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[leila]

I have been playing this game of and on for some time now and some things concerning production are always coming back to hunt me. I have read the forum and read about standing orders, tho they seem cool they seem a bit over the top for just streamlining production a bit.

I would suggest the following additions to workshops / stockpiles to help managing production:

1) Add a switch on workshops to disable the manager (Already been suggested, listed for completeness)
2) Add a source stockpile(s) option, a workshop is only allowed to get materials from those specific stockpile(s) (this would also prevent McMason from running 200 miles to get a stone that so happens to be on the same xy plane as the workshop but 200 zlevels below or above it while a stockpile with stone is adjacent to it).
3) Add a destination stockpile, everything from the workshop will only be placed in the destination stockpile.
4) Add a new job option that is much like repeat but instead let it activate when there is room in destination pile and raw materials are available in the source pile (could be as simple as source stockpile(s) are not empty and workshop is not cluttered)
5) Add a "keep at least xx of item y in stock" for a stockpile, this would help distributing the goods throughout the fortress. Items are only migrated between stockpiles when the amount of item in the stockpile is actually less than xx and there exists a pile that has excess items. Items are always available for consumption. Would be nice to also have a max amount setting for the items.

This would give me on a very simple level without resorting to scripting orders to manage the flow of goods in the fortress without hassling with burrows and other tricks.

Example:
pigtails are used for both thread and booze making.

Loom:
I can set up a source pigtail stockpile for the loom, since jobs are infrequent I tell it to try and have at least 30 pigtails in stock so at any time I can order 30 cloth to be made.

Still:
For the still I would set up a brewable plant stockpile without any specific limits (could put max limit on each plant to get prevent plump helmets from flooding such a pile), a source pile for barrels and a destination pile for the produced booze. The still would have "brew drink" on the new repeat feature and will run as long as there are plants to brew and space in the destination pile. Also the manager is told not to touch the still. Other booze stockpiles in the fort would have the keep stock xx option to distribute the booze to tactical locations.

As a player I still will have to make sure I get enough plants / production throughput and such to actually have a successful industry which would still require a lot of planning especially if the production line grows but it will empower me to tweak the distribution of goods without resorting to various workarounds or just saturate everything. Also these source and destination piles could potentially alleviate path finding a little since a workshop knows where to look for materials, of course the keep stock of option could potentially increase path finding overhead.

Addendum1
Adding a dedicated administration dwarf to actually generate the jobs to balance the stockpiles.

Addendum2
Must have a manager dwarf before the new job option is available.

* This is just a short explanation of the ideas that I have, if at some point someone would want a more complete list of usecases / requirements I could provide those.

[MrWiggles]

Iteration.
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Beyond that, welcome to the Forum.

[leila]

By iteration you mean it has been suggested already ?

[MrWiggles]

To some extend in various threads, yea.

Point 5 is explicitly stated in the Eternal Suggestion Voting.

[GreatWyrmGold]

I would like it if this was suggested. Finally, you can have jewelers encrust the chairs, tables, and whatnot in the adjacent stockpile but three tiles away instead of the barrels in the food stockpile on the other side of the wall!

[MrWiggles]

I would like it if this was suggested. Finally, you can have jewelers encrust the chairs, tables, and whatnot in the adjacent stockpile but three tiles away instead of the barrels in the food stockpile on the other side of the wall!

You can do this already with Burrows.

[leila]

You indeed could do it with burrows. Tho.. I did not succeed in having enough patience to do so. What I would try to do would be:

Have a burrow for each workshop (group) and within that burrow have the source and destination piles. This burrow would of course be attached to the general living quarters. Then I would assign the dwarves that would occupy the workshops to that burrow. All other dwarves will have either disabled the labors for those workshops or be included in a burrow not having access to the stockpiles.

I could potentially even emulate the reserving of items with a big gathering stockpile and form a take from chain to all places that need items from the gathering stockpile. The chain would have the least consuming jobs that you want to reserve items for at the end (this makes is rather cumbersome to expand production lines) (also needs verification on how take from stockpiles actually work, this is just from my observations). Also you would need at least enough items to fill almost the entire chain par the first one (perhaps the gather pile could substitute for this if the workshops are near it)

This would more or less accomplish it, but it would also mean micromanagement of everything. List of things to do:
- defining loads of burrows
- set up the different source piles and destination piles
- making sure all dwarves have their jobs set up correctly, do not neglect any new arrivals
- assign dwarves to the burrows
- setting up take from chains (why is it not possible for more than 1 stockpile to take from the same source??)
- make sure you have a platoon of hauler designated dwarves that have access to all the stockpiles so they can distribute the goods
- assign jobs to workshops when you need something done (don't forget to queue booze, the manager can help if you only have 1 booze creation burrow)
- make sure you balance all production stages to not clutter everything
- ... did I miss anything?
- ... would this work ?

Also I think this will cause a lot of error spam with the current burrow implementation ?


ps: Where is this thread on point 5 so I can refer to it in the top post as well as vote on it. (I can not find it  )

[MrWiggles]

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/eternal_voting.php #2
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Also, most workshops wouldn't need their own burrow set up. Also, I dont see how the your suggestion is less work intensive.

[NW_Kohaku]

Actually, seeing this, I think mostly of a suggestion I did a while ago about using conveyor belts to directly link workshops to subsequent workshops in a chain, so that we could make "assembly lines" that wind up dumping goods into a stockpile at the end of the line.

Anyway, there are some workarounds for achieving some of this, currently.

For example, if you want to have a workshop such as a mason's workshop, you just build it directly above or below a stockpile for nothing but stones (not accepting any stones you don't want him to work with), next to a stairwell down or up to the stockpile.  Vertical construction paradigms FTW.  The "output" stockpile often doesn't matter quite as much, as that's for haulers who have nothing better to do but haul, anyway, but it's nice to have the furniture/finished goods stockpile somewhere sort of close by. 

Doing that, burrows aren't strictly necessary, although you can designate one for a broad "stonework industry" zone that includes the whole stone and workshops area plus all the residential stuff all the regular dwarves would need access to, just to keep them from getting themselves into trouble.

[MrWiggles]

Back in 40d, I adopted a similar design mentality.

[thijser]

With 2 you could also calculate some paths and make the game remember them it might make the game a bit faster.

[Chunes]

I would love, if in addition to all these suggestions, we also got the ability to name, save, and load custom stockpiles. I'd also like the ability to change the settings of multiple stockpiles at once.

I can't count how many times I've set up a new industry, and I had to go back and remove one item from 6 or 7 different stockpiles.

[zwei]

I would love, if in addition to all these suggestions, we also got the ability to name, save, and load custom stockpiles. I'd also like the ability to change the settings of multiple stockpiles at once.

I can't count how many times I've set up a new industry, and I had to go back and remove one item from 6 or 7 different stockpiles.

I hear you!

"Cookable items"
"Millable items"
"Breewable items"
"Threshable Item"
etc ...

quite a few stockpiles in here that get recreated in every game.

[aepurniet]

All this stuff is low hanging fruit thhat would make the game so much more fun.  Seems like toady is not interested in making UI improvements, or balancing the game.  I don't hold out much hope for any action on this front.  While the world gets much richer, the game itself is getting less challenging and fun.

I don't think we will see one item from the eternal suggestion list implemented this year.  Third party stuff is getting much better, the next big thing in this game will come from that avenue.