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Author Topic: Specify which books go to which library (or bookshelf?)  (Read 1400 times)

MobRules

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Specify which books go to which library (or bookshelf?)
« on: December 12, 2015, 11:24:22 am »

It would be very nice to be able to have more control over where books end up, especially since "visitors steeling books" seems to be a thing.

At the very roughest level, being able to designate a library as "originals only", "copies only", or "both" would allow setting up a restricted citizens-only library for originals (with whatever additional security someone might want to build around it) and a copies-only library that is open to visitors.

I can think of many more ways of using even finer grained control, but at that point, the added code and interface complexity might outweigh the benefits.
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Deboche

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Re: Specify which books go to which library (or bookshelf?)
« Reply #1 on: December 12, 2015, 12:32:59 pm »

I like this along with more info in the "l" screen about which books you have, which are copies, which are scrolls, which are bound and so on.
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Button

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Re: Specify which books go to which library (or bookshelf?)
« Reply #2 on: December 12, 2015, 02:39:54 pm »

+1
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AMTiger

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Re: Specify which books go to which library (or bookshelf?)
« Reply #3 on: December 12, 2015, 06:34:38 pm »

maybe settings like how coffins accept pets or not?
originals only y/n
accepts dangerous y/n (secrets of L&D)?

that might a be simple not adding more to the interface way of doing it?
then it could be one library so it'd share scribes and scholars
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larkvi

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Re: Specify which books go to which library (or bookshelf?)
« Reply #4 on: December 16, 2015, 07:50:09 pm »

This! I need a medical library! All my medical staff are discussing Geology and reading books about Surveying instead of the diagnosis and suturing books...
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Tristan Alkai

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Re: Specify which books go to which library (or bookshelf?)
« Reply #5 on: January 14, 2016, 08:50:34 pm »

It would be very nice to be able to have more control over where books end up, especially since "visitors steeling books" seems to be a thing.

I was given to understand that visitors could also bring books?  Those have to come from somewhere.  Letting them walk off with your books seems a logical price to pay for that feature.

My suggestion for upgrading the interface to work around the issue of visitors leaving with books would be something to the effect of "minimum number of copies."  That way my scribes automatically produce two or three copies so I don't have to worry about a wandering scholar walking off with my only one. 

As a separate suggestion, make sure the scribes prioritize books to copy with the metric of "book with lowest number of copies gets copied first." 

Maybe a manual "copy this book" could be helpful. 

This! I need a medical library! All my medical staff are discussing Geology and reading books about Surveying instead of the diagnosis and suturing books...

At least a partial solution to this problem might be having scholars generally prefer to discuss topics they already know about (i.e. improve skills they already have) rather than diversify.  That way you could assign a doctor as a scholar in the library and that dwarf will want to think/talk/write/read about (and thus improve) medical skills rather than chemistry or mechanics.  Since discussions are inherently interactive between more than one person, this dwarf's preference will also impact other dwarves you assign, especially ones that have no scholar-relevant skills (and thus no preferences under this metric), allowing you to train doctors that way.  All of this will probably be impacted by needs like "learn something new." 

EDIT: This thread about research labs might also be relevant. 
« Last Edit: January 14, 2016, 10:30:48 pm by Tristan Alkai »
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