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[Crifmer]

I tried a search, but my search-fu sucks, so apologies if this one has been beaten to death.  I'm still new here.

So in grappling with the military and trying to remember who's in what squad and trying to get everyone to use the correct weapons (as opposed to the lesser grade weapons), I muttered in frustration "it'd be really great if you could name these things!"

I did see a suggestion about renaming squads, and I support that one.  With random squad names, I keep getting names that all look alike and it drives me batty.  It'd be nice if we could rename them to something we'll remember or be able to tell apart, at least.

Elaborating on this, it would also be keen if we could give nicknames to buildings as well (levers, workshops, bridges, etc).  I realize the note system is handy for this, but that doesn't help when you have five mason's workshops and are going through the Buildings menu (although since it points out the location in that menu, the point is moot... BUT STILL!).

The important part of my nicknaming suggestion is items.  It seems that the only reliable way to get my dwarfs to use the weapons/armor I'd like them to use is to assign individual weapons/armor.  When you have five adamantine axes of the same quality, you start to lose track of what got assigned to who (especially since it seems that items aren't always in the same place on the list every time).  Naming the items ("Urist's Axe," "Ral's Axe," etc, for example) would really really be keen.  And nifty.  Maybe even groovy.

Maybe we could also extend nicknaming to animals?  Although that doesn't seem so important at all, but just kinda fun.

[Chocolatemilkgod]

Dunno if this has been suggested before, but I support.

Especially the one on levers. If you have a self destruct lever next to your main gate lever...Well lets just say you don't want to mix them up.

[rephikul]

I did see a suggestion about renaming squads, and I support that one.  With random squad names, I keep getting names that all look alike and it drives me batty.  It'd be nice if we could rename them to something we'll remember or be able to tell apart, at least.
For now you can keep rerolling squads so their name start alphabetically. That way you have to remember just one character.


Elaborating on this, it would also be keen if we could give nicknames to buildings as well (levers, workshops, bridges, etc).  I realize the note system is handy for this, but that doesn't help when you have five mason's workshops and are going through the Buildings menu (although since it points out the location in that menu, the point is moot... BUT STILL!).
Shouldnt your 5 manson workshops like, next to each other and neatly lined up? Might as well put all workshops at one place. Very easy to find them then.


The important part of my nicknaming suggestion is items.  It seems that the only reliable way to get my dwarfs to use the weapons/armor I'd like them to use is to assign individual weapons/armor.  When you have five adamantine axes of the same quality, you start to lose track of what got assigned to who (especially since it seems that items aren't always in the same place on the list every time).  Naming the items ("Urist's Axe," "Ral's Axe," etc, for example) would really really be keen.  And nifty.  Maybe even groovy.
Assign them to use cotton axe instead of just "axe" They'd pick the appropriate item then.

[Crifmer]

1. For now you can keep rerolling squads so their name start alphabetically. That way you have to remember just one character.

2. Shouldnt your 5 manson workshops like, next to each other and neatly lined up? Might as well put all workshops at one place. Very easy to find them then.

3.Assign them to use cotton axe instead of just "axe" They'd pick the appropriate item then.

1. The point of suggestion is to suggest.  The point of this suggestion was something a little more user-friendly.  Your argument is valid, but unnecessary.

2. Actually, I do have all of my workshops arranged very nicely.  This suggestion is more for levers and bridges and things of that sort which get spread out and sometimes don't have a clear context.  Also, if I have a couple of workshops with a specific purpose - for instance, one has a stockpile around it set to a specific stone, and that stockpile is empty - it'd be nice to see a label at a glance instead of having to fish around.  And is the Manson Workshop used to butcher the enemy civilizations?  I'd heard there was a way to put the goblin and troll corpses to use, but I couldn't figure it out....

3. Actually, no.  The only surefire way to get a dwarf to pick up an object you want is to assign it individually.  I did that for the original members of my current squad, then assigned two dwarfs and set them to "adamantine [object]"  Neither of them picked up adamantine anything, but I had partial match selected.  I set it for one of them to exact match and I'm waiting for the results.  So far he's naked.

This is a forum for suggestions.  If I wanted workarounds, I would have posted on the questions forum, but thanks for trying.

[Virex]

At 3.) I don't think you're supposed to have that level of control over your dwarves anyway. I think the point is that dwarves will decide for themselves what's the best item to use in a given situation. If that system doesn't work, then obviously that needs fixing. More micromanagement can only be a patch for things like this.

[rephikul]

This is a forum for suggestions.  If I wanted workarounds, I would have posted on the questions forum, but thanks for trying.

Dwarf fortress has a very small dev team. It's critical that all suggestion are reviewed for importance before it's considered by them. As a rule of thumb, what has workaround is undesirable to be changed, unless it'd solve alot of downtime. Thus, telling people workarounds have 2 effects:

1) It shows that there are more important stuff to put into the game. The idea can be postponed till later, or changed so that its effect is greater.

2) Give the suggester ideas to play and enjoy the game without the suggestion.

Alternatively we could be less courteous, just stay quiet and let your suggestion forgotten for good. After all, it is a waste of time to comment on something that has little potential of being implemented in the near future of 2 years or so. Not to mention, replying and bumping it up to the top of the suggestion forum also cause more importance threads exposed less.