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[Jimmy_Jimsky]

Hello, fellow dwarfists. Here's a list of suggestions I've collected over my time spent with the Steam version of the game. I played the classic version for a bit a couple years ago, but mainly the adventure mode, so you could say I'm pretty green in the DF field.

If this suggestion dump is not the optimal way of sharing suggestions and it should be divided into separate threads - please let me know.


General UI issues/suggestions:

• when a window is opened and mouse cursor is insde of it, the scroll wheel shouldn't change the elevation on the main screen if there is no scroll bar in the window.
  
• when I go to any window with a list, it would be very, very nice (and a huge time & sanity saver) to be able to go back to it (with the same position, filter and sort order) after diving into details. For example, when I go to the Citizens menu and sort by the mood and click the magnifying glass icon next to a dwarf to see their details, I'd like to go back to the citizens list with one click where I left off.
  The stocks window could use the same treatement.
• let the player click dwarf's name in workshop assignment, location assignment, squad assigment etc. screens, so that I can access their details (with possibility to go back to the same assignment screen).
• when game FPS drop, the UI becomes less responsive - some clicks are not being registered. Can UI be handled in a separate thread from the main game's thread?
• give ability to unpause on any screen.
• add more ways to scroll long lists (trading, stocks, etc.) - for example with page up, page down, home, end keys.
• when a window with a prominent and very often used search is opened (stocks, new work order screen, etc.) focus that search bar to save that 1 uneeded (and with time increasingly annoying) click.
• using translated name in one place (for example in petitions, sculpture or engravings) and the original in others (citizens/creatures overview) is confusing and makes looking for entities harder than it needs to be. Translation (in addition to the original text) in the details of a creature/entity is fine, but use the original text in all other places for consistency and usability.
• borderless window display mode for that cool feel when you switch to a window on another monitor and the game doesn't minimise nor does it have a title bar at the top, taking up precious pixels...mmm

Building:

• when an error occurs during building designation ("no access", "no material", etc.), don't quit the current building designation. Let me try again in a different location without having to go through the menus again.
• when a cage is built, give an option to put or release a creature from it.

Stockpiles:

• give an option to differentiate between artifacts and non-artifact named objects. Currently both fall into the "Artifact" quality.

Combat/combat log:

• aggregate combat log for all fights that are occuring.
• possibility to unpause or skip frame when combat log is open.
• an option to stop the game automatically when combat occurs, with a toggleable exception for hunting.
• display newest entries on top (so that the player doesn't have to scroll down every time they want to see the combat progress) or give a sort button for the player to decide which order they want.

Trading:

• there should be a button for "Deselect all" in the "Move to trade post" window so that after the trade is done, the player doesn't have to go through every category to manually find and deselect items so that they get distributed into stockpiles.
• in the same "Move to trade post" window, there should be a "Toggle containers" button so that player doesn't have to go through dozens of apple wood, pear wood, maple wood and whatever the hell wood bins to find all the items they want to be traded.
• when exiting the trade window either save the selections made on both sides or warn the player first that their last 15 minutes carefully selecting 289 items will go to waste in a quick right-click.
• easy partial of container content's selection: in the trading window, if I select a container first - select all of the items inside, so that I can easily exclude one or two items (like an artifact or a forbidden export). Currently to do that I have to manually select every single item in the container but the ones I want to exclude...
• let me refuse counteroffer so that the merchant doesn't select my items they want and I don't have to look through my stuff they selected and deselect it if I don't want to trade it. Current options are "Okay" which selects my items or "Accept counteroffer" which I didn't use (never wanted to agree) but I presume it carries out the trade with the selected items.

Work orders:

• adding favourites to the work orders screen so that the player doesn't have to type in "rock throne" or "rock mug" for the nth time.
• add "Suspend" option to a work order.
• add drag & drop support for work orders.
• add a toggle button for "And" / "Or" work order's logical conditions, so that player can specify whether all or just 1 condition needs to be met for the work order to activate.
• when choosing an adjective in work order's condition's details it should be possible to exit to the conditions list rather than to the work orders list.
• give an on/off toggle for job cancellactions for given work order.

Military:

• confirmation before squad deletion would be nice.
• on the other hand, confirmation of each kill order seems redundant. You're most likely in pause already when you do it, so you can easliy cancel the order.
• ammunition assignment is missing from the "Equip" menu. There's no way to assign a specific type of bolt.

Dwarf details:

• Labor > Locations doesn't show to which location performer is assigned to. It just says "Performer". It would be nice to know at least the name of the location if not have the opportunity to click it and be transported to it.

Citizens / livestock / etc.

• add a name and profession filter (not sort) for quick search.

Labor:

• let the player choose the custom work detail's icon. Currently when more than 8 are created, the roman numerals automatically assigned to them reset to 1, so those icons become meaningless when looking at dwarves' labor assignments.
• add a way to display more than 4 assigned work details. Either scale the icons down or shift all of them to the left to make space or scale them down by 50% and create another row.
• let the player decide work detail priority.

Notifications:

• let the player choose which category of notifications they want to see and which should be suppressed.

Minecart routes:

• when clicking the minecart icon in the route, highlight the minecart in the main view.
  The same could be done for track stop and the stockpile. Without this it's very easy to get lost and confused in which route/minecart/track stop/stockpile on the list is which in the world.

Justice:

• when selecting creatures for interrogation, do not close the creatures list when I click "Schedule" or "Cancel". Let me do multiple selecitons/cancellations without having to go back and forth multiple times.
• display the newest intelligence/interrogation reports on top so that an increasingly long list isn't annoyin to scroll down each time a new report should be read.

World map:

• give the possibility to search for a region or a settlement.

[Afghani84]

Hey Jimmy,

welcome to the forum and thanks for your input. Many of the points you raised were already pointed out in other threads, so that's probably why there was no feedback yet. I'll give my 2 cents to some of your points below in green. Hope this helps!
Please keep in mind that Toady and Putnam are the only developers and that it will take some time for features and QoL improvements to be added.

General UI issues/suggestions:

• when a window is opened and mouse cursor is insde of it, the scroll wheel shouldn't change the elevation on the main screen if there is no scroll bar in the window.
  has been mentioned, they should be aware of it
  
• when I go to any window with a list, it would be very, very nice (and a huge time & sanity saver) to be able to go back to it (with the same position, filter and sort order) after diving into details. For example, when I go to the Citizens menu and sort by the mood and click the magnifying glass icon next to a dwarf to see their details, I'd like to go back to the citizens list with one click where I left off. The stocks window could use the same treatement.
  this point has been mentioned a few times already. I'd also like to see it for all menues as soon as possible
• let the player click dwarf's name in workshop assignment, location assignment, squad assigment etc. screens, so that I can access their details (with possibility to go back to the same assignment screen).
  agreed, has been mentioned
• when game FPS drop, the UI becomes less responsive - some clicks are not being registered. Can UI be handled in a separate thread from the main game's thread?
  here @Putnam is probably the right person to ask. Not sure if this is possible...
• give ability to unpause on any screen.
  this has been requested especially for the logs, once their back in. Again, @Putnam would know best whether this is doable and how much coding work it would translate into
• add more ways to scroll long lists (trading, stocks, etc.) - for example with page up, page down, home, end keys.
  SHIFT-scroll works for stocks. haven't tried it with the trading screen. give it a try...
• when a window with a prominent and very often used search is opened (stocks, new work order screen, etc.) focus that search bar to save that 1 uneeded (and with time increasingly annoying) click.
  has been mentioned, they should be aware of it
• using translated name in one place (for example in petitions, sculpture or engravings) and the original in others (citizens/creatures overview) is confusing and makes looking for entities harder than it needs to be. Translation (in addition to the original text) in the details of a creature/entity is fine, but use the original text in all other places for consistency and usability.
  agreed, this could be made more consistent. probably way down on the priority list tho
• borderless window display mode for that cool feel when you switch to a window on another monitor and the game doesn't minimise nor does it have a title bar at the top, taking up precious pixels...mmm
  I guess some people might like it. never really cared about the title bar being there or not...

Building:

• when an error occurs during building designation ("no access", "no material", etc.), don't quit the current building designation. Let me try again in a different location without having to go through the menus again.
  AFAIK you already see accessability for buildings in planning mode. So you can shift back and forth until the right criteria are met. In terms of material, you usually always have something to build with. If not, it's because you forbade it or you want something really specific and you just ran out. Either way, this doesn't seem to be useful in many cases...
• when a cage is built, give an option to put or release a creature from it.
  I have not experimented with cages in v50 yet. But I know that you were able to release creatures from built cages before. So either you haven't figured out the right way to do it or it's one of the things that didn't make the cut for the official release and will be in again soon

Stockpiles:

• give an option to differentiate between artifacts and non-artifact named objects. Currently both fall into the "Artifact" quality.
  Never really cared about this since I usually run smaller forts. Don't think this will be a priority either

Combat/combat log:

• aggregate combat log for all fights that are occuring.
  Combat logs are coming back soon. Probably not as an aggregate though. Before the steam release you had reports that handled one fight each. You could switch between the reports though. I'm expecting something similar to be added with one of the next updates
• possibility to unpause or skip frame when combat log is open.
  This ties back to one of your earlier requests to be able to unpause on any screen.
• an option to stop the game automatically when combat occurs, with a toggleable exception for hunting.
  Before the steam release, the game would pause for certain events, such as combat. This will be back in shortly as well. It would be a nice addition to give us an option to customize the events that trigger a pause
• display newest entries on top (so that the player doesn't have to scroll down every time they want to see the combat progress) or give a sort button for the player to decide which order they want.
  I'd like that, good idea!

Trading:

• there should be a button for "Deselect all" in the "Move to trade post" window so that after the trade is done, the player doesn't have to go through every category to manually find and deselect items so that they get distributed into stockpiles.
• in the same "Move to trade post" window, there should be a "Toggle containers" button so that player doesn't have to go through dozens of apple wood, pear wood, maple wood and whatever the hell wood bins to find all the items they want to be traded.
  To both points - the trade screen is a mess right now. This has been mentioned multiple times and I'm sure QoL updates for this are scheduled
• when exiting the trade window either save the selections made on both sides or warn the player first that their last 15 minutes carefully selecting 289 items will go to waste in a quick right-click.
  Double confirmation has been requested for multiple menus, such as trade and squad creation. This should be a high priority
• easy partial of container content's selection: in the trading window, if I select a container first - select all of the items inside, so that I can easily exclude one or two items (like an artifact or a forbidden export). Currently to do that I have to manually select every single item in the container but the ones I want to exclude...
  Goes back to QoL updates for the trade screen
• let me refuse counteroffer so that the merchant doesn't select my items they want and I don't have to look through my stuff they selected and deselect it if I don't want to trade it. Current options are "Okay" which selects my items or "Accept counteroffer" which I didn't use (never wanted to agree) but I presume it carries out the trade with the selected items.
  Since I always give the traders a good profit, I haven't had a counteroffer yet. Maybe somebody else can chime in here...

Work orders:

• Cannot comment on this section since I do not use work orders in my smaller forts
  adding favourites to the work orders screen so that the player doesn't have to type in "rock throne" or "rock mug" for the nth time.
• add "Suspend" option to a work order.
• add drag & drop support for work orders.
• add a toggle button for "And" / "Or" work order's logical conditions, so that player can specify whether all or just 1 condition needs to be met for the work order to activate.
• when choosing an adjective in work order's condition's details it should be possible to exit to the conditions list rather than to the work orders list.
• give an on/off toggle for job cancellactions for given work order.

Military:

• confirmation before squad deletion would be nice.
  Agreed, see 3rd point under trading
• on the other hand, confirmation of each kill order seems redundant. You're most likely in pause already when you do it, so you can easliy cancel the order.
  Not sure if this is due to loyalty cascades. Never had it happen myself but this could quickly turn your fortress upside down
• ammunition assignment is missing from the "Equip" menu. There's no way to assign a specific type of bolt.
  Marksdwarves and ammunition are pretty bugged right now. Toady wants to fix it but it will probably be a couple of weeks until it happens. We just have to wait on this one...

Dwarf details:

• Labor > Locations doesn't show to which location performer is assigned to. It just says "Performer". It would be nice to know at least the name of the location if not have the opportunity to click it and be transported to it.
  Is a performer strictly tied to one location? Had a few taverns but never paid much attention to the whereabouts of my guests...

Citizens / livestock / etc.

• add a name and profession filter (not sort) for quick search.
  Filter options for citizens/pets/others would be nice. Will probably be added at some point but could be awhile

Labor:

• let the player choose the custom work detail's icon. Currently when more than 8 are created, the roman numerals automatically assigned to them reset to 1, so those icons become meaningless when looking at dwarves' labor assignments.
  There are already mods to deal with this
• add a way to display more than 4 assigned work details. Either scale the icons down or shift all of them to the left to make space or scale them down by 50% and create another row.
  some people have suggested tabs for different workshops, some others advocate filter options for work orders. Some solution will be found, not sure when though
• let the player decide work detail priority.
  dwarf therapist had something similar if I remember correctly. most likely there already is a mod for this out or will be soon. just check the workshop from time to time

Notifications:

• let the player choose which category of notifications they want to see and which should be suppressed.
  this ties in with pauses for combat notifications. some choice in the matter would be nice

Minecart routes:

• Have not used minecarts in the new version. Track stops in the old version were relatively easy to set up, once you knew how. Only used them for QSP though. So others surely know more on this topic
  when clicking the minecart icon in the route, highlight the minecart in the main view.
  The same could be done for track stop and the stockpile. Without this it's very easy to get lost and confused in which route/minecart/track stop/stockpile on the list is which in the world.

Justice:

• when selecting creatures for interrogation, do not close the creatures list when I click "Schedule" or "Cancel". Let me do multiple selecitons/cancellations without having to go back and forth multiple times.
  has been requested, they should have it on their list. I personally wouldn't bet on it being done soon though
• display the newest intelligence/interrogation reports on top so that an increasingly long list isn't annoyin to scroll down each time a new report should be read.
  ties back to the earlier point when talking about logs

World map:

• give the possibility to search for a region or a settlement.
  the question here would be: how much does and should your fortress know about the world? if it's all about rumors, you shouldn't have a clear picture of locations outside of your immediate surroundings. of course, you can always make a copy of your save, retire the fort and go into legends mode. once mods like legendsviewer are back, you can easily check out the world to your heart's content

[/li][/list]

[Bufo]

Any list of names should be sortable by name and have a search bar

maybe a favourite button for the particular dorfs we're paying attention to (right now I'm using the Specialize labor button, turning it red so they're easy for me to find)

include the red/green specialize in every list of dorf names (it's in some but not all currently)

In the trade screen, need to be able to deselect a single item (like an expensive artifact) without deselecting the entire bin

add an alert button so everyone drops their current labor and runs to the burrow NOW (or do that when a burrow is activated)