changes for hauling and crafting

[windruf]

1. separate hauling into "bring it there" and "put it on tile" bringing reserves not a real tile but virtual space:
f.e a stockpile 20 tiles can hold steel, cloth and weapons. now it contains 20 steel, 30 cloth and 1 weapon -> so it has 17 virtual tiles and because there is no one who hauls something to this stockpile, real and virtual amounts are the same.
a colonist starts hauling a weapon to this stockpile -> now it has 16 virtual tiles(real there are 17 because colonist is still hauling) in witch tile he will put this weapon will be determinated when he arrives.
another colonist starts hauling 50 steel to this stockpile -> now it has virtual 70 steel. not enough to get over stack limit so there are still 16 virtual tiles.
third colonist starts hauling 50 cloth - > virtually it becomes 80 cloth and goes over stack limit so it will use up a virtual tile and there will be only 15 virtual tiles.

this will solve two problems:
a: "5 potatoes on 20 tiles" it happens often with grownable resources: colonists will bring them in small amounts and because there are many colonist, they will bring them to different tiles, because they are "reserved" and spread stuff over half stockpile even it this can fit on one tile.
b: "go to hell and bring me 5 potatoes" it happens all the time: a colonist goes to a stock, takes 1 (with words one) steel and hauls it to stockpile even if there enough space for ten stacks. more "funny" it becomes if you want to bring a stack of survival meals from siege camp... you send one hauler to bring a stack and he brings one meal because there was a place in one of stacks. you send him one more time and in the time he gets there someone eats one meal and your hauler will again bring one meal...

2. add a minimum and maximum skill required to bill config gui so you can say: this bill can only be done by a colonist with skill level 5-15 and this one with 18+ and this one is for people with maximal skill level 5. there are moments when you need more than one crafter for small tasks like stonecuting and smelting and don't want an low level crafter to do task that need high level crafting skill to succeed like weapon crafting and you do not want your high level crafter play around with low level tasks, when there are swords to smith.

[_alphaBeta_]

a: "5 potatoes on 20 tiles" it happens often with grownable resources: colonists will bring them in small amounts and because there are many colonist, they will bring them to different tiles, because they are "reserved" and spread stuff over half stockpile even it this can fit on one tile.

It would be nice if there were some breakout tasks under hauling. One could be "stockpile consolidation" where the colonist will seek to minimize stacks. Being a breakout task would mean that the player can only have colonists do this when other higher priorities have been addressed.

b: "go to hell and bring me 5 potatoes" it happens all the time: a colonist goes to a stock, takes 1 (with words one) steel and hauls it to stockpile even if there enough space for ten stacks. more "funny" it becomes if you want to bring a stack of survival meals from siege camp... you send one hauler to bring a stack and he brings one meal because there was a place in one of stacks. you send him one more time and in the time he gets there someone eats one meal and your hauler will again bring one meal...

I believe you're describing Mantis Artifact ID 726.

2. add a minimum and maximum skill required to bill config gui so you can say: this bill can only be done by a colonist with skill level 5-15 and this one with 18+ and this one is for people with maximal skill level 5. there are moments when you need more than one crafter for small tasks like stonecuting and smelting and don't want an low level crafter to do task that need high level crafting skill to succeed like weapon crafting and you do not want your high level crafter play around with low level tasks, when there are swords to smith.

I agree. There needs to be a way for you to specify that you want only an expert to craft something out of the little gold that you have.

Note that every one of these issues can be worked around by manipulated stock piles and their priorities as well as playing with colonist assignments to force certain colonists to use certain tables etc. Some require a tedious amount of micromanagement to have outcomes that exactly match the player's intent. These small UI / useability issues have come up before, but I think there's an understanding that Tynan is more focused on new features right now. Still, with more game mechanics and systems inevitably adding to the UI/control burden of the player, these kinds of issues can become distracting to the overall experience, especially when they start to add up and/or compound. At the moment, I leave the PSMs forbidden on the map. I just can't deal with the inefficiency and time required for most of the colony to retrieve items that are far away.

In certain circumstances, it's no joke now to acquire essential personal survival meals from the other side of a map in winter. It's just plain annoying when you maneuver a retrieval like that and they start coming back with 1 out of 10. Players shouldn't have to:

• Draft the colonist so they drop the meal.
• Pause the game.
• Create a new empty stockpile of the highest priority that can accept PSMs.
• Undraft the colonist.
• Unpause the game.
• Select the colonist and right click on the PSMs to force the hauling job. This is usually necessary since they want to go to bed or eat at this point.
• Once they arrive, remove the stockpile from step 3.
• Wait for a colonist to haul the meal to its final destination.

Somewhere around steps 7 and 8 you have to be careful that a hungry colonist doesn't come along and eat them before they're hauled for storage (while related to the subject of unwanted micromanagement, this is a different subject entirely)

I think inefficiencies like this stick out (for me anyway) since some other areas of the game are optimized rather nicely. Building, as an example. I like how a builder will acquire materials necessary for multiple projects in proximity. This seems especially well done when compared to other games of similar mechanics. I'm aware we're in alpha, and timing optimizations can be tricky for numerous reasons. I just wouldn't let some optimization tasks go unresolved for too long. Just my two cents.