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[ImBocaire]

I was reluctant to post this since it seems like such a basic request that I can't believe it hasn't come up multiple times, but I didn't see anything related when I searched.

All workshops have an area in them that is "blocked off;" that is, people can't traffic through that portion of the workshop. Furthermore, several workshops (jeweler's shop, off the top of my head) have a full 3-tile side as solid wall. This means that certain orientations and positions will lead to an unusable and unreachable workshop. For instance, I enjoy building my workshops in 3x3 niches in the wall.

It would be fantastic to be able to change what direction a workshop faces. Simple rotation through 360 degrees, at 90-degree angles at a time, along with simple reflection, would open up new possibilities for fortress layouts, as well as drastically increasing one's ability to improve the aesthetics (particularly symmetry) of the fortress.

[Jeoshua]

It DOES seem basic.

Also basic is changing the layout of your fortress to accommodate the movement of your dwarves through said workshops.

Slightly more complex would be making custom workshops with a new orientation that provide the same functionality as said original workshops.
 
Which method requires less work for Toady?

[Avo]

I agree, it seems like a fairly simple change and makes things easier on the player.

Which method requires less work for Toady?

With that attitude, Toady wouldn't have done anything. Its less work for toady if you couldn't place multiple walls or floors at once but that's in game. Your argument is invalid, although the OP probably should accommodate for the workshops. Try building 6*4 workshop rooms, they work wonders and you can keep a small stockpile nearby.

[Sfon]

It is silly when I have trouble placing workshops simply because I forgot to account for their arbitrary east/west/north/south blockage when designing my fort.

Horizontal flip, Vertical flip, and 90 degree turn to the right. Can anyone think of something a combination of those three booleans could not handle? Combined with the flips, I don't think more than one simple 90 degree turn boolean would be needed. Might be a bit awkward for the player, but that is an interface issue which can be fixed later without breaking save compatibility.

At first I was tempted to suggest that only flips might be enough, but then I remembered there is stuff like this:
OOO
XOX
OOO
It would be nice to rotate that.

[Jeoshua]

It just seems silly to add a feature into the game to rotate workshops so that you can walk around them, when there is a very simple solution already in place for this:

Don't design workshop areas as little alcoves you can't move around in.

It's not that I don't think Toady should add code to the game.  I just don't think he should add code to fix problems that are much more easily fixed in other ways.

[ImBocaire]

It's not just for accidental inconveniences; it's also for aesthetics. The ability to add symmetry to my workshop area would be awesome.

And unless somehow the *function* of the workshop is inextricably tied with the *shape* of the workshop, there is nothing complex about this other than to transplant some of the code used for, say, bridges and pumps over to workshops.

[Jeoshua]

Actually sometimes the geometry of the workshop IS important, as in the case with pumps and magma forges.  That wouldn't be affected by rotating everything but... yeah sometimes it DOES matter.

[Michael]

The key problem is that the CP437-art for the workshops might not make sense when rotated/flipped.

But for that, the capability to re-orient workshops would be nifty to allow another feature -- rotating the entire map.  Presently, when I'm choosing a site, I hold out for one with a river going mostly north-south.  East-west should be nearly equivalent in theory, but in practice would be a very different experience because I can see more tiles at once east-west than north-south.  Letting "up" in the UI be something other than north would solve that problem.

Sure, you could rotate the world while keeping workshop orientations the same relative to the screen.  But then what tiles should be shown if an adventurer explores the fort?  Solve that problem and you can mix orientations in a single game.

[ImBocaire]

Actually sometimes the geometry of the workshop IS important, as in the case with pumps and magma forges.  That wouldn't be affected by rotating everything but... yeah sometimes it DOES matter.

Pumps can have their direction changed; in fact, just a couple posts ago I mentioned them as something that uses a rotation mechanic similar to what I had in mind. They're also only two tiles big. And as far as I know, the orientation of magma workshops *doesn't* matter; all that matters is that the *center* isn't on magma, which is in the same place no matter which way you could flip it.

[Jeoshua]

Michael, the idea of being able to rotate the whole map just changed my opinion on this greatly.

We need to be able to rotate EVERYTHING!

[Starver]

Urist McCavor cancels harvesting plants: Falling into sky

[Jeoshua]

EveryTHING not everyWAY!

Z-Axis only.

Unless we're talking about moving fortress parts... in which case absolutely yes.