvement.  So here's my other list.

• An in-game toggle for water between symbols and numbers.  Symbols look really nice for general use, but numbers are just too useful when you're specifically focusing on water management.

• Quick-switch between cursor-based viewing modes (i.e. 'k', 't', 'v', and even 'q' if possible).  I often select the wrong mode (for example, doing 'k' to look for an item only to realize it's part of building inventory and needs to be checked with 't') and exiting the current viewing mode to switch to the correct one causes the cursor to spring back to the middle of the screen.

• Ditto for quick-switch between 'd' and 'b' modes without losing cursor position.  The new b-C menu makes it easy to go into one when you meant to use the other since it's easier to think "I need stairs here" before you realize whether you're carving the stairs out of rock or building them in empty space.

• Maybe allow building on both 1/7 and 2/7 units of water, as even a fairly well-pumped aquifer area gets a bunch of 2/7 ripples.  Since only moderately pumped sections tend to reach 3/7, 4/7, and 5/7 in a lot of cases, this would avoid the repeated "unsuspend" hassle associated with building in small amounts of water without really opening up more heavily flooded areas to building.

• Some way to dam water from above.  Like dropping a floodgate or wall into the river rather than having to wait for it to freeze.  Maybe a dropped construction would be only 90% waterproof, with the dwarf then going into the river (once it's dried up enough) and adjusting it to make it fully waterproof like a normally built construction. I could imagine something like this being used to make the Dwarvish version of the Netherlands -- stealing land back from the sea through a combination of blood, sweat, more blood, tears, and even more blood.

• A quicker way to view a dwarf's thoughts would be nice.  v->p->z->enter is a bit awkward.  Also seems odd that 'z' is only available from prefs and not other view screens, since it's not like 'z' conflicts with anything on the general, inventory, or wounds screens.

• When trading, it'd be nice if tab switched between the current split view, a fully expanded trader list, and a fully expanded list of your stuff in the depot.  That'd be a lot easier than having to manually view the description of each item to try and figure out what some of the truncated item names are.

• When starting a new game, if there's only one available game world region without a game in progress, it's automatically selected for use.  However, it's not always clear which region was used in a DF installation with multiple regions.  So it might help to include the region name at the top of the selection for game-type (DF/Adv/Legends/etc.).

• Seems like there should be a price reduction for baby animals, since you have to wait longer before they can reproduce.  Currently, dogs and puppies are the same price.  Ditto for cats and kittens.

• It'd be nice if you could preserve area selection size and relative location when moving with the number pad in fortress site selection mode.

• It'd help if the race of existing settlements was more apparent in fortress site selection mode. (Suffix to name, maybe?  For example, "Ngokangezla (Goblin)".)

• Some sort of priority/forced digging option to ignore damp stone caused by an overhead body of water and similarly over-paranoid digging stoppers.  Maybe the stone should already show up as blue in digging designation mode if the player can already see the overhead water that would make it damp (such as when trying to tunnel under the river).

• Real-time updates to dwarf profession titles as you select skills on the embark screen, rather than listing them all as "peasant".

• On the 'j'ob screen, it'd be nice to have an indicator for various uncompletable jobs (no applicable workshop, no dwarf with appropriate labor).

• In fortress location selection mode, what about making the default view the aggregate of the area rather than listing the stats of the semi-arbitrarily chosen biome #1?  E.g. right now, if Biome #1 in the selection area has no trees, but Biome #2 is heavily forested, the stats on the right of the screen will still show "Trees: None".  Ideally, it should indicate that there are some trees in the selected area without the user having to repeatedly hit all the F-keys to check each biome.  Instead, the default view would either have the most useful value for each field (i.e. it's more useful to know there are at least some trees on the map rather than knowing that part of the map is treeless) or, better yet, a weighted average (95% treeless + 5% heavily forested = scarce).

• Include pending construction when determining whether or not to allow the designation of new construction projects.  For example, if the player designations a wooden up stairs to be built on level ground, allow them to immediately go up a z-level and build the down stairs rather than having to wait for the carpenter to finish the first stairs.  Similarly, allow floor tiles to be scheduled for building next to existing pending floor tiles.  This would make tower building infinitely easier, and it's similar to an existing principle where machines can be scheduled for construction based on other pending machines.

• If I hit '.' while the game is unpaused, it would make sense for it to pause itself rather than just ignoring the input, since the obvious intent is that I want to start single-stepping through time.
  

[fmunoz]

One of the most complete and good (and sane) list of suggestion.
I agree with all of them.

[isitanos]

This one is essential (please, Toady, please!):

quote:Originally posted by Erasmus Darwin:
<STRONG>

• A quicker way to view a dwarf's thoughts would be nice.  v->p->z->enter is a bit awkward.  Also seems odd that 'z' is only available from prefs and not other view screens, since it's not like 'z' conflicts with anything on the general, inventory, or wounds screens.
  

</STRONG>

Those ones would reaaaally help:

quote:
<STRONG>

• Quick-switch between cursor-based viewing modes (i.e. 'k', 't', 'v', and even 'q' if possible).  I often select the wrong mode (for example, doing 'k' to look for an item only to realize it's part of building inventory and needs to be checked with 't') and exiting the current viewing mode to switch to the correct one causes the cursor to spring back to the middle of the screen.

• Ditto for quick-switch between 'd' and 'b' modes without losing cursor position.  The new b-C menu makes it easy to go into one when you meant to use the other since it's easier to think "I need stairs here" before you realize whether you're carving the stairs out of rock or building them in empty space.

• Some sort of priority/forced digging option to ignore damp stone caused by an overhead body of water and similarly over-paranoid digging stoppers.  Maybe the stone should already show up as blue in digging designation mode if the player can already see the overhead water that would make it damp (such as when trying to tunnel under the river).

• Include pending construction when determining whether or not to allow the designation of new construction projects.  For example, if the player designations a wooden up stairs to be built on level ground, allow them to immediately go up a z-level and build the down stairs rather than having to wait for the carpenter to finish the first stairs.  Similarly, allow floor tiles to be scheduled for building next to existing pending floor tiles.  This would make tower building infinitely easier, and it's similar to an existing principle where machines can be scheduled for construction based on other pending machines.
  

</STRONG>

[Armok]

Seconded!

[palin88]

/signed

[qalnor]

I agree with most of these suggestions, but there are a couple of them I'm not too keen on:

quote: If I hit '.' while the game is unpaused, it would make sense for it to pause itself rather than just ignoring the input, since the obvious intent is that I want to start single-stepping through time.

I don't really understand the point of this. . and SPACE are right next to each other to begin with, all this does is add another way to accidentally pause the game.

quote: Quick-switch between cursor-based viewing modes (i.e. 'k', 't', 'v', and even 'q' if possible). I often select the wrong mode (for example, doing 'k' to look for an item only to realize it's part of building inventory and needs to be checked with 't') and exiting the current viewing mode to switch to the correct one causes the cursor to spring back to the middle of the screen.

It'd help if the race of existing settlements was more apparent in fortress site selection mode. (Suffix to name, maybe? For example, "Ngokangezla (Goblin)".)

I do not, strictly speaking, have a problem with either of these suggestions.

That having been said, I have a horrible memory but I can't imagine having trouble remembering the second request, once learned.

And on the first request while I do forget what all the buttons are in between breaks from the game, once I've played for a few hours I'm pretty set until my next break. I don't really have a problem at all with making the interface more newbie-friendly, but I'm not sure I really see it as being that horrible.

To be honest, I'd rather the cursor just remember where it was before, because that would be useful for other reasons as well.

quote: Some way to dam water from above. Like dropping a floodgate or wall into the river rather than having to wait for it to freeze. Maybe a dropped construction would be only 90% waterproof, with the dwarf then going into the river (once it's dried up enough) and adjusting it to make it fully waterproof like a normally built construction. I could imagine something like this being used to make the Dwarvish version of the Netherlands -- stealing land back from the sea through a combination of blood, sweat, more blood, tears, and even more blood.

This sounds OK I guess but where do the blood sweat and tears come into this? This sounds more like an easy way out to fix flooding rather than a meaningfully challenging way to repair your fortress.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Several things are needed that complement what was said:

Ability to build in water, regardless of depth. Dwarves should learn to swim, and be able to navigate the water.

Not only floodgates, but any buildings should be buildable from a diagonal - either diagonal on same level, or adjacent on an adjacent level - like northwest, or west/down.

[Nesoo]

Two or three of those I don't really care one way or the other, but for the rest of the list... YES! YES! YES!

[Erasmus Darwin]

quote:Originally posted by qalnor:
<STRONG>I don't really understand the point of this. . and SPACE are right next to each other to begin with, all this does is add another way to accidentally pause the game.</STRONG>

The point is mainly for when you're exiting a menu and want to go to step-at-a-time mode, but you aren't sure whether the game was paused with the space bar or just paused due to being in a menu.

Also, in general, it's about making DF do what you intended, even if you aren't hitting keys in the proscribed fashion.  If someone hits '.', they probably wanted to step through time one frame at a time regardless of whether or not they've already paused the game.

quote:<STRONG>That having been said, I have a horrible memory but I can't imagine having trouble remembering the second request, once learned.</STRONG>

The key phrase being once learned.  Short of starting a new game in each area or digging through the wiki, there's no easy way for them to learn this to begin with.

quote:<STRONG>And on the first request while I do forget what all the buttons are in between breaks from the game, once I've played for a few hours I'm pretty set until my next break. I don't really have a problem at all with making the interface more newbie-friendly, but I'm not sure I really see it as being that horrible.</STRONG>

It isn't about remembering which key is which.  That's easy for me, too.  Rather sometimes I'll hit 'k' to look at stuff on the ground before realizing that I actually meant to check the room inventory.  Similarly, I'll sometimes hit 'k' to check out what a monster is and then realize I want to also check its wounds under 'v'.

quote:<STRONG>This sounds OK I guess but where do the blood sweat and tears come into this? This sounds more like an easy way out to fix flooding rather than a meaningfully challenging way to repair your fortress.</STRONG>

The blood, sweat, and tears would involve getting infrastructure in place to drop the walls, pumping water out of the enclosed area, and watching dwarves get washed off the dyke while trying to stop the 10% flow.  I honestly think that this change would make reclaiming land from the ocean viable while at the same time having it be one of the more elaborate dwarven engineering challenges.

As for using it to fix flooding, I don't think that's too big a deal.  Most floods are a non-issue these days.  Also, even after dropping a wall in place, you'd still have to dispose of all the existing water.  If the flood's light enough that the water will evaporate on its own, than it's light enough for your carpenters and masons to build a flood-stopping wall normally.  If it isn't light enough, then you still have to worry about getting all the water cleared out.

Your comment did make me realize one concern, however: This change makes tunneling through the aquifer significantly easier.  Going through an unfrozen aquifer would be only slightly more difficult than going through a frozen aquifer.  I'm honestly split 50/50 on the feature, now.  On one hand, having an effective means of damming the river and dyking the ocean would be great.  On the other hand, forcing your way through the aquifer on a map that doesn't freeze is an exciting challenge.  Damn.

[Frobozz]

quote:<STRONG>Quick-switch between cursor-based viewing modes (i.e. 'k', 't', 'v', and even 'q' if possible). I often select the wrong mode (for example, doing 'k' to look for an item only to realize it's part of building inventory and needs to be checked with 't') and exiting the current viewing mode to switch to the correct one causes the cursor to spring back to the middle of the screen.</STRONG>

To add to this, I'd like to see more cursor-based modes support the mouse as well. Looking around is nice and all but the keyboard is a bit of a pain for the job.

[Abyssal Squid]

quote:Originally posted by Erasmus Darwin:
<STRONG>Your comment did make me realize one concern, however: This change makes tunneling through the aquifer significantly easier.  Going through an unfrozen aquifer would be only slightly more difficult than going through a frozen aquifer.  I'm honestly split 50/50 on the feature, now.  On one hand, having an effective means of damming the river and dyking the ocean would be great.  On the other hand, forcing your way through the aquifer on a map that doesn't freeze is an exciting challenge.  Damn.</STRONG>

I wouldn't use the word "exciting" to describe tunneling through aquifers since it requires either getting extremely lucky (ore bodies or multiple biomes) or cheating (reveal.exe with ore bodies, or violating the laws of physics with pumps and speed:1 dwarves), but I do agree that it shouldn't be trivial.  However, being forced to build walls, pump out the standing water, repair the walls, and pump out even more water is a reasonable cost for bypassing a 1-level aquifer.  2-level aquifers should be even worse, so even if water doesn't leak through the floor of the upper level, you still need to dry a much larger area of the upper level to even begin to seal the lower level.

[Teldin]

I agree heartily with all of these. They are not real bugfixes but more quality-of-life upgrades.

[Erasmus Darwin]

quote:Originally posted by Abyssal Squid:
<STRONG>I wouldn't use the word "exciting" to describe tunneling through aquifers since it requires either getting extremely lucky (ore bodies or multiple biomes) or cheating (reveal.exe with ore bodies, or violating the laws of physics with pumps and speed:1 dwarves), but I do agree that it shouldn't be trivial.</STRONG>

You're doing it wrong.  The trick is to use pumps and determination to force your way directly through the aquifer.

[qalnor]

quote:Originally posted by Erasmus Darwin:
<STRONG>
Your comment did make me realize one concern, however: This change makes tunneling through the aquifer significantly easier.  Going through an unfrozen aquifer would be only slightly more difficult than going through a frozen aquifer.  I'm honestly split 50/50 on the feature, now.  On one hand, having an effective means of damming the river and dyking the ocean would be great.  On the other hand, forcing your way through the aquifer on a map that doesn't freeze is an exciting challenge.  Damn.</STRONG>

Yeah this was what I was thinking about when I mentioned flooding, I didn't even think about using it for the ocean. That does have some neat potential.

Maybe there would be some way to make it inapplicable in non-ocean situations.

On the other things I do see your points there as well, and on the cycling thing in particular I wanted to clarify that I don't really disagree. I just don't personally see it as being that big of a deal, personally. I personally don't press buttons until I decide what I want to do, because I hate pausing the game when I don't need to.

And that's what I had in mind when I said the thing about leaving the focus where it is instead, because that would be useful in a wider variety of scenarios.