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[Mechanoid]

The Military screen's 'view squad' could have a few more options, allowing the player tighter control over how they act.

Things like:
- Damage retreat values or retreat rules, for both squads and invididual units of that squad. For example, every rule (Retreat at Yellow limb health; at Brown; at Red) should be modified by who it effects (Whole Squad; Unit Leader Only; Individual Units) so the end result could be "Individual unit retreads at Brown limb damage" There could also be "Run before paralyzed" rules where the unit attempts to determine wether or not he's likely to be paralyzed, and will run away to heal asap. It wouldn't work all the time, but it'd be giving your dwarves a chance.

- How much water to carry. Like being able to carry a max of 2 food rations, the player should be able to tell the soldier just how full his water-carrying equipment should be; even fractions (1/2; 1/4... it's in the art file! gotta be used somewhere.   ) This would allow soldiers to spend even less time at the well filling their canteens (when the time spent filling water is fixed, that is) even if it stops them from going back to the well for half or even a quarter of the time a full drink would've made them, it'd be worth it.

I've had dwarves march along a hallway, and then fallback to a well he passed some time ago because he became thirsty. the option of carrying fractional amounts of water could stop this from happening.

- Allow booze to be carried like water. Even dilute booze. Drinking booze would give the soldier a happy thought, but would temporarilly make him drunk; basically, the same effect as stunned but not quite as severe. Diluted booze would give less of a happy thought (but still somewhat happy) and also less of a drunken state. The drunk effect should be doubled for marksdwarves.

- Allow water /booze sharing. If one soldier has water and another doesn't, then the soldier with water should share his with the one that doesn't. This would potentially stop a dwarf running back to a well at a critical moment. Booze could also be shared, and give a more intense happy thought for the recipient, but a slightly "sad" thought (disperses very quickly) for the dispenser... Dwarves dont like to part with their alcohol, but sure do like to get it!
A dwarf recieving dilute booze however, may get less then happy thoughts. Maybe even angry thoughts ("omfg this has to be a joke! dilute booze? im'ma punch you out, boyee!")

- Share food. Same as above.
- Share ammo. Same as above, except dwarves with huge amounts of ammo will attempt to even-out the ammo level among dwarves [of that squad. Possibly dwarves not even in that squad!] Ammo could also be given based on skill level; highest first, lowest last.
[- Allow sharing between squads. This lets a duo of backpackers be on a patrol route along various squad's stations, resupplying those squads as they move around.]

- Use backpacks to carry additional items. Possibly even command squads to make the high/lowest ranked member (or high /lowest skilled, or squad leader) of that squad to use a backpack to carry a larger store of items; up to 6 food and 4 water/booze. Possibly even more ammo. The only difference is that this dwarf doesn't mind passing out booze from the backpack, and that dwarves recieving diluted booze from the backpack dont mind it, either. Downside? Moves alot slower, and takes a lot of time to stock up. Each container needs to be: 1. grabbed, 2. filled, and 3. put into the backpack.

As a side note, please allow dwarves to be designated "Military Candidates" of whom will wear their designated levels of weapons and armor in preperation for military service, with a slightly unhappy thought that they have to lug all that crap around while doing their standard job. This way you dont have 6 dwarves in a squad all running for the armory to get weapons and armor; all you need to do is go to the military screen and press "A"ctivate, and boom! Fully armored and armed dwarves, without the wait of having them get themselves equiped.

[ August 30, 2006: Message edited by: Mechanoid ]

[Stromko]

- I'm not sure about the 'retreat' option, if you've ever played adventure mode you may notice that running when you're almost dead from an adjacent opponent isn't always a bright idea. In my experience it often results in just getting slaughtered with less chance of fighting back. Severely wounded dwarves no longer pursuing enemies would make sense though.

- Eventually I'd like if there was a 'sanity check' of sorts(if there isn't already) when it comes to choosing a drink from a fountain or a waterskin, so that a dwarf who's reasonably close to a well will go ahead and get a drink while those who are far away will drink from the canteen. In this case, filling their canteen partially wouldn't solve anything; it'd just be more trips back to fill it, so what's the point? When stationed near a well or lake they'd usually never have to refill the waterskin this means, so they'd always march off to distant locations with a full waterskin and save a lot of time.

- I think dwarves can hold their liquor much better than a human can, a dwarf getting too drunk would be like a human drinking too much water. And since when did social drinking cause unhappiness? Until they were sober that is.. (edit: more seriously, I think it's just a given that dwarves on duty would have their alcohol ration restricted so they aren't substantially impaired)

- I agree on the water sharing, that'd be useful if it isn't too tough to code.

- There's so many different types of ammo, different qualities and materials and whatnot that I don't know how sharing ammo would be useful enough to be worth the hassle (but I have no idea how much of a hassle it'd be). I think it'd be simpler to have troops just seek out the biggest stack of ammo whenever they equip or perhaps whenever they go offduty. By not checking for the biggest stacks while on-duty they'd stay on station instead of having poorly-timed 'pickup equipment' jobs.

- I think I read somewhere that dwarves may eventually be set so they carry around their armor and equipment all the time, and that yes it would carry some unhappiness.

[ August 30, 2006: Message edited by: Stromko ]