Workers & Task Assignment, Stockpiles

[Westernys]

Hey,

So I just figured that the game could benefit from a task assignment / worker assignment system.

If anyone has played Dwarf Fortress, I think it's the same sort of mechanic presented in that game of which I'm talking about.

Essentially, when you create a working station, lets say a Rum Still, you can assign a worker to it. Therefore, you have the option of telling that worker to go work at their work station. Whenever you don't want him / her to work there, just issue orders like you would to anyone else. This just simply lessens the requirement of micromanaging everyone to their respective work station. Assigning buildings to fit certain criteria are also useful. IE, Assign a bed to be used as the barracks, or as a medical bed only. Therefore all future injured personnel will go to that respective bed when you click for them to "rest" or something similar.

On top of this, task assignment is where you assign "x" amount of goods to be made. The respective workers that produce those goods, whom are available will then go to their station and create the amount needed, before stopping work and idling (Let's say, the bar or a bed nearby.) It just allows more control over what is created, instead of the water being hogged by the Small Farm whilst the Rum Still gets no love.

Finally, stockpiles. Stockpiles for all types of goods you can make should be made available to build. Rum Stills will create Rum, which are automatically stored at the "Drinks" stockpile whenever a still is full. It removes the need to get one person to clear out all the stills / work station whenever it becomes full of the produce. I am aware that Stones and Building Materials already have this feature, but just putting it out there that the feature should be available for all producible goods.

Cheers, hope this helped some.

- W

[Marilous]

I think chris stated somewhere that you'll be able to do something similar via the squad tab when that's implemented. You may well get your idea into the game proactively.

[Meynolt]

Chris has specifically mentioned that certain actions will be handled by the AI, so you don't need to micromanage so much. From memory, this includes assigning people to be builders or carriers. However, the extent of this AI will be pretty limited when compared to dwarf fortress (as much as I'd love to see some of their features in this game).