Print

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

[Wirrit]

I would love it if there was an option that organizes the [ b ]uild [ C ]onstructions materials-to-use list according to how recently they have been used for constructions -- instead of according to their current distance.  Even if it only kept track of the last 3-5 materials you used, it could still be immensely useful.

ie:  You want to build a small room, entirely out of Orthoclase.
Current system:  Build->Construct->floor, place the floor appropriately, then find Orthoclase on your materials list and select it.  Build->Consturct->wall, place the wall appropriately, and find Orthoclase again.  Repeat the wall segment 4 times, to get all four walls built.
Proposed system:  Build->Construct->floor, place floor appropriately, select Orthoclase as above.  Then use build->construct->wall, place wall appropriately, and just hit enter twice -- because orthoclase is automatically at the very top of the materials list, since it is the last material you used.    Repeat 4 times, to get all four walls.


Three Reasons / Situations that would make it useful:

For Art.  If you're making a lot of colorful floor / wall / etc mosaics out of two or three main materials, but the design is non-square enough that you need to use the Designate command a ton of times, it would be really nice to have all of the materials stay at or near the top of the list instead of slowly migrating towards the bottom as you use them up.  Stockpiles can fix this; but it's awkward when there's multiple colors of stone you're aiming for.  On a similar note; Artistic Reasons mean that it would be nice to have this option for furniture too -- so you can easily ensure that ALL of the tables, chairs, statues, and doors in your Legendary Dining Room match eachother, without a lot of fuss and searching.

For Organization.  Let's say that you're building anything, anything at all, and you want it all to be built out of one material (for either aesthetic or practical reasons).  Your fortress has access to a half dozen types of wood (all available in log or block form), all three kinds of glass (also available in raw or block form), two dozen types of stone and metal (same deal), and a variety of things you would never use as a building material but technically could (charcoal, potash...etc).  Actually finding the resource you're looking for can slow down the game experience a small amount -- even if all you want to build is four walls.

For Epicness.   If you're going to build a several-hundred-units-long aquaduct in the sky, and then pump it full of lava to sprinkle down upon your enemies during sieges (like the exact opposite of a sprinkler system); you're going to be using the designate command a -lot-, and you have to scroll down to your lava-proof materials each and every single time.  If you're going to try and build a castle that covers the entire map, out of a single type of stone, same problem.  Again, stockpiles can help...but with this kind of sheer mass construction, it gets awkward or repetative, which both discourage people from Epic Pursuits.

And doesn't everyone love Epic Pursuits?

Disclaimer:  I'm not suggesting that the "via distance" organization is removed, and heartily suggest that that information remain on the right side of the materials list regardless what view you're using... I'm just suggesting that there be an exception (for the last 3-5 materials you have used), or an alternative (toggle-able in the init file perhaps?) to it.

[Mephansteras]

Good idea!

This would also remove the problem of items in the list changing places as you use up the material in one area and need to go to another. I don't know how many times I've had to figure out how where a given material went in the list as I added in the next piece. Moreso on the last verion, but it still holds true now.

[Draco18s]

Until then, look around for DFWall, nice handy utility to do exactly what you're asking for.

[nicholasneko]

i like this idea, toggleable i think would be easiest to do rather then letting it try to figure it out.. but i don't know anything about programming.

[umiman]

Agreed with everything here, yarr! This is very important when your fortress has one of every kind of wood and one of every single kind of metal. Scrolling takes forever.

[Granite26]

Bumped for goodness...

You are thinking... like the font menu in Word, no?

Awesomeness

[Impaler[WrG]]

I'd go even further, make a "Current Construction Stone = X, Distance/Quantity" display at the top of the construction list (theirs plenty of room as their are only a half dozen things to Construct), selecting the construction type would then go directly into placement mode.  A new option at the bottom of the construction options list would bring up the Stones list just as currently exists (sorted by distance) but selecting their would return to the main list with the new Stone set for construction.  This would save us an additional key stroke from Wirrit's proposal.

In addition it opens up the concept of having a "Secondary" stone set by the player which could allow for some fancy stuff like automatically laying out checkerboard floors or walls, the checkers would use the grid space to select the stone (Even/Even and Odd/Odd get the primary stone and Even/Odd, Odd/Even get the secondary) thus we can throw down checker boarded floors with great ease and not worry about mis-aligning them if two areas are build separately and then connected.

[Medi]

Why not simply have the menu "remember" what you last constructed with, and default to that position (even if it's far down the list)?  This keeps the convenience factor when you are trying to construct large projects out of a single material, is intuitive, and keeps the existing interface intact.

[Wirrit]

Why not simply have the menu "remember" what you last constructed with, and default to that position (even if it's far down the list)?  This keeps the convenience factor when you are trying to construct large projects out of a single material, is intuitive, and keeps the existing interface intact.

That version of it had actually crossed my mind...  The only possible issues that come to mind are 1, that it'd feel a little strange to have the default selection be somewhere in the middle of the list instead of at the very top, and 2, it doesn't help much if you're designing something with a couple of different materials and need to keep alternating between them.  The "remembering" bit, though.. that's it exactly, and I can't imagine it would be too hard to program.

What Impaler[WrG] said

Sounds fancy and cool, and like a beautiful arrangement for a finished / future version of Dwarf Fortress.  I could dig it, and I think a lot of others could too.  The only potential problem I see is that it also sounds suspiciously like work to program, which (if Toady decided this was cool enough to do) could delay it a while..

i like this idea, toggleable i think would be easiest to do rather then letting it try to figure it out.. but i don't know anything about programming.

Toggleable could have advantages too.  Then you'd essentially have a tiny list of 'favorite materials' at the top, right?  Kinda like a painter's pallette.  however you spell that word.  This would also open the way for the player to organize the materials however they wished...though that could get complicated.

Until then, look around for DFWall, nice handy utility to do exactly what you're asking for.

Duly noted.  I might give that a shot, but after experimenting with them briefly I've decided to stay away from utilities that directly impact gameplay, and most mods.  If something weird happens, I never know if -I- broke it, or if it's a bug that should be reported...