Print

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

[HungryHobo]

Ok I did a quick search of the dev pages and didn't see this but I might have missed it.

When you have 7 dwarfs the interface for choosing what jobs each of them is allowed do is fantastic. I love the degree of control I have.
But...
When you have 200 dwarfs that same system starts to become painful.

I want to know how many dwarfs are assigned to wood cutting?
I have to check each of the 200 dwarfs to see.

I want to set all 200 dwarfs to make glass blocks/enable masonry when I start a big construction project?
Good god no! I'll be there all night.

I want to disable those jobs later?
just as time consuming as above.

so.
What I was thinking was an interface similar to the stock screen would be very very handy.
Down the left hand side of the screen have a complete list of professions with the current number of dwarfs with that job listed beside it.  Perhaps link this to some late arriving noble.

Mining (5)
Woodcutting (2)
Masonry (4)
etc

in the same place where the item types are shown in the stock screen.

On the right hand side have a list of every dwarf in the fortress with them white or grey to show if they're enabled or not.

commands which would be useful:

"order by skill"
puts the dwarfs with legendary skill in that profession at the top, masters below etc.
similar to the "sort by value" command in the trade screen.
so I can easily pick the 5 most skilled masons to do masonry jobs and disable it on everyone else.

"enable on all dwarfs"
enables this job on all dwarfs.

"disable on all dwarfs"
disable this job on all dwarfs

"disable all other professions"
switches off all other jobs on that dwarf except the current job.
this is for when I want to select my legendary carpenter and make it so that he only does carpentry jobs.

Is this possible?
what do you guys think?
I tend to get sick of the late game very fast because the management becomes a pain and I really think this would improve things.

[Granite26]

Not going to comment on the implementation details, but the core idea is sound.  I've run into the same issue quite a few times.

Would also be nice to be able to create profiles.  (Assign this group woodcutting, plant-gathering and fishing, because I hate them)

[Silverionmox]

What we need is a grid with the professions on top, the dwarves on the left and a mark at the appropriate crossing.

That mark could be a simple X to show which dwarf has which job enabled, or it could be more elaborate, with a number showing how skilled the dwarf is, and with a color showing whether the job is enabled or not.

[Blackcat]

Dwarf Foreman is definitely a step in the right direction. Having that built into DF itself would be wonderful, especially if it was expanded so that you could list by individual dwarf, by individual skills, by actual profession, by custom profession, by Labour Profile, etc. Add in options to create/manage/delete Labour Profiles and custom profession titles from that screen would make it complete.

[HungryHobo]

I'd thought about the custom profile, to create a skillset like "bushman" consisting of woodcutting,plant gathering and hunting and be able to add the custom skillset to the menu.

They could be linked to the subskills much like woodcutting and mining are linked now, (disable the skillset and the sub skills on that dwarf are all disabled, enable the skillset and the sub skills on that dwarf are all enabled, disable woodcutting on a dwarf with bushman enabled and it disables "bushman" but not wood cutting and plant gathering.

Change the skillset profile and it affects all with that skillset selected.
Having woodcutting,plant gathering and hunting wouldn't make a dwarf a bushman but having "bushman" would make him a woodcutter,plant gatherer and hunter, adding wood gathering to the profile of the "bushman" skillset would enable wood gathering on all bushmen.

I've never used Dwarf foreman so I'm probably just describing it's functionality as it stands....


I'm trying to stick to things which are similar to things already in the game (one skill affecting anothers on/off state, list styles) since I know how annoying it is when you program something and people ask for things to be added which would require a dramatic change in the way it works or oftentimes something intractable or even  incomputable.

[Hyndis]

It would be awesome if DF absorbed Dwarf Foreman, just like it did Regional Prospector.

[Bromor Neckbeard]

I've never used Dwarf Foreman, but I wholeheartedly support the OP's idea.