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[Mike Mayday]

Are there any grand plans for how Fortress Mode stockpiles are managed, or some kind of visual identifier, UI something, Grand View? Anything that will make it a sporadic plan-as-you-go player feel more empowered when handling stockpiles?

We are going to do a hauling overhaul as part of this cycle of bugfix releases.  That is going to intersect stockpiles, but I don't know if it's going to cover exactly what you want.

Since fussing about with stockpiles is one of the most tedious parts of DF for me, I thought I'd mention some improvements on hauling and stockpiles which would greatly speed up the process for me.

1) Defining global stockpile types:
I use almost none of the default stockpiles. For each stockpile I change something- disable some item types, manage materials or quality. This means that every time I want to enlarge one of them, I have to set it up from scratch with P->T. I'd much rather the stockpile definitions that are now hardcoded (Animal, food, Furniture Storage, etc) were made globally editable. Which means:
-allow the player to set up new stockpile types for the main stockpile command (P) (instead of just editing settings for an existing stockpile). These types should be kept throughout the game (or better yet, throughout all games).
-make the settings global- editing settings for Finished Goods stockpile should edit them for all existing Finished Goods stockpiles. If you want to have different FG stockpiles simultaneously- define a new type!
As ebbor notes, there should of course still be an option to edit the settings of a particular stockpile.

2)Split hauling from crafting
Currently when you issue an order of, say, construct 10 beds, what happens is the carpenter runs to the wood stockpile, brings one piece of wood, constructs a bed and then runs to the stockpile again. What should happen instead is that HAULERS should start bringing in ALL the necessary wood, and as soon as the first is brought the carpenter should begin constructing beds (while the haulers continue bringing more wood for the next ones).
(I think I put this in ESV some time ago...)

3)Make cloth stockpiles distinguish between dyed and undyed cloth.

Probably more to come?

[Yaotzin]

Well I certainly wouldn't want crafting and hauling split until there's a proper control mechanism for which material is used at the workshop. It's hard enough to control as is, splitting them would make it impossible.

Proper custom stockpiles would be good. Could just make it a huge text file that stores an arbitrary number of them.

[Sus]

Since fussing about with stockpiles is one of the most tedious parts of DF for me, I thought I'd mention some improvements on hauling and stockpiles which would greatly speed up the process for me.
-allow the player to set up new stockpile types for the main stockpile command (P) (instead of just editing settings for an existing stockpile). These types should be kept throughout the game (or better yet, throughout all games).

Oh Gods, yes. Please, please make the custom stockpile types exportable so I don't have to individually pick and choose all of the eleventy hundred and one different kinds of materials I do/do not want in my "soap and soap ingredients" or "food that is actually edible, not raw fish or lye" stockpile(s).
(On a tangentially related note, can has exportable uniforms plz?)

What should happen instead is that HAULERS should start bringing in ALL the necessary wood, and as soon as the first is brought the carpenter should begin constructing beds

This, too. It's a waste of perfectly good craftsdwarf labor to dart back and fort collecting the various ingredients required for crafting, one by one. Especially annoying in reactions that require a lot of different ingrediets, e.g. making steel or bismuth bronze at the smelter.

[10ebbor10]

-make the settings global- editing settings for Finished Goods stockpile should edit them for all existing Finished Goods stockpiles. If you want to have different FG stockpiles simultaneously- define a new type!

There should be a way to make these changes non-global too.(Probably just a toggle) . I tend to make lots of different stockpiles and don't wan' to drown in the different options.

[orius]

2)Split hauling from crafting
Currently when you issue an order of, say, construct 10 beds, what happens is the carpenter runs to the wood stockpile, brings one piece of wood, constructs a bed and then runs to the stockpile again. What should happen instead is that HAULERS should start bringing in ALL the necessary wood, and as soon as the first is brought the carpenter should begin constructing beds (while the haulers continue bringing more wood for the next ones).

That's a good idea.

Here's something else, have cloth stockpile distinguish beteen dyed and undyed cloth, especially for when we tell the wrokshops to only use the dyed stuff.  Right now, I got undyed stuff sitting outside my clothier and dyed stuff sitting at the dyer's shop.  It's not a big problem, since the textile industry is all in the same area, but it could help with organization. 

[Mike Mayday]

Good ideas, dudes. Added them to the OP.

[NW_Kohaku]

Stockpiling is currently handled by raws.

I remember when I did my glazes mod, I actually wound up removing the "IS_STONE" tags from the glazes and classifying them as "bone powder" just to have someplace unique for them to be stockpiled.  (It also prevented the bugs where glazes would have "cuts" like gems.)

That's not a suggestion, obviously, it's just a statement of where we are, now.

I agree with these sorts of things, and see automation and importing/exporting of commands and macros as the single greatest weakness of DF at the moment, so I'll just shout encouragement for now.

[el Indio]

I think stockpiles should also have a toggle for foreign objects.  My weapon stockpile is often not anywhere near to the smelters, so it can take a long time for a dwarf to go to stockpile, grab a melt-designated item, then go to the smelter and melt it, then repeat.  Combined with the way partial metal bars are handled (they belong to an individual smelter), I only have one smelter melting down weapons and armour. 

So if there was a toggle for foreign objects, or it was included in the list of total/core qualities, I could set up a stockpile filled with foreign weapons and armour right next to the smelter, greatly improving efficiency.

[Silverionmox]

There'll need to be tags for every possible item property that should be able to be combined in every possible way. Color, size, material, type, function, value, quality, origin, maker, production date, decoration content, decoration type, style, wear and tear, etc. etc.

I'll drink a glass of dwarven wine on the day that it will be possible to just set up a stockpile with contents <ANY> at embark. I'll split off and specialize later, thanks.

[JasonMel]

Well I certainly wouldn't want crafting and hauling split until there's a proper control mechanism for which material is used at the workshop. It's hard enough to control as is, splitting them would make it impossible.

This is important. Currently, an easy way to control what stone is used in a mason's workshop, for example, is to make sure the desired stone is the closest stone to the shop. I build multiple mason shops and surround each one with a single-material stockpile. This is based on the fact that when a crafting job is begun and the crafter goes to collect resources for that job, the nearest resource of the right kind is the one they collect. If haulers were to take this job instead, they could be anywhere in the fort at the time, with no way to ensure that they are close to resources of a particular material (barring complicated hauler-burrow arrangements).

Furthermore, the hauler is going to have to wait until the last job at the workshop is finished anyway before bringing the next set of raw materials, right? That is, unless you plan to clutter the workshop, which could be in use at the time, with items that won't be used until the next job in the queue is begun. So the crafter would be standing around waiting for a hauler who, again, could begin the task from anywhere in the fort.

For these reasons, I'd support haulers taking away completed crafted objects from workshops to stockpiles, but not bringing raw materials from stockpiles to workshops. Haulers can perform cleanup, but should not attempt setup. Since I think that's actually the way it works already, I can't support that suggestion.

-1 for 2), but +1 for 3) which is a fine suggestion.

[NW_Kohaku]

I remember in the old improved mechanics thread, one of the things I thought of for trying to make more fortress equipment that actually used power was to use a conveyor belt that could be set up directly from a workshop, so that its outputs would automatically be carried away from the workshop - potentially directly into the next workshop, if it was like a clothing industry, so that cloth could be automatically moved from the farmer's workshop to the dyer's workshop to the loom to a dumping point at/near the stockpile.  It would automate some of the hauling that takes up so much dwarven time, and would be a neat way to make use of waterwheels to make a more "industrial" type of dwarf without actual steampunk.

[10ebbor10]

A usefull addition to2  would be that if the craftdwarf in question has hauling enable, he would still get his own materials, but if he hasn't he'd wait for people to bring them.

[JasonMel]

What I would dearly love to see done to hauling is introduce the concept of the trip. I would love to see dwarves who are looking for their next job consider tasks to be done, their relative priorities, the dwarf's own priorities, and where those tasks begin and end, and form a trip during which several things get done in a reasonably efficient way.

I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to shout at a dwarf, "Just take that stalk of wheat with you to the kitchen area! It's right next to you, and you're going there anyway!" and so on.

I guess this would entail forming a queue of jobs in each dwarf's mind, all of which would be claimed by that dwarf on trip formation. If at any time the dwarf becomes unable to complete the trip for any reason, all tasks in his trip queue revert to being unclaimed.

[PeterisP]

A quite radical suggestion to mr. Toady:   get statistics on what stockpile settings people are using in practice. Get stats on the custom stockpile settings that people set up within 30 minutes of starting a new fortress - and then offer something like that as default options for stockpile settings for everybody to use.

DF can easily make a much more effective UI with the same complexity - just have reasonable default settings; for example, I would use a "general" stockpile option that stores everything except trash and uneconomical stone;  and a "stone" stockpile that stores stone, and stone furniture, and stone mechanisms and stone crafts.... but if Toady made himself a way to see the true stats of what people are using, then that would allow to quikly put in some settings that would make things better for pretty much everyone.

[Mike Mayday]

To be fair I don't think that is a solution. I imagine everyone handles his stockpiles differently. Getting statistics will give us the common denominators but:
-Toady would have to set up the stockpiles then
-after the gameplay changes somewhat, the default settings would likely no longer be the most popular ones
-by giving this option you satisfy the majority, by giving global customizability you satisfy everyone!