(I have searched the posts in this forum and I have seen automation ideas before. This post, I believe, is one way to accomplish automation in a way that makes sense in the DF world.)
Job automation through dwarf experience/observation.
What I mean by this is simple. As a given task requiring multiple steps is completed that task becomes eligible to have its steps automated in the user interface so that next time the task may be executed in fewer steps.
My rationale is as follows: The first time almost any task is done in a given game it makes sense that a dwarf would not know how to do it and need to be "shown" (by the player). Over time and with experience the dwarf gets to know the ins and outs of performing that task and is able to handle the details on his own. Thus as the game progressed the dwarf(s) would need less direct supervision on those repetitive tasks and the player should be able to entrust, as it were, a dwarf with the desired task and be reasonably sure as to its completion.
Another way of putting it is that automation becomes "unlocked" upon successful completion (or perhaps multiple completions) of a task. I say "task completion" instead of "item creation" because I think that it could be used for more than just creating a given item. Take farming for example; Once you build and operate a successful farm you have, in effect, shown the dwarves how to farm. I don't think it would be unreasonable to then be able to tell the dwarves to build another farm of the same type (quality, crop, location, productivity), show them where, and then expect them to complete the job, complete with support pillars, flood gates, and mechanisms (again, provided a farm of this type had been successfully built previously, maybe more than once). So task means anything from "make a sack" to "construct a farm" or anything else that an intelligent, experienced group of dwarves should reasonably be able to handle.
I see the advantage of this being twofold. First it reduces the repetitiveness in the game overall, but does it in a way that makes sense and can still bite the player in the butt if they aren't careful and rely too heavily on it. The first time a player discovers how to make an item or how to successfully perform some other task can be very engaging and interesting; the sixtieth - not so much. Second it allows the scope of the game to scale up and the player to focus on ever larger projects as time progresses. Thus in the beginning you're very concerned about getting enough food to survive the first winter... but later on you've mastered food production and are perhaps more worried about the supply lines to your armies and your relations with the nearby elves (as I envision might be the case in future iterations of DF).
Some additional points:
- This could be made optional for folks who prefer more direct control.
- How well a player "shows" the dwarves the task should definitely play a part in how well they may expect the automation to work.
- A player could also redo the automation at a later time if they think they can do it better, or if the dwarves have made some key advance that makes doing so advantageous.
- The knowledge of the automation could take a physical (virtual?) form in the game. For instance, perhaps the dwarf is able to write down his knowlege of the task for future generations and thus a new book on, say, farming is created. Any dwarf reading it would be able to gain that knowledge and make the automation available even after the first dwarf dies, provided that the reader could make sense of what was written (i.e. was a skilled enough farmer). Once the knowledge exists in the game it can be passed to other dwarves of similar skill through reading or conversation. Once the knowledge exists in a given WORLD useful books containing automation knowledge might just show up on a passing caravan and at that point the player might decide to pay for a particularly useful bit of that knowledge from a previous game.
- The dwarves themselves could improve the efficiency of their tasks as they gain skill.
- Some of the things above are likely more easy to implement than others. The farm thing would be cool, but even just the unlockable automation of item creation would be pretty nice.
I have no idea how possible this is, but I think it's worth giving thought to. I think this automation scheme could be an elegant and sensible solution to some of the repetitiveness that a player occasionally encounters. If implemented right such automation could allow interface simplification (at least as the game progresses) as well as some degree of abstraction of the tasks thereby freeing up computer resources and enabling them to be directed toward those larger scale late-game things like armies and kingdoms.
Cheers, all.
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Topic: Job automation through dwarf experience/observation (Read 1214 times)