Playing some Prison Architect and other DF-like management games reminds me of all the little details that need to be addressed. "Stack erosion", or the breakdown of item stacks into smaller and smaller sub-stacks which increase hauling jobs and CPU load, has been a problem since the earliest releases. Every veteran now prepares to write "minecart quantum piles", but lets all be honest; these are not apparent to the new user and exploit the game mechanics to solve another problem.
So here's the thought. First, more item types could use sacks as a stacking container. Bags of a dozen dog bone stacks would be far more efficient to haul (and thus pathfind the dwarves for) than the current one-stack-per-tile method. Dwarves with hauling labors might even carry a sack over their shoulder to put small items in; there's no reason for raw gems to be collected one-by-one. Once a dwarf picks up a gem and puts it in his sack, he could check for additional gem hauling jobs within X tiles or some other determination.
The other idea I have is "virtual sacks", something of a file folder into which actual items are placed. Say I have a one tile ammo stockpile flagged for wood. A stack of five wooden bolts is placed in the tile. A "virtual sack" is then created on the tile, inherits its object preferences (ammunition, wood), the bolts logically sorted inside that sack, and the virtual sack informs the stockpile that it is not empty and still accepting wooden ammunition. Additional bolts are jobbed for hauling and stored away until the virtual sack signals it is full and the stockpile stops producing jobs. When a marksdwarf comes by for ammo, he picks up the virtual sack and places it inside his quiver, taking all the crossbow bolts with it. Individual bolt quality and decorations, etc are preserved. When the marksdwarf removes all the bolts from the virtual sack in his quiver, the virtual sack is deleted.
The virtual sack could be referred to as "A pile of X" or "A stack of X", such as a pile of coins. When you go to view the pile of coins, you see the contents displayed. All the various years and decorations of the coins are preserved as the items are preserved, but the old DF Economy nightmare of micro-hauling individual pennies goes away. Or say we had a pit into which we dropped socks, coins and crafts. On the tile below would be "A pile of coins", "A pile of socks", and "A pile of crafts". These would automatically sort and categorize entries in the view screen, making it much easier to find things in your garbage dump. Of course, individual items maintain their individual names if no additional items are part of the virtual sack.
Dwarves would also be able to pick up and move these virtual sacks using various containers or wheelbarrows. This is to maintain the need for bins and barrels.
I'm sure hauling and stacking has never been mentioned before, so here's my brand new thread.
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Topic: Sacks and Stacks (Read 737 times)