Set worktables to work with stockpiles

[Dr. Z]

It's kind of intricately to always define a radius for the worktables, instead it would be more comfortable to just tell the colonists which stockpile they should take the ingredients from.

Example: When starting the game I always clear the area of annoying rock debris, so after a few days I have a huge stockpile full of rock. When I reaserch stone cutting and build the table, I have to define a radius so that the stockpile is included, but the crafter now also takes every other rock debris in the designated area, so it takes longer to actually discharge the stockpile.

[fraz]

I had the same complaint, but I've discovered a reasonable solution. Create a tiny stockpile (e.g., 1x3) immediately adjacent to the worktable. Set the stockpile to hold only the ingredients for the worktable, and set the priority to "Preferred" or higher. Set the worktable's radius to extend only as far as necessary to include the adjacent stockpile.

With this setup, a colonist working at the table will only use resources from the adjacent stockpile. Anytime a spot opens up in this stockpile, a colonist with the "Haul" duty will move resources from a lower priority stockpile to the worktable's stockpile. This method avoids the problem of hauling every piece of rock debris within a large radius, and has the added bonus of allowing the crafter to focus on crafting while other colonists keep the crafter supplied with resources.

[Dr. Z]

Sounds like a good idea for small amounts of resources and if you have enough people. But with only 3 people and 20-30 peaces of rock this is too much work for already overstrained colonists.

[milon]

It's a work around, and not a total fix, but it does work well.  Even with only 3 people, your Crafter colonist will just go grab a designated Rock Chunk, take it to the stockpile, and then to the crafting table.  In my experience, it doesn't cause a slow down at all and when supplemented by other haulers, it increases overall productivity.  I've been using this approach to prioritize cooking agave into meals (since it can't be sold like potatoes or berries).